I am sure many of you have heard about the decision that Toronto District School Board (TDSB) made about supporting religious accommodations for Friday prayers at Valley Park Middle School, if you haven’t then you should check out the KIH article that summarizes the decision and the situation (http://www.keepingithalal.com/50/post/2011/07/politics-valley-park-friday-prayer-conflict.html). I support this decision as it is both reasonable accommodation and consistent with the Charter of rights and freedoms. Now, what I am here to talk about is what happened after this decision, and why I have joined the Thank You TDSB Movement.
Before you jump to conclusions, when I say movement I mean a grassroots group of students, alumni, teachers and concerned citizens who support religious freedoms in our public schools. My story begins a week or two weeks after this decision by the TDSB, where I received an event invite on Facebook for a “Thank you TDSB rally”, which was actually a counter to the protest being held that opposed TDSB. I didn’t care much for it and hit attending for solidarity and thought about what I was going to do that evening instead.
Like many of my Muslim peers I went through the regular emotions, I first asked why are these people protesting this decision, the answer is probably that is an election season. Historically speaking in Ontario whenever there is a “Muslim” issue Muslims always get nailed by crazy protesters and the rights of Muslims eroded; be it the proposal to extend public funding to faith schools (translate to: funding radical Madrasas) or voluntary resolution of family disputes using Islamic Family law (translate to: beheadings and Sharia in Ontario). I am not here to advocate for these earlier issues as I disagree with some of them but there is a trend that cannot be denied. Next, I thought these anti-TDSB protesters are crazy fringe groups (which is true) and I shouldn’t waste my time with them (which is also true). And finally, I thought this will blow over and there is no point in me going so I will stick my head in the sand.
I regretted my decision not to attend 2 days after the July 25th protests. I discovered that of the 1000 people invited on Facebook to attend, only two showed up, both sisters, one who just completed her first year and the other a high school student; this compared to the over 100 anti-TDSB protesters. It became worse when I saw footage of the torment these two sisters went through, people telling them that Islam is about cutting off people’s hands and that Islam is a satanic cult. No one, should go through what they have and their video has recently been shown on the Council of American Islamic Relations Facebook page in the US (the video is very heartbreaking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30asz_WnWsE). After seeing this video I asked myself why did I come up with excuses and not be there for my Muslim sisters.
I quickly decided that no matter what reservations I had before, I needed to be there for them. I talked to many of my Muslim friends about this some agreed that what happened to them was sad and they wish they could be there, while others simply said they hope this blows over, as they repositioned their heads in the sand. Yes this will blow over as all things do, either people will forget about it (like in the case of Park51) or the TDSB will reverse their decision (like in the case of Muslim family courts). Either way, the Muslim community would have ended up doing very little and next summer there will be a whole new Muslim issue.
On Aug. 8 I went to the second Thank You TDSB Rally on my own, this time the Thank You numbers were a bit better ranging between 15-20 high school and university students; all of whom were fasting for Ramadan. This was a diverse group of people whom I have never met in my life (even though some of them went to the same university as me). It was nice seeing different types of people come together for the common cause of supporting the rights and freedoms of not only fellow Muslims but fellow Canadians. Our event was peaceful and with a larger group, the anti-TDSB people didn’t dare try to corner or yell at us, like they did at the first protest.
At the 2nd rally I learned two important things; the first is a lot of those who were supposedly there opposing the TDSB were actually there to oppose the religious freedoms of Muslims. With signs like Ban Islam in Canada, what will Muslims ask for next?, and the ever so popular NO ISLAM, these people were there in opposition to Islam and Muslims in Canada. Even those who approached us opted to argue issues in far off countries rather than the decision made by the TDSB, suggesting their premise is that being a Muslim means we are foreign rather than Canadian.
The second is that this Thank You Rally was actually not a counter-protest. We kept our distance from the crazies and actually opted to talk to the general public about our support for the TDSB decision. Our Thank you Rally gave us the opportunity to reach out to the general public who may not be familiar with this issue and to talk to the media showing that YES there are Canadians who do support TDSB’s decision. Teachers and others who lived in the area thanked us for supporting them and encouraged us to come out in greater numbers because if people don’t show support for religious accommodations in school, then the crazies can claim that they “represent” the values of Canadians.
So that’s my story on how I got involved in supporting reasonable religious accommodations at our schools. Now if you’re asking yourself how you can get involved visit www.facebook.com/thankyoutdsb for info on what you can do, pictures and videos, articles and upcoming rallies (and yes we are planning a rally that is not a counter :D). So this Ramadan please support a worthy cause and give the freedom to your brothers and sisters in public school practice their faith.
Home Page Picture: Chris Faisal Design
Before you jump to conclusions, when I say movement I mean a grassroots group of students, alumni, teachers and concerned citizens who support religious freedoms in our public schools. My story begins a week or two weeks after this decision by the TDSB, where I received an event invite on Facebook for a “Thank you TDSB rally”, which was actually a counter to the protest being held that opposed TDSB. I didn’t care much for it and hit attending for solidarity and thought about what I was going to do that evening instead.
Like many of my Muslim peers I went through the regular emotions, I first asked why are these people protesting this decision, the answer is probably that is an election season. Historically speaking in Ontario whenever there is a “Muslim” issue Muslims always get nailed by crazy protesters and the rights of Muslims eroded; be it the proposal to extend public funding to faith schools (translate to: funding radical Madrasas) or voluntary resolution of family disputes using Islamic Family law (translate to: beheadings and Sharia in Ontario). I am not here to advocate for these earlier issues as I disagree with some of them but there is a trend that cannot be denied. Next, I thought these anti-TDSB protesters are crazy fringe groups (which is true) and I shouldn’t waste my time with them (which is also true). And finally, I thought this will blow over and there is no point in me going so I will stick my head in the sand.
I regretted my decision not to attend 2 days after the July 25th protests. I discovered that of the 1000 people invited on Facebook to attend, only two showed up, both sisters, one who just completed her first year and the other a high school student; this compared to the over 100 anti-TDSB protesters. It became worse when I saw footage of the torment these two sisters went through, people telling them that Islam is about cutting off people’s hands and that Islam is a satanic cult. No one, should go through what they have and their video has recently been shown on the Council of American Islamic Relations Facebook page in the US (the video is very heartbreaking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30asz_WnWsE). After seeing this video I asked myself why did I come up with excuses and not be there for my Muslim sisters.
I quickly decided that no matter what reservations I had before, I needed to be there for them. I talked to many of my Muslim friends about this some agreed that what happened to them was sad and they wish they could be there, while others simply said they hope this blows over, as they repositioned their heads in the sand. Yes this will blow over as all things do, either people will forget about it (like in the case of Park51) or the TDSB will reverse their decision (like in the case of Muslim family courts). Either way, the Muslim community would have ended up doing very little and next summer there will be a whole new Muslim issue.
On Aug. 8 I went to the second Thank You TDSB Rally on my own, this time the Thank You numbers were a bit better ranging between 15-20 high school and university students; all of whom were fasting for Ramadan. This was a diverse group of people whom I have never met in my life (even though some of them went to the same university as me). It was nice seeing different types of people come together for the common cause of supporting the rights and freedoms of not only fellow Muslims but fellow Canadians. Our event was peaceful and with a larger group, the anti-TDSB people didn’t dare try to corner or yell at us, like they did at the first protest.
At the 2nd rally I learned two important things; the first is a lot of those who were supposedly there opposing the TDSB were actually there to oppose the religious freedoms of Muslims. With signs like Ban Islam in Canada, what will Muslims ask for next?, and the ever so popular NO ISLAM, these people were there in opposition to Islam and Muslims in Canada. Even those who approached us opted to argue issues in far off countries rather than the decision made by the TDSB, suggesting their premise is that being a Muslim means we are foreign rather than Canadian.
The second is that this Thank You Rally was actually not a counter-protest. We kept our distance from the crazies and actually opted to talk to the general public about our support for the TDSB decision. Our Thank you Rally gave us the opportunity to reach out to the general public who may not be familiar with this issue and to talk to the media showing that YES there are Canadians who do support TDSB’s decision. Teachers and others who lived in the area thanked us for supporting them and encouraged us to come out in greater numbers because if people don’t show support for religious accommodations in school, then the crazies can claim that they “represent” the values of Canadians.
So that’s my story on how I got involved in supporting reasonable religious accommodations at our schools. Now if you’re asking yourself how you can get involved visit www.facebook.com/thankyoutdsb for info on what you can do, pictures and videos, articles and upcoming rallies (and yes we are planning a rally that is not a counter :D). So this Ramadan please support a worthy cause and give the freedom to your brothers and sisters in public school practice their faith.
Home Page Picture: Chris Faisal Design
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