Since his earliest childhood, the African-American writer Alex Haley heard about his ancestor, kidnapped in Gambia to be reduced to the United States. Adult, he flew to Africa in the hope of confirming family legend.
The writer told the story of his ancestor to a packet of Gambian tribal experts. The latter unearthed a “griot”, that is to say an African storyteller holding oral traditions, who was able to confirm the whole story to him, just as his family had always told him. It gave the novel Roots, prix Pulitzer 1977.
Years later, we realized that the griot was not really one and had only reformulated the story that Alex Haley had told Gambian experts himself.
We were in front of a classic case of circular diffusion, or false confirmation. All that to say that we hold a new case, Quebecers that one.
This concerns a conclusion-shock of the administrative inquiry ordered by the Caquist government in order to assess whether the Dawson and Vanier colleges had taken all the necessary measures to ensure the safety of their students, in the explosive context of the conflict to the Middle East.
Hang on, it’s going in circles. That spin As strong as a government that would desperately seek to justify its actions.
Broadcast last Friday, the press release from the office of the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, robbed the spotlight on one of the most disturbing observations of the investigation report. Press release extract:
“The principles of secularism are not respected in the two establishments. Still according to the survey, the presence of prayer rooms fuels a climate of radicalization, community withdrawal and reciprocal distrust inside Cégep 1 ».
It is not nothing, this observation. It’s impactful. To the point that, the same day, the Canadian press has chosen to start an article on the subject: “A new report from the Quebec government indicates that prayer rooms feed a climate of radicalization and distrust in the colleges of the province 2 ».
Although it is a major observation, nowhere, in the 71 -page investigation report, there is a fact or a testimony to support it. “Some establishments” have prayer premises, simply mentions the report, which warns:
“But far from helping to live better, it only fueling a climate of radicalization, community withdrawal and reciprocal distrust inside Cégep 3. »
Photo Sarah Mongeau-Birkett, the press archives
Vanier college is located in the Saint-Laurent borough
For any reference, the report cites an opinion text published in The press In 2023 and signed by a group of Quebec activists in favor of secularism, including Nadia El-Mabrouk and Fatima Aboubakr.
This opinion text recalls that in 2015, a premises had been made available to students of the college of Maisonneuve for Friday prayer. He stresses that this concession had done nothing to improve things, quite the contrary:
“Far from contributing to a better-together, it only eaten a climate of radicalization, community withdrawal and reciprocal distrust inside CEGEP 4. »
And that’s it. There was therefore a question of a particular situation which occurred ten years ago at Cégep de Maisonneuve, where a group of radicalized students had left to fight in Syria.
The report fully takes up the words of the opinion text by expurging them from this particular context. In her press release, the minister’s office presents this as an observation of the current situation to the Cégeps Dawson and Vanier!
Not too dizzy? So much the better, because it hasn’t finished turning.
Wednesday, The duty published an opinion text which deplores that the establishment of prayer rooms in Dawson and Vanier was “not smooth”. To support this argument, the text obviously quotes the report:
“Investigators believe that” far from contributing to better living together, that only fueling a climate of radicalization, community withdrawal and reciprocal distrust within Cégep ” 5. »
This new platform is notably signed by… Nadia El-Mabrouk and Fatima Aboubakr.
They thus attribute an observation to investigators, while citing an extract from their own opinion text, published in 2023 And transcribed word for word in the report!
In other words, the two authors quote themselves, apparently without realizing it. Circular diffusion. The loop is completed.
“It’s been at least 25 years that we have a prayer room, and we never had a complaint. We have never heard of students who would have radicalized, ”says Diane Gauvin, Managing Director of the Dawson College.
Mme Gauvin is categorical: “The conclusions of the report are false. »»
Of course, the conflict to the Middle East created tensions on the campus. But these tensions are political, not religious, she said.
In Dawson, as elsewhere, the Propalestinian movement is carried by students from all backgrounds: Muslims, Christians, Atheists, Alouette. “These people do not meet in the prayer room …”
The director general of Cégep Vanier, Benoit Morin, has not noticed any radicalization of students who have frequent the prayer room, in place for years. If he had received the slightest information on this subject, he would have acted promptly, he assures. “We take the safety of our students very seriously. »»
The two managers recall that in 2023, Minister Pascale Déry refused to ban prayer rooms in CEGEPs and universities. “Currently, nothing lets us believe that the management of accommodation requests for religious reasons is problematic in establishments,” said his cabinet.
Difficult for the government, after that, of accusing the two CEGEPs of not respecting the principles of secularism.
I am not telling you that I am in favor of prayer rooms in the CEGEPs. All I say is that before asserting that their presence feeds the radicalization of students, which is not a thin assertion, it takes a minimum of reliable data to prove it.
However, “in the current state of research, no rigorous scientific study has been able to provide evidence that demonstrates the direct link between religious accommodation and radicalization or proselytism,” said the essayist and psychologist Rachida Azdouz, specialist in these questions.
Very nuanced, the report of the radicalization prevention center leading to violence, written in 2016 in the wake of the events of the college of Maisonneuve, already deplored that “little literature” sheds light on the phenomenon, which left Quebec schools “torn by tensions and complex debates around the attitude to be adopted in terms of accommodation 6 ».
A few incidents are reported but it is very difficult to grasp its scope and magnitude because the authors tend to minimize or exaggerate them according to their own ideological orientation.
Rachida Azdouz, essayist and psychologist
The research environment is crossed by the same fracture line as the public debate, she explains. On the one hand, it is argued that accommodations open the door to radicalization and religious entrism; On the other, it is estimated that it is rather the refusal to accommodate which creates a feeling of exclusion and which encourages withdrawal and radicalization …
I am afraid that we debate it endlessly, remaining deaf to the arguments of each other. You have to believe that we like to go around in circles.
1. Read the reaction of Minister Pascale Déry to the report
2. Read the Canadian press article: “The prayer rooms create tensions in the colleges, according to a report”
3. Consult the investigation report on Dawson college and Vanier college
4. Read the text published in The press : “Places of” RESULT “? Really ? »»
5. Read the text published in The duty : “A reflection on secularism in the cégeps is essential”
6. Consult the report of the radicalization prevention center leading to violence
