| Don't miss this
important event on multiculturalism!
Please join us for the launch of Salim Mansur's new book: "Delectable Lie: A liberal repudiation of multiculturalism". Professor Mansur will be on hand to speak about this book, we will have copies of his book for sale as well. Following his speech, we will also have a panel discussion with David Solway, David Harris and others.
September 10, 2011, 7:00 PM
Library & Archives Canada
395 Wellington
Admission: $15 (students, $10)
Tickets for Salim Mansur's book launch are now available at Compact Music (190 Bank, 785 Bank), and Collected Works (1242 Wellington).
This event is co-sponsored by the International Free Press Society of Canada. Please check out their website at:
http://www.ifpscanada.com/
Here is an excerpt from the introduction to "Delectable Lies":
"In our time the ideology of multiculturalism ─ the set of ideas that all cultures are equal and deserving of equal treatment in a liberal democracy such as Canada ─ is linked to the pressing demand for equality in Western societies as these become increasingly multi-ethnic due to immigration and open borders.
"When first proposed, the idea of an "official" multiculturalism program to be sponsored by the state, supported by taxpayers, and monitored and enforced by thought-police (human rights commissions) was at best dubious, and at worst is by its very nature poised against Western liberalism. Moreover ... it was based on the false idea ─ another official lie, really ─ that all cultures are equal. However, that is an orthodoxy of the last century increasingly dismissed by serious thinkers. That is because there are established criteria making it possible to judge the achievements of all cultures, whether in the arts and literature, religion, philosophy, technology, modes of governance, or science; but the primary criterion that makes possible all human achievement is freedom.
"My point is that although multiculturalism once seemed a very good idea, at least to politicians and others smitten with the ambition for unity, it is increasingly shown to be a lie ─ a delectable lie, perhaps, yet a lie nevertheless ─ that is destructive of the West's liberal democratic heritage, tradition, and values based on individual rights and freedoms. This could have been foretold, as indeed those philosophers and historians of ideas who viewed freedom as immeasurably more important than equality in the development of the West did foretell. They admonished people against the temptation to abridge freedom in pursuit of equality."
About Professor Salim Mansur:
Salim Mansur is an Associate Professor in the faculty of social sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, and teaches in the department of political science. He is the author of Delectable Lie: a liberal repudiation of multiculturalism (2011), Islam's Predicament: Perspectives of a Dissident Muslim (2009) and co-editor of The Indira-Rajiv Years: the Indian Economy and Polity 1966-1991 (1994), and has published widely in academic journals such as Jerusalem Quarterly, The Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Arab Studies Quarterly, and Middle East Quarterly.
Mansur writes a weekly column for Toronto Sun and his Sun columns are published across Canada in newspapers owned by the Sun Media. He wrote a monthly column for the magazine Western Standard (Calgary), and periodically for National Post (Canada), and has published in the Globe and Mail (Toronto), the National Review Online and FrontPageMagazine.com and has also written for the PajamasMedia.com in the United States.
Mansur was born in Calcutta, India and moved to Canada where he completed his studies receiving a doctorate in political science from the University of Toronto. Before joining the University of Western Ontario he worked as a Research Fellow at the Canadian Institute for International Peace and Security in Ottawa. Mansur is a member of the Board of Directors of Center for Islamic Pluralism located in Washington, D.C., an academic consultant with the Center for Security Policy also based in Washington, D.C., Member of the Advisory Board for the Centre for Immigration Policy Reform, and Vice President for Canadians Against Suicide-Bombing. Mansur remains active in public affairs, is a frequent analyst and commentator on radio and television, invited as a panelist in PBS Jim Lehrer Hour and has participated in the Doha Debates held in Doha, Qatar, broadcast on the BBC World Forum from London, England. Mansur was presented in September 2006 with the American Jewish Congress's Stephen S. Wise "Profiles in Courage" award.
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Free Thinking Film Festival Brings Pro-Democracy Films to Ottawa! On November 11th, 2011, The Free Thinking Film Society kicks off its 2nd annual film festival to celebrate liberty, freedom and democracy. The Free Thinking Film Festival will feature three major events, two panel discussion and over 20 films, between November 11-13, 2011 at Library and Archives Canada and the Bronson Centre. There will also be a Free Thinking Alley where attendees can buy books and DVDs, and enjoy food and drink. "I love celebrating liberty, freedom and democracy," says Free Thinking Film President Fred Litwin. "Get ready for three days of challenging films and discussions with no political-correctness." The Festival opens at 6:30 PM November 11th with History Wars, a debate between Jack Granatstein (Historian and former director of the Canadian War Museum) and Michael Byers (Professor of Political Science at UBC) on the future of the Canadian military, moderated by Michael Bliss. This event is co-sponsored by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and will take place at the Bronson Centre. The Festival will end with "Unmasked: Judeophobia and the Threat to Civilization", the Canadian premiere of a documentary about the current political assault against Israel. Producer Gloria Greenfield will be in attendance. Other films include "Angryphone," about English language rights in Quebec; "The Biases of the CBC," a film and panel discussion on CBC bias against Israel and conservatives; "The Power of the Powerless," a look at the velvet revolution that toppled communism in Czechoslovakia; "The Living," a film about the Ukrainian famine of the 1930s; "Freedom of What?cott," a documentary about free speech in Saskatchewan; "Freedom Fighter," Rev. Majed El Shafie's campaign against discrimination against religious minorities around the world; "The 10 Conditions of Love," about Rubiya Kadeer, the leader of the Uyghur people and their fight to save their culture; "Cool It," why we should 'cool it' when it comes to global warming; "3 Billion and Counting," tells us why we need DDT to fight malaria in Africa; and many, many other films. The list of events can be seen at www.freethinkingfilmfest.ca
Free Thinking Film Society show films that promote limited government, free market economies, and the dignity of the individual, and a healthy respect for Western culture.
| | Terry Glavin coming to Ottawa to launch his new book!
Come From The Shadows: The Long and Lonely Struggle for Peace in Afghanistan October 12, 2011, 7:00 PM Army Officer's Mess 149 Somerset Admission: $15.00 (students $10.00)
Tickets for Terry's book launch are now available at Compact Music (190 Bank, 785 Bank), and Collected Works (1242 Wellington).
An award-winning journalist overturns western stereotypes as he takes readers into the Afghanistan that exists "outside the wire" and introduces the people whose defiant courage offers hope for the future.
Far from the Taliban's grim desert strongholds, the country we visit with Terry Glavin is a surprisingly welcoming place, hidden away in alleys and narrow streets that bustle with blacksmiths, gem hawkers and spice merchants. This is the unseen Afghanistan, reawakening from decades of savagery and bloodletting.
Glavin shows us how events have unfolded in Afghanistan since September 11, 2001. Travelling with fluent interpreters and Afghan human rights activists, Glavin meets people from many walks of life-key political figures, teachers, journalists, farmers, students, burqa-shrouded women and soccer players-and in these pages they speak for themselves. And in the life story of Afghan-Canadian writer, translator and activist Abdul Rahim Parwani, he finds the story of Afghanistan's agonies over the past 30 years.
Celebrated as "a critical voice in the dialogue that sustains a civil society," Glavin is active with the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee and is increasingly seen as an expert on Canada's role in Afghanistan. He is also one of the best writers we have.
Come from the Shadows mounts a passionately, marvellously readable challenge to the usual depiction of the war in Afghanistan. What, Glavin asks, has made the West incapable of hearing the voices of Afghans at the forefront of the global struggle against slavery, misogyny and tyranny? His answers are often unexpected and always illuminating.
Reviews
"Glavin's forensic demolition of pious myths about Afghanistan and fierce defence of liberal values is persuasive and exhilarating."
Ophelia Benson, co-author of Why Truth Matters, Jul 13, 2011
"The Afghan people have friends around the world who have courageously joined us in our fight for our freedom and civil liberties, but few have been as devoted to our cause as Terry Glavin. His journalism gives our silenced voices the power to be heard in the West."
Fawzia Koofi, Afghan MP and author of Letters to My Daughters, Jun 27, 2011
"The best journalism exists to refute self-serving and self-satisfied prejudices. With reporting from the ground and historical scholarship, Terry Glavin demolishes our illusions about Afghanistan, and produces a book that is at once an assault on received wisdom and a humane defence of the rights of subjugated peoples."
Nick Cohen, author of What's Left?, Jun 22, 2011
"Terry Glavin is the West's most eloquent advocate of the cause of Afghan liberty. His voice is a powerful counterweight to the many others who relentlessly counsel abdication of that cause."
Sohrab Ahmari, co-editor of Re-Orient, a forthcoming anthology of essays by young Mideast reformers, Jun 22, 2011
About Terry Glavin
Terry Glavin is the author of six books and the co-author of four. He has won more than a dozen literary and journalism awards, including the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. He has been hailed as "one of the finest journalists writing anywhere in the English language" (Canadian Forum) and "one of the prophets of our time" (Literary Review of Canada). Glavin is a co-founder of the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee, and he has been described by the National Post as "one of Canada's leading voices in support of our Afghanistan campaign."
Glavin is also the editor of Transmontanus Books. He has been a reporter, editor and columnist for the Vancouver Sun and The Globe and Mail. His essays in cultural criticism, science writing and travel writing have appeared in journals and magazines such as Democratiya, the National Post, SEED and Canadian Geographic. In 2009 he was the recipient of the British Columbia Lieutenant-Governor's Award for Literary Excellence. Glavin is the writer for the exhibit Unsung Heroes of Afghanistan, on view in 2010-11 across Canada, the U.S. and Europe.
. | | Where to buy tickets for the Salim Mansur and Terry Glavin Book Launches, and for the 2nd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival 2011: Tickets will be available at the door. You can also buy tickets at four locations in Ottawa - tickets available right now. 1. Compact Music, 785 1/2 Bank Street in the Glebe. 2. Compact Music 190 Bank Street (at Nepean). 3. Collected Works (1242 Wellington). 4. Ottawa Festivals (47 William Street) | | 
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