Refugees Welcome: Community March Against Islamophobia — Marche communautaire contre l’islamophobie. Photo by Misha Voloaca, December 13, 2015. The phrase “Diversity Makes Us Stronger” has been known to trigger white nationalists in North America and Europe.
Fear and Loathing in Quebec
I love the province of Quebec. As someone who’s lived or spent time in numerous major North American cities, I’d rather live here in Montreal than anywhere else on the continent. The denizens of the city are an indispensable part of this equation. The people of Quebec are friendly, festive folk (if generalizations must be made). Montreal is a world-class, international city where modest infusions of foreign culture can gain acceptance. But as with anywhere in the world, it would be absurd to believe this means prejudice and bigotry are absent.
Language tends to cut many Quebecers off from the rest of the continent. Half of the province’s 8 million residents live outside of Montreal and its suburbs. Due to the language barrier, these rural and semi-rural Quebecers are perhaps more culturally isolated than folk in other parts of North America. When someone lives insulated from the rest of the world, they may experience discomfort when confronted with another who is a visible religious minority. Discomfort on top of limited knowledge can lead to fear. In combination with propaganda, even hatred.
Creating a “Room for Improvement” list about one’s newly adopted nation / province is probably bad form for a relatively new immigrant. At the same time, observing backlash towards a minority and remaining silent about it is irresponsible and immoral. Due to Bill 21, some Quebecers are suddenly discovering neighbors and Facebook friends coming out of the closet as people who fear or can’t tolerate Muslims in the province.
If you see this in your own social sphere, it might be illuminating to ask these folk how many Muslims they personally know. A likely answer (in Quebec outside of Montreal) is that they’ve never had a conversation with a Muslim. A categorical aversion towards everyone in an entire religion is exponentially easier before getting to know an adherent of it.
If only I had been able to leave this behind when abandoning the USA. No such luck when moving to Quebec.
A persistent fear and loathing of Muslims in Quebec is, of course, sickening to reasonable Quebecers. But a milquetoast public response to intolerance borne of ignorance isn’t enough to keep Islamophobia in Quebec from leading to dark outcomes. Despite rational gun laws here (well, at least in comparison to the Wild West down south), some white nationalists in Quebec inevitably get their hands on firearms suitable for committing mass murder. Decent people may be surprised to learn that the 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting is not universally condemned by all Quebecers. Facebook and less civilized websites reveal how some Quebecers consider the mosque shooter justified in his terrorism.
Beyond this, my impetus for writing this post was a new threat of Islamophobic violence: the mayor of Montreal is a target due to her coming out against the anti-hijab Bill 21.
Islamophobia is obviously not unique to Quebec
The problem here is Quebecers who for whatever reason dread and vitiate a very small minority (Muslims are only ~3% of Quebec’s population). There is nothing particularly unique about Quebec’s problem. The white nationalist who mass murdered Muslims at a mosque in New Zealand was of the same mind as the one in Quebec City. Far-right politicians score points for platforming on Islamophobia. The putrescent ruler of the “United” States used Islamophobia as one of many wedge issues to con his way into the Oval Office.
But demographically, how does Quebec stack up against other nations? In 2016, Germany recorded an estimated 5 million Muslims, or 6% of the total population of 83 million, according to the Pew Research Center. Only 1.1% of the U.S. population identifies as Muslim (3,450,000 out of 327,827,000), and in France it’s 8.8% (5,720,000 out of 67,000,000). In Muslim-majority nation-states endorsing Islam as their state religion, we of course see the opposite: most have a 90–99% Muslim population.
Yet the % of the population is only one factor in how Islamophobia comes about. Fear and loathing became widespread in late 2001 due to the actions of radical Islamic terrorists (a phrase beloved by Mr. Trump, despite most terrorism under his watch being committed by white fellers who share his mindset). Did anyone in North America judge all Christians based upon the behavior of Branch Davidians and their doomed sex/death cult in Waco?
Billboard put up by Dumb As F**k Amerikkkans (DAFA)
Islamophobia in Quebec: Is ‘Murica Worse?
The “United” States would probably win against Quebec in a competition for the title of Most Islamophobic Nation. And hey, since Mr. Trump is all about “winning”, let’s give him this win. Despite only a paltry 1% of the U.S. population identifying as Muslim, white nationalists there are clinically paranoid and generally not well in the head when it comes to fears of Sharia rule, which is even less likely in the US of A than the possibility of Murica’s gun cult giving up their AR-15s. Rather than confronting what is actually causing problems in their lives (e.g., three billionaires holding more wealth than the bottom half of Muricans), Cult 45 fixates on the 1% of Muricans who they’ve been conditioned to fear.
The most sadly ironic aspect of Islamophobia in Quebec is that removing Muslim teachers from the classroom (via Bill 21) will reduce the exposure of future Quebec adults to normal everyday Muslim Quebecers who simply want the province to be educated, to prosper, and to be the best it can be. Montreal will remain a culturally phenomenal, world-class city despite Bill 21, but Quebec will become a more hostile place because of the bill. As someone coming from an arguably even more Islamophobic nation, I urge certain Quebecers to put more thought into the matter: if you live with fear and loathing towards your countrymen, you’re only weakening your province.
— Victor