Secularism–removing religion from government and education–penalizes practitioners of some religions more than others, a conference on a proposed Québec law to ban the niqab face veil from schools, hospitals and government offices was told yesterday.

“It works best with Protestantism. It’s a little more awkward with Catholicism. It’s quite a poor fit with Judaism and Islam,” Wendy Brown, Heller Professor of political science at the University of California at Berkeley, said at the meeting at Concordia University. It was organized by the Centre de recherches interdisciplinaires sur la diversite au Québec, a non-profit research institute.

Secularism is based on the belief that the state should be neutral toward different religions. But in fact, it favours those whose cultural heritage is Christian, she said.

“All religions don’t comport equally well with that model.    »»» The Gazette (Montréal, Canada)

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