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Canadian Jews and Muslims Denounce Ban on Religious Head Coverings

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Both Jews and Muslims in Canada are irate over the decision of the government to ban the wearing of religious garb and head coverings
Both Jews and Muslims in Canada are irate over the decision of the government to ban the wearing of religious garb and head coverings
Montreal’s downtown swelled with crowds of protesters on Saturday, September 14, as thousands of people gathered to denounce the provincial government’s charter of values.

Hijab-wearing Muslim women walked side by side with turban-clad young men through the city’s downtown core, and collectively denounced the Parti Quebecois’ proposal to ban public employees from wearing conspicuous religious items at work.

McGill student Alex Langer, 20, who was wearing a Jewish head covering, said he didn’t often wear the Kippah until the PQ announced its charter proposal.

“When my right to express who I am is threatened by xenophobia or political cynicism, I will fight that,” he said.

Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada announced Friday it will seek intervener status against the charter during any upcoming court challenge.

Spokesman Harvey Levine told QMI Agency on Friday that members of the Jewish community in Quebec are “very, very angry.”

“They realize that it’s going to divide the community, and (the charter) is just not acceptable in today’s society,” he said.

Samia Salhi, 42, a daycare worker who will have to remove her veil if the PQ’s plan becomes law, said Premier Pauline Marois is trying to distract voters.

“Marois failed in her mission as premier,” Salhi said. “She wants to divert attention away from the economy.”

Nirmal Singh, 21, a university student in Ontario, travelled to Montreal for the protest. He said that those who support the values charter don’t understand Islam or Sikhism.

“It takes me 20 minutes to put my turban on,” he said pointing to his head covering. “It’s our religion. It’s our life. We love our symbols.”

Organizers of the protest, the Quebec Collective Against Islamophobia, estimated that 50,000 people took part in Saturday’s protest.

Spokesman Adil Charkaoui said Saturday’s action is “just the beginning.”

“We’re going to take this fight to the courts, to the streets, to the ballot box,” he told the crowd, who responded with loud cheers.

And while the crowds were large on Saturday, not all Quebecers agree that the proposed charter of values should be scrapped.

A Leger poll conducted for QMI Agency in August revealed that 67% of respondents, and 77% of francophone respondents, agreed in principle with the ideas behind the charter.

Quebec’s civil servants union, which represents 42,000 workers, publicly supports the charter, as do other groups who advocate for a secular province.

The Jerusalem Post reported that The Quebec branch of The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, an advocacy group representing a number of Canadian Jewish federations, said that the proposed laws “run contrary to the provisions enshrined by the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

Such a move is “unacceptable,” the group stated on its website on Tuesday. “The separation of Church and State has existed in Quebec for many years. CIJA-Quebec sees no need at this time to bring forward new laws on the secular nature of the Quebec public sector. The prohibition of wearing religious symbols in the public and para-public service is not justified, and would exclude a large number of Quebecers.

The role of the state should be to bring people together, not to divide them.”

Bernard Drainville, the Quebec minister of democratic institutions, said that if the state is neutral, then those who work for it must be neutral too.

“That’s why the government of Quebec is proposing to ban public employees from wearing ostentatious religious symbols during work hours,” he said at a news conference on Tuesday.

“We’re talking about very obvious symbols… which send a clear message: ‘I am a believer and this is my religion.’” The government’s website laid out the reasoning behind the new charter, which would mandate amending the province’s charter of human rights, explaining that “a number of high-profile religious accommodation cases have given rise to a profound discomfort in Quebec” and that, as a result, “to maintain social peace and promote harmony we must prevent tensions from growing.”

The prohibition on “the wearing of overt and conspicuous religious symbols by state personnel… would reflect the state’s neutrality,” according to the government website.

However, it appears that some public displays of religion will still be permitted, including Christmas trees in public offices and a large crucifix in the National Assembly, which Drainville said reflect Quebec’s culture.

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