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Abstract: Through exploring the representations and political participation of the NaqshbandiHaqqani Sufi order of Montreal, this article analyses the relationship between Sufism, secularly, and political authority in Quebec in ongoing debates around religious ".moderation" and State neutrality laws post-g/n. I offer an in-depth but necessarily bounded ethnographic account of this Sufi group in an attempt to expose a process of localisation and instrumentalisation of a particular Muslim identity in Quebec reflecting local pressures of religious reformation. I will argue that the charisma attached to the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi order, as articulated by politicians as well as non-Muslim Montrealers, is one that has emerged most particularly in the past 15 years and is embodied in the current local leader of the community, Shaykh Omar Koné. Yet, this charisma operates within centuries-old Orientalist discourses about Sufism and Islam, and most notably is validated in Quebec through recent secular politics of "moderation" and State neutrality bills as heritage of the ig6o Quiet Revolution. Writing as a French-Canadian, in this article, I will offer an insight into the construction of a Sufi consciousness in Quebec, a tale that I trace through multiple accounts, though primarily through my interactions at the Montreal Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Centre and with their imam, Shaykh Omar Koné from 2014 to 2017.
Keywords: Islam, Sufism, Quebec, Naqshbandi-Haqqanis, moderate, Quiet Revolution
Since 9/11, North American governmental bodies have institutionalised a fear of Islam and pressures to reform Muslims through different laws, from policing Muslim citizens and targeting certain religious behaviours or dress as incompatible with "Western values", as well as restricting immigration policies towards Muslim countries and newcomers.1 In Quebec, this mistrust of Muslims is conflated with secularity debates and State neutrality policies, wherein politics of "moderation" are asserted to define "desirable citizens", and "appropriate" religious accommodations. Muslims have been cast as threatening to the province's security and identity, politically and culturally, and thus in need of "religious reformation" as articulated in successive State neutrality laws since 2010. As seen in provincial politics and social debates, the legitimacy of Muslims as desirable and non-threatening citizens is regularly challenged through these different State neutrality laws.2
These policies and surrounding discourses in favour of a reformed, anti-religious secular State neutrality speak to the historical and mythological view of Quebec...