Banning religious dress can alienate native-born citizens from their own country

Evidence

Lobna refused to let a new law make her a stranger in her country. Quebec was her home, and in fact, the only home she has ever known. Lobna spoke better French than Arabic, and loved poutine as much as she did the signature Palestinian dish makloubeh. Months later, she introduced me to shawarma poutine, which blended both halves of her identity. French Canadian culture was ingrained in her, and in the words of Arshif, a Quebecois convert to Islam, “If you’re defending your culture by taking away someone else’s, then that’s not much of a culture.” — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 823

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the racialized citizenship pattern in the reader’s Iftikhar reading and to the pattern of Muslims born in the West being treated as perpetual outsiders.
• CANDY: Shawarma poutine as a symbol of fused Quebecois-Palestinian identity is a memorable, light detail.