Windsor Muslims not immune to discrimination, Boulbol says

A new survey of Muslim Canadians suggests an overwhelming majority have a strong attachment to Canada.

The survey, conducted by the Environics Institute between November 2015 and January 2016, reached out to 600 Canadian Muslims. It shows Muslim Canadians are becoming increasingly integrated into the broader Canadian society.

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But it also showed young Canadian Muslims report higher levels of discrimination than their older counterparts and were less optimistic about how Muslims will be treated in the future.

CBC Radio's Windsor Morning host Tony Doucette sat down with Remy Boulbol, a practicing Muslim woman in Windsor, Ont. who works at a women's shelter to discuss her reaction to the survey.

The following answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Tony Doucette: Why do you suppose younger Muslims are less hopeful than their parents or their grandparents?

Remy Boulbol: It's the past 15 years that have really changed the rhetoric around Muslims in North America and around Muslims globally.

The things that have happened since September 11 up until now have been really rough. So many of those things have been attributed to Muslims globally, that it affects Muslims who are living their lives on a day-to-day basis throughout the rest of the world including in Canada,

TD: About a third of the respondents say they've experienced discrimination because of their religion, ethnicity or culture. What is your experience?

RB: I would absolutely agree with that. I think it might even be higher than that, everything from nasty words that people might say tocutting people off in traffic, yelling things, online it's just vicious. It's scary vicious online. It's definitely real.

TD: Have you experienced this personally?

RB: Absolutely. The worst I've ever seen it was after the attacks in Paris last November. It hasn't really gotten much better since then.

TD: You bring a really interesting perspective to this story. You converted to Islam from Christianity when you were 22, you made that conversion as an adult. Can you compare the two?

RB: It's a world of difference. I grew up in an American Baptist situation. I was very religious went to church quite a lot as a teenager, then I made some changes in university and I took some time to really think about that in a different kind of way.

When I look at comparing the two, especially since my family is for the most part not Muslim, it's definitely different. I get it from some of my own family members, my grandmother is none too happy. It's interesting, but it's just different.

TD: When you started wearing the hijab, what changed?

RB: It changed everything. It's a really hard thing as an individual choice, it's a difficult choice to make, it's very much a lifestyle choice that you make.

I wasn't prepared for the way people looked at me, I did not expect it at all, I was not prepared for it at all.

TD: How did they look at you?

RB: It was a piece of fabric that changed everything. I was the same person that I was the day before but it was definitely different and hard. People wouldn't ask questions, they would just look different and take a step back.

TD: The survey says younger Muslims are attending the mosque more often and wearing the hijab as you do, why do you think that is?

RB: I think it's on the rise in a lot of religious communities, I don't think it's specific to the Muslim community. My friends of other faiths feel the same way in that 25-42 age range. I wonder if it's not because it is a really rough time in the world and faith is such a deeply personal and comforting thing for so many people.