The Future Of Freedom In Canada: The Islamist
- By Professor Prabhu Guptara
- Published 03/26/2008
Professor Prabhu Guptara
Professor Prabhu Guptara is Executive Director, Organisational Development, Wolfsberg (a subsidiary of UBS - one of the largest banks in the world). He is also Freeman of the City of London and of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, and Chartered Fellow of the of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development; he is also Fellow: of the Institute of Directors, of the Royal Commonwealth Society, and of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts Commerce and Manufactures; and he continues to supervise PhD research at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) as well as to be Visiting Professor at various Universities and Business Schools around the world.
Earlier roles include: a Governor of the Polytechnic of Central London, Member of the Council of the British Institute of Management, of the International Federation of Training & Development Organisations (IFTDO), of the Association for Management Education and Development (UK), of the South East Regional Council of the Confederation of British Industry.
Judge, 1988 National Training Awards, 1980 Commonwealth Poetry Prize, 1990 & 1991 Deo Gloria Prize for Fiction; Chair of the Panel of Judges, Deo Gloria Prize 1992 & 1993.
Experience with an enormous range of organisations including: Akzo Nobel (Netherlands), the Associated Banks Institute (Germany), Barclays Bank (UK), British Petroleum (UK), the Council of Europe, Cultor (Finland), Deutsche Bank (Germany), Groupe Bull (France), Federation of Finnish Engineers (Finland), the International Management Association of Japan, Kemira (Finland), Kraft Jakob Suchard (Switzerland), Leadership Academy (Finland), Nokia Telecommunications (Finland), Novo Nordisk (Denmark), Sedgwick International Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers (UK), Singapore Institute of Management, Sonatrach (Algeria), Sun Alliance (UK), UNCTAD, Valeo (France), and so on.
Organiser, chair and lecturer by invitation for numerous international conferences, he has contributed widely to radio and television in the UK and other countries (The Money Program, Any Questions) and has written for Financial Times (London, UK), The Guardian, The Times and other publications; articles, for example, in The Gower Handbook of Management, The Gower Handbook of Quality, and the International Encyclopedia of Business & Management (Routledge).
A CD-ROM has been issued of his lecture at the Professorenforum, University of Zurich, titled "Making the World Better - Why it does NOT happen...and what TO DO about it"
Further information available from rbadertscher@coba.ch
His best-known research publication is "Top Executives in the Global 100 Companies and their IT-Competence" (ADVANCE: Management Training Ltd., UK, and Wolfsberg Executive Development Centre, Switzerland, 1998); and he is included in Debrett's People of Today and in Who's Who in the World. Professor Prabhu Guptara lives in Switzerland.
A debate seems to be raging in Canada over Muslim attempts to use anti-discrimination legislation against critics of Islam.
Link to BBC Article
Though the legislation was put in place no doubt with the best intentions, the way the case is handled will decide whether free speech, as well as social and political freedoms, continue in Canada.
All I can say is that words are inherently discriminatory, thought is inherently discriminatory - and that can't and shouldn't be targeted by any anti-discrimination legislation.
The original article by Mark Steyn did not advocate discrimination against Muslims, rather it was a call for the West to put its own house in order. In fact, if I was a proper Muslim (rather than one only in a spiritual sense), I would be quite pleased to be told that "the future belongs to Islam" and that, for example, Europe is "too enfeebled to resist its remorseless transformation into Eurabia".
If someone puts forward a logical argument, even if Steyn's is a rather long, colourful and rambling argument, it can hardly be considered discrimination.
If it is argued that what is discriminatory is not the original article but the Editor's restriction of a right to reply (which would be a fair point), the claim does not stand up to scrutiny, as the Editor claims to have published 27 letters against the point of view taken in the article (I haven't checked that, though I did read the original article in the popular Canadian magazine, Macleans).
So this seems to be a case of a standard tactic used by Islamists - use any excuse to browbeat anyone who makes any case, however logical and reasoned, against any aspect of Islam or any Muslim practice, however abhorrent. Just as well that the vast majority of Muslims are not Islamists.
Mark Steyn's original article used demographics to suggest that the West would succumb to Islamist domination because of the youthfulness of the Muslim world combined with the intensity of their will to impose Islam on the world. He summarised the global advantage of Islamists with the equations:
The West: Age + Welfare = Disaster for you
The Muslim World: Youth + Will = Disaster for whoever gets in your way.
Steyn's view of the importance of demography is, as far as I can see, only very partially correct. His view of the weakness of the West versus the youth and strength of Islam is also only partially correct. As a student in the 1960s, I remember similar arguments for the inevitable triumph of Marxism.
However, those Muslims who are taking the case to government Commissions and similar bodies are simply demonstrating Steyn's point about "disaster for whoever gets in your way".
Western civilisation will certainly not survive without free speech. And that is what Islamists are targeting, whether in newspapers, radio, TV, internet, or even companies, schools and universities.
Views & opinions are those of the author alone - not be linked in any way with any of the organisations, universities or companies with which the author is, or has been, associated. On Biotech, Business, Culture, Economics, Ecology, Environment, Ethics, Finance, Futuristic, Global, India, International, Jesus the Lord, Leadership, Money, Multinational, Organisations, Philosophy, Politics, Robotics, Social justice, Spirituality, Sustainability, Technology, Transnational, Trends, U.K., Values…
Prabhu Guptara
