Resistance is Futile

Have you heard about the pageant - the Pakistani/Canadian Beauty pageant? Several of the most beautiful, intelligent and articulate young Pakistani/Canadian girls in our nation are competing. Some people support the pageant. Some don't. Take Shahana Kamil for instance. She's the President of the Islamic Association of Canadian Women. She doesn't like it at all. In fact, she says that pageants like these violate the Islamic code of morality. She also suggested that those who think that these contests are OK here in 21st century Canada are ignorant of the universal principals of Islam.

Now, with respect, I’m not really sure what Ms Kamil expects with respect to sustaining her religion here in secular liberal Canada, but I can remind her how others have fared. For example, my religion - Christianity.

Originally, most immigrants to Canada were Christians. Over the years they tried to protect their children from the onslaught of secular liberal thought. They tried to uphold the Ten Commandments, the sanctity of marriage and their loyalty to the church. They watched Leave it to Beaver and the Partridge Family on TV. They listened to the Beatles and the Mamas and the Papas. STDs and single welfare mothers were rare. People understood what shame and modesty meant.

Years passed and here we are today. Clearly, the world created by the Christians who came to Canada years ago has been swept away by secularism. Vulgarity, immodesty and crass behavior are everywhere. The descendants of Christian Canadians watch Jerry Springer and the Batchelor on TV. They listen to rude, obscene rap music and read Cosmo and Hustler. Pornography is big business. An astounding number of children grow up apart from their biological father. STDs and teenage pregnancy are rampant among young promiscuous Canadians. Today's Canadians have no shared moral standards. Secularism is the new religion. A religion that demands that no one judge themselves or anyone else for any reason whatsoever.

Tell me, If my Christian forefathers were unable to prevent our society from changing into the secular cesspool of superficiality and degradation it is today, how does Ms. Kamil expect to shield her community from it? In all likelihood, it will consume her children just as it will consume mine. However, I suppose some may resist successfully if they fight hard enough. I’m trying my best. And I wish her the best in her efforts as well. However, as history shows, the odds are clearly against us.