Mmmm, snark:
Leger poll shows Sikhs are the least liked religion in Canada (liked by only 53% of Canadians). Jews are the most liked minority religion (78%), Muslims at 61%. No data on Christians, or on people who commission really stupid polls. [Ikram]
But what about Jewish Sikhs? Feh. Fresh from the News Tab, some meshugge story in the Montreal Gazette which deserves Ikram’s (and perhaps your) scorn; Canadians apparently respect Sikhs less than members of other religions, and the amount of contact a Canadian has with a person influences their perception of them. Shocking, but true.
Asked whether they had a favourable opinion of each group, the 1,500 people surveyed by Léger Marketing across Canada said they hold Jews in the highest esteem (78 per cent), Muslims considerably lower (61 per cent) and Sikhs least of all (53 per cent).
And in each case, how much a person approves of one of the minority religions depends on how much contact he or she has had with them. The more contact, the higher the esteem, the poll found.
Forty-five per cent of Canadians are in contact with Jews often or occasionally, according to the poll. Only 37 per cent are in touch with Muslims, and only 21 per cent with Sikhs.
One thing to keep in mind– there are fewer Jewish people than Muslims, in Canada (pronounced Kuh-NAH-da, natch).
According to the 2001 federal census (religion data from the 2006 census are not yet available), there are 330,000 Jews in Canada and 580,000 Muslims. Sikhs number 278,000.
Y’all need to hold some Bhangra Blowout-esque event in Quebec. 😉
Sikhs are best-known in B.C. (44 per cent), Alberta (30 per cent) and Ontario (25 per cent); they’re virtually unknown in Quebec (four per cent, lowest in the country).
But if it is any consolation, people in Quebec also had the least favorable views on Jews. Ha! I rhymed.
Only 69 per cent of Quebecers have a favourable opinion of Jews – the lowest level in Canada. By contrast, Jews are held in highest esteem in the Maritimes (85 per cent), the Prairies (84 per cent) and Ontario (80 per cent).
Familiarity breeds respect, in British Columbia:
Muslims fare best in Ontario and the Maritimes (about 66 per cent) and worst in Quebec (52 per cent). Sikhs are best-regarded in B.C. (66 per cent), Ontario (59 per cent) and Alberta (51 per cent).
Behold, the confusion:
About one in 10 people polled refused to answer the question or simply didn’t know what they thought, except regarding Sikhs. For Sikhs, a higher percentage – one in four – refused or didn’t answer, perhaps reflecting lack of knowledge of Sikhs (except in B.C., where 14 per cent declined to answer or had no opinion).
And now, for you freaks who like statistics and methods and other things which have given me hives, since grad school:
Conducted for the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies, the telephone poll was done over seven days from Aug. 22 to 28. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
The only useful thought I have regarding this survey is that we create understanding when we interact with others, as opposed to segregating ourselves; we need to educate our friends, coworkers and classmates, when it is feasible and comfortable to do so. The useless thought? One day, all white people should know as much about India as Gwen Stefani does…dating and singing songs about how a cute brown boy broke their heart…optional. 😉
Spicy Brown Muda @ 164 (sorry, i know this is kinda off topic)
are you saying sanjaya is “white washed”? Hes only half indian, the other half is white. Besidies, hes from Federal Way, Washington…its pretty hard to become white washed if you live there.
oh thanks 🙂
A lot of people here can’t possibly have been in Canada. Ottawa is not remotely like Mississippi in the 50s. It’s bloody boring, but it’s very multicultural. As for Canada’s Sikhs, who are getting dumped on here, there are plenty of Sikhs in TO who don’t seem to have any predilection for crime. The problem is, as someone up there pointed out, that the media overplays every sordid crime that is committed by a South Asian in B.C. Unfortunately, some of the crimes (daughter-killing, for example) are mighty sordid. DESPITE THIS, British Columbians are the group fondest of Sikhs. Browns occupy an ever-increasing position of importance on the literary (Ondaatje, Bissoondath, Mistry) and political stages here. Sure, there’s plenty of racism, but Canucks are increasingly getting exposed to and infused with desi culture. As for Quebeckers, they’re paranoid about losing their own ethnic identity, after having been exploited themselves by the English in Canada for many generations. Give it another twenty years, and they’ll be listening to bhangra while they eat their falafels.
ANNA: I sent you an email. Did you get it?
ahh, Captain Obvious has entered the fray. Care to quantitatively attribute the majority of the wealth generated during the past 75-100 years to America’s colonial ventures and the institution of slavery?
Do you have some bone to pick with ‘dispassionate’ analysis? Surely, that method of inquiry’s not responsible for the silly computer you used to comment on this thread. And yes, the morally bankrupt international and domestic phenomena you identified could be lumped into my formulation but that doesn’t make it any less true.
The way in which the US military has been used as a foreign policy toolbox has absolutely nothing to do with my model of the ideal bad-ass. The U.S. has never walked away from a confrontation in which it knew itself to be militarily superior without taking a potshot down the road or returning when the political climate became once again favorable toward such interventions.
Camille: The Sikh communities I know best are in Houston, Texas. I have family in Dallas and Detroit, also. I’d say those three communities and even my own family are pretty socio-economically diverse. We’re not doctors and engineers. We’re factory workers, small-business owners, gas station workers, etc. My parents are the closest thing we have to professionals in my family–a realtor and a registered nurse.
In my experience, again, the kids frontin’ like gangstas are rolling in Escalades bought by their rich parents. The working class DBDs are too busy working to have time to care about their image. They climb up the SES ladder pretty quickly (with help from their more established family members, no doubt.) I don’t know how their kids will turn out, but aside from dui-s and domestic violence, they don’t get in much legal trouble–none that would rise to the level of garnering media attention (with a few notable exceptions that don’t necessarily point to “trends”).
Some of my cousins in Detroit grew up in rough neighborhoods and did what they had to to survive, but they never organized into desi gangs. When my factory worker cousin had trouble with a Sikh “gang,” again, the “gang” was a bunch of spoiled suburban kids who were trying to prove something by picking on this kid (my cousin) who had a reputation for being tough by virtue of coming from a tough neighborhood.
None of these cities have established Punjabi ghettoes, though, nor do these Sikh communities go back much farther than the 1970s. I would expect them to change over time. At this point I don’t see ghettoes taking root because, like I said, people climb up the ladder pretty quick and they have a lot of support from more established family members.
Anna : thanks for the clarifications. Razib – apologies. Have a beer (not fosters please!! ) on me, mate.
“Montreal’s Jewish community does find mention in most tourist guides, individual Jews are quite prominent in (anglophone) Montreal, so I don’t find the statistic that the survey came up with – that proportionately more Maritimers know Jews than Quebeckers – very believable.” Ah but anglophone Montreal is a small and shrinking pocket of the province of Quebec, and Montreal Jews a smaller, more geographically confined and more rapidly shrinking constituency still, down from 130,000 to 93,000 since the ’60s. Moreover, Maritimers are surely more likely than francophone Quebeckers to know a Jew when they see one: the synagogue in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia is the oldest in Canada; francophone Quebeckers tend to lump all superficially undifferentiated white people (including, be it said, Palestinians and Lebanese) together.
But this is somewhat beside the point. One rarely sees turbans in Canada. Not, at least, outside the Brampton area of Toronto, where Punjabis are from India, unlike in BC where they are of some generations’ residence in Canada. It would be quite natural for the unsophisticated to be wary of Sikhs when the only publicity that Sikhs get qua Sikhs is in respect of attacks on planeloads of Sikhs by Sikh extremists; Sikh gangsters being on trial for drug offences; Sikh religious extremists disrupting Sikh religious services when they object to men being unturbanned and unkirpanned and food being served at tables with knives and forks; Ujjal Dosanjh speaking out against and being physically attacked by Sikh extremists and Wally Oppal raising a hue and cry about Sikh domestic violence — and not to realise that they are rubbing shoulders with perfectly nice Sikhs all the time and liking them just fine.
Quantitatively? No, I don’t care to. But qualitatively, we’ve used guns to gain access to cheap labor and resources while keeping “developing economies” (i.e. “the competition”) down since the Pilgrims landed. We’re pretty barbaric. Nothing “wrong” with that, but we don’t like to ‘fess up to it, either. I’m not being sarcastic, just dispassionately…stating the obvious.
Again, no. I made a dispassionate observation which appears to have touched a nerve.
Easy there, tiger. You’re absolutely one hundred percent right. Did you miss the part where I wrote “all these things are true?” You even quoted it in your response. Your formulation is true–don’t go all Falluja on me now. I’m not trying to lump anything into your formula–just complexifying. That’s what I do. I am the complexifier. I complexify. It’s pretty simple, really. Your formulation (in my estimation) was just a fraction short of completion. (And a Dolly Parton fraction, at that.)
Whatever you are saying in this paragraph is beyond my feeble comprehension. You win. America–fuck yeah!
–Captian Obvious
Well, this comment is for Clueless. It is never right to generalize the whole group based on one experience. Anyway, read this thought provoking article on gender bias and religion in Punjab. I grew up Punjab and even my parents were not very happy when I was born. Yes, it much easier to label them as backward than involve in dialog and understand how and why they conceived these notions of gender bias.
Sounds like New Orleans…
Btw, Montreal has regular Bollywood and Sholay parties now…
Btw, any other canucks find it rather disturbing that more than one out of five of their fellow canucks ‘disapprove’ of Jews?
Its heinous that you are defending someone who is notorious for his racism and who wrote the following:
Shame on you Anna. You are not doing that sicko any favors by protecting him from criticism.
I unnecessarily beg your pardon? I’m saddened by people who continue to delude themselves regarding “evil”; THIS is evil, someone you’ve never met who comments a lot on this website? Not evil. No matter how many of you persist with this fiction, he’s not a racist, so please find another reason to loathe him.
I’m not protecting anyone, I’m standing up for what’s right. You know what’s heinous? Using whom someone loves as grounds for attacking them. Are those of you who seize on his interracial relationship as proof of…whatever you are imagining…going to attack everyone with a blonde gf or just him? That really bothered me. I can’t imagine what would happen if someone dated someone Black and then got in to a debate with some of you.
Further commentary regarding Razib on this thread? Deleted. I can’t believe how many of you bought in to a meme started by a notorious troll.
Wow. I’m a bit taken aback by some of the harsh comments. It seems that quite a few commenters want to divorce themselves from sikhs/punjabis in Canada. I assure you that any cultural problems that may occur in B.C. are also active anywhere else, whether it be the U.S. or the U.K.. and probably very well can be expanded to other South Asian groups as well; it may just be underreported. I would encourage you to help open up the dialogue about certain cultural issues,which is probably the underlying factors behind some of the media reports you may have been hearing. Those apply to you, too. Why not help your brothers and sisters rather than hiding behind a veil of model minority? (Thanks, Camille, for keeping it real).
Oh, and one more point: For all the complaining about how rotten Canadian Desi’s are; many are very active in politics (particularly the Sikh community) – one thing I don’t really see going on anywhere else. I wish that Desi’s would involve themselves in the community and politics more. We have many doctors, and scientists (yes, even in this so-called hellhole, Canada) – It’s time to expand the value list! Wasn’t it Anna’s dad that said, Indians value all the wrong things??? Well, I guess he’s right. If poltics were more coveted, maybe some of you wouldn’t be so quick to divorce yourselves from the accomplishments of B.C. Sikhs.
And on a final positive note, there is an excellent program airing in Canada, that talks about cultural issues. It’s hosted by a longstanding member of the Sikh community in Canada, Tej Bains – she really has great advice for first gen folks. The show is called Sikh Virsa. It’s refreshing to see a program that isn’t all bollywood songs and horoscopes – heheh. I’m not Sikh or first gen, but I do enjoy watching it just the same. She’s really open-minded and very active in the community, including furthering awareness of domestic violence, treatment of women, health issues, and yes, even getting your parents to look beyond medical school as career options. I wish my non-Sikh, non-punjabi aunts and uncles were this cool.
Peace.
On this issue and in others about problems in the punjabi community I have been attacked for speaking out about the issues. I guess it easier to attack me then deal with the issues. Most times I have chosen not to attack back, but now I’m going.May I had I have spoken out more the issues of sexism among punjabi then any other punjabi male on this blog. A few other punjabi males have even said they enjoy the double standards and they have not been attacked.
If you don’t know I have a young daughter who I don’t want to deal with the crap many young punjabi women.
@Clueless, You started Punjabi/Sikh bashing here, you are truly clueless…please get some help as you have some serious issues, many coconuts growing up in BC in the past had the same issues- immigrants make me look bad, gora hates me because of those bastards(not the entrenched racism in the media establishment that reflects the genreal white attitudes). I have 3rd generation Indo-Candian sikhs in my extended family in BC and each genertion has horror stories of the media otherization back in the day as well, while being beaten up in the streets in Vancouver at night for being brown. Skinheads “welcoming” brown men on first day of high school with baseball bats and hockey sticks. Eggs being thrown on sikh girls and boys by white students in full view of teachers with their malicious smiles. Yes i’m talking about the same “ghettos” from which white working classes moved out as soon as a few Hindoos(the slur that substitutes for paki in BC with victorian/colonial origins) moved in. Then it was skinheads and white knuclehead gangstas on the streets vs Punjabi pushback and there you had the origins of indo-gangs in Vancouver…and mind you there were plenty of Naidus and kumars mostly fijians adequately represented. The rest is all a media creation. As was the hoopla about viet/chinese gangs of the 80’s.
By the way an update for you guys….BC indian gangs are no more…..begining in 2006 there was a massive outburst of lily WHITE hick gangstas all over BC. With over twice the number of murders as during the entire durtion of Indian gang activity since 1992….the most famous being the Surrey six murders….still the ocassional petty leftover gangsta indian gets more press than the higly lethal white gangstas so active now. THE MEDIA is THE PROBLEM in Canada when it comes to minorities. The national media is even worse…they just can’t let turbans and kirpans go, it has to be the biggest story everytime unlike Britain and the states where those issues were dealt with relatively quietly. For those who are inerested in further research, read Scanlon, Joseph. “The Sikhs of Vancouver.” In Ethnicity and the Media. Paris: Unesco Press, 1977 it covers the period from the 40’s to mid 70’s. Much of what 24/7 said is generally true of Canadians even the left leaning ones….trade unions were once the staunchest opponents of coloured immigration to Canada.
Overall, is there a lot of “machismo” in Punjabi and/or Sikh culture in general?