CAIRO: Renowned ex-Catholic priest and convert to Islam, Idris Tawfiq, gave a lecture Monday night at the Canadian Embassy in Cairo.
The lecture, entitled “Shaping a Canadian Muslim Identity, gave Tawfiq s impression of the Muslim community in Canada, though it touched upon a number of issues pertaining to Muslims and Islam all over the world.
Speaking to a packed theater of predominantly young Egyptian Muslims, Tawfiq depicted a settled, happy and growing Muslim community, though not an entirely integrated one.
Even though there were only 30 official Muslims in Canada in 1871, the seeds of something big was started, he enthused.
Today Canada has about 800,000 Muslims, growing all the time. Something like 3,000 Canadians convert every year.
In this way, Tawfiq said, the Muslim experience in Canada was similar to that in Europe, though in other ways it was radically different.
He contrasted a thriving, well-educated and diverse Canadian Muslim community with the circumstances of European Muslims who, he said, lack access to education and adequate health care.
Muslims in Canada are not the Muslims who live in the slums of Paris or Marseille, he said.
They have a traveled a long way to get to Canada and they traveled there as merchants, traders, teachers, doctors, and engineers.
I don t think I m telling a lie when I say, on average, they are actually a bit better educated than the average Canadian.
He added that education was also empowering Canada s Muslim women, and he commended the Islamic Institute of Toronto for praying with no separation between men and women.
He went on to draw a line between being a moderate Muslim and remaining silent, praising Canada s democracy and freedom of speech, and encouraging Muslims to make their voices heard.
[They] pay for the government with [their] taxes, [they] are not guests in the country.
Criticizing the government is not unpatriotic, he continued. Being part of a democracy does not mean going along with things that are not right.
Although he stressed that Canada is a good place to be Muslim, he warned of those in the Canadian media who scapegoat Muslims when looking for someone to blame.
He also expressed wariness over secular forces that had all but silenced the Christian voice in Britain potentially taking root in Canada, and reserved criticism for an incident involving a girl forbidden from playing soccer because she wore the Islamic headscarf.
The Canadian government, he added, ought to be doing more for Omar Khadr, the Canadian citizen detained at Guantanamo Bay.
On the future of Canada s Muslims, Tawfiq was cautiously optimistic. The community needs to look after its youth, he said, referring to large-scale terrorist arrests in Toronto last year, but it is ultimately young, vibrant and full of ideas.
At the international level, his optimism was undiluted.
Canada has a great part to play in the Muslim world, because unlike its neighbors and allies, it has not been part of the same foreign policy initiatives.
In conclusion, he gave his answer to the dilemma of whether an individual s loyalty lies with their state or their religion by quoting Thomas Moore, the English statesmen executed for treason in 1535:
I am the King s good servant, but God s first.
