Doublespeak on Islam: Invite Hatred…Then Condemn It?

During March of this year, at a Peel District School Board meeting, pages from an English translation of the Quran were torn and thrown to the ground by a man who was protesting Jum’ah prayers in public schools. This is not an isolated incident. In fact, this is part of a series of outbursts that Muslims in Canada have become subject to regarding the Jum’ah issue.

Janet McDougald, chair of the Peel District School Board, told the CBC that “a small but vocal group” has been showing up to board meetings in the last two months 'specifically to make it known they are against Muslim prayer in schools.' She recounts that police were forced to clear a meeting after some attendees shouted comments about Shari’ah law and the Islamic indoctrination of children.

In addition to the regular hecklers at school board meetings, there was a YouTube personality who offered money to anybody who could record a video of any high school student giving a Khutbah and saying something “hateful or intolerant” – specifically asking for the students name, age, and grade to be recorded so that this YouTuber could broadcast this information to the world. There was also an anti-Shari’ah law protest in front of a populous Toronto Masjid during Jum’ah there.

In a joint statement, ministers Mitzie Hunter and Michael Coteau stated the importance of religious accommodation, decrying the fact that 'hate continues to spread even in the most diverse regions of our province.'

Bigotry never exists in a vacuum, so what caused this environment of distrust to form around a religious practice such as Friday prayers, which Muslims in Canada have been practicing for decades without any major issue? And why would this practice be an issue in a region like Peel, which has a large and well-established Muslim community?

Invite the hate, then condemn it?

While many in the Peel District School Board have been quick to reaffirm their acceptance of diversity and religious accommodation in public schools, it is clear that the excessive focus on Jum’ah prayers in public schools became an issue only after the school board itself started drafting unnecessary rules to restrict the practice of Jum’ah during school time.

McDougald, the chair of the board, admits that the board’s 20-year Jum’ah policy was brought into the radar of the bigots after the Peel District School Board made a proposition that Muslim students should not be allowed to write their own Khutbahs. Committed Muslim parents resisted this decision and were able to overturn it, but McDougald admitted in a conversation with the CBC that 'it raised the profile of the whole idea of religious accommodation in schools.'

She complains that, since then, meetings have been disrupted and the board has had to deal with a 'brutal' flurry of social media posts that are riddled with misinformation.

Basically, the board is admitting that their attempt to prevent Muslim students from writing their own Khutbahs and replace them with PDSB-approved and pre-written Khutbahs is what led to an environment that normalized attacks on the very existence of Jum’ah prayers in public schools and the practice of Islam in public life.

It is thus too little too late for Muslims to feel comforted by the board’s assurances that they are committed to tolerance, as it was their focus on policing the ordinary religious practices of Muslims that led to the atmosphere of distrust and normalization of bigotry against Muslim students – who are now being subjected to open hostility and threats against their well-being and privacy in the very meetings that are supposed to protect them.

Obedience training – the goal of public policy

It is important for Muslims to call out the culpability of the board in creating an atmosphere of confrontation and normalized bigotry against our Muslim youth. It is also essential that we dig deeper, and ask more fundamental questions: What could motivate the PDSB to single out Muslim students as a target for extra supervision in the first place? Regardless of their claims of wanting “uniformity” across different school Jum’ahs (a goal that has no clear or articulated benefit), it is clear that the real motivation behind this change in regulation is a desire to control our Muslim youth, just like the dictators of the Muslim lands whoforce their pre-approved Khutbahs on the Imams they employ; it is a desire to teach Muslim students to obey the pressures of the dominant non-Muslim society, even in the confines of a Jum’ah prayer; it is a desire to fit the religious devotion of our practicing youth into a mold that is acceptable to the materialistic, secular, and individualistic values of public schools.

Attacking the ability for students to write their own Khutbahs is an attack on the independence, critical thinking skills, and leadership abilities of our Muslim youth. An imposition of such a setup will do nothing less than teach them to seek the approval of a system that does not share their values before undertaking something as fundamental as giving an Islamic reminder to their peers.

This attack, which was bravely and successfully resisted by the sincere Muslim parents and community leaders within the Peel District, became the catalyst of more open forms of bigotry and hate. And yet, the agenda of both the public school official and the social media bigot are no different from each other, which is: to reshape the Deen of Islam to make it conform to the secular way of life.

Allah (swt) revealed:

“Never will the Jews or the Christians be pleased with you until you follow their way.” [2:120]

They desire to make the practice of an independent, engaged, and principled Deen that much harder – and to teach our Muslim youth that when the demographically dominant and politically powerful make a demand, it is the job of our minority community of conscience to listen and obey. And this is unacceptable.

A poisoned carrot

This is the case of the Muslim community in Canada. We are subjected to open bigotry, attacks against the sacred symbols of our Deen, and even direct physical violence from those who publicly express enmity against Islam.

But we are also exposed to those who seem to desire our well-being, but are quick to want to modify, shave down, and shape the parameters of our Deen in order to make it subject to the whims of the secular liberal power structure.

As Muslims, we must not fall prey to obeying either of these groups, and we must instead remain obedient to our Creator alone at all times. In our desire to seek protection against the violence of the stick, we should not fall victim to the poison of the carrot.

The way forward

It is important for us, as a Muslim community, to be wary of public officials who – while committed to the secular liberal way of life – take an active interest in the Muslim community. Although some may be principled and act seemingly from a genuine place of sympathy, it is important to consider that many simply have a job to do.

We must question when public officials make recommendations for the Muslim community on how to practice our Deen, or offer advice to adopt things that conflict with our values or disempower our youth, women, elders, or any segment of our community.

It is also essential for us to fearlessly commit to our Deen, making the Halal and Haram the central measure of our lives, and the sole basis for all of our individual and collective actions.

And finally, we must be committed to spreading the message of Allah (swt), making ourselves messengers of the Beloved Messenger (saw). We must urge the leadership of our Masjids and community organizations to take an active role in engaging with broader Canadian society, asking them to reconsider their premises, and inviting them to live according to the purpose of their existence, which is obedience to the creator of the universe.

“O you who believe! Respond to the call of Allah and the Messenger if he calls you to that which gives you life. And know that Allah's command comes between man and his heart, and to Him is your gathering place […] And remember when you were a weak few in the land, afraid that the people might snatch you away, so then He gave you shelter and strengthened you with His help, and provide you with good things, so that you might be thankful. ” [8:24-26]