Let the kids pray

The Peel District School Board is right to speak up strongly against attempts to stop Muslim students from holding a prayer service each Friday.

The prayer services have been going on without controversy for the past two decades in Peel. Similar Friday services, called jummah, are routinely practised in other school boards across the GTA.

But a group in Peel has launched a campaign against the prayer meetings, with an online petition and a protest march in Mississauga last Saturday ostensibly aimed at keeping all religious practices out of schools.

Presenting themselves simply as “concerned parents,” they demand that the board “immediately discontinue . . . religious clubs and religious congregations of any religion.”

In fact, it’s clear they are targeting Muslims — and only Muslims. Their spokesperson acknowledged to the Star that their actions are motivated by concerns about the jummah.

And Saturday’s protest March had links to a group that seems obsessed with supposed Muslim influence in Canada. Flyers advertising the march included contact information for Canada First, a group whose stated mission is to protest against the motion presented by a Liberal MP from the area condemning Islamophobia and other forms of discrimination.

To its credit, the Peel board has been forthright in calling out the protest against Muslim prayers as something a lot more sinister. “It has been frustrating and disheartening to see hatred and prejudice toward a single faith group disguised in a supposed campaign about religion in our schools,” says board spokesperson Brian Woodland.

Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey has also been quick to condemn what she calls “misinformation and hateful speech” coming from the anti-Muslim protesters.

There shouldn’t be a controversy here. As Jeffrey points out, the Ontario Human Rights Code mandates religious accommodation. Until now, no one has voiced concern about Muslim students gathering for Friday prayers. So why the anti-Muslim movement now? It seems to have reared its ugly head following a board dispute with Muslim students and parents last fall over whether students could write their own sermons. Peel had tried to force Muslim students to use a limited number of pre-approved ones for Friday prayers. It wisely overturned that decision in January, letting them write their own — and the uproar began.

It’s impossible to separate this protest from the controversy created when Iqra Khalid, the Liberal MP for Mississauga-Erin Mills, introduced a motion calling on MPs to condemn Islamophobia and “quell the increasing public climate of hate and fear” against Muslims. The backlash against that simple and sensible gesture has been fierce.

The protest against students praying in Peel shows that antiMuslim feeling can erupt quickly, and it’s important for community leaders to shut it down just as fast. There is no room for such prejudice anywhere, especially in one of country’s most diverse regions.

There shouldn’t be a controversy here. The Ontario Human Rights Code mandates religious accommodation.