2,000 units!?!? That’s an absolutely massive project!
There’s plenty of anti-“Islam” sentiment in Canada that is really just overt racism. Liberal defenses of Islam in Canada are usually more along the lines of “we shouldn’t hate Islamic people just because they’re brown”, not “we fervently endorse Islamic conservative religious beliefs”.
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For sure but it then leads some on the left to defend Islam’s bad ideas in the confused idea they are defending an ethnic group. That’s where I get annoyed. The recent Canadaland was calling out someone for objecting to the niqaab.
It’s not clear to me if you think that’s good or bad.
Bad obviously. I’m not a cultural relativist even though I have years of training in anthropology. I believe there are good and bad cultural ideas and religion has more than its share of bad ones. The niqaab is clearly a bad one.
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I’m probably fudging some of the details but there was a recent anti-LGBTQ+ book protest that was predominantly Muslims and conservatives were gleeful about the bind this would put liberals in. Like the sweating button press meme with “Muslims good” and “anti-LGBTQ+ bad” or something. It’s like nah, just because it’s Muslims objecting to LGBT material on religious grounds doesn’t mean they aren’t wrong.
It does seem like a tricky line sometimes, though, because there is so, so much racism directed at Muslims, whereas Christians are just making up their own persecution. It’s not hard to default to defending Muslims and attacking Christians just due to the power differences in the western world.
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I largely agree, because I think we share the view that niqaab and even hijab are really just anachronistic practices that persist primarily as forms of gender discrimination (if not outright oppression). My only slight tension on that idea is that it’s possible for things to swing a bit too far the other way, i.e. I don’t particularly like the idea of hijab that comes loaded with negative expectations on women, but on the other hand I wouldn’t wany my workplace for example to discriminate against women that cover their hair at work.
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Yeah, it’s 100% this. Conservatives are bullies and sycophants of bullies so they line up behind the entrenched bully (Christianity) to kick down at the weak. Liberals will defend people’s right to, like, exist and get a fair shake even if they don’t agree with everything those people think or say or do. This doesn’t feel like a moral quandary to me.
“Islam good” isn’t really the liberal message, it’s “people should be free to practice their religion and dress how they want.” Muslims protesting LGBT people isn’t some paradox for the left the way Fox News thinks it is.
Sure but “they want” is doing a lot of work here. That’s the point.
That’s probably why this whole matter is probably best left in the hands of Islamic women. They can most clearly articulate the reasons for and against hijab as a practice.
The liberal message is the freedom of religion is a fundamental human right and that human rights are a good thing.
Well, that should be the liberal message. There are an awful lot of “liberals” who absolutely love repressing organized religion. And given the chance for human nature to take its usual path, many would do so violently, because rejecting organized religion is the one true belief and true beliefs must be defended at any cost.
I guess I will raise my hand. I’m all for using all legal means to repress all religions. That is a clear moral good.
Obviously not violence.
Jailing people who insist on wearing a hijab is violence. Jailing people who refuse to pay fines for wearing a hijab is violence. Evicting people who are bankrupt because you fined them into destitution for wearing a hijab is violence.
Your preferences aren’t liberal at all. It’s paternalistic authoritarianism.
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It’s almost like it’s a complex issue with nuance. 
My general position is absent details I am for anything that reduces religious influence. Obviously the details matter which is why I began discussing the niqaab and not the hijab.
OK, how do you plan on repressing something in a way free from what appears to me to be inevitable violence?
If you think women are being forced by their husbands to wear whatever headgear, how does fining them help?
Sure seems like organized religion is far more likely in theory and in practice to be a true belief that must be defended at any cost than a rejection of organized religion.
Yup, and the life of Muhammad perfectly illustrates this point!