كندا: خبيرة سياسية تؤكد تمييز النظم العلمانية ضد الإسلام

أكدت "ويندي برون"أستاذة العلوم السياسية بجامعة "كاليفورنيا بريكلي" أن النظم العلمانية لا تعامل أتباع الديانات المختلفة على قدم المساواة, مشيرة إلى أن العلمانية تعامل البروتستانت بصورة أفضل من تلك التي تعامل بها الكاثوليك, وتعاملهما بصورة أفضل مما تعامل به أتباع الإسلام.

وجاء تلك التصريحات خلال مؤتمر عقده مركز أبحاث الاختصاصات المتعددة بشأن التعددية بمدينة "كويبيك" الكندية, وعُقد حول مناقشة المذكرة القانونية المطالِبة بحظر النقاب بالمدارس والمستشفيات والمكاتب الحكومية, وقد أشارت خلاله "ويندي" إلى أن العلمانية بحظرها الرموز الدينية ستستهدف المسلمات اللاتي يحرصن على ارتداء الملابس الإسلامية.

وانتقدت "ويندي" جعل النقاب والحجاب محورًا للصراع بين الغرب والعالم الإسلامي حول مقدار الحرية, مؤكدة أن حصر المساواة والحرية في خلع النقاب والحجاب والتخلي عن التعاليم الدينية "هراء".

وأما "كورين توريكينز" - أستاذة العلوم السياسية بجامعة "بروكسل" - فقد أكدت أنه بالرغم من كون حظر النقاب بـ"بلجيكا" كان لحظة تاريخية للاتفاق بين كافة الأطراف, إلا أنه لم يكن ضروريًا لقلة مرتديات النقاب ولإمكان مطالبة الشرطة المنتقبات بكشف وجوههن تحقيقًا للهوية.

الخبر من مصدره الأصلي:

Secularism treats faiths unequally, experts say

Ban on religious clothing targets Jews, Muslims

 Secularism -removing religion from government and education -penalizes practitioners of some religions more than others, a conference on a bill to ban the niqab face veil from schools, hospitals and government offices was told yesterday.

"It works best with Protestantism. It's a little more awkward with Catholicism. It's quite a poor fit with Judaism and Islam," Wendy Brown, Heller Professor of political science at the University of California at Berkeley, said at the meeting at Concordia University. It was organized by the Centre de recherches interdisciplinaires sur la diversite au Quebec, a non-profit research institute.

Secularism is based on the belief that the state should be neutral toward different religions. But in fact, it favours those whose cultural heritage is Christian, she said.

"All religions don't comport equally well with that model.

"Muslims who might consider themselves secular are not perceived as such simply because of the clothing they wear or the fact that they might pray in public. If a Christian were to do that, we might think of them as a zealot," Brown added.

She was among academics from the U.S., Belgium, France and local universities at the conference on Bill 94, which will require citizens to uncover their faces when giving or receiving government services, whether in hospitals, schools, day-care centres, universities, social services or government offices.

While it does not specifically mention Muslims, the draft legislation takes aim at women who wear the niqab -an opaque, full-face veil with a slit for the eyes -or burqa, a long, veiled gown with a mesh panel over the face.

At government hearings on the bill, some called it a heavy-handed way to deal with the handful of Quebec women who wear the niqab. Others called on the government to go even farther by banning all religious symbols from public institutions.

But Brown warned that a drastic turn toward secularism would treat members of different religions unequally. Many Protestants eschew outward signs of religion anyway, so banning religious symbols would not affect them much. On the other hand, banning all religious garments would target Jews who wear the kippa (skullcap) or Muslim women who wear the hijab (head scarf), she said.

Brown added that it is a mistake to equate secularism and women's equality. In a presentation yesterday, she contrasted fashion photographs of four-inch heels with images of modestly clad Muslim women to cast doubt on the assumption that western women enjoy greater freedom from male influence. "Much of the debate about burqa and hijab casts us as free, equal, and emancipated and them as un-free, unequal, and living by the rule of religion, and that's nonsense," Brown said.

Corinne Torrekens, a researcher in political science at the Universite libre de Bruxelles, said that support for secularism has risen sharply in Belgium, which became the first European country to ban the burqa in April.

Public hysteria over the burqa superseded longstanding divisions between Belgians of French and Flemish origin, Torrekens said. "The burqa ban was a unique moment of agreement."

But she charged the ban was unnecessary, since only a few dozen women wear the face veil, and Belgian police already had powers to ask women to remove them.