Where Religion Is Illegal [Canada & Islamophobia]

islamonline ^ | 5-16-2007 | Sheema Khan

[bedolido]

Not every harassment against Muslims comes out of Islamophobia. Secular, nationalistic, but not religious are the Quebecers. The founder of CAIR-CAN reflects on how the nature, culture, and history of Quebec make it hard for Muslims to live normally in the province.

The latest high-profile incident involved the expulsion of five Muslim girls, aged 10 to 14, from a Tae kwon do tournament, by Quebec sports officials who ruled their hijab to be against regulations of the sport, in spite of the fact that hijab-clad Muslim women have competed worldwide in this martial art without any incident. In the neighboring province of Ontario, Prof. Tyseer Abou-Nasr recently earned her black belt in Tae kwon do without any concern about her hijab. Nasr is a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Ottawa, having just completed her tenure as dean of engineering. She has also been recently named to the Order of Ontario — a prestigious recognition in honor of her contributions to the province.

Many Quebecers believe that faith should be a private matter and feel very uncomfortable with public displays of faith.

[ml/nj]

the nature, culture, and history of Quebec make it hard for Muslims to live normally in the province

Boo, fricken, hoo.

ML/NJ

[usurper]

Well at least I now have something good to say about French Canadians.

[ml/nj]

They were always nice to me. (I did some work at the Olympic Stadium up there for the '76 Olympics and then for several years afterward for tenants of the stadium.) I always thought the Quebecois (sp?) could tell the difference between the Canucks and us Yanks. I think they knew they would need some friends if they ever split.

ML/NJ

[Baladas]

Do Muslims live “normally” anywhere? Nobody forced them to move to Quebec.

[usurper]

All the Canadians I know are Canucks. They generally think of the French the same way we look at people from our most liberal enclaves.

[ml/nj]

I'm just relating my experiences to you. I've probably had two months worth of business time up in Montreal ending some 25 years ago. I actually saw Rene Leveque (1st PQ PM of Quebec, I think) dead drunk in a Montreal gutter before anyone knew who he was. The Quebecois weren't "liberal" so far as I could tell. They just wanted their independence. The Party Quebecois had me up there for a couple of events. I couldn't really understand French and they were always sure to have someone telling me what was going on at their events. I've celebrated St. Jean Baptist Day (Quebec's National Day) with complete strangers in Old Montreal with all of them singing their political songs, drinking, and REALLY giving meaning to the notion of dancing in the streets. Not a one of them was anything but genuinely considerate of me. If you've had some different experience with the French Canadians, I hope you will at least allow me to remember mine.

ML/NJ

PS Their reported harassment of Islamic Swine only enhances my opinion of them.

[MD_Willington_1976]

Yep, unlike their cousins in France, they aren’t taking any crap from these guys in Quebec...

[jordan8]

These people have no right to be in the West, their presence here is a crime, a crime whose authors are Western elites.