The anti-Muslim backlash following the recent Paris atrocities is creating its own acts of solidarity. In Toronto, Canada, four high profile anti-Muslim incidents have made headline news. A Muslim woman was assaulted as she went to collect her children from school on Monday. According to police, two males pulled at her hijab and stole her mobile phone. The brother of the victim said she was punched in the stomach and face, called a “terrorist” and told to “go back home” during the assault. Metrolinx staff found anti-Muslim graffiti inside a bathroom of a busy train station. On November 19, a Muslim student at the University of Toronto, named Osama Omar, 21, was spat at as he waited for a streetcar in downtown Toronto. Omar wears a topi, or Muslim prayer cap. The perpetrator told Omar to take his “turban” off and attempted to punch him twice. In a Facebook post, he described how an elderly woman who saw the incident from across the street came over to ‘apologise on behalf of the man’. She told Omar not to see him as a ‘generalized representation’ of what society has become. At around 6pm on Wednesday, two Muslim women faced verbal abuse [...]
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In a blow to Stephen Harper’s government, the Federal Court of Appeal found a ban on wearing niqabs at citizenship ceremonies unlawful. Three justices wanted to rule now so Zunera Ishaq could take her citizenship oath and vote in the elections that will decide Canada’s next parliament on October 19. Ishaq, 29, moved to Ontario in 2008 to be with her husband. She had agreed to remove her niqab for an official before completing her citizenship test in 2013. But objected to removing it during a public ceremony, as required under a 2011 rule change. “The government of Canada will seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada in the Ishaq case,” Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said in a one-line statement. Paul Daly, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law at the Université de Montréal tweeted: Very, very little chance leave will be granted. https://t.co/US9m5EKXd1 — Paul Daly (@pauldalyesq) September 16, 2015 Judge Keith Boswell argued that citizenship judges must allow for religious freedom when administering the oath. Boswell questioned the practicalities of a policy that asks individuals to ‘violate’ or ‘renounce’ tenets of their religion. The judgement brought tears of relief to Ishaq, her family, and supporters. [...]
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Continue ReadingA Canadian mosque raised thousands of dollars to support a nearby Catholic church after a spate of vandalism. News of the vandalism soon spread. Hamid Slimi, imam of the Sayeda Khadija Centre in Mississauga visited the St. Catherine of Siena Roman Catholic Church to make sense of the crime. Father Camillo Lando showed Slimi footage of the vandal’s behaviour. According to the Toronto Star, “The guy who did it ripped pages out of the Bible. He broke the altar. He threw the cross,” said Slimi. “When I saw this, I thought it was pure injustice. It was just wrong”. After recalling the incident at a Friday sermon, Slimi urged others to donate. Within a day, the congregation raised almost $5,000. CCTV of the first incident captured a man tearing pages from bibles, throwing holy books, and laying a cross upon the floor. Upon leaving, footage captured him taking items. Days later, a vandal left a statue of Jesus desecrated; the adjoining school spray painted. Local police soon arrested Iqbal Hessan, 22, and charged him. At a bail hearing, Hessan stated he was ‘upset’ with Christianity. During the ongoing trial, prosecution told the court that Hessan confessed a desire to ‘hurt’ [...]
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