Wednesday, May 6, 2015

JZ'S ARTICLE: PEOPLE DETERMINED TO FIGHT FOR RIGHTS, OPPOSE & REJECT BAD POLICIES & LEADERS

Visit www.javedzaheernews. blogspot.ca for latest articles
PEOPLE DETERMINED TO FIGHT
FOR RIGHTS, OPPOSE & REJECT
     BAD POLICIES & LEADERS
BY JAVED ZAHEER, FREE EXPRESSION AWARD WINNER,
            TORONTO:  The sensitive issue of Ontario’s new sex education curriculum is heating up very much and increasing the blood pressure and anger of the affected parents and people as it starts testing their religious, freedom, human rights, family, morality, responsibility, respectability, social, cultural and patience levels and tolerance.
            Parents and people are determined to fully protect their rights and freedom, under Canada’s Charter of Rights & Freedom, and keep using all the available peaceful and sensible options of rejecting and protesting against all such parties, leaders, policymakers and policies which are proving harmful and destructive for them and Canada.
            Peaceful protests are being held and parents kept their children away from schools for a week and could even keep away their children from such classes and schools indefinitely. Children are suffering the most but they fully understand the sensitivity and gravity of the issue and that’s why are willingly supporting the parents and people. They are sensing the dangers and consider it as extremely harmful and destructive.
            Chris Selley of daily ‘National Post’, published from Toronto, Canada, in his analysis  titled ‘Muslim community taking the lead in latest round of Ontario sex-education protests’, published on May 5, 2015,  highlighted the events and developments taking place against the ‘Harmful & Objectionable’ Ontario’s new sex education curriculum.
            Chris contacted me and chatted with me on this sensitive issue and carried my comments as follows: “Freelance journalist Javed Zaheer warns of the “total destruction” of his grandchildren’s generation.”  
            As regards the chat with Chris Selley and my comment in his analysis, I would like to make my comment and point clear to remove the confusions and misunderstandings, if any, created.
            Nobody would have objected and protested if the Ontario’s new sex education curriculum had been purely educational and meant to create proper awareness and better understanding for the children of all ages, particularly appropriate and mature ages and mental levels so that they can grasp the necessary knowledge for safety and awareness and protect themselves from the harms, dangers, exploiters, pedophiles and criminals.  
            Already, children are being taught about health including sex. On that too concerned parents and people objected only against the “Objectionable portions” being taught to children of inappropriate ages and against their religious, family, social and cultural values and principles. Most of them kept their children away from such classes on optional basis.
            Concerned parents and people say that the problem with the Ontario’s new sex education curriculum is that it is not only unethically crossing the limits and levels of maturity, morality, responsibility, respectability, values and principles but proving extremely destructive to the innocence, lives, and future of the children and new generation. It will open the doors for the evils, criminals and sex mafia to easily lure and hook the children to exploit, use and abuse them and produce a generation of rapists, predators and sinners. Their inappropriate ages, innocence and curiosity will increase their lust, make them irresponsible and sexually charged and definitely lead them to immorality and criminality.
            The concerned parents and people consider it as a conspiracy of a lobby and fear that the motive behind the new sex education curriculum is to promote immorality and support and promote all those involved in such practices. Once they become part of the system and society then the job would become easy and the innocent children could be easily hooked, lured, exploited and abused. 
            The good, responsible and respectable parents, people and families of any community can never and will never allow this to happen. They will protect their children, families, cultures, values and principles at all cost.   
            The sexuality process of erection, insertion and ejection are all but natural for all living beings and the new sex education curriculum would definitely increase their sexual and lustful levels and allow them to understand and test them. They simply cannot avoid it.
            Instead they would become Peeping Toms and keep a watchful eye on members of the family, friends and community including parents, siblings and others to watch or get a chance to practically do something.
            So what kind of a generation are we trying to create or produce? The day will not be far when a Grade-1 kid will ask his mother, sister, teacher or any other person: “Am I masturbating properly?” or “Hey, can you please measure my thickness and size?” or “Can you please teach me how to properly do and enjoy sex?” or “Mama or daddy I don’t need toys any more. I need condom and someone to practice and play?”
            I have four grandchildren and more kids in my family and friends circles. I shudder on even imagining about such a sex generation, happenings, situation and condition. This will definitely happen if we dangerously cross the limits and levels of maturity, morality, values and principles. Children and the future generations will lose their innocence, religion, family, responsibility and respect for all.
            The good human beings would turn into sex hunter and sex mafia gang member. Canada and all good, responsible and respectable Canadians just cannot afford and allow this to happen at any cost. All attempts to bring such policies and changes would be opposed and thwarted.
            As regards Ontario’s Premier Kathleen Wynne, she is MPP of my constituency Don Valley West and people mostly respected and voted for her and her party. She is a really very good and powerful leader and love mixing with the people of the area, listening and helping them. This is why I like and respect her too and hope that on this sensitive issue too she would meet the concerned parents, families and people, listen to them and try to find an acceptable and respectable solution.
            Failure to do so on any pretext or grounds would lead to clash with the people and crash of her Liberal Party. Now, people are definitely in no mood to be good with her or her Liberal Party. The new sex education curriculum would definitely affect her and her Liberal party’s position adversely. People are damn angry and determined not to choose or entertain any such party or leader who does not respect them, their religion, cultures, traditions, ethics, values and principles.    
            The concerned members and leaders of the community including Shahid Hashmi, Chairman, Canpak Chamber of Commerce, Seema Hashmi, Syed Muhammad Iqbal, President of Pak Seniors Forum, Hashim Hyder, Tahir Hussain, Masoodul Haq gathered at the residence of Hameeduddin Ahmed, who had published and edited Toronto’s Urdu newspaper `AWAZ’,  on May 6, 2015, in Pickering. The Ontario sex education curriculum was extensively and openly discussed and the majority members strongly criticised and condemned such a policy and considered its implementation as futile, disastrous and destructive.   
            Syed Muhammad Iqbal, PSF President, termed the Ontario sex education curriculum as devastating and destructive. He highlighted the “objectionable parts” of the curriculum as follows:
1)      Proper names for body parts will be taught to students of Grade 1.
2)      Students of Grade 2 will learn about the broad concept of consent by being told that no means No.
3)      The curriculum positions sexual orientation as one of the potential qualities that distinguish people from one another.
4)      Now in Grade 4 discussion about puberty will be common and will move further to Grade 5 while education about intercourse will take place the following year
5)      In Grade 6, masturbation and gender expression will also be part of the curriculum. In Grades 7 and 8, contraception and oral sex preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections will be taught and students will also learn about online bullying and the dangers of sharing sexually explicit images electronically.
            People are already burdened and fed up by the rapidly increasing prices of everything. It is becoming harder for them to meet the increasing expenses including family, rent and groceries. Their pockets are being emptied to meet the budget deficit caused by the wrong policies of incompetent leaders and parties with vested interests. The wrong policies and incompetent leadership is proving harmful for Canada and all Canadians. Instead of cutting their “Expenses”, the leaders are cutting the throats of the common people.
            It will definitely adversely affect the system, society, communities and families. A survey would reveal the facts and the prevailing situation and condition. Most people are fed up with elections, leaders and parties. .  
            The prime minister, premiers, ministers, policymakers, bureaucrats and leaders of all levels and parties---federal, provincial and municipal---must focus on all such priority issues so that people could live, breathe and even die respectfully and peacefully.  
            The increasing burden of rising expenses is becoming intolerable and making the lives of common people terrible and miserable. The need and urgency is to act fast before Canada and Canadians are harmed by the wrong policies and incompetent leadership at any levels. All communities and people must understand this and unite to practically help and support each other to protect Canada and Canadians and make them really safer, stronger and successful.  
\           It is the duty and responsibility of the MP, MPP and Councillor to guide and help the people of their areas but recently one person came with a complaint that a staffer of MP of Don Valley West instead of helping him sent him a “Hurting email”. He was shocked and disappointed by that email and said: “Where should I go now and who will listen and help me?”
            Such attitude is narrowing the roads for success and power for both the Liberal and Conservative parties and giving advantage to the NDP.  The elections are due in few months but the outcome could be predicted by the performance and attitude of the leaders, parties and their staff. People are this time more charged and aware of what is happening to them, Ontario and Canada because of the wrong, bad and incompetent leaders and policies.
          JZ’S PROFILE:  Declared by Judges as one of 75 Finalist Best Canadian Immigrants, an Honour for the Pakistani Community. Joined Journalism Profession in 1974 (Daily `SUN’, Karachi) and still serving as a professional journalist (2014). Javed Zaheer, Free Expression Award Winner (Awarded by National Ethnic Press & Media Council of Canada—NEPMCC. Award presented by Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, Canada), Desi Idol Recognition Award Winner (Presented by North American Desi Idol), Member/Honorary Director of NEPMCC, Veteran Active Member (VAM) of Toronto Press Club, Ex-Member of The National Club and The Ontario Club, Honorary Editor of English Weekly `Pakistan Abroad’, Canada, ex-Chief Editor (Honorary) of English Weekly `The Ambassador’, Canada, ex-Chief Editor (Honorary) of English Weekly `DAWN', Canada, ex-Senior Sub-Editor of English Daily DAWN, Pakistan (From 1986-1999), Chairman, CANOPI, Director of Children Dignity Foundation (CDF---Canada & Pakistan) and Honorary Director, Canpak, Chamber of Commerce, and Honorary Director Information, Pak Seniors Forum (PSF), is contributing purely on Voluntary and Honorary Basis in order to serve all people and communities. Contact: (416)696-0981/jazamedia@hotmail.com To read more JZ’s exclusive articles, please visit: www. nepmcc.ca and nationalethnicpress.com (Editorial Sections. Scan years from 2004). Visit www.javedzaheernews.blogspot.com for latest exclusive articles.
 Muslim community taking the lead in latest round of Ontario sex-education protests

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More from Chris Selley | @cselley
Analysis
TORONTO — Thorncliffe Park elementary school, in a predominantly Muslim area of Toronto, reported attendance on Monday of 130, according to the Toronto District School Board — 130 out of 1,350 students. That’s just nine per cent who showed up, though on Tuesday it had rebounded … all the way to 16 per cent.
At nearby Valley Park Middle School — best known for controversially hosting congregational Muslim prayers in its cafeteria on Fridays — Monday attendance was just 38 per cent.
Their parents are mad as hell about Ontario’s new sexual education curriculum, and they’re boycotting the entire curriculum, for up to a week, as a result.
Five years ago, when then-premier Dalton McGuinty abandoned much the same curriculum, conservative Christians were generally considered the culprits or heroes, depending on one’s standpoint. And they’re still on the warpath against the curriculum, which with a few tweaks is finally set to go into effect for the next school year.
But the school boycott is a multicultural affair, and the most stunning absenteeism numbers reportedly come from the Muslim community, which was not nearly so prominent in the 2010 debate.
Reports from a Monday protest in Thorncliffe Park suggest concerns range from the specific (introducing the notion of “gender fluidity,” too early or at all) to the conspiratorial (accusing the government of “indoctrinating children with a minority lifestyle”) to downright apocalyptic: freelance journalist Javed Zaheer warns of the “total destruction” of his grandchildren’s generation.
“There is a somewhat stronger current of what we might call family traditionalism among Muslims than among most other groups (although not more so than among evangelical Protestants),” says David Rayside, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto, “especially around sexuality and sexual diversity.”
But in the main, their complaints are similar to those of other social conservatives. And that’s hardly surprising, as Rayside says: “The vast majority of Canadian Muslims are first generation, and they come from very traditional parts of the world.”
For policymakers, the sex-ed fracas is a conundrum. Ontarians can peruse the curriculum with the click of a mouse. Many have, and have formed reasonable complaints: Gregory Moore of Amherstburg, Ont., wonders why he’s enrolling his kids in Catholic school if they’re going to be taught, in Grade 6, that masturbation “is common and is not harmful and is one way of learning about your body.” (Ontario’s bishops support the curriculum, arguing they’ll teach it “through a Catholic lens.” That’ll be some feat.)
“Some families do not believe it’s a good thing for an 11-year-old to carry a condom around in his pocket just in case,” says Moore. “I’m one of those parents.” (In Grade 8, the curriculum suggests “using condoms consistently if and when a person becomes sexually active.” Still.)
Yet many of the most fearsome criticisms bear little relation to the document itself. It supposedly indoctrinates students in the homosexual lifestyle … by explaining to Grade 3 students that some people “have two mothers or two fathers.” It supposedly promotes anal sex … by explaining to Grade 7 students that “engaging in sexual activities like oral sex, vaginal intercourse, and anal intercourse means that you can be infected with an STI.” It “puts pressure on (Grade 8) kids to become sexually active,” per the Campaign Life Coalition, by encouraging them “to get information from a credible source before making a decision about being sexually active.”
A document in Arabic reportedly being distributed in Peel Region, west of Toronto, claims children in Grade 1 “will learn to reveal their private parts.” With a world of information at our fingertips, misinformation remains alarmingly powerful.
For Canadian Muslims, however, it could be an interesting moment.
White Christian so-cons haven’t accomplished much in politics in recent years, after all: Prince Edward Island still doesn’t offer abortions, and that’s about it, really. Muslims aren’t a huge community in Canada, and of course they are not monolithically conservative. But the broader movement can use any help it can get.
“It would be interesting if this is the start of significant domestic political mobilization for the Muslim community,” says University of Regina politics professor Jim Farney, who studies the role of religion in Canadian politics. They have long had a voice on the Middle East, he notes, but little else.
Muslims may be marginalized and occasionally demonized in Canada — but as they previously demonstrated during the “mosqueteria” controversy, those in Thorncliffe Park are perfectly comfortable defending their rights.
It’s also quite possible the issue will fizzle, of course. Rayside suspects things will die down once school gets down to business in the fall.
But Zaheer and other opponents vow to return in force then. Moore, likewise, says he intends to keep badgering teachers, administrators and politicians in search of redress.
And if he doesn’t get it by September?
“We are so undecided,” he says. “We don’t know what we’re going to do.”
National Post
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