What Canadians think of Sikhs, Christians and Muslims

Canada has always been proud of its vast amount of cultural and religious diversity. "Canadians like to think of their country as a model for the world of how all sorts of people can get along together" But when it comes to the major faiths other than Christianity, Canadians fall short and miss the mark for being a liberal nation.
According to a recent poll conducted by Angus Reid Strategies (2009), only 10% of Canadians thought Christianity teaches violence. But an outstanding 45% of Canadians believe that the Islam religion encourages violence and 26% felt the same about Sikhism.

A whopping 45% of Canadians believe that about the Islam religion-really? This sounds like a bad case of ignorance if you ask me. Clearly, this 45% is rooted from all the negative images seen in media; biased coverage of large armed conflict in Islamic countries is a huge part of the problem. The same with Sikhism, the media coverage of the1985 Air India bombing has definitely put out a negative legacy of the Sikh community.

Clearly, the two religions deemed most violent, Islam and Sikhism have their work cut out to persuade many Canadians that they are not inherently violent. The amount of work they need to invest will depend on the various regions in Canada. For instance, the one region that views Islam faith to be encouraging violence the most is Quebec with 57%.

What I find most ironic is 30% of British Columbians find Sikhism to be a religion that encourages violence. What’s so ironic about that, well British Columbia is a province that has one of the highest concentrations of Sikh population in Canada.

Does this mean that people in BC who are Sikh are not into their own faith or are there too many people in BC who just don’t understand Sikhism?

“For a country that often boasts of modern identity based on acceptance of diversity, this poll suggests that’s still a goal to strive toward rather than an achieved reality.” (Macleans’s,09)