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[np_storybar title=”What it’s like to be a Muslim in Canada: ‘People act as if I’m the spokesperson for ISIS’” link=”http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/03/20/what-its-like-to-be-a-muslim-living-in-canada-people-act-as-if-im-the-spokesperson-for-isis/”]

“Stay the hell where you came from.”

That was a Conservative MP’s comment this week about Muslim women who insist on wearing a niqab during citizenship ceremonies. It was quickly followed by an apology, but it wasn’t totally off-message: The Prime Minister himself insists that Muslim face-coverings are “rooted in a culture that is anti-women.”

The niqab, of course, is just one example of the climate of suspicion that’s emerged around Canada’s more than one million Muslims. The acts of extremists — bomb threats, shootings and stories of one radicalized youth after another slipping across the border to fight with ISIS — have shaken many Canadians. It has also spurred the government’s proposed anti-terror bill, which would allow for increased scrutiny of Muslim-Canadians, among others.

So what does all that mean for the everyday lives of Muslims in this country? The National Post asked a few people across Canada for their thoughts.

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The latest person to add his voice to to the niqab debate is Conservative MP Larry Miller, who this week demanded those who refuse to remove their veils while swearing citizenship oaths “stay the hell where they came from.”