From street prayers outside Montreal’s Notre-Dame Basilica to Islamic headscarves in French public schools, banned since 2004, this category covers acts committed in the name of Islam that defy the religious neutrality of public space, seek to take it over, or place religious rules above the law. The Quran presents Islam as sent “to manifest it over all religion” (9:33). A saying cited by al-Bukhari and graded hasan by al-Albani holds that “Islam is exalted and nothing is exalted above it”. Since the earth was made a place of prayer (Bukhari 335), a mosque is optional. And the Pact of Umar, the classical charter for Christians under Muslim rule, barred crosses from Muslim streets and allowed church clappers only “very softly”. Laïcité asks every faith for the discretion that classical Islamic law demanded only of others.
After a pro-Palestinian group held Sunday prayers outside Montreal’s Notre-Dame Basilica, Quebec banned collective prayer in its streets and parks unless a municipality grants a permit. Since September, prayer rooms have also vanished from its universities and from Montreal’s transit agency. The ban’s best-known casualty so far: a Catholic procession that does not even pray.
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