Canada: Trudeau bats for national summit on Islamophobia to 'end anti-Muslim sentiments'

"There is no place in Canada for Islamophobia," said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a national summit on Islamophobia on Thursday. This came after Canadian MPs unanimously voted in favour of a motion calling for a national summit on Islamophobia in June following the attack in London, Ontario, that killed four members of a Muslim family as they were out for an evening walk.

At the national summit, Trudeau said that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and federal security must do more to put an end to anti-Muslim sentiments in the country. He also directed government officials, businesses, and Canadian citizens to root out Islamophobia and all types of hate and discrimination in the country and also directed the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and security agencies that "Institutions should support people, not target them".

Earlier, civil liberties organizations charged CRA with unfairly targeting Muslim charities with high tax receipts.

Canada PM Justin Trudeau took to Twitter to share the national summit, he wrote "Islamophobia is unacceptable and has consequences. We need to keep working together to end it".

National summit on Islamophobia

In the national summit, Trudeau pointed out the incidents where people from the Muslim community were brutally attacked. He recalled the attack in London and a more recent incident which took place in Hamilton, Ontario, which saw a mother and daughter threatened". "Where we celebrate diversity, where we stand together. That's the promise our country must work hard to live up to because too many times and for too many people, that promise has been broken".

Highlighting the recent spike in hate crimes, CEO of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), Mustafa Farooq, said, "The reality is we can not just keep adding to a list of horrifying things that have happened". Farooq said all levels of government should follow the recommendations with concrete action. 

"This is not about politics or an election," he said. "For our community, this is about survival," he added.

Attacks on Muslims in Canada

The main objective of the national summit was to drive out the feeling of Islamophobia among Canadian nationals. There have been multiple incidents of Muslims being targeted in the country. Recently, a Muslim woman wearing a hijab was attacked in Alberta, and last September, a Muslim man was stabbed to death in a Toronto mosque.

Last month, a 20-year-old Canadian man was accused of murdering four members of a family belonging to the Muslim community. Earlier in 2017, six Canadian Muslims were killed in a Quebec City mosque.

The Muslim leaders who participated in the summit raised their concern over the increasing violence against their community and urged the government to look.

Meanwhile, Trudeau took to Twitter and said Islamophobia has made the communities unsafe for Muslim Canadians and should be stopped. 

IMAGE: AP