Islamophobia in Canada
Islamophobia in Canada refers to a set of discourses, behaviours and structures which express feelings of anxiety, fear, hostility and rejection towards Islam or Muslims in Canada.
Particularly since the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, a variety of surveys and polls, as well as reported incidents, have consistently given credence to the existence of Islamophobia in Canada. The number of police-reported hate crimes targeting Muslims in Canada more than tripled between 2012 and 2015, despite the overall number of such crimes decreasing over the same period, according to Statistics Canada data. Statistics Canada does state, however, that "an increase in numbers may be related to more reporting by the public".
The number of Islamophobic incidents significantly increased in 2015 and 2016; in 2015, police across the country recorded 159 hate crimes targeted at Muslims, up from 45 in 2012, representing an increase of 253%.
In January 2017, six Muslims were killed in a shooting attack at a Quebec City mosque. Islamophobia has manifested itself as vandalism of mosques and physical assaults on Muslims, including violence against Muslim women wearing the hijab or niqab. Islamophobia has been condemned by Canadian governments on the federal, provincial and municipal level.
In June 2021, five members of a Muslim family were the victims of a domestic attack in the city of London, Ontario. Four members died as a result of this attack, leaving the fifth, a 9-year old boy, with severe injuries. The act was reported as premeditated and motivated by anti-Muslim hate.
The Canadian media have played a mixed role in their coverage of Islamophobia, and have been described as having perpetuated it and/or countered it for Canadian audiences. Canada's public education system has also been scrutinized for its role as the site of Islamophobic incidents and of the development of Islamophobic attitudes in youth.
History
Although Canadian Islamophobia had been documented in the 20th century, it rapidly increased in the 21st century, corresponding to increases in conflict within the Middle East and Muslim immigration. The majority of documented cases have occurred during conflict between the U.S. and elements of the Muslim world. Such incidents also spike after incidents of Islamic terrorism in North America or other parts of the western world. Canadians with Middle Eastern backgrounds have been victimized by Islamophobia in the context of the September 11 attacks and the resulting war on terrorism. Islamophobia has often played on the theme of deeming Muslims as irrational and violent, and Islam as bent upon global domination. There was a significant spike in hate crimes against Muslims in Toronto, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The types of incidents included physical threats and destruction of property. In 2014, two incidents occurred, a vehicle ramming attack, and later a shooting at Parliament Hill. The latter was later attributed to mental illness, however then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and opposition leader Justin Trudeau referred to it as terrorism. Also the dramatic increase in numbers of Syrian refugees in 2016 created negative feelings and an increase in Islamophobic attacks and harassment. An upsurge in immigrants from India from around 2014 also contributed to an increased spread of Indian-origin anti-islamic sentiments forwarded via mobile messaging as part of Hindutva disinformation campaigns supported by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.In many cases, non-Muslims and non-Muslim buildings are targeted by Islamophobes due to mistaken identity.
Sharia law is explicitly banned in Quebec, upheld by a unanimous vote against it in 2005 by the National Assembly.
Hate crimes
from across Canada have reported that Muslims are the second most targeted religious group, after Jews. And while hate crimes against all religious groups have decreased, hate crimes against Muslims have increased following 9/11. In 2012, police forces from across Canada recorded 45 hate crimes against Muslims that were deemed to be "religiously motivated". By 2014, this number had more than doubled to 99.In 2015, the city of Toronto reported a similar trend: hate crimes in general decreased by 8.2%, but hate crimes against Muslims had increased. Police hypothesized the spike could be due to the Paris attacks or anger over refugees. Muslims faced the third highest level of hate crimes in Toronto, after Jews and the LGBTQ community.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada saw a sudden rise in hate crimes based on race, religion, and sexual orientation. Statistics Canada reported there was a 72% increase in hate crimes between 2019 and 2021.
Assaults
Many Islamophobic incidents have involved violent attacks on Muslims, sometimes resulting in physical injuries that require hospitalization. Many of the incidents revolve around Muslim women who wear the hijab or niqab.On September 26, 2014, six Muslim students at Queen's University were attacked by four men, one of whom wielded a baseball bat and who yelled various racial epithets. One of the students suffered minor physical injuries. The police arrested two men in connection to the attack and charged them with assault.
In May 2016, an Iranian student at Western University was physically attacked and called an "Arab"; the student suffered a concussion as a result of the attack. The attackers also uttered threats against his girlfriend. The mayor of London said the attack was a "wake-up call" and that "Islamophobia had no place in Canada".
Violence against Muslim women
Many Muslim women have been subjected to acts of violence, particularly those who are visibly Muslim due to them wearing the hijab or niqab.In 2011, a Muslim woman wearing the niqab was with her children when she was attacked at a Mississauga mall; the attacker screamed at her and pulled off her veil. After the court was shown mall security footage of the assault, the attacker pleaded guilty to assault. The incident was deemed Islamophobic by the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
In the aftermath of the 2013 Quebec Charter of Values, many Muslim women wearing the headscarf were attacked. On September 17, a 17-year old Muslim girl was attacked in St. Catharines. She was punched in the nose, that left her bleeding and her headscarf was pulled off. In November, a woman wearing the hijab in Montreal was attacked by two men; one of them spat on her, while the other pulled off her headscarf. In December, a woman wearing a hijab was attacked when another woman tried to forcibly remove her headscarf from her head.
In September 2015, a pregnant woman wearing the hijab was attacked by teenagers in Toronto, when they tried to pull off her headscarf, causing her to fall. Quebec's National Assembly responded by passing a unanimous resolution against Islamophobia.
In December 2020, two Muslim women in hijab were attacked by a 41 year old man in an Edmonton mall parking lot. According to witnesses, the man started out shouting racially motivated obscenities at them, then shattered one of the glass windows in their car, and then physically assaulted them in the parking lot as one of them tried to run away. Fortunately, several bystanders intervened and stopped the attack.
Attacks on mosques
Mosques in Canada have been the target of many Islamophobic attacks. The types of attacks usually consist of breaking windows and doors or spray painting hateful messages onto the mosque.On December 31, 2013, a bomb threat was made against a Vancouver mosque and the building was evacuated by the RCMP. On November 26, 2014, a bomb threat was made against a Montreal mosque and the police found a suspicious package. 12 buildings in the area were evacuated until the police neutralized the package.
On May 20, 2014, a man tried to throw a Molotov cocktail through the window of a mosque in Montreal, but was stopped by the police. The police had been watching the mosque because it had already been the target of multiple attacks.
On November 14, 2015, a day after the Paris attacks, the only mosque in Peterborough, Ontario was set on fire. Police deemed the arson a hate crime.
On October 12, 2020, Toronto Police confirmed they were investigating threats being made against a local mosque. The messages received by the mosque included the threat to “do a Christ church all over again,” referring to the attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March 2019 in which a gunman killed 51 people.
Quebec City mosque shooting
In January 2017, a gunman opened fire upon worshipers in the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec, killing 6 and wounding 19 others. The media reported that the attacker was a university student who had right-wing and anti-Muslim political tendencies. Many Muslims and non-Muslims blamed the attack on the rise in Islamophobic rhetoric in Canada.Toronto mosque volunteer murder
On 12 September 2020, Mohamed-Aslim Zafis, a volunteer at the International Muslim Organization, was stabbed in the neck while he was sitting outside the mosque. Toronto Police arrested and charged 34 year old Guilherme "William" Von Neutegem with first degree murder.Von Neutegem had shared content from a satanic neo-Nazi group in social media posts, according to an organization that tracks online extremism. This revelation has further fueled calls for the killing to be investigated as a hate crime, something the Toronto Police Service was considering. Furthermore, many Canadian Human rights organizations sent an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling on the federal government to establish a national action plan on dismantling white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups that threaten Canadians who are Black, Indigenous, Jewish, Muslim, or Sikh, amongst other communities.