NYT - With Anti-Muslim Campaign, Canada Has Its Trump Moment

[oldjones]

The women who wear it don't think so. They think it is historically a symbol of their faith.

In fact historically the niqab was not as popular as it is now. It has gained substantial popularity in the last fifty years from being worn by only the most conservative Muslims historically.

We could look at the practices of very conservative Christian communities through a similar historical lens. We only need think of a few we see today on the streets and in our textbooks. Amish and Mennonites and Puritans all felt their ways were a return to an original more demanding piety that those around them had left behind.

So they put their women in bonnets that hid the hair with enclosing sides to hide the face and view, and long sleeved high necked dresses that covered the legs on their women, and men wore shirts without showy collars, utility suspenders not belts for swords, purses and fancy buckles, and big hats to emphasize they only uncovered before god. Even if insisting on hats got them hauled into court. Or the gallows.

A look at any religion's history will uncover similar 'puritanical' movements that wax and wane from time to time. And there will always be those who respond with prejudice or dislike and try to dress that up with authority.

 

[Frankfooter]

We could look at the practices of very conservative Christian communities through a similar historical lens. We only need think of a few we see today on the streets and in our textbooks. Amish and Mennonites and Puritans all felt their ways were a return to an original more demanding piety that those around them had left behind.

So they put their women in bonnets that hid the hair with enclosing sides to hide the face and view, and long sleeved high necked dresses that covered the legs on their women, and men wore shirts without showy collars, utility suspenders not belts for swords, purses and fancy buckles, and big hats to emphasize they only uncovered before god. Even if insisting on hats got them hauled into court. Or the gallows.

A look at any religion's history will uncover similar 'puritanical' movements that wax and wane from time to time. And there will always be those who respond with prejudice or dislike and try to dress that up with authority.

Exactly, we still have mennonites and amish around in Ontario, though fewer and fewer.
We have tolerance for their ways just like we don't force Orthodox Jewish women to not shave their heads.

Hopefully Trudeau helps bring back our Canadian tolerance.