Oh. Didn't You Get the Memo?
This is an interesting perspective on the school funding issue:
Interesting haha, I mean.
C'mon, dude. The same media that is printing your rant in favour of public funding for private religious schools is the same media that has printed column after column after column pointing to the cultural divide between Islam and, well, everything Western.
See, nobody REALLY wants Catholic school funding, either - but at least it's got the BNA Act backing it up. Jewish schools? Well, I know three kids who go to Hebrew school - after regular public school hours, of course. I know a couple of girls who go to a private girls' school - full time. But their parents are both doctors and don't want their daughters to get cooties, I guess.
Let's see... I know there's an elephant in the living room somewhere in this whole religious school funding debate...
Oh yeah - 9/11 and the constant and unrelenting media attention that has been focussed on this thing called "The Islamic Menace". Not to mention an ongoing and seemingly endless "War on Terror" and its subsidiary, "The War in Afghanistan Against the Taliban" (you know, the fundamentalist Islamic terrorist Taliban). Also, the training schools in Pakistan, etc, for future Islamic terrorists who want to attack the West to destroy our freedoms.
But yeah, I mean, what politician today is going to come out and say, "Look, no public funding for private religious schools because that will mean MORE ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALIST TERRORIST TRAINING CENTRES. Or even more unlikely, "Public funding for MORE ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALIST TERRORIST TRAINING CENTRES".
Oops. Except John Tory, your fearless Conservative party leader running for election as Premier of Ontario. But when he's talking funding for private religious schools, well, he's not really talking about the religious part at all. He's talking about private schools - like the one he went to because his parents wanted him to marry up, I guess. Or, at least, not down?
I dunno. I have no idea why parents send their kids to private schools. Snobby? Stupid? Just like I have no idea what John Tory's talking about. Snobby? Stupid? Both?
But trust me. After jumping into this campaign with that howler about people wanting to spend public money to fund private religious educations, he really really really needs your support. So get out there and encourage all of your Muslim friends who wouldn't in a million years vote Conservative - normally - to vote for John Tory. Because you're right, there aren't huge ethnic voting blocks. There are people who believe in public funding for private religious education and public funding for private healthcare and then there is the rest of us. And we'll be voting either Liberal or NDP (ignoring completely the fact of Catholic school funding and the employee healthcare tax).
So get out there and rally your troops. Try this, "Elect John Tory! He wants public funding for Islamic schools!" And don't confine yourself to... like... well... wherever newly arrived Muslims live. Go to Rosedale, Forest Hill, North York. Spread the message - all over Toronto. And then move on to the rest of Ontario. Brockville, Sault Ste. Marie, you know - really follow it through to wherever there is a daily newspaper.
You're welcome.
