By OMAR SOLIMAN

Once again, religion has entered the fray of Ontario politics. And, once again, the same old players are hard at work fanning the flames of hatred, division and religious intolerance.

Behind some of the silly reasons to oppose John Tory’s proposal for funding faith-based schools is the Ontario Liberal Party’s principal setback in the current election campaign: No leader in Progressive Conservative Party history has had a better relationship with Ontario’s ethnic communities — a legacy of Mr. Tory’s Toronto mayoralty bid.

Somehow, though, it has become perfectly acceptable in Ontario to lobby for the women’s vote in Sarnia, the seniors’ vote in Whitby and the students’ vote in Kingston — but not the Muslim vote in Mississauga or the Sikh vote in Brampton.

Canadians witnessed this most recently during the 2006 federal Liberal leadership convention, when Liberal candidates were criticized for trying to attract Tamil and Muslim delegates. The Muslim Canadian Congress, a group with a secular bent run by a handful of “postmodern” Muslims, accused these Liberal candidates of dividing the party into ethnic enclaves.

No one really has the guts to say it, but this presumption is a racist one. The Muslim or Sikh vote, like the women’s or seniors’ vote, is not monolithic. A functioning liberal democracy warrants that, within the confines of our laws, those who govern should articulate the attitudes and beliefs of the governed — irrespective of race, creed and so on.

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