Stephen Harper waging phony jihad on the niqab
The prime minister of Canada has spent $250,000 preventing a law-abiding immigrant from becoming a Canadian. Stephen Harper is going to spend more, as he challenges two separate court rulings that it is “unlawful” to force Zunera Ishaq of Toronto to take off her niqab for the citizenship ceremony.
This is not a scandalous waste of tax dollars. It is money well spent. It has helped lift the veil on state-sponsored bigotry, the like of which we have not seen in contemporary Canada.
The niqab is to Harperites what abortion is to right-wing Republicans — a flag to rally followers and get them all riled up to go and vote, while keeping them distracted from what matters, such as the economy.
The Harperites are waging a phony jihad on the niqab, considering what the Prime Minister’s Office said in 2009 about it:
“In an open and democratic society like Canada, individuals are free to make their own decisions regarding their personal apparel and to adhere to their own customs or traditions of their faith or beliefs.”
That was well before the Harper gang discovered that bullying a Muslim woman is red meat for its braying base — just as the separatist Parti Québécois found Muslim-baiting useful to fire up its pure laine constituency. Conservative supporters in English Canada hold more negative views about Muslims and Islam than the supporters of other parties, according to an
Angus Reid poll, while in Quebec, anti-Muslim views are predominant among the separatists, according to a Forum poll.
As for the rest of us, we are being had, sucked into a non-issue that is dividing Canadians and sapping our social harmony.
http://m.thestar.com/#/article/opin...waging-phony-jihad-on-the-niqab-siddiqui.html
The prime minister of Canada has spent $250,000 preventing a law-abiding immigrant from becoming a Canadian. Stephen Harper is going to spend more, as he challenges two separate court rulings that it is “unlawful” to force Zunera Ishaq of Toronto to take off her niqab for the citizenship ceremony.
This is not a scandalous waste of tax dollars. It is money well spent. It has helped lift the veil on state-sponsored bigotry, the like of which we have not seen in contemporary Canada.
The niqab is to Harperites what abortion is to right-wing Republicans — a flag to rally followers and get them all riled up to go and vote, while keeping them distracted from what matters, such as the economy.
The Harperites are waging a phony jihad on the niqab, considering what the Prime Minister’s Office said in 2009 about it:
“In an open and democratic society like Canada, individuals are free to make their own decisions regarding their personal apparel and to adhere to their own customs or traditions of their faith or beliefs.”
That was well before the Harper gang discovered that bullying a Muslim woman is red meat for its braying base — just as the separatist Parti Québécois found Muslim-baiting useful to fire up its pure laine constituency. Conservative supporters in English Canada hold more negative views about Muslims and Islam than the supporters of other parties, according to an
Angus Reid poll, while in Quebec, anti-Muslim views are predominant among the separatists, according to a Forum poll.
As for the rest of us, we are being had, sucked into a non-issue that is dividing Canadians and sapping our social harmony.
http://m.thestar.com/#/article/opin...waging-phony-jihad-on-the-niqab-siddiqui.html