The Harper government’s legislative attempts against the
Niquab in citizenship ceremonies places Canadian nationalism above religious freedoms
thus making our society less tolerant – despite pretences - of Muslims in
general (who are alleged by Conservative party innuendo to harbour certain ‘terrorist’
links). Perhaps the words of Voltaire should guide Canadians here. Note the
Reformation-era context of the following passage, signalling a kind of ‘distant
mirror’ to our own age.
The human race resembles
a crowd of passengers on board a ship.
Some are at the stern, others at the prow, many in the hold and in the
bilges. The ship leaks from every side,
the storm does not abate: the wretched passengers will all be swallowed up!
Instead of giving each other the necessary assistance that would make the
passage less arduous, should we make the voyage still more dreadful? Here is a Nestorian, there a Jew; one believes
in an inhabitant of Picardy [Calvin], another in a native of Eisleben [Luther]. Over here is a family of fire-worshippers,
over there are Moslems, and not far away are some Anabaptists. But what does it matter to which sect they
belong? They should work together to
stop the ship from leaking, so that each one, by securing his neighbours life,
also secures is own. Yet they quarrel
with one another and perish.[1]
- Voltaire, author of the Treatise on Tolerance, 1763.
[1] Voltaire,
Treatise on Tolerance and other writings.
Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy, tr. and ed. Simon Harvey
(Cambridge: University Press, 2000), p. 124. p. 134.
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