“Politics makes strange bedfellows.” The proverb immediately came to mind as I scanned images of a counter-protest last Sunday to — as organizers claim — “respect our heritage sites.”

For the past six months or so, Montreal4Palestine has organized Sunday rallies outside Montreal’s Notre-Dame Basilica, where a brief Muslim afternoon prayer has been included. Such public prayers have occasionally been conducted at similar events across our city, with Quebec and Canadian streets seeing their share of pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian rallies over the past two years.

It seems praying in public has created a malaise — even panic — among those who believe “Islam is invading Quebec” or who (wrongly) equate secularism with the banning of public displays of religion. This malaise serves as a convenient pretence for the Legault government to promise to ban public prayers — using a bazooka to kill a fly in an apparent desperate attempt to........

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