Fitting into Citizenship
By N.Ebrahim
Onstage coversations 2022 with Dr Sajoo (rt) and Prof Kamal al- Solaylee( crt ) accompanied by guest speaker Sobna Jaya -Madhavan ( left)
The fifth installment of the series on Islamophobia after its Toronto debut returned at the Ismail Center in Burnaby on Oct.22, 2022 , with a two way conversation between Dr Amyn B.Sajoo, Scholar in Residence international studies Simon Fraser University and Prof Kamal al-Solaylee, Director UBC School of Journalism . This on stage conversation took place as part of the Fitting into Citizenship series co-sponsored by Simon Fraser University and the Ismaili center.
Dr Sajoo started by portraying the siloed nature of perceived citizenship and belonging in modernity, and forayed into outlining some staked statistics on hate-motivated crimes including religion, jumping to 67 percent in 2021 and also para-phrasing the age of Islamophobia from Holy Ignorance by Oliver Roy, .
Prof Kamal mostly reiterated parts of his popular books, especially Brown and strongly emphasized on the existence of hyphenated new-immigrants unlike the earlier 19-century eastern or southern Europeans. New immigrants are still marginalized today and doctors are still driving cabs due to double standards in Canada. The hyphen will likely stay, mainly because of the skin color…. “That hyphen is still there for us. We are always going to be Muslim-Canadian, brown-Canadian, Indian-Canadian”, he added and ended after taking questions from the audience and suggesting continued dialogue discussion on race and belonging by reclaiming ” brown” and “self-identity” to brake the chain.
The closing remarks by Sobhana Jaya-Madhavan, Associate VP of External relations from SFU, were very heart warming as she paid tribute to both these scholars and talked a little bit of her immigrant journey and experience after moving from India to Canada.
At the Ismaili Center onstage conversation on Islamaphobia
Final installment of this popular series that started March 26, 2022 came to an end on Oct 22, 2022