i can hear much of what they say, and little of it is in english, but i have overheard that they seem to have faced some racism at the local mosque. they were apparently told they aren't real muslims and rejected by the mosque because they're black. while this isn't exactly surprising - arab society is brutally racist and amongst the most racially exclusive societies on earth - it's also a little ironic, given that the original muslims were probably east african, based on historical descriptions of early muslim raiders as being as "black as the night". the classical and pre-modern sources had a different word for black muslims, called "saracens". over time, the word lost it's meaning, and came to mean arab muslim, but the original sources were clear to separate between the dark-skinned saracens, who probably crossed from east africa into yemen and moved up the red sea coast, and the people living in the arabian desert, who spoke an african/semitic language due to previous waves of colonization but were mostly caucasian in ancestry. if mohammed existed at all, which i find to be doubtful, he probably looked more like a somali than an arab.
however, if jesus existed, which i also think is doubtful, he probably did not look like an arab but rather probably looked like a persian.
it hasn't happened instantly, but i'm noticing less head scarves. in fact, they showed up in canada in full body niqabs and moved to headscarves after a few months and now are going out more confidently without them. i haven't said anything to them about that, but i am in favour of them burning their hijabs and it's nice to see some recent immigrants adjust and try to fit in rather than dig in and try to stand out. i've also noticed a decrease in muslim music and an increase in african music, and even heard them dancing and chanting recently, like the indigenous people that they are, which i actually think is great. it means they're using the freedom of thought they have in canada to decolonize from their muslim colonization, which i'd very like to see more of amongst east africans, indians, indonesians/malaysians, north africans, syrians and other groups that were colonized in the arab expansion. i'd even support inviting people from regions colonized by arabs to come to canada to decolonize, build a diaspora and rebuild a reconstructed culture to bring back to their homeland, like the jews have. the jews are the first indigenous group in the arab colonized world to decolonize from islam and come back to their homeland, but they shouldn't be the only one or the last one.
it's not that the process of dechristianization is any less important than it's ever been in the broader decolonization project, it's that the dechristianization of the west is largely complete. to continue on with decolonization in the 21st century, the biggest remaining target is islam, islamic colonialism and the areas of africa, europe, the middle east, india and southeast asia that were colonized by muslims from about 700 to about 1500, before the end of the reconquista shifted the balance of power to europe. the century of arabic colonialism was also the true start of many of the targets of anti-colonial theory, including slavery and what we today call capitalism. while modern scholarship traces the beginnings of these things to renaissance italy or early modern spain, the scholarship is decidedly racist in it's eurocentrism - it ignores who the italians were trading with, and the reality that they imported much of their methodology and ignores the role that the existing islamic slave trade network, which was inherited intact by the spanish, played in the development of the atlantic slave trade. the eurocentric history just kind of stops between 476 and 1492. but in reality much of what happened in the colonized world after 1492 was imported from existing arabic colonialism, and was an extension of existing arabic colonialism, which started to fade in the later dark ages and had collapsed by 1452. the europeans replaced the arabs as the dominant colonial power, but they didn't invent or originate much of any of the colonial behaviour or the systems of exploitation and economics that developed from the colonial period. this stuff is all arab in origin, but the arabs have evaded criticism due to the eurocentrism, and the orientalist racism that has accompanied it. history just cuts the period of arabic hegemony out. it just starts with columbus and cabot instead and rewinds back to the romans when pressed for context.
it completely cuts the vikings out, too. it's not just eurocentric, it's also christocentric. while the europeans and chinese were both struggling with remembering how to read their own books, colonialism was being invented and implemented by the vikings and arabs. but it's only the arab colonized areas that have not resisted and re-secularized themselves.
i'd like to see more colonized africans disregard their arabic colonization and reconnect with their indigenous roots, as i'd like to see more colonized europeans disregard the christian colonization and reconnect with their own indigenous (germanic) roots.