The bad messenger | The Press

It was last year, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the attack on the mosque in Quebec, that the federal government announced that it was going to create a position of special representative in charge of the fight against Islamophobia.

As hate incidents and crimes – particularly against Muslims – continue to be recurrent in the country, the initiative is justified.

The message Ottawa is trying to convey is the right one.

But the messenger chosen last week, Amira Elghawaby, is not. She should move on as soon as possible.

He is criticized – with reason – for having written in a text published in 2019 about the State Secularism Act that “the majority of Quebecers seem influenced not by the rule of law, but by anti-Muslim sentiment”.

This kind of statements about Quebec and Quebecers, where misunderstanding (among other things about our relationship to religion), prejudice and contempt, do not even surprise us anymore.

From one end of Canada to the other, it is as tenacious as it is archi-false, this idea according to which Quebec is more racist or that it manifests more discriminatory behavior towards minorities than in the other provinces.

It looks like the disc is scratched.

But that doesn’t mean you have to let it run.

Hence the reaction on Monday of Minister Jean-François Roberge. On behalf of the Legault government, he calls for the resignation of Amira Elghawaby.

Even the Liberal Minister of Canadian Heritage and Quebec lieutenant, Pablo Rodriguez, said last week that he was “deeply insulted by his remarks”.

There is something.

No, the law on secularism is not proof that there is more pronounced “anti-Muslim feeling” in Quebec than elsewhere. We no longer know how it should be expressed so that it is finally understood!

Now, the whole question is to know if Amira Elghawaby, she understood it.

She tried to rectify the shooting on Twitter. “I don’t think Quebecers are Islamophobic; my past comments referred to a poll about Bill 21. I will work with partners in all provinces and regions to ensure we directly address racism,” she wrote.

The problem is that if she fails to rebuild the broken trust with Quebec, she does not have the moral authority she needs to occupy this new position. The very idea of ​​being able to “work” with all the provinces remains in this sense a figment of the imagination.

It is also important to note that Amira Elghawaby was associated for several years with the National Council of Canadian Muslims. This organization is far from unanimous within the Muslim community because of certain ideological positions.

We know, for example, that this group has already expressed an excessively broad vision of the concept of Islamophobia, which would encompass any criticism of political Islam.

We can therefore also question the judgment and the independence of Amira Elghawaby.

She would need to be particularly skilled to manage the transition between her role as an activist and that of special representative in charge of the fight against Islamophobia.

However, from the way she handles the current controversy, obviously, she is like an ambassador who lacks diplomacy. His appointment divides while this new position is intended to unify. It must build bridges, not cut them.

Note that Minister Jean-François Roberge, last Friday, had publicly said he was open to a discussion with her. In a telephone interview on Monday, he told us that his request had remained a dead letter.

The message she posted on Twitter did not change the minister’s initial impression. “The role she is called upon to play is incompatible with prejudices like that and shortcuts like the ones she has taken. »

Ultimate test: the leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, has called for an urgent meeting with the special representative. Let’s see if he manages to be reassured about what happens next.

But until proven otherwise, Amira Elghawaby does not have the qualities required for the – important – role that has just been entrusted to her.