Should Sikh boys be allowed to wear a turban while playing organized soccer?

The Quebec Soccer Federation (QSF) recently sparked controversy when it reinstated a ban that used to be in force across Canada but has been dropped by all other provincial soccer associations.

But as usual when a news item touches the raw nerves of multiculturalism, religion and anything that distinguishes Quebec from the rest of Canada, reasoned debate has largely been drowned out by hyperbole.

I disagree with the Quebec federation’s decision to ban the turban, but the torrent of visceral reactions that this decision has unleashed — often directed indiscriminately at Quebec society as a whole — is also unacceptable.

I consider this issue from three perspectives.

First, this is about sport. The QSF is a private, independent body that does not act on behalf of all Quebecers. Indeed, it claims to apply the rules defined by FIFA, the world’s ultimate soccer authority.

Still, behind some of the commentary on the QSF decision rests the apparent presumption that, because its officials are Quebecers, they are unable to make a reasoned decision in the best interests of their sport and community.

Sports federations should have as their top priority the safety of their participants, as well as the promotion of their sport’s role as a vector of social integration.

Safety should not be taken lightly. Like other contact sports, soccer sensibly bans any jewelry, especially pendants that can cause strangulation, or other objects that can potentially cause injury. This is why no one is arguing that Sikh players should carry their kirpans on soccer fields.

In hockey or football, no one would dispute that if a turban, or anything else, doesn’t allow a player to wear a helmet safely, then it should be banned.

The QSF claims that FIFA does not explicitly allow Sikh religious headgear, presumably because it is hazardous, although it has approved the Muslim hijab, under some conditions. There are rumours in the soccer world that FIFA might release more explicit guidelines concerning turbans, as it did for hijabs — the sooner the better.

In sum, the claim that Sikh turbans are unsafe appears to be based on little or no evidence. So if that is the only justification for the QSF’s ruling, it should collapse on its own through reasoned debate, just as it did elsewhere.

As far as sport is concerned, there is no need to turn up the volume of this debate to the point of hysteria. Reason should prevail.

This leads to the second dimension: politics. As soon as the QSF announced its ban, commentators were quick to jump on the bandwagon and declare Quebec guilty of xenophobia and intolerance.

Yes, Quebec is a distinct society and, no, Quebecers do not tend to view multiculturalism and intercultural relations in exactly the same way as other Canadians. It may even be the case that this ill-advised decision by a handful of QSF officials was partly motivated by their strong beliefs in secular values and the separation of religion from the public sphere.

This case is but one example of a society that has addressed issues of integration and intercultural relations similar to those confronted by other societies, but in a unique context. Quebec’s distinctiveness has led to a different type of progress on these issues, involving both significant advances and unfortunate setbacks, but real progress has occurred nonetheless.

Indeed, in recent decades, soccer was responsible for many more advances than setbacks in intercultural relations and the integration of immigrants into the mainstream of Quebec society. This is what those who support the ban in the name of Quebec values should be reminded of.

Meanwhile, those who use this turban ban as political ammunition against Quebec’s social or cultural values ignore one basic fact. Just a few short years ago, the exact same ban was in effect in other Canadian provinces, but no one accused them of the same sins back then.

On top of all this, many in Quebec — including Premier Pauline Marois — are interpreting the sudden decision by the Canadian Soccer Association to disavow and sanction the QSF as yet another example of the heavy hand of a centralizing federal body trampling upon the legitimate exercise of autonomous policy-making by one of its constituent members, which is more likely to provoke a circling of wagons than a reasonable solution.

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Beyond the politics, however, this issue touches me as a parent. After many years of seeing children sidelined or frustrated by the more or less arbitrary application of rules by adults, or sometimes by some adults’ obsession with competition or victory at all cost, I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the basic rules we should never neglect in sport is the simplest of all:

Let the children play.

Pierre Martin is a professor of political science at the Université de Montréal.

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