Four Stars!

Let's hear it for the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, a dedicated group of Muslim women who are attempting to help other Muslim women bridge the gap between what they feel their faith requires of them and how to match that with their responsibility toward their place in Canadian life.

Many Canadian women not of the Muslim faith have questioned the lack of willingness of Muslim women to become engaged with the larger population of Canadians, to express their desire to be viewed as Canadians espousing Canadian values, and to undertake an acknowledge of the understanding of basic Canadian values.

People who meet in public who are strangers to one another still have a common bond. We are all human beings, we require similar circumstances in life to flourish; we harbour human emotions not the least of which is the requirement to be accepted as we are. Canada's values give that assurance. Pluralism, tolerance, equality, freedom of expression and religion are extended to all its citizens, by law.

The opportunity for economic advancement, for formal education at all levels , for social acceptance into the wider sphere of Canadian life is extended to all who enter this country. Immigrants are extended additional supports to help them adjust to Canadian society, to learn the languages of the country, to become comfortable in its environment.

That immigrants too have responsibilities remains fairly unspoken. Earlier immigrants to Canada realized that they had to work hard to move their personal agendas forward, with no assistance from government. Yet these immigrants gladly adopted Canadian values which were so often widely divergent from those their home countries provided.

Now a group called Interfaith Ottawa also has become involved to an effort to assist Muslims in their adaptation to Canadian values and societal mores. Yasmeen Loubani, writing in an Ottawa newspaper feels that the obviously political decision by some Muslim women to impose their wearing of niqab and the burka in public on their fellow Canadians is purposely divisive, and so do most other Canadians.

One has no wish to share good feelings or greetings or an exchange of information with one who will not permit herself to be seen as an open-minded human being. While most people realize that to harbour ill feelings toward someone who takes to deliberate physical coverings as a means by which separation can be realized is wrong, the natural inclination is to treat an niqab-covered woman as invisible, for such she is.

Canadians are not given to flaunting their differences in ethnic and cultural origins; rather they generously share those differences, demonstrating to the others around them the value of their traditions, while accepting the newly-accepted values of their host country.