The War on the Canadian Muslim Woman's Body

The debate sparked by Québec’s controversial Charter of Values last year has once again been ignited across Canada. Although there are other forces at play, we can probably attribute this to Prime Minister Harper’s comment that he is “offended” by the niqab and wants to appeal the court decision allowing a Muslim woman to cover her face during the swearing-in part of the oath of citizenship ceremony.

After our PM’s hyperbolic statement, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander made a comment lumping the hijab into the same category as the niqab when discussing the oath of citizenship, as if they were the same thing. Since the minister has yet to clarify his statement, this could leave the door open for the imposition of further rules on religious Canadians and especially Muslim women.

But our federal government isn’t alone in this mentality. Recently, a woman in Montréal who appeared in court was turned away by the judge because she was wearing a head scarf and refused to remove it. And another woman in Montréal was harassed and assaulted because she was wearing hijab.

Furthermore, the Bloc Québécois, which was thrown out by Québécois voters in favour of the NDP in the last federal election, appears to be using this supposedly secular fight to pander to similarly anti-Muslim voters. In an attempt to ride on the coattails of the NDP’s opposition to the new anti-terror legislation, Bill C-51, the Bloc released the following ad asking “Should you have to hide your face to vote for the NDP?”

Neither is this ad clever nor is it even logical. It is pure solicitation of the bigot vote. Incidentally, the Conservatives are also hoping to pick up some seats in la belle province by enticing those same voters.

A political war is being waged in Canada, and the battlefield is Muslim women’s bodies.

I am not a religious person, but I respect the beliefs of people of faith and their right to practice their religion freely. More and more people that I know are identifying as atheist. I see nothing wrong with this as long as they can allow those who do believe in God to have their beliefs. Yet I would also argue that this growing tendency toward atheism can be dangerous. When decent, level-headed religious people disappear from the landscape, the gap can be filled by people with extreme views.

The fact that a political party with many members who are unapologetically Christian, i.e., the Conservatives, would act as though they believe in promoting secularism, by removing all religious symbols from the public, is laughable. This is the same party with members who have wanted to re-open the debates on abortion and same-sex marriage. This has nothing to do with promoting secularism; what they are promoting is the marginalization of Muslims. The Sikhs, for example, have long fought to wear their turbans, as is their right, and they have won. So, why the sudden interest in removing so-called religious symbols?

The concept of exhibiting nationalism and achieving supposed unity by fighting the internal enemy is nothing new. One of the most salient historical examples of this was in Germany. But if humans have learned anything from the past, it seems to be how to carry on those evils, rather than ensure that they never creep up and divide us again. Right now, the Muslim is the internal enemy in many countries, including Canada. Never have I heard/seen so many non-Muslim “experts” on Islam as I do today, sitting at their computers at home or pontificating in the mainstream media.

If you demonize and dehumanize the Muslim, Mr. and Ms. X sitting on their island far away from the rest of the world are more likely to buy into propaganda about a ragtag army that is somehow free to post on social media; film, edit, and release stylized videos in the middle of a war zone or out in the wilderness; order n number of Guantanamo-style orange jumpsuits; purchase sophisticated weapons from Western countries; etc. etc. etc…. and thus support perpetual drone strikes or war in Muslim majority countries that are economically and politically important to certain powers.

I am not a fan of the niqab, as I see wearing it as more of cultural practice than a religious one, but I believe that integration into a new culture takes time and cannot be imposed on someone. So, I would hope that a woman who migrates to Canada, one day, will feel that it is not necessary to cover her face when she goes out in public, but it is not my job, nor my desire, to shout at her and try to shame her into conforming to my idea of how a Canadian woman should comport herself. And in my life, I can only think of one instance when I saw a woman wearing the niqab in my city. But the way people talk, you would think this is some epidemic. That’s the idea. When the hysteria is created, and the narrative is written that Mulcair and Trudeau would have us all reciting the Quran and living under Sharia law, then we must vote for Harper out of fear. Don’t fall for it.

When I hear people complain about multiculturalism, and whine that immigrants aren’t assimilating, I get irritated. How open are white Canadians to people from different racial and cultural backgrounds when they come to Canada? Most white Canadians who have spent their entire lives living in Canada know almost exclusively other white people with a similar history.

Some days, I wake up and I wonder where I come from, because it doesn’t seem to be where other Canadians come from. I grew up in a medium-sized city, in a fairly middle class neighbourhood. Right from pre-school, my peers were from different backgrounds. My friends were always of different ethnicities and faiths. That was, and is, Canada. Today, when I stop and think about it, it occurs to me that almost all of the friends I’ve made as an adult are immigrants, and many of the friends that I have had since my youth are the children of immigrants. Canada is, after all, an immigrant country. But if we develop a reputation as an unwelcoming, white country, people will stop coming. Some people might delight at this prospect, but what they don’t realize is that Canada needs people to sustain itself.

I am happy to come from a multicultural country, and I believe that it is worth fighting for. We cannot allow anyone to manipulate us into turning on each other and ignoring what’s happening in our country and overseas in its name. If people would come out of their cocoons and talk to others, they would realize how much they have in common, and together we could fight those who wish to harm all of us.

Secularism means not governing the state on the basis of religion; it does not mean telling a Jew to remove his kippa or a Muslim to remove her hijab. That anyone, especially a judge, would equate these things, which are worn for a reason, with objects like sunglasses and hats, shows a shocking lack of education and understanding. This ignorance and disrespect should be more offensive to Canadians than an individual’s religion.