(Bismarck Tribune) A Bismarck man is charged with felony child abuse for allegedly striking his stepdaughter with a broomstick because she refused to wear clothing that reflected his religious beliefs, police say. Youness Moussaid, 33, made his initial court appearance Friday. He […]
(CBC) Quebec Premier François Legault offered a brief shout-out on Tuesday to Quebecers “preoccupied” with the alleged bias of a judge involved in a case related to the province’s secularism law. During a media scrum at the National Assembly, Legault was asked […]
(CBC) A Quebec historian has launched a formal complaint against the chief justice of the province’s Court of Appeal over comments she made about the province’s religious symbols law. Frédéric Bastien, who teaches history at Dawson College, said taken together, Justice Nicole Duval […]
(CBC) As a political spat plays out between Manitoba and Quebec over Bill 21, some Muslim women affected by the province’s ban on religious symbols say they are tempted by the offer to move to the Prairie province. Seeba Chaachouh, a third-year law […]
(CBC) An advocacy group is launching a campaign to inform Muslim women of their rights as it tries to deal with increasing reports of harassment and discrimination since Quebec’s secularism law was introduced. Justice Femme, the group behind the campaign, will begin distributing […]
(Canadian Press) Opponents of Quebec’s secularism law introduced a new legal argument in Appeal Court Tuesday, saying that Bill 21 disproportionately affects women and therefore violates the Constitution. Lawyer Olga Redko argued Bill 21 violates the sexual equality guarantees in the Canadian […]
(Swiss Info) A Geneva court has amended a controversial local secularism law. A ban on wearing or showing religious symbols will still apply to government ministers and officials in contact with the public but not to locally elected politicians. In February, an […]
(CBC) The two civil liberties groups that mounted an early legal challenge to Quebec’s secularism law were at the Quebec Court of Appeal today making a second attempt to have parts of the law suspended while their challenge is considered. When the National Council […]
(AP) A union federation representing 45,000 teachers in Quebec is suing the Canadian province over its ban on the wearing of religious symbols by many public employees. The lawsuit by the Fédération Autonome de l’Enseignement challenges a state secularism law passed this […]
(KSTP) Hilal Ibrahim started volunteering at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park when she was 14 years old. “When I volunteered, a lot of women would wear white hospital blankets on their heads because there just wasn’t anything else available,” Ibrahim recalled. […]
(CBC) Quebec’s largest women’s organization said it was the target of hateful comments on social media after announcing support for the hashtag MonVoileMonChoix, or My Hijab, My Choice. The Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ) said it was inundated with hateful, Islamophobic messages. Some […]
(CBC) The Ontario Legislature on Thursday passed a motion from Michael Coteau, Liberal MPP for Don Valley East, affirming the province’s support of religious diversity in response to Quebec’s Bill 21. Coteau placed the motion before the province’s elected representatives on Thursday afternoon, asking […]
(Canadian Press) Quebec Premier Francois Legault defended the province’s controversial secularism bill on Thursday after yet another municipal council passed a motion this week condemning the legislation. Toronto city councillors passed the motion at their meeting on Wednesday, making the Ontario capital the largest […]
(Connexion) The French Senate has voted to ban parents from displaying any signs of religion or wearing religious clothing when accompanying their children on public school trips. The measure was voted through on Tuesday, October 29, by 163 votes to 114, with […]
(AP) When a far-right French official disrupted a regional council meeting to demand that a Muslim woman accompanying a group of schoolchildren be ordered to remove her headscarf, “in the name of our secular principles,” her own child buried his head in […]
(AP) The French Senate is debating a bill that would require Muslim mothers who wear headscarves to remove them on school outings. The bill under consideration on Monday comes amid a weeks-long uproar over French secularism and headscarves at the center of […]
(National-UAE) France’s president Emmanuel Macron has revealed plans to disband some radical Islamic associations and outlaw “certain practices” in what is seen as a preview of his long-awaited announcement on the organisation of Islam in France. Mr Macron said he was adopting […]
(Canadian Press) Protesters against Quebec’s secularism law said Sunday that they aren’t giving up the fight to overturn Bill 21, with or without politicians on their side. As a cold rain fell, dozens gathered in Montreal’s Parc-Extension neighbourhood on Sunday to march against […]
(Connexion) President Emmanuel Macron has said that it is “not his business” whether Muslim women wear a hijab in public spaces — but that it “is his business” when it comes to public services. The president commented on the row over the […]
(CBC) The English Montreal School Board (EMSB) has filed its legal challenge of Quebec’s controversial law that bars teachers and principals from wearing religious symbols. The legal challenge, filed Thursday by the law firm Power Law on behalf of the EMSB and parent commissioners […]
(Global News) Quebec Premier François Legault congratulated Justin Trudeau on his reelection. Yet bolstered by the Liberals’ drop to minority status and the electoral success of the nationalist Bloc Québécois, Legault cautioned the prime minister not to take any actions that go […]
(Delaware News Journal) A Delaware agency discriminated against a Muslim woman when they barred her from wearing her hijab, a religious head covering, according to a complaint filed Thursday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Not only was Madinah Brown ordered not […]
(CBC) Edmonton city councillors are denouncing legislation in Quebec that restricts civil servants from wearing religious symbols as discriminatory and racist. “Bill 21 is an offence to civil rights,” Mayor Don Iveson said during an executive committee meeting on Thursday. “It is troubling, deeply troubling to […]
(Radio France) As the debate on wearing the Islamic hijab in France intensifies, President Emmanuel Macron has weighed in — saying Muslims should not be “stigmatised” and warning against what he called the “fatal shortcut” of linking Islam with terrorism. Speaking Wednesday […]
(Morocco World News) Deputy editor of French newspaper Le Figaro Yves Threard is at the center of controversy after making statements against Muslims and Islam. During debate show “Le Grand Soir” (the Big Evening) broadcast on LCI on Monday, October 14, the […]
(Morocco World News) French newspaper Le Monde will publish, October 16, an open letter to the president of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, calling for an end to Islamophobia. Ninety French public figures have called on Macron to condemn verbal attacks on […]
(AFP) A new row over secularism and the wearing of the Islamic hijab in public buildings has erupted in France after a far-right politician asked a woman accompanying her son and other children on a school trip to remove her headscarf. The […]
(Toronto Sun) The resurgent Bloc Quebecois is poised to perform well in the election under its articulate and pragmatic leader, Yves-Francois Blanchet. It has successfully pitched itself to younger voters by turning away from ageing entrenched separatists. Recent polls in Quebec put […]
(CBC) NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said today that, if he’s elected prime minister, he’d have to get involved in Quebec’s controversial secularism law if it makes it all the way up to the Supreme Court. He also said this morning that he […]
(Canadian Press) Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet has had enough of all the secularism talk. Quebec’s Bill 21 banning religious symbols for some public servants is a “very important” subject, but it should not be an issue in the current federal campaign, the […]
(CTV) Over 100 people gathered in Place-Emilie-Gamelin on Sunday to demonstrate against Quebec’s Bill 21, the start of a weeklong flurry of activity in opposition to the controversial religious symbols law. The Montreal protest was one of four in cities across the […]
(CBC) There may be more support for Quebec’s controversial religious symbols law across the country than some Canadians would care to admit. The legislation, which came into effect in June and bans teachers, police officers and other provincial employees from wearing religious […]
(CTV) Bill 21 has been law in Quebec since June, but that hasn’t stopped public mobilization against the province’s controversial ban on religious symbols in the public service. Anti-Bill 21 demonstrations will be held in four cities across the province at 2 […]
(CBC) Calgary city council voted this week to condemn Quebec’s religious symbols law, Bill 21. Bill 21 bars certain civil servants from wearing religious symbols at work. Critics have accused the law of undermining religious freedom and singling out minorities, although it remains […]
(Brussels Times) The new Flemish coalition agreement that was presented on Tuesday called for ideological neutrality in schools, banning headscarves and other religious symbols. “In education, we warrant neutrality. In provincial and community education, we ensure the philosophical neutrality for teachers and […]
(CBC) Calgary city council voted unanimously Monday to formally oppose Quebec’s Bill 21, the province’s secularism law which bars certain civil servants from wearing religious symbols at work. “Racism and bigotry has no jurisdiction,” said Coun. George Chahal while introducing the motion. “It is […]
(CBC) Hundreds of people attended a rally in the Park Extension neighbourhood on a rainy Saturday afternoon to speak out against Quebec’s secularism law — and in particular its effect on teachers in the province. Bouchera Chelbi, who teaches English as a […]
(CBC) Quebec’s secularism law, which bans some civil servants from wearing religious symbols at work, is facing a new legal challenge. Lawyers representing a multi-faith group filed a motion Thursday in Quebec Superior Court that argues the law violates constitutional protections of gender […]
(AFP) Berlin boxer Zeina Nassar’s fighting spirit has won her plenty of titles, but her battle to wear the hijab in the ring has also made her an equal opportunity champion. Today, the 21-year-old, who discovered female boxing by watching online videos […]
(CBC) The English Montreal School Board has voted in favour of taking the province to court over its religious symbols ban. They’re seeking an exemption because they are a linguistic minority. Last month, the EMSB held off on deciding whether or not it […]
(AP) A northern Virginia woman is suing a company that she says refused to hire her after she requested two five-minute breaks to pray during her work shift. Shahin Indorewala, 26, of Woodbridge says her job interview with Falls Church-based Fast Trak […]
(CBC) Civil rights groups fighting Quebec’s religious symbols law have filed new evidence which, they say, demonstrates without a doubt it has “caused and continues to cause irreparable harm.” Lawyers submitted affidavits last week from Muslim women who were denied employment opportunities or […]
(Radio France) France’s education minister has expressed concern over a campaign poster by a parents’ association showing a mother wearing a Muslim headscarf while accompanying her child on a school trip. Jean-Michel Blanquer called the campaign an “error” and questioned the association’s purported […]
(CBC) Fatima Boularhmane isn’t sure where to turn anymore. She and her husband and children emigrated from Morocco about a decade ago, lured by the idea of living in a free and democratic country. Trained as an electrical engineer, Boularhmane tried in vain to get a […]
(Canadian Press) National party leaders’ reluctance to intervene in a court challenge to Quebec’s controversial Bill 21 may have left the erroneous impression that there’s nothing the federal government can do to try to stop the law that bans teachers, police and […]
(SF Chronicle) The Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations alleges Air Canada employees discriminated against a 12-year-old national squash player by forcing her to remove her hijab in the middle of a bustling tunnel at San Francisco International Airport […]
(CBC) The largest school board in Quebec says three teachers have been directly affected by Quebec’s secularism law, formerly known as Bill 21. On Tuesday afternoon, the Commission Scolaire de Montréal (CSDM) revealed the teachers took off their religious symbols in order to be able to […]
(Toronto Star) When Shireen Ahmed saw the sleek, silver Raptors’ logo on a hijab for the first time, she got chills. After learning of the release of the Toronto Raptors’ Nike Pro Hijab — announced Friday morning through a video on the […]
(CBC) Federal leaders have been challenged to outline their position on Quebec’s secularism law in the first week of the campaign. The law has been met with criticism within the province and across the country, with many saying it infringes on people’s right to […]
(Anadolu) Austrians have reacted to former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s proposed headscarf ban as an election promise as political fever before the Sept. 29 general elections is running high in the country. Kurz, chairman of the Austrian People’s Party who is known for […]
Thank you for reading Eye on Islamism.