Last week a terrible terrorist crime was committed against a Muslim family in Canada. The five family members were out for a walk to enjoy a warm spring evening when a black pick-up truck climbed the curb and struck them as they waited to cross the intersection.
Except for a nine-year-old kid who suffered serious injuries, all the family members died at the scene including a 74-year-old woman, 46-year-old man, a 44-year-old woman and a 15-year-old girl.
The Canadian police arrested the 20-year-old suspect who fled the scene but later found hiding in a mall seven kms from the crime scene.
The crime, which took place in London, Ontario Province on Sunday June 7, brought immediate condemnation from the Canadian political leaders especially after it had been proved to be a premeditated hate crime against Muslims.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the crime and expressed full support to the Muslim community in Canada.
“To the Muslim community in London and to Muslims across the country, know that we stand with you,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter on Monday.
So, how would the prime minister and other Canadian officials translate this support to action on the ground to combat the growing Islamophobia and hate crimes against minorities, particularly Muslims?
Earlier this year, the Ottawa Police Service issued a report warning of a 57 per cent rise in hate crime reports in 2020 compared to 2019.
Last week’s attack brought up some painful memories of other hate crimes perpetrated against the Canadian Muslims. For example, In January 2017, a white supremacist stormed a Quebec City Mosque and opened fire on worshippers killing six men and seriously injuring five others. A year later a driving rampage in Toronto killed 10 people.
None of the two criminals were charged under the terrorism clause of the Canadian Criminal Code.
Canada, known of being one of the most liberal states, should thoroughly debate the causes behind this surge in anti-Muslim hate crimes.
Until recently soon, the Muslim community in Canada set an example of how to practice Islam in their society without raising public discomfort against them.
Unfortunately, Canada, like many other Western countries, is now heavily affected by Islamophobia which has become a kind of industry being promoted by some right-wing politicians, war mongers and racists. Apparently, the media played a leading role in this business with television and newspapers keeping Islam at the forefront of people’s minds that one could hardly find a news bulletin that does not have at least one report about violence in some part of the Muslim world.
Therefore, if officials in Canada and other Western countries truly want to put an end to such hate crimes against Muslims, they should consider doing much more than simply condemning such crimes. They even avoid calling these crimes as acts of terror. The least they should do is to follow lead of the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern who took decisive measures following the horrific terrorist attack against Muslim worshippers in Christchurch in 2019, which left 51 people dead and 40 injured.
Along with her strong support and compassion for the victims’ families and the entire Muslim community in New Zealand, Ardern urged the media not to refer to the criminal by his name in order not to give him any kind of fame, and instead to refer to the victims who deserve to be remembered. She also launched a comprehensive campaign against supremacists and urged social media platforms to combat hate speech. Eventually, the criminal got life sentence without the possibility of parole for each of the 51 murders and on the charge of committing a terrorist act. This was the maximum sentence in New Zealand.
In Canada, meanwhile, the perpetrators of the similar hate crimes got their sentence reduced and were not charged with terrorism!
Accordingly, Canadian authorities and the media should play more effective role for driving public condemnation to such acts of terror against Muslims and other minorities living in the country. So, why not publish photos and stories of the victims so that people would stop seeing them as mere figures but as real people who committed no guilt to deserve such horrific death.
On the other hand, the Muslim communities in Canada and other Western countries should exert greater effort to acquaint their societies with the actual principles and teaching of Islam emphasising that Islam is not a threat to Western civilisation but could be the cause of its salvation.
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