ZGram - 5/14/2003 - "Muslims outnumber Jews in Canada"

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

May 14, 2003

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Some thought-provoking statistics below:

Globe and Mail: 'Muslims outnumber Jews in Canada'

Muslims outnumber Jews in Canada

By GLORIA GALLOWAY

Globe and Mail | May. 14, 2003


Canadian census figures show for the first time that Muslims outnumber Jews
- a demographic that could ultimately affect this country's position toward
the protracted Middle East conflict.

When the 1991 census was taken, about 25 per cent more people said they
were Jewish than Muslim. But immigration from predominantly Muslim
countries has reversed that dynamic.

Figures from the 2001 Canadian census released yesterday by Statistics
Canada show that the number of people claiming to be of Muslim faith
increased by 128.9 per cent to 579,640 in the decade beginning in 1991,
making Islam the fastest growing religion in Canada. Two years ago, Muslims
made up 2 per cent of this country's population.

The number of Jews also increased during that period, but only by 3.7 per
cent to 329,995. And the proportion they represent of the total Canadian
population declined to 1.1 per cent from 1.2 per cent.

While Canada has, in recent years, tried to maintain an evenhanded response
to the Mideast crisis, Israel's supporters in Canada's Jewish community
have sometimes argued that remaining neutral means siding with Palestinian
terrorists. But the growing influence of the Muslim
faith may reinforce Canada's desire for neutrality.

"I would have to say with a caution that, yes, of course it is going to
have an effect because politicians respond, of course to votes," said John
Carson, a professor of Canadian foreign policy at the University of
Toronto.

"It's cautious because . . . the group within the domestic scene that
supports Israel is organized, wealthy and focused. Unfortunately, many of
the Muslims are not well organized, and not particularly wealthy - with
some exceptions, of course - and they are not particularly focused."

And while most Muslims do support the Palestinians in the Mideast conflict,
many come from places like Indonesia and Pakistan where the troubles in
Israel are secondary concerns, he said.

Howard English, director of marketing and communications for United Jewish
Appeal of Greater Toronto, discounts the notion that the Jewish community
may lose influence as its piece of the demographic pie shrinks.

"The extent to which any group can influence elected officials is based in
very large measure on the strength of arguments put forward and the skill
with which you put forward those arguments," Mr. English said.

In addition, the census numbers do not take into account people who may
consider themselves ethnically to be Jews but do not list Judaism as their
religion, he said. And, in any event, he added, his group believes in
harmonious relations between different ethnic groups and sees
diversity as a positive force.

Wahida Valiante, national vice-president of the Canadian Islamic Congress,
has watched her community's ranks swell since she arrived at Montreal's
Concordia University in 1961.

"When I came here, I remember going to my college and saying 'Do you have
any Muslim students' federations?' And they said 'Muslim? What's that?'
Nobody really knew in Montreal what Muslims were," Ms. Valiante said.

That has changed, of course. But she believes it will be some time before
people of her faith have a major voice in Canadian policy.

"The numbers don't say much unless the citizens that are being numbered
play some active role," Ms. Valiante said. "Our lawyers are not in the
thousands. Our social workers are not in the thousands. We're not in the
government. Nobody calls us up and says 'listen, we've got this
problem in the Middle East, can you come and consult with us?' So we don't
have that kind of clout."

But it may be coming, she said, pointing out that the median age of Muslims
in Canada in 2001 was 28.1. The national median was 37.3. And the median of
the Jewish population was 45.1. So the Muslims constitute a young
population with years to mature into Canadian
leaders.

In the meantime, the churches that spawned the old generation of Canada's
power elite are on the wane. The number of Canadians who said they were
Protestant declined by 772,830 to 8,654,845 between 1991 and 2001, leaving
the religion with 29.2 per cent of the population.

Roman Catholics, on the other hand, increased their ranks by 589,500 to
12,793,125 as a result of immigration from countries like the Philippines
where that faith is still strong. Catholics outnumbered Protestants for the
first time in 1971 and Catholicism continues to be the
dominant religion in Canada with 43.2 per cent of the population claiming
to follow its doctrines.

It seems the biggest blow to the Protestant churches was - and continues to
be - a drift away from organized religion.

The number of people who said they had no religion was up by 43.9 per cent
between 1991 and 2001 and, perhaps more telling, the number of those
identifying themselves simply as Christian with no particular denomination
was up by 121.1 per cent to 780,450.

"People have, over the last 20 to 25 years, kind of moved away, not from
faith or spirituality, but from institutionalized religion," said Mark
McGowan, the principal of St. Michael's College at the University of
Toronto.

"They have moved away from the formal disciplines and really personalized
it or taken what they want from a variety of different faith perspectives
and combined it, made it personal." <end>

(Source: 
http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030513.usaid0514/BNStory/Na
tional/
  )