Canada's Muslim communities gather to mourn; warn of racist backlash
Updated: Fri, Sep 14 8:57 PM EDT
TORONTO (CP) - Muslim Canadians gathered in mosques across Canada on Friday in prayer services that recognized a continent-wide day of mourning in the wake of horrific terrorist attacks on the United States.
As hundreds of Muslims gathered at a downtown mosque to mourn the thousands killed, community leaders called for tolerance and reason following a spate of racially motivated attacks believed to be a backlash against Tuesday's catastrophic events.
While condemning the "immoral and criminal acts" of terrorism in the United States, Naeem Siddiqi of the Council on American-Islamic Relations expressed concern over "the growing number of anti-Muslim incidents documented in the last few days."
Siddiqi said Muslims across Canada had been taunted, threatened, and their places of worship desecrated.
Several Muslim schools have closed, many Muslim children were kept home from public schools for fear of physical attacks and some mosques were telling women and children to stay away, he said.
"Canadian Muslims should not suffer for being Muslim," he said outside the Jami Mosque, located on a tree-lined street in Toronto's west end.
"Their families, like the families of other victims, have been devastated."
While no official count has surfaced, reports have indicated as many as 300 to 500 American Muslims may have died in the attacks, Siddiqi said.
Imran Yousef of the Canadian Muslim Civil Liberties Association said a mosque in Oshawa, Ont., had been hit with a Molotov cocktail, Muslim children in Oakville, Ont., had been assaulted and Muslim women had been targeted because of their distinctive mode of dress.
One woman was run off the road by an irate driver, he said, while hate letters and death threats had come in via email and phone messages to Arab organizations.
By Friday, he said 30 to 40 calls had been placed to Islamic groups across Canada to report incidents of harassment, intimidation, assault or vandalism since Tuesday's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Across the country, Muslims were joined by the head of the Canadian Federation of Nurses, Human Rights Commissioners in Ontario and Nova Scotia, and B'nai Brith Canada, a Jewish human rights group, who all issued statements warning Canadians not to direct their fear and anger toward members of the Muslim faith.
"Our concern is that these acts will grow in number," said Kathleen Connors of the nurses' federation, which represents 120,000 nurses in Canada.
"Muslim Canadians and Arab Canadians are no more responsible for these acts of terror than Christian Canadians were responsible for the Oklahoma city bombing."
Connors' organization has produced stickers with the slogan Muslim Canadian and Muslim Canadian Supporter.
"An attack on any group because of their faith or their race or ethnic background is an attack on the values for which we hold this country dear," she said.
Calgary's Muslim community has taken out full-page newspapers ads in this weekend's editions to strongly condemn the terrorist acts.
Nagah Hage, president of the Muslim Council of Calgary, says the move, announced to about 1,000 Muslims at the end of a prayer meeting Friday, was made to try and counter the stereotypes of Muslim extremists and Arab fundamentalists.
"Islam is a religion, a way of life," Hage said. "What's happening out there has nothing to do with the teachings of the Qur'an and the teachings of the prophet, peace be upon him."
Jewish and Muslim people must pull together, B'nai Brith Canada president Rochelle Wilner said in a release.
"This is a time when we must work together in good faith, as we did during the Gulf war and beyond, to counter Islamaphobia, antisemitism and racism," she said.
Muslim women across the country have been more susceptible to discrimination because of their distinctive head-coverings, said one Montreal community leader.
"We've heard of cases of some water being thrown at veiled women just because they're veiled," said Rabie Masrie of the Canadian-Palestinian Federation.
One Muslim woman in Toronto said she was not afraid of reprisals against Muslims in Canada, believing Canadians to be more tolerant than their American counterparts.
"(The incidents in Canada) just demonstrate intolerance - most people wouldn't do that, not in a multicultural city like Toronto," said Farheen Hasan, 32.
In British Columbia, special prayers were offered Friday at all of the nearly 20 mosques and places of worship.
Adam Buksh, chairman of the Muslim Association of British Columbia, said there had been virtually no incidents of violence or backlash directed at Muslims or mosques in the province so far.
One exception was a threatening phone call made to a mosque in Richmond, which is now under investigation by the RCMP, he said.
Municipal and provincial politicians also appealed to ideals of tolerance and peace as they spoke out against racism.
"It is critical that we have a dual resolve . . . to bring the perpetrators to justice . . . and to ensure that the unfathomable, unconscionable hatred does not spread," said Ontario Liberal Gerard Kennedy, who represents the Toronto riding where the Jami mosque is located.
"To do otherwise is to lose in the face of the challenge these events put in front of us."
Barbara Hall, former mayor of Toronto, also made an impassioned plea.
"What a tragedy that Canadian children of the Muslim faith . . . are having to feel an additional fear," she said.
Mosque members have taken it upon themselves to step up security by staying in their houses of worship overnight and locking gates which would normally be kept open, Siddiqi said.
Anecdotal evidence has surfaced about relatives of Canadian Muslims lost in the collapse of the World Trade Center, Siddiqi added.
"We know of several people who have lost loved ones," he said.
|
numb
scared
nostalgic
pleased
sleepy
blah
annoyed
