Letter to National Post re editorial about "infidels"

Monday’s editorial – Peace and Pluralism - was excellent and spoke to the important immediate problem of racism within the Muslim community. However the Muslim attitude towards “infidels” is the result of a cultural attitude, not a problem that can be easily solved by suddenly becoming more liberal. Salim Mansur, in his book, Islam’s Predicament, talks about the Islamic cultural system of deference, where the citizens must show deference to their political leaders and their imams, and wives must show deference to their husbands. It is a hierarchical system where everyone is either higher or lower than someone else and everyone knows their and everyone else’s place. Unless this cultural idea of deference is changed, the infidel will always have a lower place in Muslim thought and societies. Therefore, for infidels to be equal, the whole system of deference must be changed – and cultural changes are very difficult and take a long, long time.