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Solidarity and immigration : an essay against islamophobia

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To download this essay in a pdf format, click here.

The opinions stated in this article aren't necessarily those of the SITT-IWW and shouldn't be considered as such.

In these times of worldwide austerity, many have found themselves in precarious situations the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Second World War. As we did then and at times of other major disasters, we stand shoulder to shoulder and do whatever we can to show our solidarity with our brothers and sisters from different backgrounds. So why aren’t we in solidarity with the Syrian refugees?

Be they Muslim, Christian, or atheist, these people are human beings, first and foremost, and it is our duty to come to their aide in their struggle for democracy and for better living conditions. Let it be told, as Quebecers, we are all immigrants as well. Is there really a difference between having arrived here 400 years or just a few days ago?

We speak of freedom of expression, to the point that some of us refuse Bill 59, but we’re offended when a woman uses her freedom of expression to wear a veil? If you’re afraid that this woman isn’t able to liberate herself as she sees fit, encourage education instead, that same education that the government constantly cuts without giving a thought to the consequences on our children.

Yet the debate that is causing such a stir in these upcoming elections is the veil. Because, even if crime rates go down, even if we have a very low incidence of terrorism here, especially when it comes to Islam, islamophobic propaganda makes for a much better campaign than actually talking about the important issues.

Let us put the hate and the ignorance that this propaganda can bring aside, we don’t want the ethnic genocides that we’ve seen with the Jewish holocaust or the Rwandan genocide for example. Beneath the colour of our skin, beyond our beliefs, we are all human, so let’s act like it!

Solidarity!