I go to the University of Toronto at Mississauga. For those of you that don’t know, the campus is increasingly becoming more and more fundamentalist Muslim. Most women here wear the hijab, and many young Muslims grow beards. Participation in the local Muslim Student Association’s events is ridiculously high, while the Mississauga Freethought Association’s events are lucky to have 3 attendees. What on earth is going on here and what can people do to reverse it? I grew up in Saudi Arabia, and I’ve seen what happens to people as they become more and more fundamentalist and closed minded. Its dangerous and scary.

Yes, it is dangerous and scary. But it is the result of buying oil from Saudi Arabia. The clergy of Saudi Arabia pour vast amounts of money into Muslim communities around the world.

What can we do? It’s difficult. The world’s hunger for oil will not end any time soon.

The Saudi Arabian version of Islam is basically a form of theocratic fascism. Many of their goals are in violation of the Canadian constitution and laws. I think the only feasible approach is the recruitment of undercover police agents infiltrating the Muslims’ organizations. But those agents need excellent knowledge of fundamentalist Islam.

Diem1 - 24 November 2012 03:21 PM

I go to the University of Toronto at Mississauga. For those of you that don’t know, the campus is increasingly becoming more and more fundamentalist Muslim. Most women here wear the hijab, and many young Muslims grow beards. Participation in the local Muslim Student Association’s events is ridiculously high, while the Mississauga Freethought Association’s events are lucky to have 3 attendees. What on earth is going on here and what can people do to reverse it? I grew up in Saudi Arabia, and I’ve seen what happens to people as they become more and more fundamentalist and closed minded. Its dangerous and scary.

It’s not a UofT problem, it’s a GTA problem. Finish your studies and move to Oakville or Burlington.

George - 26 November 2012 11:35 AM

Diem1 - 24 November 2012 03:21 PM

I go to the University of Toronto at Mississauga. For those of you that don’t know, the campus is increasingly becoming more and more fundamentalist Muslim. Most women here wear the hijab, and many young Muslims grow beards. Participation in the local Muslim Student Association’s events is ridiculously high, while the Mississauga Freethought Association’s events are lucky to have 3 attendees. What on earth is going on here and what can people do to reverse it? I grew up in Saudi Arabia, and I’ve seen what happens to people as they become more and more fundamentalist and closed minded. Its dangerous and scary.

It’s not a UofT problem, it’s a GTA problem. Finish your studies and move to Oakville or Burlington.

Thats not a constructive idea. The trend is very reversible, I see young Muslims trying to escape their shackles and embrace liberalism everyday, but theres no support network. I was raised Muslim and I had to find my own way out of the theocratic mess that the religion is. There needs to be active counter-apologetics, but with little funding and will power from the secular community, its not going to happen.

Well, good luck with that.

Here in Saskatoon, they seem to be cramping down on anything related to skepticism too. I mentioned elsewhere that all the stores have withdrawn philosophy/science sections. At Coles, I asked why and the worker just said that those materials don’t sell. She also said that the same is true now of Rand McNally and Indigo. It’s shocking to me. Self-help, pop-psychology is increased as is the religion sections. Population-wise, the stats are claiming that only a few thousand new immigrants have moved to Saskatoon in the last few years but something isn’t right. I live in an apartment complex that originally had a high majority of European Caucasians and only in two years, only myself and two or three others are non-recent immigrants. Nobody around me speaks English anywhere I go now. Although there are a few different new race variations, they are vastly Muslim!! Our cab drivers were all mixed race before. Now they too are virtually 100% Muslim too! 

I welcome the increase when it helps to boost the bus use here since I’m hoping they increase the route currency. But I don’t welcome the new population with respect to our Multiculturalist concepts. Here, our laws encourage closed communities and special allowances for religious laws to be recognized in the court based on their cultural heritage. Our rents too have skyrocketed from an average of $500/mth for two a two-bedroom suite to an average of $1300/mth!

Maybe CFI and/or UTSA (University of Toronto Secular Association, St. George) can help? We could get speakers to visit the Mississauga campus.

Larry Moran - 11 December 2012 08:16 AM

Maybe CFI and/or UTSA (University of Toronto Secular Association, St. George) can help? We could get speakers to visit the Mississauga campus.

It will probably end up being as effective as spreading our way of thinking in the Middle East.

Today, the news just updated the stats on the true nature of our immigration growth: 23,000 people in Saskatchewan, this year alone, mostly to Saskatoon! Wow! I knew it couldn’t have been a measly few thousand that they originally reported.