Thank you, Madam Chair.
I greet you with this Islamic greeting: [Witness speaks in Arabic]. May peace, mercy, and the blessings of God be upon you all.
My name is Mansoor Pirzada. I'm a dermatologist by profession, currently practising in St. John's. I'm the president of MANAL, the Muslim Association of Newfoundland and Labrador. We are a charitable non-profit organization managed by volunteers who have their own professional careers. We are engaged in religious, educational, and outreach activities, as well as close partnerships with other faith groups. Our mission is to contribute to the well-being of our members, the larger community of our province, and our fellow Canadians.
The Muslim population in Newfoundland and Labrador is over 2,000. We had a recent boost with the arrival of around 200 Syrian refugees. Madam Chair, probably to the surprise of many, the experience of Muslims living in our province has historically been more positive than negative. The credit is shared among various stakeholders, and I would like to begin with the greatest one, and that is the people of our province.
Our weather in Newfoundland and Labrador can be tough, but we are blessed with a mild human climate. Our people are famous for their hospitality, kindness, and welcoming attitude. Their great human qualities are best documented through the most recent Broadway musical Come from Away. In a nutshell, it is the story of a small community that welcomed passengers on 9/11 flights diverted to rural Newfoundland and Labrador. What is not documented is how the same people treated their Muslim friends and neighbours in the aftermath of this tragedy. With their great wisdom, they realized that Muslims were the indirect victims.
They always supported us whenever the beautiful name and the teachings of our religion were hijacked as a pretext for cruel atrocities. In the aftermath of the tragic incident in Quebec City, our political and religious leaders came together to attend our Friday service to demonstrate their solidarity. While we were praying inside, over 1,500 Newfoundlanders and Labradorians from all walks of life formed a symbolic, yet very powerful, human shield around our mosque.
Madam Chair, the second stakeholder to be credited for our unique positive experience is our own Muslim community. We truly consider our province as our homeland. We embrace and practise the same great human qualities as our fellow Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. Our Muslim community is diverse, yet very inclusive. We contribute to the prosperity of our province, not only as hard-working, tax-paying, and law-abiding citizens, but as culturally interesting and friendly neighbours.
Muslim international students and faculty members bring in world-class educational and research experience. Muslim professionals work in various sectors, ranging from health to the oil and gas industry. Muslim entrepreneurs run small and large businesses. Our children and youth boost the aging demographic of our province. Even our mosque is unique in Atlantic Canada, because it is the only one that was built as a mosque right from scratch. This is the only mosque in North America that was built by the collective efforts of the followers of two major sects of Islam, Sunnis and Shias. As of today, this is the only mosque in North America where Sunnis and Shias pray together. Madam Chair, this is our example and message of inclusiveness to all Canadians and the world.
The third stakeholder feeding into our mild human climate is the unique nature of leadership in our province. Historically, our political and religious leaders have always been constructive. They have helped in promoting a safe and welcoming environment for the residents, including Muslims. While visible minorities in parts of the country have been victims of hate crimes, peace and tranquillity prevail in our province.
Madam Chair, I also would like to acknowledge the positive role of our media. Most recently, on May 25, CBC's Here and Now played a special edition on Islam from our local mosque. The program was greatly appreciated by viewers for its educational nature. I recall one social media commentator who wrote that the program positively changed his previously held negative perception about Muslims.
Madam Chair, haters exist everywhere, and even our province is not completely immune to hatred. So far our experience of Islamophobia in our province has been limited to hate speech in virtual platforms, as well as indirect and subtle interventions in public spaces.
However, more recently we've started observing a worrying change. In a community consultation we attended a few weeks ago, representatives of our provincial human rights commission pointed out that the number of lslamophobia-related complaints they receive has recently increased. What is equally alarming is that these complaints are now more about everyday encounters in public spaces, such as shopping malls, grocery stores, and so on.
More recently, during the Thanksgiving holiday, our community woke up to the news of lslamophobic posters all over the Memorial University campus. The trend is now considered alarming enough to warrant addressing lslamophobia consultations among community and university stakeholders. Their priority is to find ways to increase institutional capacities of service providers to address the lslamophobia in our province.
Although our experience has historically been positive, we are still worried about the future. Our main question is, for how long will our unique positive experience continue? Will it prevail as a role model for the rest of Canada, or are we going to lose it to the pervasiveness of hatred?
Madam Chair, I know there is ongoing debate about the exclusive use of lslamophobia in motion M-103, and some lack of consensus about its merit, meaning, and implications. I don't want to waste our time by reproducing this debate. However, I must say that the notion of lslamophobia has a strong conceptual merit in capturing the complexity of the problem we are dealing with, and it offers significant insight into the root cause. It reminds us that Muslims experience racism and discrimination because of their religious affiliation with Islam. It captures the mutually reinforcing processes of demonizing Islam and dehumanizing Muslims. It exposes that it is due to their affiliation with Islam that Muslims are categorically perceived as one single race that is inferior, uncivilized, and deserving of hostile treatment. This is why non-Muslims sometimes end up being targeted when they are perceived as Muslims.
Our national unemployment statistics and research data comparing our poverty rates with other developed countries suggest that lslamophobia is not a new phenomenon in Canada. For instance, according to 2001 Statistics Canada data, Muslims in Canada have the highest unemployment rate by religious group. Similarly, in 2007 Canada had the largest gap between Muslim and non-Muslim poverty rates in comparison to the U.S., France, Germany, Spain, and Britain.
Therefore, we have every reason to argue that lslamophobia really stands out in our age as one of the most pervasive manifestations of racial and religious discrimination. This is why it deserves specific acknowledgement. Moreover, it is in the context of the Quebec city tragedy that Muslim Canadians are entitled to expect your committee to unanimously acknowledge and thoroughly address lslamophobia.
Madam Chair, the elephant is already in our Canadian store. It has already caused irrevocable damage, not only to Canadian Muslims but to all Canadians who are collectively woven into the beautiful fabric of our society. Now is not the time to play around words and politics. It is time to be united to minimize and ultimately eliminate this serious threat.
As a community leader, I am concerned with the rise in lslamophobic incidents in our province and their negative impact on Muslim women and youth especially. I consider women and youth as the future of the country. As Canadians, we cannot and shall not discriminate against them. Otherwise, we would be defying not only our own core Canadian values but also Canada's demographic and economic interests.
If we want to continue to move forward on the path of past economic and social success, we must tap the unrealized human talent and skill sets that reside in our visible minorities. We must together work as Canadians to eliminate this cancer of systemic racism, religious discrimination, and lslamophobia once and for all. It is only then that we can all call ourselves Canadians without any qualifier of race, colour, language, or religion.
Our recommendations are as follows. I will shorten them a bit. Number one is creating a national registry. The second is to introduce awareness and training programs. Third, develop and introduce programs to support victims of lslamophobia and protect vulnerable ones. Fourth is to introduce and implement appropriate tools that would promote equity and inclusion and eliminate racial and religious barriers to employment. In that context we need to use an equity lens to undertake diversity and equity analysis in our budget preparation.
We hope that the work of the honourable committee members will lead to the development of appropriate strategy to support equity, justice, tolerance, and inclusion in our beloved country. Canadian Muslims are ready to present themselves as agents of positive change. They only need to be reassured about their safety as well as their inherent and acquired dignity in Canadian society.
Thank you. God bless Canada. Long live Canada.
