Generational Gap in Perception of Discriminations
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/01/20
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa, in the conservative publication True North, provided an interesting interpretation of some Angus Reid survey data. He opens with a declaration that Canadians see Islam, not Muslims, as harmful or “damaging” to Canadian society.
Dzurdzsa’s perspective analyzed the data set of 3,749 Canadian adults from November 24 to December 1, looking at Islam and perceptions of it. The most striking part was the age orientation on anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim discrimination. We’ll get there.
The views of Canadians appear to be relatively similar, according to Dzsurdzsa, compared to 2022. The major exception is related to Islam.
“Now, 43% of Canadians say Islam is a harmful presence to Canada, compared to 14% who say it is a positive contributor. This is a threefold increase in the proportion of Canadians who view Islam negatively since 2022,” Dzsurdzsa said.
This does not necessarily translate into anti-Muslim acts, but this does mean more possibility of a spillage from anti-Islam into anti-Muslim sentiment. The main reported hate crimes from StatsCan are anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, and anti-Muslim. Anti-Semitism, by far, is the most claimed.
However, Canadians remain both “aware and concerned” of the issues facing Muslim and Jewish people in Canada at times. ¾ Canadians say these are significant problems in the country compared to 11%.
Dzsurdzsa said, “However, there are some differences in how Canadians perceive the severity of these problems based on their age. Older Canadians are more likely to see antisemitism as a major problem than younger Canadians. Meanwhile, younger Canadians are more likely to see anti-Muslim discrimination as a major problem than older Canadians.”
The age cohort split, or generational gap, is the interesting part there where the entire country views both anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim discrimination as a problem. Yet, when you parse by age, the young lean towards anti-Muslim as more of a problem and the older lean more toward anti-Semitism as more of a problem.
This may have historical contexts with the Holocaust closer to the ages of older Canadians and attacks on several Muslim-majority nations by Western governments in the younger generations. There are several years of new adults born after 9/11, which was an inflection point in Western societies and removed the veneer of invincibility. Anti-Muslim sentiment likely rose in that time.
Thus, both generations and the country as a whole may be accurately assessing the discriminations of the times.
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