Not-so-suspicious handles

>> Reports of Quebec’s Muslims and Arabs rushing to change their names are exaggerated

by KRISTIAN GRAVENORNOR

In a December 3 report broadcast from the Quebec City bureau of Télé Quatre Saisons, reporter Dominique Morais authoritatively waved a stapled sheaf of papers in front of the camera. The papers were purportedly documented proof of a recent trend which has seen Quebeckers with Arabic- or Muslim-sounding names rushing to shed their monikers—presumably to those we’d be less leery of—since September’s terrorist attacks.

The TQS report stated that 51 Quebeckers with Muslim or Arabic-sounding names had filed to officially obtain new names since September 11, well above the four per month rate prior to the attacks. The television report included an interview with top Civil Status Ministry bureaucrat Jacques St-Laurent, who acknowledged the theoretical possibility of such a trend.
But a government official from the same department now contests the existence of a statistical rise in the number of name change requests from Quebec’s Muslim and Arab communities. “There’s a belief that there’s a big movement where Arab or Muslim Quebeckers are asking to change their names. It’s false. There were practically no more in 2001 than other years,” says Civil Status Ministry rep Claude Fradette.

Fradette says that Quebec processed 1,550 requests to change names last year—fewer than the usual annual average—and of that total a mere 47 demands came from immigrants aiming to Westernize their names, down from 105 in 2000. A name can be changed to officially adopt a commonly used nickname as one’s official name; to correct a misspelling; or to shed a name that causes personal suffering. The department approves, on average, three of every four name-change requests.

Many of the 900 applications currently being processed were filed after September 11, says Fradette, who notes that of those “either zero, one or two or some insignificant number” has mentioned any relation to stigma associated with the terrorists attacks.
In a separate verification, the Mirror found 31 name change requests filed by individuals bearing possibly Muslim or Arabic-sounding names between September 15 and December 1, noticeably fewer than the 51 supposedly uncovered by TQS, which declined a request to supply its list. According to Fradette, many of those who publish their intention to change their name in the Quebec Official Gazette, a government publication used for posting legal notices, never complete the name change process.

Changing names changes little

Anecdotal evidence that Montreal’s estimated 100,000 Muslims are switching names to sound more Western seems equally hard to come by. Chirin Al-Safadi of Montreal is changing her first name to Sherin and her daughter Aieh’s name to Aya, as she notes that Syrian authorities misspelled their names on official documents prior to coming here. She brushes off any notion an Arab or Muslim might be embarrassed by their names in these times. “Why should we be ashamed? It’s a free country,” she says. Her only regret is that the name-changing process involves more bureaucracy than she had anticipated. “We weren’t aware it’d be so difficult in Canada,” she says of the six-month, $200 process.
Cherif el Tawil of St-Leonard has also filed to change his name for reasons that also have nothing to do with twin towers. “The ‘el’ is a mistake on my father’s birth certificate done in Egypt. It was never changed and I thought I might as well just get it done. The timing has nothing to do with any terrorist attacks.”

Salam Elmenyawi of the Muslim Council of Montreal says he’s seen no evidence of any sentiment to Westernize Muslim or Arabic-sounding names. “A name change would not change anything. A victory over discrimination and racism will not happen through name changes. Bigots will always be there and we have to get rid of the problem by attacking prejudice itself,” he says.

“We have received a number of complaints from people who believe the only reason they’ve been discriminated against is because of their names,” says Elmenyawi, “but none of them had thought under any circumstances to change their names.” He adds that on rare occasions Muslims will unofficially Westernize such names as Samir to Sam or Yousef to Joe, while Canadian-born converts to Islam frequently use a Muslim name in their religious community without ever officially making the switch.

Meanwhile, Fradette’s ministry, which also screens the names parents give their newborn children, refuses to speculate on whether parents will be permitted to name their child Osama. He says he knows of no requests being made in the province since September. Elmenyawi, however, sees nothing wrong with such a notion. “I meet people here named Osama quite often,” he says. “The name has history. It’s from a companion of the prophet.” :