BELOW IS MY ORIGINAL MESSAGE TO THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS MIS-INFORMATION, AND BELOW THAT IS THEIR RESPONSE. WHAT ONES THINK ABOUT THIS???

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Message from: Ras Shawn Naphtali
Sent on: 4/10/2005 3:55:54 PM
Message Follows:
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Greetings.

I was most interested, and pleased, to see Rastafrains included in the
religions area of your website. That said, however, I must bring your
attention to a sentence that is totally false and actually offensive to
Rastafarians worldwide.

It reads:

"They believe that the white race, or "Babylon," is inferior and that its
members will eventually become the slaves of Rastafarians."

Although there is no one central doctrine which covers the whole Rastafari
movement, I can say without doubt that the beliefs expressed in the above
paragraph are completely untrue and in no way express the views held by the
Rastafarian community.

Although Rastafarians do believe very passionately about justice and freedom
for Black (African) people worldwide, we do not feel white people are
inferior to us, or that they will become our slaves! That last point about
white slaves is total nonsense and I have never heard that concept anywhere
ever before, from any Rasta I have ever Reasoned with, in my whole life!

Please, I ask you to delete that sentence from your otherwise informative
article, and wish you all the best with your work.

For these few words InI give much thanks.

Rastafari Peace and One Love.

Ras Shawn Naphtali
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References: A. email to information@forces.gc.ca sent Sunday, April 10,
2005 15:56;
B. www.britannica.com; and
C. www.swagga.com/rasta.htm.

Dear Mr. Shawn Naphtali,

Thank your for your comments concerning our publication Religions in
Canada. I can assure you, that the intent of this publication was not to
put down any religion, to ridicule any followers or to discourage anyone
from joining any of them. This book was developed primarily to assist
Canadian Forces commanding officers and supervisors to understand and
respond to requests from our soldiers for religious accommodation. It is
not the definitive guide to all religions in Canada. As you saw, it
contains a description of major religious and spiritual requirements and
tenets, including celebrations and observances, as well as dress, dietary,
medical and health requirements. Since its publication, many government
agencies, police forces, and educational institutions have requested copies
of this book in order to better serve their public.

When our contractor researched the material, he basically looked at
the information contained on the World Wide Web and did meet some religious
leaders. In two specific cases, where the information was not available on
the web, the respective religious or spiritual leaders gave it to us. Once
we had a final draft of the publication, some religious experts then read it
so that the information in it could be as accurate as possible.
Unfortunately a few minor errors did manage to make their way into the
published text, and were corrected on our Internet and Intranet sites as
they were identified. As new information is given to us and proven correct,
we will update our web-based sites accordingly.

Whenever I receive comments such as yours, I do take them very
seriously and do my own research based on what the contractor has given us,
what references are provided by whom ever sent me the comments and then
branch out from there. In reference A, the text in the publication that you
dispute says: "They believe that the white race, or "Babylon", is inferior
and that its members will eventually become the slaves of Rastafarians."
Our consultant obtained this information from at least two sites (references
B and C). In the online version of the Britannica Encyclopedia, under
Rastafarian, we can read: "They believe that blacks are the Israelites
reincarnated, who have been subjected to the evil and inferior white race in
divine punishment for their sins; they will eventually be redeemed by
repatriation to Africa and will compel the whites to serve them. "
Reference C, as well as other sites that I visited makes the reference to
the "Babylon" as being the white Christians.

Having said all of this, I don't see the need to change our
publication at this time. Now if you have any information that could prove
me wrong, I certainly would appreciate receiving a copy and will gladly
update our information after further research.

Sincerely,

R. Soucy

Major Robert Soucy
Canadian Forces Visible Minority Desk Officer /
Chargé de dossiers visant les Minorités Visibles des Forces canadiennes
DMGIEE / DIGEEM 3-2
* (613) 996-2468
* (613) 992-1049
* soucy.rj2@forces.gc.ca