Calgary first of major Canadian Cities to elect Muslim Mayor

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Calgary, an economically conservative city in the most Conservative province of Canada, has elected the first Muslim Mayor of a major Canadian City. The man's name is Naheed Nenshi.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nat ... le1762765/

Calgary isn't Edmonton (that is to say, Calgary isn't an island of some red and a little bit of orange in a sea of Conservative blue, it's solidly Tory Blue). This is why Nenshi's win over a Conservative Party backed candidate is even more interesting:

Certainly an interesting result.

wow, i'mpressed with that! calgary is so much more progressive than edmonton (i've lived in both places).

a little humorous because edmonton just elected a Jewish mayor!

wow, that's nice. I heard the next elections in nearby Ontario (for Toronto at least) will oppose an homosexual ecologist (who can still hold his ground and has been around) and uh... Some populist right-winger who's trying to woo the suburbs...Who has lots of support...meh.

That's interesting. Is he actually an observant Muslim or is just just his heritage? Does Calgary have a large Muslim population too?

I haven't researched his devotion yet, but according to the 2001 Canadian Census (which was the last census that measured religion) Calgary has

25,660 Muslims

The entire city population is 878,866.

The visible minority population in Calgary has grown since then, so the number of Muslims may have as well.

http://www12.statcan.ca/english/profil0 ... ll&Custom=

Particularly interesting as well, from the article:

from The Atlantic (link):

this isn't necessarily a legit source, as it's just a random comment from a supporter, but still interesting.

Naheed Nenshi was certainly very wonkish, from what I understand.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89bzyRXK9nQ[/youtube]

I need to have a look at this. Hopefully he's more in the Naser Khader mould.

Canada's different than Continential Europe in two respects

1) Most Muslim immigrants to Canada tend to be professionally educated and socially liberal (albeit some end up driving taxis thanks to dirty tricks by various protectionist professional certification associations).
2) Canada's a LOT less racist than Europe. While there's still a disgusting amount of racist attitudes in Canada (especially when you go into rural areas), most Canadians don't distain foreigners like many continental Europeans do. Hence, racial tensions are cooler.

Someone got offended last time I said that Europe was racist. Not as bad as Asia but I still think worse than here (although our dirty laundry gets aired out the most).

As bad as large segments of American society are when it comes to race relations (especially in the more rural areas) and as much as America's status as economic-military superpower means it has to do a lot of shaddy dealings with racist regimes to keep the international system going, continental Europe is still by far more racist than the United States.

Well, if you look at the concept of social body and apply it to Europe, you might understand that for years, Europe's countries were very homogenous, and each country was proud of that. You could always count on a fellow neighbor because you knew he was a countryman like yourself.

So obviously when the social body becomes multi-colored (and multi-ethnic), their whole world crumbles and flares up defensive reactions. =/

Canada and the States were founded on different basics than Europe's, they were modern multi-ethnic states, so they mostly had liberal ideas (such as freedom) about what their nations's foundations would be.

It also makes generalizing about a nationality a bit harder when the image isn't quite set in stone, whereas this was easier done in Europe. I mean, we all have a perfect "image" of what a British, French, or even German man (or woman) looks like, right? =/

Can you say the same about a Canadian or an American? Not so much.

Muslim Mayor on the Prairie topic

The percentage of Muslims in Calgary is then close to three per cent, at least in 2001. Interesting.

I really wish I could disagree with this, but I just can't. It's a very nonchalant kind of racism, which makes it all the more annoying.

I think that's more the thing. Europe plays innocent about their racism (from the various Euro's I've had contact with and have hit upon their racism borders...which, sadly, are quite a few but mostly from mainland EU, not from that wanky island) whereas Americans understand that something might be racist but they'll try to skirt around it rather than just blatantly play stupid.

Isn't there a country that recently banned minarets? (Switzerland, I think?) I mean there's idiots here who protest new mosques being built in isolated areas but no one's gone all out and just waged war on a specific piece of cultural architecture.