Opinion: Rather than Bill 21, let's have pluralistic secularism

Ultra-secularism has this in common with religion: both include extremists incapable of listening and opening their minds to difference.

https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/opinion-rather-than-bill-21-lets-have-pluralistic-secularism

The main purpose of Bill 21 is to “protect our identity,” says Premier François Legault. But whose identity is being protected and what kind of society will this bill promote? By forbidding schoolteachers, school principals, police officers and other public officials, as well as a number of other citizens from wearing religious symbols central to their identities, Bill 21 treats citizens who choose to wear such symbols as threats to our society, incapable of participating fully in a “secular” state and of assuming their responsibilities in a spirit of impartiality and political neutrality. This narrow view of society is actually a form of fundamentalism, which may be termed “ultra-secularism.”

Although Quebec has its own difficult history of struggles with religious identity, racism and discrimination, we have worked together to forge a pluralistic society. Now, however, global anxieties that fuel anti-diversity, anti-immigration and anti-Islam positions are finding fertile ground among Quebec’s columnists, essayists, ideologues and politicians — giving rise to movements, rallies, associations and other actions by those fearful of otherness, especially when that other is Muslim. Some of our elected representatives and leaders are cozying up to xenophobic groups, insisting on the need to ban the hijab, but also the turban, the kippah and other items of attire they say threaten our secularism. And anyone who has a different vision of pluralism and democracy is regarded as anti-secular or “secular-phobic.” In practice, these ultra-secular groups are promoting exclusionary policies that will make whole segments of our population second-class citizens.

In the course of their post-colonial history, three Muslim countries actually have banned the hijab: Tunisia under Bourguiba, Iran during the Pahlavi dynasty, and Turkey under Mustapha Kemal. All three were leaders of authoritarian regimes. This raises a deep question for secularism in some Western countries in general and in Quebec in particular: could it be that both requiring and banning the wearing of the hijab, or any other religious symbols, are essentially illiberal and misogynistic actions? To answer that question, we need to take a step back and set aside our own ideological sympathies long enough to engage in some clear and constructive thinking ...