A nine-year old boy is left orphaned after his entire family is killed by a terrorist, Nathaniel Veltman.
19 are wounded and 6 innocent worshipers in the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec are brutally murdered by 27-year old terrorist, Alexandre Bissonnette. It is one of the worst mass murders to take place in a house of worship in Canadian history.
A 17-year-old Muslim girl is attacked for wearing a headscarf. She is punched in the nose, and left bleeding while her headscarf is ripped off.
A pregnant woman wearing the hijab is attacked by teenagers in Toronto, causing her to fall while they try to take off her headscarf.
6 Muslim students at Queen’s University are attacked by 4 men with a baseball bat and racial slurs.
At Western University, an Arab student is physically attacked and suffers a concussion, along with his girlfriend who also is verbally attacked.
I can keep on going, but you get the point, right?
For far too long, Islamophobia has been on the rise and has been left ignored. According to Statistics Canada Data, it is found that hate crimes against Muslims in Canada have grown an astounding 253% from 2012 to 2015. This accounts for hundreds of reported incidents, with many just brushed under the rug. These numbers rise on a yearly basis.
Islamophobia has become a norm in Canada. Violence, ignorance, and hate speech against Muslims is overlooked and accepted socially and politically.
As a 21-year-old woman in Windsor, Ontario, I still struggle with leaving my house because I know what I have to face out there. I have suffered through my fair share of minor hate crimes from people yelling out racial slurs from their cars to professors ignoring my presence because of my hijab.
It is already a tough world out there, and some people still go out of their way to make it harder for the minority.
“The reality is, this is our Canada … Our Canada is a place where you can’t walk down the streets if you wear a hijab because you will be killed. We can’t deny it. We can’t reject that because it does not help. The reality is our Canada is a place of racism, of violence, of genocide of Indigenous people. And our Canada is a place where Muslims aren’t safe.” – Jagmeet Singh, New Democrat Leader.
So, when will it stop? When we as a society finally decide that Islamophobia is not acceptable.
Here is how you can help:
– Learn more about Islam, the movement to counteract the hate crimes against Muslims in Canada.
– Raise as much awareness as you can on social media. Spread your knowledge along to friends, colleagues, and even professors.
– Help if you see it happening in front of you.
– Stand in solidarity with the Muslim community. Look for local marches and campaigns that are taking place.
– Do not believe everything you see online. Always try to understand both sides of a story before forming an opinion about something.