۱۰ فروردین ۱۴۰۳ |۱۹ رمضان ۱۴۴۵ | Mar 29, 2024
Quebec premier signs off charge new religious symbols

.Quebec Premier François Legault says he doesn't "really" believe Muslim women in the province who say they've been the target of Islamophobic incidents. The host of CBC Radio said: "For the people dealing with this bill ... they say that they have received a greater level of harassment and intimidation and even attacks since the bill passed."

Hawzah News Agency (Quebec, Canada) - François Legault skeptical of Muslims who say Islamophobia's on the rise in Quebec.  

Quebec Premier François Legault says he doesn't "really" believe Muslim women in the province who say they've been the target of Islamophobic incidents since the government passed a law making it illegal for some civil servants to wear religious symbols.

 

 

Several Muslim women who wear either the hijab or niqab have told CBC News that since the legislation was tabled in March, they've been harassed, made the target of hateful comments, even spat on.

A women's advocacy group, Justice Femme, recorded more than 40 Islamophobic incidents around Montreal between late March and early May.

 

 

Muslim community leaders have shared stories on social media that suggest the incidents of harassment have not died down in the two weeks since the law came into effect.

Legault was asked Thursday on CBC Radio whether he believes the new law — which bars public teachers and other authority figures from wearing religious symbols — makes some Quebecers more vulnerable to racism.

 

 

"For the people dealing with this bill ... they say that they have received a greater level of harassment and intimidation and even attacks since the bill passed," the host of CBC Montreal's Daybreak, Ainslie MacLellan, told Legault.

"Do you believe those stories — that they are actually facing these things?"

Legault responded: "Not really."

 

 

Comparisons to Europe

The premier went on to describe the religious symbols law as moderate, because it applies only to a small number of civil servants: public schoolteachers, school principals, government lawyers, police officers, judges and wildlife officers are prohibited from wearing signs of their faith.

"[The law] is quite similar to what we have in Belgium, in France, in Germany," Legault said.

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