By Graeme Morton, Calgary Herald March 15, 2009
Muslims in the western world continue to walk a fine line between remaining true to their faith and integrating effectively into a complex, increasingly secular society.
That’s the conclusion of a new study prepared for the Institute for Research on Public Policy by Karim H. Karim, director of the school of journalism and communications at Ottawa’s Carleton University.
“Among the study participants, there was a keen interest in engaging with western society,” says Karim. “However, in wanting to become, say, good Canadian citizens, their values were naturally drawn from their faith.”
Karim said Muslims he polled were hungry for more guidance from their religious leaders in addressing the evolving ethical and moral issues of western society. A number of participants said imams who come from foreign backgrounds can struggle to understand the western culture in which members of their faith community live. Some said that on contemporary issues such as bioethics, they draw their guidance from scientists who were Muslims, rather than religious leaders.
The report is the result of months of interviews that Karim conducted with lay Muslims in Montreal, Ottawa, Washington and three cities in England.
Ismailimail 
i think that there is no dicotomy between faith and culture. i think what there is here is differences between the various cultures ie west and east north and south etc.. all faiths inform us of our first principles and then we express our interpretation of these principles through our culture, food, art even rites and rituals.the expressions are different and if we really try to understand the root of the expressions we will find no differences. the underlying root is the same the tree has different leaves. we should learn to appreciate the leaves and their beauty even though they are not representative of our world view. it is only the human beings inability to see beyond the leaf or the flower that causes them to get stuck in the difference. light that enters a prism is travelling at 186000 miles per second i cannot see it , on the other side of the prism through the process of refraction i see ROYGBIV . seven primary colours , do i really need help in understanding what has happened especially from someone who thinks God parted the Red Sea
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Mr. Gulamali sounds like an imformed and educated individual, who expresses himself with great expression.
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