Come One, Come All!

"Never use threat, force or pressure to make someone have sex."

"Women can ... choose who they marry."

"If you have sex with someone without their consent, this is called rape"

"Rape is a serious crime in the U.K. You could go to prison, lose your support and accommodation, and it will affect your asylum claim."

New U.K. orientation manual for migrants 

 

"All permanent residents and protected persons are eligible for IRCC-funded settlement services [to] help them integrate and build a successful life in Canada as quickly as possible and include information on rights and freedoms of individuals according to Canadian law, understanding of Canadian values, as well as their responsibilities and obligations."

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spokesperson

600 Gaza refugees enter Canada in 2005  CBC News

 

The United Kingdom, overwhelmed by the presence of migrants, faces a long string of social/cultural problems related to different customs and values being transplanted alongside the migrants into Britain. An epidemic of violence has erupted for several years unlike what the United Kingdom has previously experienced, a stream of non-stop incidents that fall far outside the normal social contract of the Emerald Isle's traditional population. Rapes by migrants perpetrated against vulnerable men, women, teens, even children, taking place in wooded areas, parks, beach change-rooms and rental units.

 

Grooming Gangs in the U.K. Machiavelli Foundation

 

It took long enough for the British Government to pay attention to the scandals that for years had stalked communities where Muslim men, mostly of Pakistani origins, whose sex culture was responsible for grooming gangs focused on raping and using young Caucasian girls as sex slaves, renting out their services for fun and profit. It wasn't that the situation was unknown to British authorities, but that it was quite simply too inconvenient for them to 'notice' much less act on the practise, given the large Muslim population and accusations of 'Islamophobic' racism to be avoided at all costs.

 

Canada too, as it happens, finds itself in inconvenient waters with the surge of the past decade of immigrants, refugees and migrants infiltrating Canadian society. And in Canada not-too-subtle incidents of migrants in the country bringing with them customs contradictory to Western human rights values where incestuous relations, stranger-rape, organized crime, underage marriages, polygamy, genital mutilation offend Canadian customs and laws.

 

In 2015, during the federal election Prime Minister Stephen Harper's election campaign was rife with outrage from civil rights groups and the growing Muslim community in Canada over his government's release of 'instructions for immigrants' booklet Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship that advised foreigners entering Canada as landed immigrants and permanent residents on their way to achieving citizenship, that Canada's welcome did not include 'barbaric cultural practices' such as spousal abuse, 'honour killings', female genital mutilation, and forced polygamy.

 

Burqa ban in Great Britain?  Independent

 

How times have changed; the instructions of yesteryear rejected by the electorate have, by necessity since then been rejuvenated where marriage fraud warning is circulated by government auspices. In Canada too there are those requiring an explanation why it is frowned upon to rape children. A 'Pre-Departure Guide for Newcomers to Canada', published in 2025 focuses on newcomer rights rather than their responsibilities to the new country they will inhabit. 

 

Gently there are hints as to what is now of vital importance to this current progressive government; an acceptance of the presence of transgenderism, where readers are instructed that the LGBTQ-2 community in Canada is not only accepted, supported and valued, but so too is the right of the nation's children to question their from-birth designation as male or female. Issues such as 'lining up', 'making eye contact' and 'using underarm deodorant' are given their due place in the booklet.

 

Criminal activities are also addressed such as a jail term will come with carrying a firearm without a permit, and unwanted sexual touching or remarks may elicit a fine, or even prison. Bribery, polygamy, female genital mutilation and 'Making, sharing or owning photos of naked children', 'forcing others into marriage', and 'having sex with children', are similarly frowned upon and the letter of the law may be applied. Although truth to tell, the justice system goes easy on skin tones and ethnicity and cultures, with reduced sentences applied.

 

Family violence is frowned upon and "Killing a family member as a way to save a family's honour", is definitely unacceptable. Also addressed is the virtue of working for a living, rather than becoming wholly dependent on Canada Child Benefit payments which, when enough children in a family receive those generous benefits can sustain a family, without a breadwinner breaking a sweat. ($679.75 per month ($8,157 per year) for each child under 6, and $573.58 per month ($6,883 per year) for each child aged 6 to 17 for the 2026–2027 year.

 

What Muslim female dress means as a  wedge issue in Canada  TVO Today

 

 

Refugee Baggage

"That's the main thing that we gained. Nobody who is a refugee wants to be convicted of any indictable offence, because it's going to bring them under the purview of deportation."
"[This case represents a] very critical clash of cultures [bringing a clear message to the Syrian community in Canada]."
"Their words were taken literally instead of figuratively. In my interaction with the entire family, I came to the conclusion that this is a manner of speech that they never really intended to carry any of this out, but they do it so to say, 'You should mind me, because this is what I think'."
"Throughout the time from which her [complainant] parents were arrested and detained [Bayan] was recanting and saying 'All this is my fault'. But of course, just like in domestic assaults, the police -- and rightly so -- don't take the recanting seriously."
David Lutz, lawyer for Ahmad Ayoub, Syrian refugee in Canada

Bayan Ayoub, left, her mother Faten, top right, and father Ahmad outside the courthouse in Burton, New Brunswick, on May 15, 2018.    Don MacPherson and Caitlin Dutt/The Daily Gleaner

Having spent 72 days imprisoned for issuing death threats against their daughter, 52-year-old Ahmad Ayoub and his wife Faten, aged 48, are now free. They pleaded guilty to uttering threats in an obvious agreement to treat the matter as a summary conviction offence. Their sentence amounted to the time they served in prison. The more serious indictable offence of uttering threats was dismissed; were it not they would be facing a summer trial and the sentence for a conviction in that instance would have been six months to a year, to a maximum of two years.

Threats uttered by traditional Muslim immigrants are no trifling matter when family 'honour' is involved. Muslim and traditionally orthodox Indian families whose children refuse to honour the traditions of their culture and religion have shocked the West in honour-based killings to prevent a family member from disobeying the patriarch's orders, and to restore honour to the family when it has been too late to stop the revolting family member from deviating from custom.

The notorious Shafia family from Montreal where father, mother and son conspired to murder the family's three teen-age girls for disobeying orders not to mingle with Canadian boys and not to discard traditional Muslim head coverings enraged the parents by the girls' immodest behaviour. They blamed the father's first wife who had acted as a more genuine mother to the girls than their own did, and murdered her along with the girls. All three are now serving sentences for first-degree murder.

Honour killings are not entirely rare across the Muslim world, where girls and women are seen as akin to property, where females are subject to male direction in all matters and not viewed as autonomous individuals. Free will, individual choices and human rights are concepts that bear no weight in societies whose traditions and religious instructions are geared toward ensuring women are compliant and subservient to the menfolk in their lives.

Despite this Canadian lawyer's assurances that the threats were mere admonitions not to be taken seriously as threats, but to be viewed as concerned parents wishing the best for their rebellious daughter refusing to heed their command to stop seeing a Canadian man in an intimate social relationship, the daughter, Bayan Ayoub, knowing her culture and her parents, took the threats seriously enough to contact police.

Had the parents who arrived in New Brunswick as refugees in 2016, under sponsorship by the federal government been found guilty of the more serious charge, their refugee status giving them landed immigrant status in Canada could have been revoked. This is as good an example as any of the unwillingness or inability of some refugees and immigrants who arrive in Canada to integrate into the prevailing culture, accepting Canadian values and leaving their constricted social values inimical to the well-being of women back in their war-torn countries where they belong.

This family of two culturally-obtuse adults have five children in Canada, the youngest ten years of age. The parents cannot be classified as educationally ignorant since both had the advantage of post-secondary education; one in business the other in the service industry. In Canada since 2016 with their five children, neither parent has yet succeeded in finding employment. Daughter Bayan, 25 years of age, informed her Canadian boyfriend of her parents' threats against her. He encouraged her to report the threats.

She was described in court proceedings as a reluctant participant in the prosecution. Natural enough when a young women feels dismayed seeing her parents imprisoned and later in a court. She would naturally feel guilty about reporting them. Which wouldn't have made the threats against her any less worrisome. When  her mother became aware she had gone to police, another threat was forthcoming, that this would result in her being killed; stated via a telephone call which the daughter recorded. If she was disinclined to take the threats seriously she would hardly have reported, much less recorded them.

The Ahmads were enraged their daughter won an iPad in a contest; the first threat consisted of a promise to poison her food. She was warned that contact with local men would be prohibited for her. When Bayan's parents discovered her to be in communication with a Canadian man through social media, her father informed her that "for his own dignity, it would be better to slaughter her". However, since Mr. Lutz, the father's lawyer, assured the court that the words used were hyperbolic, exaggerated and non-literal, all is well.

"[The Ayoubs' threats were] careless, bordering on reckless, and they have learned from this experience that this kind of language may be acceptable in Syria and Afghanistan, but now they know, better than most, that it's not acceptable in Canada". Which means what, exactly, that they will take care in future lest they be caught while in the passionate throes of committing a commonplace cultural-religious strategy to control their children to protect family honour using a time-honoured stratagem familiar and valued?

Tight Little Island(s)

"Japanese funerals were based on showing off to other people, and people cared how they were viewed by others."
"But fewer and fewer people talk to their neighbours, so they don't have to show off or think about how they are viewed by them."
Midori Kotani, executive researcher, Daiichi Life Research Institute

The funeral for Hajime Iguchi at Sousou, a so-called corpse hotel in the Tokyo suburb of Kawasaki City, Japan. (BEN C. SOLOMON/NYT)

Japan is the quintessential society or orderly politeness and cohesion, and its people take care never to seem to be different, because homogeneity is of supreme importance to the culture that values harmony, neatness, orderliness and good behaviour. But above all, being Japanese. After all, the islands that comprise Japan accommodate the living needs of 127-million people, living in fairly close proximity to one another in a geography that is mountainous, making for a crowded urban environment in its cities.

The Japanese are consummate consumers, demanding quality control and excellence, whether it be in the vehicles they produce (and typically discard when several years old for new ones because of 'safety' rules, exporting the old to other Asian nations) or the food they eat both local and imported. They are fastidious people with a genuine love of nature; when exploring the natural landscapes Japanese enjoy dressing for the occasion lederhosen, walking sticks and all.

And they certainly love thematic drama to accommodate their sense of orderliness, along with a social contract that abhors unseemly behaviour bringing public attention to oneself, behaving with public circumspection to a degree not seen elsewhere. The very essence of being Japanese is a state of being to be both cherished and protected; those who exit the country to go abroad temporarily are viewed as less than authentic Japanese on their return.

Japanese in Tokyo typically live in building complexes where apartments are very small, so they do their entertaining at hotels and restaurants. Urban building areas are so tight that amazingly narrow buildings are shoehorned in wherever possible between existing buildings. And because homes are so tight there is little opportunity for a couple to get intimate while courting. Japan looks after that through Love Hotels, temporary and elegant surroundings for a few hours or an evening of togetherness.

There are hotels whose architecture has been designed to appear like a wedding cake. Famously, there are specialized hotels in Japan whose rooms are actually sleeping pods, narrow platforms meant simply for sleep. They are called capsule hotels and resemble what might be sleeping arrangements on a space ship, utilizing all available room in a space-tight environment. In Japan, with its large population and small geography, it makes sense.

Categorization as well as themes also play a significant role in merchandising and marketing, where streets and specific neighbourhoods are dedicated to a single theme. To highlight electronics, or a focus on shoes only, on motorcycles, or on fish so that on that street, shop after shop exclusively features products that fit that specific category. Another quaint and perhaps sensible custom is the featuring of plastic models of the food that can be ordered at restaurants, colourful and obvious, in cafe or shop windows.

The latest, it would seem, is the inauguration of Corpse Hotels, where family and friends are able to  grieve for their loved ones who have passed through life and death has embraced them. They are called "itai hoteru". One half of the rooms in the hotel are meant to hold coffins on platforms built into the room alongside small altars. Some of the coffins come with transparent lids to aid the mourners' view of the departed. The other rooms are meant for mourners to stay over.

A cemetery outside Tokyo. Nearly all people who die in Japan are cremated. Crematories cannot keep up with demand, so businesses are combining hospitality for families and temporary storage for bodies. (BEN C. SOLOMON/NYT)

Instead of the large funerals that were once traditional, these "itai hoteru" are being popularized. In 2015 alone, 1.3 million people died in Japan, representing an increase of 35 percent from 2001, and increasing. The death rate is expected to peak in 2040 at 1.7 million people expiring. Last year, 37 percent of Japanese women were over 90 when they died, with few to mourn them. Almost one-fifth of Japanese men never marry or have children, so there are few relatives.

In Tokyo, with its population of 13 million people, there are 25 crematoriums even though there are 5,100 crematoria throughout the entire country.The number of people over age 65 who died alone at home in Tokyo doubled between 2003 and 2015. The appearance and usefulness of Corpse Hotels reflect a solution to a social conundrum for a practical people.

Celebratory Heritage Custom of Pure Savagery

"I felt something come into my back, as if there is a stone from above. I felt like my spine cut into two pieces."
"In those few seconds, I was wondering, what is happening to me? Is there anyone who hates me that much to shoot me?"
"I wasn't and am still not, angry from what happened. This guy who shot me, I don't know him. I don't care who this guy is and I don't blame him. I blame the people who raised him in this bad way. I blame the people who are responsible, the minister or the political people who raised their supporters in this negative way."
Bayan Bibi, Lebanese woman

"It's to show support for our leaders. And to show them, we have your back [shooting automatic gunfire into the air when a political leader in Lebanon makes a speech] when  you need us."
"When you are doing that it's like an adrenalin rush, you don't think of anything. I'm not gonna lie, the feeling is good, it's euphoric. Maybe after you think 'oh, maybe I might have hurt someone'."
Muhammad, 23, supporter of Amal's Nabih Berri, Lebanese parliamentarian

"[A 7.62 millimetre round of the sort used in Kalashnikov rifles is] quite capable of killing somebody 1,700 metres [one mile] away."
"The range is less if fired in the air but if it comes back down it gathers energy and that does the killing."
Brigadier Ben Barry of the International Institute for Strategic Studies

“He who spits up in the air, will get it back on his beard." Arab proverb. 

Whether it's joy, political passion or grief, for many Lebanese, there's only one way to show it: by lifting a gun and firing off rounds into the air (photo by Anwar Amro/AFP/File)

Yet in the Arab Middle East doing just that is a heritage tradition; reason to celebrate when a sporting event takes place and the victor expresses his pleasure means firearms will be shot into the air. In 2013 when Iraq celebrated its win at the under-20s' football World Cup, four people died and over 20 were injured in the aftermath of bullets falling out of the sky.

The publication of high-school exam results are occasion across the Arab world to shoot a hail of bullets skyward ... and what goes up will certainly come down, causing injuries.

Bridegrooms have fallen dead after rounds of bullets fired at their own weddings. The natural consequence of a death is a speedy funeral, and at the funeral, just as at the wedding, guns will be fired in sorrow leading often to other tragedies.

In the Arab world dozens of deaths and hundreds of people injured by falling lead take place as a result of celebratory shooting sprees. This kind of dangerously kinetic celebratory action takes place outside the Arab world, as well, but not to the same traditional extent.

There is no lack of occasions meriting gunfire shot into the air in celebration, whether it is a successful attack in the Middle East against Israel accompanied by handing out sweets, or funerals, graduations, birthdays, weddings, the speech of a political leader on television, men are accustomed to firing guns into the air to celebrate.

Reuters -- Firing a burst from his Kalashnikov, Mohammed al-Ghazaleh boasted: "(Israeli Prime Minister) Netanyahu will mourn tonight, while the people of Gaza are steadfast in their resistance and have triumphed." 2012

Heedless of the law of gravity and consequences. Since what falls directly from the heavens may devastate vulnerable flesh, directly hitting heads and shoulders.

It is a practice that is deemed illegal wherever it occurs -- or mostly, but that doesn't stop people from continuing to respond to the urge to 'celebrate' by firing off weapons. In Lebanon there is a steep penalty for disobeying the law against shooting weapons into the air, but the practise remains widespread. Media reported seven incidents of people injured or killed by celebratory gunfire in 2016.

In the Beirut neighbourhood of Burj Abi Haidar, a firefighter was killed by a stray bullet in May, which caused public outage. Yet two other deaths occurred from the same source in the same month. An 8-year-old child was hit and killed by a stray bullet in March. This is not a religious practse, but a cultural one; Christians, Sunni, Shiite or whatever, celebratory skyward shooting is customary.

Muhammad, quoted above, climbs to the roof of his apartment building in the Beirut suburb of Dahiya to fire his AK-47 at the sky when he feels the urge to 'celebrate'; most often when he hears the leader of the Amal movement make a public television speech. He can fire as many as 180 bullets at a sitting. Creating a hail of bullets to fall back out of the sky without a soul to call out "look out below!"

Gazan boy firing, 2012, Reuters

Molenbeek, Belgium, Jihadi Capital of Europe

"...the most important factor is Belgium's culture of denial. The country's political debate has been dominated by a complacent progressive elite who firmly believes society can be designed and planned. Observers who point to unpleasant truths such as the high incidence of crime among Moroccan youth and violent tendencies in radical Islam are accused of being propagandists of the extreme-right, and are subsequently ignored and ostracized."
"The debate is paralyzed by a paternalistic discourse in which radical Muslim youths are seen, above all, as victims of social and economic exclusion. They in turn internalize this frame of reference, of course, because it arouses sympathy and frees them from taking responsibility for their actions. The former Socialist mayor Philippe Moureax, who governed Molenbeek from 1992 to 2012 as his private fiefdom, perfected this culture of denial and is to a large extent responsible for the current state of affairs in the neighborhood."
"Two journalists had already reported on the presence of radical Islamists in Molenbeek and the danger they posed -- and both became victims of character assassination."     Teun Voten, Belgian cultural anthropologist,former Molenbeek resident

Federica Mogherini, the EU's de facto foreign minister (posing at left with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif) said last year, "Islam belongs in Europe.... I am not afraid to say that political Islam should be part of the picture." Françoise Schepmans (right), mayor of the Molenbeek district of Brussels, received a list with the names and addresses of over 80 suspected Islamic militants living in her area. "What was I supposed to do about them? It is not my job to track possible terrorists," she said. "That is the responsibility of the federal police."

The classic scenario of locking the barn door after the horses have galloped off, is taking place in Europe. Wholly infiltrated by a culture, a heritage and a religion whose values stand in stark contrast to European history, culture and priorities, Europe is swiftly disappearing into the political and social maw of a religion whose primary goal is to eclipse all others and, by the irresistible draw of its theological magnetic field -- just like a black hole against which other space objects have no defense -- capture the world by the energy field of its totalitarian ideology.

Now that Europe has been the beneficiary of years of Muslim immigration from North Africa and the Middle East, the importation of Islamic ideals absorbing society into its orbit is proceeding apace. With the demands for Sharia law, for total recognition and respect for the precepts of Islam which recognizes no man-made laws let alone indigenous customs and values, the gradual take-over of Europe proceeds. And it is joined by a more lethal manifestation of Islam's pathology of conquest, one demanding engagement in jihad through which the vengeance of the spurned has its day.

The West looks on with alarm as the Taliban, al-Shabaab, Hezbollah, Islamic State, and Boko Haram maraud through countries of traditional Islamic heritage but which do not sufficiently genuflect to Islam's purity as it was conceived by the Prophet Mohammad in direct and obedient obeisance to Allah. The assaults and atrocities trigger condemnation and fear at the deadly cost to human life. Resolve to counter the waves of terror harden when the West itself comes under vicious attack as it did in America, France, Spain, Britain and Belgium. Not to mention Indonesia, Mali, Iraq, India.

Finally, a recognition that what has been occurring in the only Western-type democracy in the Middle East, is also afflicting Europe, in another classic: the canary-in-the-mine syndrome. "The threat we are facing in Europe is about the same as what Israel faces", finally admitted Olivier Guitta, managing director of GlobalStrat, international security consultancy. "We have entered an era in which we are going to have to change our way of life and take security very seriously."

In Europe and across the world authorities are looking to once again tighten security at airports, railway stations, government buildings and sites key to civilized life in the wake of the deadly bombings at the airport and subway in Brussels. An increased police and military presence in the public arena; explosive experts, sniffer dogs and plainclothes investigators are now being deployed, while governments warn against travel to Belgium.

Counterterrorism units are being deployed in crowded areas and transit locations worldwide in acknowledgement of the string of terrorism assaults setting Europe as a target. Europe itself must now contemplate the implementation of tougher security levels at airports and at obvious 'soft targets' like shopping malls, similar to what Israel has been living with for years.

A former security director at Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport, Pini Schiff, issued his critique of Belgium's security, classifying the Brussels airport security as "a colossal failure". In Paris and at Gatwick and Heathrow in London, security is at a high alert level. How alert can any country now be to the threat that exists within? In the United Kingdom 27 percent of Muslims claimed sympathy with the Charlie Hebdo attacks; 78 percent support punishment for publication of Mohammed cartoons, with 68 percent supporting arrest and prosecution of anyone who would "insult Islam".

A World Public Opinion survey at the  University of Maryland gives figures of 61 percent of Egyptians, 32 percent of Indonesians, 41 percent of Pakistanis, 38 percent of Moroccans, 83 percent of Palestinians, 62 percent of Jordanians, and 42 percent of Turks endorsing or sympathizing with attacks on Americans or on U.S. groups. In Belgium, 16 percent of young Muslims believe state terrorism is "acceptable" according to a 2013 study, while 12 percent of young Muslims in Britain feel suicide attacks against civilians can be justified.

The Washington Post reported "About 50 to 70 percent of all inmates in prison [in France] are Muslim, though Muslims represent about 12 percent of the country's population". An Anti-Defamation League report in 2015 found that: "An average of 55 percent of Western European Muslims harbored anti-Semitic attitudes. Acceptance of anti-Semitic stereotypes by Muslims in these countries was substantially higher than among the national population in each country."
A 2006 Swedish government report found that 5 percent of its indigenous population held anti-Semitic views, while the number surged too 39 percent amongst adult Muslims. A 2012 study of Germany's burgeoning Turkish population disclosed that 62 percent of Turks in Germany want to  live exclusively among one another. As well, 46 percent express the aspiration that the country become a Muslim majority nation.

The venerable BBC noted that 36 percent of 16- to 24-year-old Muslims believe should a Muslim convert to another religion they should be punished by death. Thirty-five percent of Muslims prefer to send their children to an Islamic school, while 37 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds say they feel that government-funded Islamic schools should be established. Of 16- to 24-year-olds, there is a 74 percent preference for Muslim women to wear the veil, in comparison to 28 percent among those over age 55.

How Proud Is That?

"I'm definitely proud to be a Canadian. It's a wonderful country, with one small iota that I disagree with."
"I wish to affirm my allegiance, my true allegiance to Canada and the people of Canada, but also to disavow the royalty part and only the royalty part of the citizenship oath."
Dror Bar-Natan, Israeli-Canadian, Toronto

Dror Bar-Natan, about to become a Canadian, plans to start a website allowing other new Canadians recant their oath to the Queen. (Colin Perkel/Canadian Press) 

This man, a 49-year-old professor of mathematics, takes exception to the British monarch representing the Canadian Head of State, in a long heritage connecting Canada to Britain and a tradition honouring that link. In wishing to become a Canadian citizen, he has the gall to criticize that portion of the citizenship ceremony requiring the pledging of allegiance to the Queen.

He glibly dismisses that tradition and the ceremony, viewing the monarch as a symbol of inequality, "repulsive" to his taste. When people emigrate from their country of origin with the intention of taking up residence abroad and eventually becoming citizens elsewhere, it ill behooves them to pick and choose which elements of the law and customs of the land they will adapt to. All the more so when it comes to a citizenship ceremony.

J.P. Moczulski for National Post   Zunera Ishaq shovels her driveway at her home in Mississauga.

When a Pakistani woman who became a landed immigrant in Canada declined to take the citizenship oath because she was instructed to remove her niqab to reveal her entire face, it represented yet another incident where newcomers to Canada arrogantly spurn established law and custom. Tradition is meaningful and is meant to be respected. When tradition is combined with law, rejecting it is an assault upon Canadian values.

This man Bar-Natan was one of three permanent residents who chose to challenge the constitutionality of citizenship conditional on the Oath of Allegiance to the Queen. Ontario's top court while rejecting their argument, found that all citizens have the right to disavow that part of the oath. On the conclusion of the ceremony they recant the oath and feel self-satisfaction in justifying their distaste for a singular tradition that does not sit well with their individual values.

Both the woman who insisted on wearing her niqab and the man who felt justified in disavowing the oath of allegiance should have been denied citizenship, a privilege that neither had earned.

Canada's Social Contract

"Untrue [Zunera Ishaq's vow the niqab is required because of her faith]. Islam makes no such requirement as obligatory on Muslim women, and there is no such ruling made obligatory for Muslim women in Hanafi rites or jurisprudence within Islam."
"The wearing of full face covering by that small segment of Muslim women such as Ms. Ishaq, is a custom turned into religious mandate by Muslim extremists in Pakistan. Such a contentious mandate enforced in public by coercion is of recent origin."
Raheel Raza, Sohail Raza, The Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow

"To have one's face covered for a swearing-in [citizenship] ceremony, I'm not in agreement with that."
"I'm comfortable saying that and I think my party [New Democratic Party] is also comfortable saying that."
NDP candidate Jean-Francois Delisle

 

The Federal Court has struck down the federal government's ban on wearing the niqab while taking the citizenship oath, but not on charter grounds. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

The Conservative-led federal government is prepared to request a stay of the Federal Court of Appeal decision ruling that the Citizenship Act requires a change in law, not only regulation, if the Government of Canada wishes uncovered faces to remain the norm during citizenship ceremonies. A recent immigrant from Pakistan to Canada has decided that this is a social covenant that is not to her liking. Consequently, at a citizenship swearing-in ceremony which required that she remove her niqab she refused to take part.

And then she appealed the issue. Granted, Muslim women in Canada who wear a full face covering are not that abundant in number. In the same token, a requirement for all people who aspire to Canadian citizenship to show their identities during times of grave private and public importance is one meant for everyone, with no exceptions. Canada is a free and open society and within the social contract basic courtesies apply; no one should hide their faces from open view.

The most basic mode of communication is an open visage leaving others free to interpret facial expression as part of one's identity and willingness to exchange opinions or simply feel free to acknowledge the presence of others in an egalitarian society. In a closed, misogynistic society like Pakistan's where female empowerment of equality to males is a concept of human rights that has not yet arrived, women have accepted the male-domineering demand to express their demureness by hiding their physical forms and their personalities.

Another NDP Member of Parliament, Alexandre Boulerice, stated "the niqab is a type of barrier that is created between women and the rest of society. It is a wall", which makes Canadians "uneasy". In fact, it is an expression of rejection of Canadian values of female rights. Yet the leader of the NDP faults the government for its insistence on the necessity of a clear view of the face of anyone taking part in a citizenship ceremony. A recent poll, however, revealed that 83 percent of NDP supporters cast their opinion in support of the government's stand.

That same poll showed endorsement of no-niqab-use at 96 percent for those identifying with the Conservatives, and 85 percent for Liberals, which means that the Liberal leader who also faults the government is as out-of-step as the NDP leader on this critical societal issue; that cultural normatives demeaning the status of women in society are unacceptable in Canada.

"Look, when someone joins the Canadian family, there are times in our open, tolerant, pluralistic society that as part of our interactions with each other we reveal our identify through revealing our face."
"When you join the Canadian family in a public citizenship ceremony, it is essential that that is a time when you reveal yourselves to Canadians and that is something widely supported by Canadians.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper

When In Rome

Cum Romanum venio, ieiuno Sabbato; cum hic sum, non ieiuno: sic etiam tu, ad quam forte ecclesiam veneris, eius morem serva, si cuiquam non vis esse scandalum nec quemquam tibi.         translation:   When I go to Rome, I fast on Saturday, but here [Milan] I do not. Do you also follow the custom of whatever church you attend, if you do not want to give or receive scandal.  St. Augustine, Letter to Januarius, 390 a.d.

Simply put, any woman who wears a face covering is expressing hostility to Canadian traditions and values, and rejecting the social contract of equality and liberal pluralism. If a woman deliberately chooses not to reveal her face to other people, she is by that very act committing herself to separation, choosing to be anonymous and disinterested in social discourse with others around her, for who would approach with confidence and the wish to be friendly, let alone silently acknowledge the presence of someone who advertises herself to be unapproachable?

Zunera Ishaq, still from video

Because it is an act of rejection, it is hostile in the sense that people do feel rejected and feeling that way react accordingly. Openness invites openness, while a closed face invites rejection in return. The yardstick for evaluating the mood of another human being is unavailable. The invitation is to turn away. Moreover, there is a threatening aspect of observing a human being shunning contact with others in the most obvious way of shielding their reaction -- usually available in a reading of their features -- toward others.

Canada has been treated to a situation where convention has been challenged by controversy; when a woman of Pakistani background pursuing citizenship in Canada declined to remove her niqab during the citizenship ceremony. Zunera Ishaq decided to take her insistence on wearing her face covering while taking part in the citizenship ceremony which required her to remove the niqab, to Federal Court, challenging that requirement. The Federal Court decided in her favour.



Prime Minister Stephen Harper, among many others, held that her disrespect of Canadian custom and practise was undeserving of citizenship. He has declared his opinion, in reflection of the broad opinion held by most Canadians, that the niqab is symbolic of an 'anti-woman' culture. One decidedly not welcome in Canada. Those who usually defend any critics of Canadian values came to Ms. Isaq's defence, including the official political opposition parties.

Those demanding special privileges for minorities who claim that their religion dictates they must do certain things that excuse them from integrating fully with Canadian values and customs are not perhaps ideal candidates for citizenship to begin with, particularly when, as in Ms. Isaq's case, face coverings are not required in Islam. It is a custom of tribal tradition, nothing more. And it is viewed as illiberal, a manifestation of male domination. As a tradition social custom usually forces it upon women.

Rather than accept Canadian values, rather than  seek to become involved with Canadian customs, rather than determine to integrate into Canadian society, many immigrants who worship Islam make demands that their heritage customs be recognized and respected and then the conundrum raises itself; how far should accommodation go, and should not immigrants make an effort to accommodate themselves to being fully Canadian?

An interview with this woman is quite revealing; far more so than her facial features hidden behind her niqab. She decided it would be best to leave Pakistan because it was insufficiently Islamic for her liking. In an interview she stated she considered Pakistan a Muslim country, but not an Islamic one, since it was "not obeying the laws in, like, whatever Islam has told us to do", exampling in particular co-education where male and female students are permitted to attend school without separate classrooms.

"They are not following this rule back home ... it's been coeducation", she stated disapprovingly. There are "a lot of ... fields" in the workplace, she insists, where separation of genders should be accommodated "but there is no separation". She was being interviewed by Negar Hashemi, a government lawyer who enquired of the woman why she preferred to live in Canada rather than "a country with Islamic laws that includes  your religious views".

When Mr. Hashemi asked whether she would like to have the genders separated during Canada's citizenship ceremonies, she responded by saying that such a situation would "definitely give me something more than I asked"; that her main point in challenging the request that she remove her niqab for the ceremony was to be permitted to keep her face covered while declaring the oath of citizenship.

"But if after that they can do for me some separation, it's more than - yes, I do appreciate for this, too." Zunera Ishaq at one juncture in the interview did acknowledge that she had unveiled herself to obtain her driver's licence photograph and the photo had been taken in a public space. Since, after all, she objects to revealing her naked face in a public space; never venturing outside her home without a niqab firmly in place in reflection of her religious belief.

"I would suggest to you that it does not take much longer (to say the oath) than the time it took to take your picture", the government lawyer put to her. Not quite the same, to Ms. Ishaq, since the purpose of unveiling for the driver's licence was for identity and security, not the case when taking the citizenship oath.

Among other things we should be concerned about is this woman driving a vehicle, wearing a niqab. Her defenders would state that the niqab would not interfere with her sightlines, making it perfectly safe for her to drive with her eyes clear, and the rest of her personage under wraps. Suitable for citizenship? Hardly.

Racial Profiling or Experience?

"Officers on the front line, such as the officer herein, cannot be expected to leave their experience -- acquired usually after many years of observing people from different countries entering Canada -- at home."
"The officer simply asserted in his statement that in his experience it was not uncommon for Chinese persons to bring agricultural products with them upon returning from China. The officer's hunch, based on his experience and his observance of the respondent's demeanour, was confirmed by the secondary examination."
"[The tribunal's conclusion was] totally devoid of merit [in its finding of racial profiling]."
Justice Marc Nadon, Federal Court of Appeal, Canada

"Because it has been my experience working in the air mode stream that it is more than common that individuals of Chinese origin returning from China bring agricultural products with them [he asked leading questions]."
Canada Border Service Agency customs officer, Macdonald-Cartier International Airport

The Federal Court of Appeal has ruled that customs officers can use their on-the-job experience to inform decisions about whom to stop and search at Canada's airports.
Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press

Justice Nadon saw fit to overturn a tribunal decision that decided for an Ottawa woman, Ting Ting Tam in quashing an $800 fine levied upon her when she returned from a trip to China back to Canada, failing to declare food products stored in her luggage. The Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal had ruled a year ago that Ms. Tam was the victim of racial profiling. A retired hairdresser, Ms. Tam, 72, had returned to Ottawa after a family visit in China.

She had stated on a declaration card that she had no meat or meat products with her which she was bringing into the country. Twice the customs officer repeated his query, whether she had food, plants, candies or anything remotely resembling food in her bags, and on both occasions the elderly woman responded she had nothing that could qualify as food or agricultural products in her possession. Because the woman standing before him appeared nervous, the customs officer sent her on to a secondary inspection.

Where it was discovered that Ms. Tam did indeed have "assorted pork products" from China packed in her luggage. She received an $800 fine under a federal law concerning the health of domestic animals. Ms. Tam has a limited English vocabulary and the widow, living on a small pension had a friend come to her aid. Tony Fan appealed the fine to the Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal. That she had a few snack items with her was attributable to her having failed, as intended, to eat them before landing in Canada, he said, and that she was undeserving of a fine.

The agricultural review tribunal came to the conclusion this Chinese woman represented an unfair target since the customs officer expressed his belief that Chinese people were likely on the basis of his past experience, to smuggle food into the country. Ottawa lawyer, Bruce La Rochelle, the presiding tribunal member ruled that the secondary inspection resulted from "an irrelevant consideration: Ms. Tam's race." Based on the customs officer's own statement, evidence of racial profiling existed, according to Mr. La Rochelle as he voided the $800 fine.

"There is no evidence that he conducted himself otherwise than in what he genuinely believed to be an appropriate manner. However, as superior courts have noted ... racial profiling is not necessarily conscious behaviour", wrote Mr. La Rochelle. And to that the federal government appealed. To see eventually the Federal Court of Appeal reject the reasoning of the three-person tribunal.

It was the appeal court's position that the tribunal gave no consideration to the customs officer having made his decision based on his own reasoning that was twofold in nature: on Ms. Tam's interview demeanour, and on his own professional experience as a customs officer. No evidence of racial profiling existed, wrote Justice Nadon.

There will be further repercussions as a result of this Federal Appeals Court ruling, few of them having anything to do with the unintended smuggling of forbidden food items into Canada. There are other issues where racial profiling is so often considered to be at play when criminal acts take place and those charged claim to have been targeted because of their race. The issue, for example, of police, based on their experience, having suspicions about the behaviours of young black men.

The issue of Muslims claiming they have been racially targeted for special attention and interrogation based on their appearance identifying them as originating from areas of the world where terrorism is a rampant danger and its importation a constant concern. The starkly obvious fact that terrorism is mostly Islamist in origin, and that people from Muslim-majority countries of Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa are those most prone to engage in it, identifies the unfortunate potential by physical appearance leading to suspicion.

Based on a reasonable assumption, given realities.

And then there are charges of racial profiling quite trivialized, for example, when something as absurdly removed from terrorism as a similar instance of importing meat was tossed after a tribunal found that Youssef Bougachouch was fined in a politically incorrect manner when the tribunal heard that only passengers whose appearance was Arabic on a flight from Morocco were referred for secondary inspection.