Canada...

Submitted by J.S. (Canada), Oct 18, 2006 at 23:17

I live in the province of Alberta -- that's in the West. At one time this province was known for being "red-neck." But, that was then, and this is now...

In the city in which I live (here in Alberta) there are many tens of thousands of Muslims (I actually don't trust Stats Canada -- according to stats canada, it's 30,000 in this city -- but, I suspect that the real number is much higher.) There are numerous mosques, there's the "largest stand-alone Muslim school" (from kindergarten to grade 12) in all of North America; there's a Islamic Chair connected with the university (speaking of the university, a number of years ago the Muslim students put on a "get to know Islam" week -- they had banners making reference to "Islam -- World Domination" -- that was their slogan); there are Arab newspapers; some sections of the city look like Cairo; a friend one night was walking home, he unfortunately ventured into a Muslim controlled area and was immediately surrounded and they demanded to know what he wanted and if he knew what was best to return from whence he came.

Even in the rural areas of Alberta (and in the North) you'll find mosques. Some rural areas are populated by Somalis/North Africans -- they were brought over through an Alberta govt work plan -- the govt claimed that meat processing plants needed workers and Canadians weren't willing to go work in meat packing plants -- so they brought in Muslims from the third world to fill the void, waiving the normal requirements for immigrants -- some of this is also through the outreach work done by Mennonites -- they actively recruit for Muslims; etc. There have also been prominent Muslims in the Alberta government who advocate on behalf of Muslims...(I sometimes wonder about politicos and corruption..."deals"(?).. the Alberta media does not report on such matters...the media loves Muslims - Islam is the teflon religion.)

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