hypocrisies and double-binds
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Reading Gada Mahrouse’s ‘Reasonable accommodation’ in Québec, I was reminded of the Peel Comission in Mandate Palestine which was meant to investigate the causes of the ‘disturbances’ (one of too many). Both the Palestinians during the Peel Commission (1937) and immigrants/minorities/Muslims during the Bouchard-Taylor Commission (2007-8) found themselves in double-bind situations regarding their participation. Though there are major differences (Palestinians being the natives, not the newcomers), in both cases, both groups of discriminated-against-peoples, the very structure of the commissions perpetuates existing power imbalances of a colonial , white supremacist, racist nature, and the onus is placed on the marginalized groups to defend themselves and assuage the anxieties of the ‘dominant’ group. Though to a limited extent both commissions may not have been entirely in bad faith, nevertheless they were inherently, intentionally and/or unintentionally, biased in favor of those who had control, geared towards their benefits and the perpetuation and expansion of their control over the marginalised. In both cases, it seems the commissions only worsened the conditions of the marginalised, failing to adress the material realities of marginalization to instead portray the favored population as open to dialogue and reconciliation when it is in fact all lipservice. In both cases, religion has at once everything and nothing to do with the matters at hand, when one considers the settler colonial and imperial origins of Quebec, Canada, Israel, the UK.
The emphasis on dialogue as a solution, as seen in the Bouchard-Taylor Commission's slogan "dialogue making a difference," is critiqued in Mahrouse’s text, and Bilge similarly argues that the focus on individual attitudes and cultural differences, facilitated by the "sexularism" discourse, obscures the structural and material factors that contribute to marginalization and exclusion. In reality, all these commissions are ultimately performative exercises that benefit the dominant group. The Bouchard-Taylor Commission's basically placed French-Canadian Quebecers in a position of judging the acceptability of minority practices, while immigrants and minorities were repeatedly expected to assuage majority anxieties. This echoes the dynamic present in the testimonies of the Arab Higher Committee to the Peel Commission, where the commissioners' dismissive and condescending attitude toward Palestinian witnesses effectively silenced their arguments and reinforced British authority.
Coined by Bilge, sexularism is rooted in a teleological view of history, where secularisation is seen as the inevitable path to achieving gender and sexual equality, and religion, in particular Islam, is cast as inherently oppressive and backwards. The "sexularist" discourse discussed by Bilge provides those advocating for stricter immigration and integration policies with a seemingly legitimate basis for enacting discriminatory policies and practices (such as opposing accommodations for Muslim religious practices), in the name of defending women's rights, gender equality etc. Quebec's past struggles with religious authority and its status as a "belatedly modernised minority nation" thus become the justification for the exclusion of and control over Muslim immigrants as a threat to the very survival of the Québécois society.
The hypocrisy of these discourses is striking: keeping the crucifix, an ‘ostentatious’ symbol, behind the Quebec National Assembly’s speaker chair but claiming to be secular when this secualrism is clearly selective and racially, ethnically biased towards non-white non-Christians (Muslims, Sikhs, etc.); or hiding behind a sexularist discourse that frames the West as being the land of the free when in fact queerphobia is rampant…In I’ll Be The King, Neelam pushes back against Western social norms regarding women and dating, thereby asserting her Muslim identity and demanding it be respected. While refusing to conform to Western notions of femininity and more generally rejecting the male gaze and control, she empowers herself and fellow Muslims to remain true to Islamic values and traditions of courtship (“No we can’t date baby we can court,
Yes I am the judge yes you are in court”) and more generally of codes of conduct between men and women (“I’ll be the king… I am a queen”).