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It’s the second time the school board has solicited community nominations and the results have been great — a far more diverse pool of honourees, representing a broader spectrum of our city’s history and culture. They’re all worthy namesakes.

But at this particular moment in history, I want to recognize Edmonton public for naming not one, but two new public schools after powerful Muslim women. (And during Ramadan, no less.)

From the ugly Brexit referendum campaign in Britain, to the Trump electoral morass in the United States, to the attack on a Muslim woman in an Ontario grocery store this week, we see toxic Islamophobia at work all around us, corroding our pluralist social contract.

There is no better time to remind Edmontonians of the deep roots of the Islamic community in our city, of the Muslim social and political leadership that helped build this place, and of these two courageous women who did so much to explain their faith and their culture to their neighbours, and to integrate new immigrants into the fabric of this place.

At the same time, we need only look around the world to realize this is also a time of growing fundamentalist Islamic extremism. We see the rising power of particularly toxic sects of Islam which seek to marginalize and dehumanize women, to push them out of the public sphere and out of public life — often violently so. And that’s why Fahlman, who died in 2006, and Hamdon, who died in 1988, are such vital role models and powerful symbols today.