Mr. Speaker, the member, and all members in the House, know that there are many techniques used to get the passage of certain bills and issues in the House. He says that we voted unanimously for the motion, and that is technically correct. However, he will know that very few members were in the House that particular day.
I am not here to speak on behalf of other parts of this community. However, when we look at the term “Islamophobia”, today alone we have heard three different supposed definitions of it. There is no agreement on how to define that word.
The big eye-opener for me was about a week ago, when I attended a seminar put on by a group of Ahmadiyya Muslims here in Ottawa, in the parliamentary precinct. They pointed out to me that a Muslim sect in a Muslim community in Pakistan is under severe persecution. How in the world could the term “Islamophobia” honestly be used with integrity to describe a situation like that, where a Muslim government is persecuting its own Muslim minority within its own country?
The term “Islamophobia” is misleading. It is not well defined. It is important that we follow through with the motion our party has put forward today, because it includes all faith groups, including Muslims.
As has been pointed out today, and yesterday, when we were debating Motion No. 103, our job is to protect the faithful. The government's job is not to protect or promote a particular faith but to protect the faithful. That is our goal with this motion.