Salim Mansur Book Launch; Ottawa, September 10th...

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.