So you might have heard of a recent uproar in a school district in Ontario, led by the surprisingly diverse coalition of both white Canadians and the group Canadian Hindu Advocacy. From what I can understand, the core of the issue revolves around accommodations the school gives for Muslim students to practice Jummah, a prayer that usually happens around midday on Fridays. For the last 20 years, students who wished to pray were supervised by a volunteer in a provided empty space during lunch breaks or other free time.
Recently, there’s been torn Qurans, marches, and yelling at board meetings citing both terrorist attacks and targeting specific people. Of course, in their flyers and material the parents against the prayer try and say this is about keeping the education system secular. (No one made a fuss about Bible study at my high school.) As someone whose worldview is heavily influenced by the fact that I don’t believe in God or an afterlife, I’d agree if it wasn’t just a self-righteous cover for a crusade rooted in xenophobia, old-world trauma, and bullying children.
We want to have real conversations about state, religion, and freedom? Let’s talk tax exemptions, let’s talk policies on religious symbols, let’s talk how far we’re willing to go interfere in people’s lives and beliefs. Let’s start talking what it means to be neighbours, and stopping putting up artificial barriers or choking on the word values.
