The discovery this week that some young students are saying their prayers at their school has created a great media and political storm. This storm required the intervention of the Ministry of Education, the National Assembly and of course several media outlets. Let’s try to objectively analyze the situation to fully understand what is happening and judge if this whole storm had its reason for being.
A few Muslim students asked for a room to say their prayers. Of course, the news was brought to the attention of the media who asked the Minister of Education about it. The Minister has issued directives to prohibit this activity. The Parti Québécois presented a motion to the National Assembly in support of secularism and the prohibition of prayer at school. The motion passed unanimously.
Several voices in the public domain repeated like a concert that prayer should have no place in the school. A Liberal member of the National Assembly of Muslim faith, or at least of Muslim origin, said that school is for learning and not for praying.
With all due respect to everyone involved in this controversy, I can’t help but feel that this is a storm in a teacup. Let me explain. In Islam there are five obligatory prayers a day at five fixed intervals, but not at specific times. These prayers should not be made at a particular place either.
A Muslim can pray at home, at the mosque, at work, in a park or of course at school. So the young person who cannot say his prayer at school can say it at home. That said, a student who spends a good part of the day at school may fear missing the interval of one of the five daily prayers and will be tempted to say his prayers on time rather than waiting for him to return home. .
A hidden agenda, really?
Some people in the public and media domain wondered why these requests to pray at school were popping up now and saw a hidden agenda in it. We asked the question: why did students from different and disparate territories, in Montreal, on the South Shore, in the North Crown, from east to west, begin to pray this year in the common areas of their schools, following the same modus operandi? The conspiracy theory was beginning to show its face by imagining that something was happening “as if a slogan had been issued since the break: be more visible, take up more space, test the system. »
Let’s be reasonable and pragmatic. It is neither a hidden agenda, nor a watchword, nor a test against the system. They are simply young people who want to live their lives without disturbing anyone’s life.
We are now in the middle of Ramadan. During this sacred month for Muslims, they are called upon to multiply acts of benevolence, charity, solidarity, to revitalize themselves spiritually and of course to pray.
During the month of Ramadan, Muslims do not eat or drink throughout the day, from dawn until sunset. Students who observe the fast and do not eat during the day find that they have time to say their prayers while their friends eat, rather than watching them eat or stroll in the corridors. Moreover, these students began by saying their prayers in the hallways and parking lots, which led the school, for security reasons, to offer a quiet room.
It is not a question of questioning the secularism and the neutrality of the State vis-a-vis the various religions which exist in Quebec. But even if the State is secular, individuals are not necessarily so and everyone has the right to practice the religion they choose or even not to have a religion if that is their choice.
Nor is it to question the fact that school is a place to learn. But just as a student may do other activities in his free time at school, such as chatting on his phone, playing with friends or doing yoga, he must also have the right to pray, meditate or collect himself. he chooses to do so, of course always with respect for others.
We must not set up secularism as a new religion whose mission is to eradicate all the others. The golden rule must be to live and let live… and the rights of some end where the rights of others begin.