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Muslims in the city of Fort Saskatchewan have been the target of communal attacks this week as communal tensions grew following the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
A home used by the members of the local Muslim community once again had to be cleaned up after it was vandalized with anti-Islam slurs for the second time in the week.
Speaking to CBC, Waseem Akhtar, who stays in the house, said that he had woken up to sounds of objects being thrown at the side of the building early on Monday.
“They hit some stuff outside of my bedroom. And then, I opened my window curtain…and they just ran away”, he said.
Akhtar had found that the building was pelted with eggs; on closer examination, the eggshells had anti-Islamic insults written on them.
On the anniversary of 9/11, vandals had spray-painted a red cross on the same building.
Akhtar added that one of his roommates had moved out of fear, and that he was worried this would not be the end of it.
“I’m very scared. We are living very peacefully over here. (It) never happened, this kind of incident. I can expect anything in the next couple of days. They can attack again”, he said.
The Fort Saskatchewan Royal Canadian Mounted Police have said that they are investigating the attacks on Akhtar’s home.
Several Muslim organizations in the country have noticed a spike in anti-Muslim reports in recent weeks.
Last week, an Imam from Calgary said that he was hit by a car on his way to Friday prayer – he said that the woman driving the car shouted ethnic slurs before calling him a terrorist.
The human rights coordinator for the National Council of Canadian Muslims Amy Awad said that the recent increase in such incidents was probably due to attention on IS extremists in Iraq.
“The more people see negative stories about people who appear to be Muslim, the more suspicious they might become. And that can feels of hatred…and hate incidents like these ones”, she said.
