Muslim conscientious objector allowed to stay in Canada

Can a Muslim be a conscientious objector? Erkan says yes. And in mid-December he learned that his application for permission to stay in Canada, on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, was approved.

Erkan grew up in Turkey where military service is compulsory, and conscientious objection and alternative service are not allowed. Instead, people who claim to be conscientious objectors are usually sent to prison, some on a repeated basis. Some have been tortured. And when not in prison, they are still deprived of significant rights.

To avoid this fate Erkan, who is single, came to Canada in 2001 and applied for refugee status but was refused after courts decided prosecution under a conscription law is not persecution. However, six years later he was approved on humanitarian grounds.

But how did Erkan, a Muslim, become a conscientious objector? While in high school and university in Turkey, he learned of the Hizmet movement and Said Nursi and Fethullah Gulen, two spiritual leaders who called on people to become more devout, humble, reliant on God, and more peaceful, recognizing the common humanity of all.

But Turkish authorities, committed to building a secular society, were suspicious and took action against these groups. Erkan fled to the U.S. where he enrolled in John Brown University (JBU), an inter-denominational Christian university in Arkansas. There, many of his friends were Mennonites. A roommate, Frank Huebert, was a particularly helpful dialogue partner.

It was from these Mennonites that Erkan first learned about conscientious objection but the idea resonated deeply with him. He felt it was in harmony with the particular Muslim teachings that had so influenced him in Turkey. He also developed a new appreciation for teachings that appear in some Islam sources that: “It is better to be killed than to kill,” and, “To kill one person is like killing the whole of humanity.”

When Erkan wrote several critical articles about the human rights situation in Turkey as a student, an ultra-nationalist Turkish group active in the U.S. threatened him. He consulted a lawyer and came to Canada and applied for refugee status.

From May 2001 until the favourable ruling late 2007, legal aid lawyers proved very helpful, and the MCC Ottawa Office, since learning of Erkan in 2006, sent letters to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

In a December 6 appearance before the Parliamentary Committee on Citizenship and Immigration an MCC representative acknowledged that Mennonites had benefited enormously from Canada’s generous conscientious objector provisions and asked that people in situations like Erkan’s be admitted on that basis. Erkan currently lives and works in Ottawa and plans to go back to university when he can afford to do so.

Bill Janzen is director of the MCC Ottawa office.