In 1871, a mere four years after Confederation, a group of 13 individuals practicing the Islamic faith immigrated to Canada. The first Muslim mosque was erected in the city of Edmonton, Alberta, in 1938, where a small population of Lebanese Muslims had settled.

Unlike in Europe, where discrimination has been open and often harsh, the Muslims in Canada were, for a time, only one among many diverse ethnic, cultural and religious communities. Difficulties only began to emerge during the past decade when Muslim women began to appear in public wearing hijabs (open-faced head coverings) and niqabs (cloth coverings that mask the entire face except for the eyes).

In 2009, an Egyptian woman studying French in Quebec was expelled from provincially funded classes because she refused to remove her niqab during an oral examination, on the grounds that the instructor needed to view the candidate’s mouth while speaking. What eventually emerged was Quebec’s Bill 94, which requires women working for the provincial government to keep their faces open from any form of covering.

Now, the Canadian government has become one of only a handful of (mostly European) nations banning the niqab—well, sort of. The ban, which the government announced December 12, applies specifically only when a Muslim woman takes the citizenship oath to become a Canadian. According to Canadian Minister of Immigration Jason Kenney, the citizenship oath ceremony is a public affirmation and “must be taken freely and openly.”

“This is not simply a practical measure. It is a matter of deep principle that goes to the heart of our identity and our value of openness and equality,” Kenney told Mark Dunn of Sun Media on December 13. “We are all coming together as Canadians at that moment in a public ceremony and—you know what?—if you don’t like it, if you feel uncomfortable, then maybe you chose the wrong country in the first place.”

The official Canadian government policy now requires Muslim women to remove face veils before they take the oath of citizenship.

The move by the Canadian government has not been without response from the Muslim community. In another article, Dunn reported that “[a] Calgary-based imam says Muslims are being attacked in the same way Jews were before Hitler ordered their extermination. Syed Soharwardy, founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, says a regulation change requiring Muslim women to remove their niqabs and burkas when swearing the oath to become a Canadian amounts to Muslim-bashing” (Edmonton Sun,December 14).

The growing antipathy between Canada’s Muslim community and the Canadian government could develop into something much more dangerous in the future. Bible prophecies foretell the severe internal weakening of the end-time nations of biblical Israel (which include Canada) before they fall to a foreign power. Certain prophecies also indicate militant Islam could have a role in undermining the strength of these nations. For more details on the future impact of Islam, read our article “Is Islam a Threat?”