One of the examples she shares is of a local Muslim who works in the health-care sector. He typically works each year over the Christmas holidays to allow his Christian colleagues the time off, even if his children also have school holidays. But he often struggles to get time off to observe Eid, a holiday at the end of a month of fasting.
Many stories of religious and cultural differences paint a picture of discrimination and conflict, but one Memorial University researcher argues that most things actually have a way of working out.
Jennifer Selby with the department of religious studies has been examining how religious differences are negotiated among Muslims in Canada. Selby teamed up with University of Ottawa researcher Lori Beaman to conduct more than 50 interviews in St. John’s and combined the data with the research of Amelie Barras of York University, which includes studies of Muslims in Montreal, to provide insight on the Canadian context.
“A lot of the research that’s done, particularly on Muslims in Western contexts, focuses on real problems, like rates of unemployment or underemployment and concerns with integration,” Selby said.
“But we were interested in how religion and difference get sorted out every day for most people without any fuss.”