Stephen Harper<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\nPolls say the Conservative position is popular with a large majority of the electorate, especially in Quebec, where it appears to be moving votes from the NDP to the Tories and Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois.<\/p>\n
Then came word the government wanted to revoke the citizenship of a Canadian-born Muslim man with dual Pakistani citizenship (allegedly through his naturalized, Pakistani-born Canadian parents) who was convicted in a terror plot to bomb targets in southern Ontario.<\/p>\n
Finally, last week, the party announced plans for the \u201cbarbaric cultural practices\u201d hotline, while Prime Minister Stephen Harper himself pushed the niqab issue further when he proposed the public service ban in a CBC<\/em> interview.<\/p>\nWhen the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois proposed banning head coverings for civil servants in Quebec in 2013, Jews led opposition to the idea, even though it was a thinly veiled swipe at Muslims.<\/p>\n
This time, some Jews are actively supporting a similar idea from the federal Tories, though most are standing idly by. (A grassroots group led by prominent Jews in Toronto is a notable exception.)<\/p>\n
As many Muslim commentators have pointed out, the niqab is anti-woman and not mandated by Islamic law. But some Jews might find themselves in the hard-to-defend position of having denounced one proposal, but not the other.<\/p>\n
Jews may also find it odd to criticize a woman\u2019s decision \u2013 taken \u201cfreely\u201d or not \u2013 to wear any article of clothing when modesty requirements for observant Jewish women, though perhaps less obtrusive than face veils, are similarly seen as oppressive, sometimes even by fellow Jews.<\/span><\/p>\nHarper himself spoke out, albeit mildly, against the PQ\u2019s charter of values, though he now praises a niqab ban for civil servants being proposed by Quebec\u2019s current Liberal government.<\/p>\n
As for the hotline, we can only hope that no one calls about the \u201cbarbaric\u201d practices of Jewish ritual slaughter and circumcision, or \u201coppressive\u201d arranged marriages among haredim.<\/p>\n
The TPP may ultimately change the channel on this debate, but even if it doesn\u2019t, we\u2019ll soon find out whether the Conservatives have played their hand just right on these cultural issues, or showed their cards too early.<\/p>\n
This wRant was originally published as a Campaign Notebook column<\/a> in the Oct. 15\u00a0edition of The\u00a0Canadian Jewish News.<\/em>