Montreal, Quebec, Canada – Canadian Muslim leaders are calling for an finish to Islamophobic rhetoric and fearmongering, because the nation prepares to mark the nine-year anniversary of a deadly attack on a mosque within the province of Quebec.
Stephen Brown, CEO of the Nationwide Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), mentioned Thursday’s anniversary is a reminder that Islamophobia in Canada “will not be benign”.
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“It’s one thing that sadly kills individuals,” Brown informed Al Jazeera. “[The anniversary] forces us to keep in mind that there’s actual penalties to hatred.”
Six Muslim males had been killed when a gunman opened fireplace on the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec Metropolis on January 29, 2017, marking the deadliest attack on a home of worship in Canadian historical past.
The assault left Quebec Metropolis’s tight-knit Muslim community deeply shaken, spurred vigils and condemnation throughout Canada, and shone a highlight on a world rise in anti-Muslim hate and radicalisation.
The Canadian authorities denounced the capturing as a “terrorist assault” towards Muslims and pledged to deal with the underlying points.
In 2021, it introduced it was designating January 29 because the Nationwide Day of Remembrance of the Quebec Metropolis Mosque Assault and Motion towards Islamophobia.
However Brown mentioned he was undecided whether or not the teachings discovered after what occurred in Quebec Metropolis had been being totally remembered as we speak, almost a decade later.
“Proper after the Quebec Metropolis mosque bloodbath, there actually was a want in society to attempt to mend a number of the wounds and construct some bridges,” he mentioned.
“Sadly, what lots of people are seeing 1769641830 – and particularly for Muslims that stay in Quebec – … is a large return to utilizing Islamophobia and spreading worry of Muslims for political achieve.”
Legal guidelines and rhetoric
Brown pointed to a collection of measures put ahead by Quebec’s right-wing Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) authorities that human rights teams say goal Muslim Quebecers.
In energy since 2018, the CAQ handed a legislation in 2019 to bar some public servants from carrying non secular symbols on the job, together with headscarves worn by Muslim ladies, Sikh turbans and Jewish yarmulkes.
The federal government justified the legislation, known as Bill 21, as being a part of its push to guard secularism within the province, which within the Sixties underwent a so-called “Quiet Revolution” to interrupt the Catholic Church’s affect over state establishments.
However rights advocates mentioned Invoice 21 discriminated towards non secular minorities and would have a disproportionately dangerous impact on Muslim ladies, specifically.
Because the CAQ’s reputation has plummeted in latest months, it has handed and put ahead extra laws to strengthen its so-called “state secularism” mannequin prematurely of a looming provincial election later this 12 months.
Most not too long ago, in late November, the CAQ introduced a bill that will lengthen the non secular symbols prohibition to daycares and personal faculties, amongst different locations.
Invoice 9 additionally bars faculties from providing meals based mostly solely on non secular dietary necessities – reminiscent of kosher or halal lunches – and outlaws “collective non secular practices, notably prayer” in public.
“Quebec has adopted its personal mannequin of state secularism,” said the provincial minister liable for secularism, Jean-Francois Roberge.
Roberge has rejected the concept that the invoice was focusing on Muslim or Jewish Quebecers, telling reporters throughout a information convention on November 27 that the “identical guidelines apply to everyone”.
However the Canadian Civil Liberties Affiliation (CCLA) – which is concerned in a lawsuit towards Invoice 21 that can be heard by the Supreme Court docket of Canada later this 12 months – mentioned Invoice 9 “masks discrimination as secularism”.
“These dangerous bans disproportionately goal and marginalize non secular and racialized minorities, particularly Muslim ladies,” Harini Sivalingam, director of the CCLA’s equality programme, mentioned in a statement.
In line with Brown at NCCM, the Quebec authorities’s strikes have despatched “the message to society that there’s one thing inherently harmful or incorrect with being a visual, practising Muslim”.
He warned that, when individuals in positions of authority use anti-Muslim rhetoric to attempt to rating political factors, “it provides licence to those that already maintain plenty of these Islamophobic views or hateful views to really take it out on individuals”.
‘Hate continues to threaten’
On the federal stage, Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s particular consultant on combating Islamophobia, mentioned the Canadian authorities has proven a continued dedication to tackling the issue.
That features by an Motion Plan on Combatting Hate, launched in 2024, which has devoted tens of millions of {dollars} to group teams, antifascism programmes and different initiatives.
However Elghawaby informed Al Jazeera that Islamophobia has however been rising in Canada, “whether or not it’s by police-reported hate crimes [or] whether or not it’s Canadians sharing that they’re experiencing discrimination at work [and] at college”.
In line with Statistics Canada, 211 anti-Muslim hate crimes had been reported to police in 2023 – a 102-percent leap in contrast with the earlier 12 months. There was a slight enhance in 2024 – the newest 12 months for which the information is out there – with 229 incidents reported.
Elghawaby, whose workplace was established after another anti-Muslim attack killed 4 members of a single household in London, Ontario, in 2021, mentioned the figures underscore “that hate continues to threaten Canadians”.
“Canada, regardless of a world fame of being a rustic that welcomes individuals from around the globe, does wrestle with division, with polarisation, with the rise of extremist narratives,” she mentioned, including that remembering the Quebec Metropolis mosque assault stays important.
“[The families of the men killed] don’t need the lack of their family members to be in useless. They need Canadians to proceed to face with them, to proceed to face towards Islamophobia, and to do their half in their very own circles to assist promote understanding,” Elghawaby mentioned.
“Historical past can sadly repeat itself if we don’t study from the teachings of the previous.”
