Despite their differences, Muslims and the LGBTQ+ community share this aspiration: to live their lives as they choose without fear of harm.
The controversy erupted when some parents objected to lessons on sexual education related to gender identity. Consequently, some Muslim parents in Ottawa and elsewhere in Ontario pulled their kids from school on June 1. In some Ottawa schools, about 40 to 60 per cent of these kids stayed away. Parents complained that their kids were being taught age-inappropriate lessons, targeted for being Muslim, or berated for not participating in Pride activities.
Picking on Muslim school children is wrong and must not be tolerated. Children must be encouraged to embrace human rights through education, not coercion and punishment. In Ontario, where gender identity classes begin in Grade 8, parents have the rightof sex education classes for their children, and Muslim parents did nothing wrong in exercising that right as a form of silent protest. The problem is the wider implications.
Ramadan is now accepted and celebrated in schools. Think of how Muslims would feel if a day came when half the students skipped class because they opposed celebrating Ramadan.Pride flags. There is no running away from the message that act sent: not inclusion, but exclusion. If you are a kid on the other side of the issue, you can only think the worst: “They desecrate our flag because they don’t want us here.
At Friday prayer two weeks ago, a mosque leader warned the congregation to be wary of far-right groups that are trying to recruit Muslims to join their ugly cause. In alast week, a group of Muslim leaders also worried that “extreme right-wing groups” are targeting Muslims to become “so-called champions of this cause.”
But by taking such a public stand against Pride, Muslims have opened themselves to such overtures, however unwanted. It’s hard to imagine Muslims and “extreme right-wing” groups in an unholy alliance against the LGBTQ+ community. But this is what Muslim leaders worry about. That’s the tightrope they are walking.Next week: What happens when human rights collide.
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