Journalist and author Tarek Fatah is first and foremost a Canadian nationalist. He is also a Muslim — a moderate, progressive Muslim, but a Muslim nonetheless. Born in Pakistan, Fatah began his journalism career in Karachi and lived in Saudi Arabia for several years before relocating to Canada in 1987. Over the years, he has earned the ire of Islamists worldwide due to his persistent critiquing of Islamic extremism and has been the recipient of intimidation tactics and death threats. His latest book, Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State (Wiley, 432 pp.), is sure to add fuel to the fire.
Deeply ingrained in the Muslim psyche, Fatah writes, is the idea of replicating the so-called “golden age” of Islam — but few Muslims understand the implications of what they’re asking for. Fatah draws upon Muslim history and current affairs to support his contention that Islamic states have consistently (and drastically) failed to provide citizens with a decent quality of life but, instead, have been among Muslims’ most violent oppressors — the Pakistani, Saudi Arabian and Iranian regimes. “When did you last hear of someone lining up at the Iranian embassy to apply for immigration?” quips Fatah, in an interview.
Of course, the reality is that an increasing number of Muslims are fleeing these countries for secular democracies such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. However, some Muslims have no intention of integrating into their chosen society. The Muslim-driven movement to have man-made sharia law introduced within Canada provides a perfect example of the hypocrisy of western Islamists, Fatah argues.
“If you invite me into your living room, you don’t expect me to rearrange the furniture,” he says. But there have been more than a few outspoken Islamists willing to disregard propriety in the name of Islam, the now-infamous Khadr family among them. The Khadrs’ damning indictment of the supposed immorality of Canadian culture shocked the nation when it was publicized that the Khadrs had routinely travelled back to Canada while living abroad in order to take advantage of its universal health care system.
Fatah fully understands why Islamists forsake their native countries to come to Canada. “There are no mosquitoes, there's air-conditioning, there’s good education, good health care — there are suckers all over willing to tolerate this nonsense, so they can get away with anything.” What is more puzzling, therefore, is Islamists’ desire to replicate the customs and conditions of the very countries they’ve chosen to leave. After all, if it’s sharia law Islamists want, then why not, as Shahid Malik — then a British Labour MP — told reporters, “Go and live in Saudi Arabia?” Fatah heartily agrees. “Choosing to live and prosper in a society but hating the processes and the values that make it possible for [Islamists] to lead this life is terribly unethical, immoral and irreligious.”
Incidentally, Canadian Islamists often exercise their right to free speech, and Fatah worries that Canadian tolerance has been stretched to a dangerous extreme, consequently permitting the spread of fanaticism. After all, how is it possible that in a country that subscribes to the notion of universal human rights — a country that introduced the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and ratified the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (drafted by a Canadian diplomat) — the proposal to introduce sharia law wasn’t immediately shot down? Instead, Fatah exclaims in disbelief, “the Bouchard-Taylor Commission Report tells Québécois it is they that have to change to accommodate extremist Muslims.”
Our highly permissive tendencies probably have something to do with “white guilt,” Fatah muses. “This white guilt stems from the notion that everything in Canada is a result of some evil construct that was built over the dead bodies of colonialism and slavery, and therefore, as good people, we now have to bend over backwards to accommodate fascism in this country — because Islamic fanaticism is a fascist order.”
Fatah believes these fanatics have ultimately hijacked his faith. “The religion of peace has become the prisoner of war. And it’s a prisoner of its own clergy,” he laments. “Islamists have redefined what is Islam.” He worries that they may now succeed in redefining what Canada stands for. “I think we haven’t yet realized the preciousness of our values, and how easily they can be lost.”
Fatah is an unrelenting defender of the Canadian way of life and, having lived in what he claims are some of the most oppressive societies in the world, who can blame him? After all, where else, he asks, would he have been able to write such a book?
Chasing a Mirage spans centuries, delving deep into Muslim history and discussing current debates within both eastern and western countries. Fatah doesn’t shy away from the taboo, and his book is all the more comprehensive — not to mention, controversial — because of it.
