Montreal’s proposed ‘Muslim community’ not so different from other ethnic enclaves

While Montreal accountant’s idea was poorly communicated, it was essentially harmless and no different than any other gated community or condo, writes Rosie DiManno.

Thestar.com
Nov. 17, 2016
By Rosie Dimanno

I grew up in the margins of Little Italy. Earlier - and still somewhat in the 60s - it had been a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. These days the businesses, if not the households in that area around Christie Pits, skew to ethnic Greek, Portuguese and Korean.

Immigrants gravitate to urban districts where they feel less alien, most often following paths smoothed down by relatives and acquaintances who’d settled earlier, sometimes entire Old Country villages transplanted to New Country environs. They can speak to each other in the language of “home.” Grocery stores sell the food they cook and eat. Haberdasheries carry the style of clothing they prefer. Places of specific worship are close to hand and serve as community beacons.

Dare one say they also share values ?

Nabil Warda tried to say that and put it badly in a one-and-a-half page letter he circulated to prospective buyers for a housing development with halal financing he envisions being built in Brossard, south of Montreal.

“It has been my baptism of fire,” the 68-year-old tax accountant admits to the Star. “The choice of words was not the best.”

And then he said it worse when interviewed by journalists following up after Radio-Canada broke the story early this week, attempting to delineate the values Muslim home-buyers might be seeking in a community which at the moment exists only in Warda’s imagination.

“You don’t drive drunk on the street,” he told the National Post. “If you want to drink alcohol, you drink it in your house.’’

Which hardly applies only to Muslims since driving inebriated is contrary to the law of the land.

He added, however, that while Muslim women might choose to wear a hijab or not, they would be expected to dress demurely, avoid walking around publicly in revealing clothing. As many do, whether you or I like it. Or not. Whether you or I see a misogynist subtext there. Or not.

“There must be some modesty in the way you dress,” Warda was quoted in the Post story. “We don’t want women living there going half-naked down the streets. We don’t like that. If they want to do that, let them go and live in downtown Montreal.”

Warda, a personable fellow clearly overwhelmed by the backlash, was born a Christian in Egypt, immigrated to Canada in 1970 and converted to Islam in 1992. He regrets overtly associating conservative attitudes with a faith practiced by some 1.6 billion Muslims around the world, although that’s certainly a quality - whether religiously or culturally - adhered to by many.

“I presented my document to the Muslim community. Had I presented it to the non-Muslim community I would have said human values instead of Muslim values.’’

Yet that would have defeated the purpose since the buyer pitch expressly references Islamic - halal - financing. To many Muslims, interpretation of Sharia laws forbids engaging in usury - which prevents them from securing mortgages and loans that charge interest, known in Arabic as Riba .

In fact, there are Islamic financing cooperatives in Canada now that have partnered with traditional brokerages, fully compliant with both Sharia and the regulatory framework, so that Muslims can obtain loans to purchase a home or start a business. Basically, the prospective home owner and financier agree to co-own a property or undertaking. As an example, the buyer would provide a 20 per cent down payment and pay a monthly amount for use of that property, similar to rent. Those payments would be put towards acquiring the financier’s share of the property, eventually taking over the financier’s entire share. The premium for those payments – what goes to the bank or brokerage firm - is considered a profit rather than interest.

Yes, Warda agrees, it’s really a matter of semantics. But eschewing Riba is crucial to many observant Muslims. It’s what has prevented them from buying homes in Canada, rendering them life-long tenants.

“I’m an accountant. I see very clearly there is no difference. But not everybody does. In Islam, we’re talking about tradition. When you borrow money you have to give back the money and nothing more. So we have a lot of people in Canada that are not having conventional bank loans and buying houses and leaving something to their children. They give all their money to a landlord.”

Of course it’s not the Islamic funding part that has so outraged critics, including Premier Philippe Couillard, who said from a climate conference in Morocco he would be worried about non-Muslims facing discrimination. “Discrimination works in both directions, and so does inclusion. We are in favour of mixed housing for cultural communities and religious groups.

Sure, a diverse mish-mash would be best. Historically, though, that’s not how putting down roots has worked; not in Montreal, not in Toronto, not in New York City or any other large metropolis where immigrants have settled by the masses.

In Canada, in truth, diversity is promoted at the expense of integration. We’ve made a virtue of it. A pre-designed Muslim enclave, as long as it’s not an exclave, seems hardly an assault on commonweal senses.

Little Italy, Little India, Little Somalia, Chinatown, Greektown, Koreatown: Thriving cities are made up of vibrant ethnic neighborhoods, even if the original inhabitants have moved on, migrated outwards, leaving behind the essence of their presence, if only as a tourist flavouring. A second generation, more comfortable and confident as Canadians, pushes beyond the limits of a benign ghetto. Upward mobility has always been a strong motivating factor. And the cycle of renewal gentrifies districts so that what was once, say, blue-collar Cabbagetown, with its narrow row-houses and apron-sized front yards, is transformed into prime real estate for double-income professionals.

So why not a Muslim enclave, where the homes are yet to be built?

The answer, obviously, is that a common denominator based on faith - and the broader spectrum of culture - feels contrary to Canadian values, even more so in the distinct culture of Quebec which hammers francophone identity into its residents and which has flirted with the idea of banning religious symbols in the public work sphere.

In the letter of the law, segregation is verboten. Exclusivity of domicile can’t be delineated along lines of religion or race, gender or sexual orientation. Yet gated communities and condo boards tacitly seal themselves off from encroachment of the un-welcome. So let’s not pretend that realty segregation is non-existent in Canada.

“I never intended to have a Muslim community,” Warda claims, though this sounds disingenuous because it was Muslims who were clearly being addressed by the document. Upwards of 40 respondents have expressed interest, says Warda, who was scheduled to hold a meeting Friday evening at a Brossard mosque to see if his plan is viable. (The mosque is not involved in the endeavor.)

What’s wrong with Warda’s proposal, really? He’s simply applying a different common denominator. That makes a lot of us queasy.

“I should have said, listen, we want to have people with whom we can live in harmony. Then again, what is harmony?’’ He laughs ruefully. “When I decided who to approach, the hanging fruit was these people (Muslims).’’

Warda would be one of the property-buyers himself.

“I figured if we were to buy as a group, a nice piece of land, and get pre-fabricated houses, I would be able to live somewhere where there are people that are my neighbors, that I have some kind of link to them. I know them for decades, I know their kids. People I can get old with. At least I would have people that know me; if I have a problem they’re there. If I stay where I’m living now, I could die in my house and nobody would even know.”

It’s not a radical idea. Just more blunt than many can apparently tolerate - while professing platitudes of multicultural virtue.