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Islamophobia has been rife post the 9/11 WTC attacks. Bias has been evident – though not prevalent – even in Canada.
According to several surveys conducted post 9/11, hate crimes and discrimination against Muslims has seen an appalling increase.
According to the survey conducted in 2002 by CAIR-CAN, a civil rights organization, majority of Muslims in Canada felt there was a rise in anti-Muslim sentiment. 56% of the respondents reported experienced anti-Muslim discrimination post 9/11.
Media bias against Islam and Muslims was also found on an increase by the same respondents. Verbal abuse was reported by 33% while racial profiling and workplace discrimination were nigh at 18% and 16% respectively.
Anti-Muslim hate crime – at a lowly number of 11 cases per year prior to 9/11 – saw an annual increase by 1600% up to 173 cases as reported by the Canadian Islamic Congress in 2003.
From November 2001 to March 2002 a survey was conducted focusing on Canadian Arabs by the Canadian Arab Federation.
Racism was encountered by 49.4% respondents in their everyday interactions. Out of these 41.5% reported under the category of occasionally, 4.7% frequently and 3.2% all the time. 44.7% respondents reported in negative and 5.9% said they did not know.
There have also been cases of vandalism directed towards mosques, particularly in British Columbia. Mosques are seen as work centers of extremists and jihadists, one of the common misconceptions of Islamophobia. This has resulted in incidents of vandalism and hate crimes in Canada and elsewhere.
In August 2012, Al Iman Mosque in British Columbia was threatened with an attack by a rocket launcher. The threat was made via an online comment; the perpetrator was arrested soon after.
October 2012 – Bacon was left outside Islamic Society of B.C. mosque in Port Coquitlam, B.C.
Mosques in London, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec received hate mails addressing Muslims to leave Canada in September and January 2012 respectively.
The Outaouais mosque in Gatineau, Quebec – which had received letters demanding Muslims to leave Canada – was vandalized with graffiti bearing hate messages and Star of David apart from broken windows and attempts at burning cars in the parking lot.
September 2012 – “Defeat Jihad” posters and a bottle filled with gasoline were left on the doorstep of Masjid Dar As-Salam in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
In September 2012, Salahuddin Mosque in Toronto was met with anti-Muslim protest with demands of a “Walk your dog at the mosque day”.
In the latest anti-Muslim hate-crime incident, Muslims in the city of Fort Saskatchewan have been the target after the anniversary of 9/11.
A home used by the members of the local Muslim community was vandalized twice.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.
Apart from incidents of vandalism by civilians, even the RCMP has been accused of racial profiling. One particular case –in 2004 –is that of Dr. Mahboob Khawaja, an academic who specializes in Strategic Studies; the focus of his research concerns Western-Islamic Civilizations and Change & Conflict Resolutions. He has authored books and published articles on this topic including “Muslims and the West: Quest for Change and Conflict Resolution.
“It was a combined (American/Canadian/UK) project, my wife and children arrested at gunpoint in Ottawa while I was working in a university in Saudi Arabia. My family home was attacked by 50 – 60 armed (Royal Canadian Mounted Police – RCMP) without any formal search warrant, looking for a bomb, but found nothing.”
According to Khawaja, the door of his house was blown open before the RCMP insurgents demanded that Mahboob and his family get down on the floor. “Is your house booby trapped? Where are the explosives?” were the questions asked. The answer, of course, was negative.
“Simultaneously, I was arrested in Saudi Arabia and jailed for two weeks. The Saudi Intelligence showed me the formal Canadian request, but the Security Minister (Anne McClellan) and the Government in Ottawa denied sending it.” Mahboob informed. He also claimed that his reputation as a professor in global politics was tarnished and career destroyed thenceforth, as was his son Momin’s, who worked as a software developer.
In September 2014, 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 feed hatred…and hate incidents like these ones”, she said.
