Good morning.
I speak to you from London, Ontario, the traditional home of the Anishinabe people for over 13,000 years.
This Thursday will be the third anniversary of the day my niece Madiha Salman, her husband Salman Afzaal, her mother-in-law Talat Afzaal, her 15-year-old daughter Yumna Afzaal and her nine-year-old son Fayez Afzaal were deliberately attacked by a pickup truck driven by a young man.
Three generations were erased with the aim of scaring Muslim Canadians into leaving Canada. What was the crime my family committed? They were being visibly Muslim in public. That attack was neither unspeakable nor unimaginable to happen here. For decades, Muslim Canadians have been deliberately portrayed as a fifth column. I'll repeat that. In a pervasive narrative, Muslim Canadians are being actively and intentionally portrayed as outsiders and foreigners—as the “other”. This is a depiction that continues and thrives, an intentional depiction that eventually has real, brutal and deadly consequences. Which of you will say that the conditions that led up to June 6 no longer exist today?
The perpetrator behind the attack on our London family took direct inspiration from two men, highlighting the international interconnectedness of ideological hatred. The first was a 2019 terrorist attack at a mosque in New Zealand that left 51 dead. The second was a California attack, also in 2019, inspired by the New Zealand manifesto. This man tried to set a mosque on fire, and when that arson was thwarted by congregants who happened to be inside the mosque, the man escaped and shot three people in a synagogue instead. What this tells us is that hate is transferable.
The innocence of all the children in my family vanished, especially that of my nine-year-old great-nephew, now an orphan. He has come face to face with the most evil fruit of what is a socially acceptable and unchallenged othering, the end result of a monolithic labelling of Muslims that believes deviant acts committed overseas are somehow the responsibility of individual Canadian Muslims to shoulder. The shameless othering of Muslims in daily life doesn't even feel the need to hide its face. I told Fayez Afzaal that a criminal just a few years older than Yumna ran over everyone, leaving nobody alive. “Not even one?” is what he asked. This is the price of Islamophobia that Fayez has to pay for the rest of his life.
My youngest son thought, “How could someone kill another person without knowing them, and even if someone hated a person, why would they kill them?” In his sweet innocence, he thought that if the criminal had taken the time to sit down for kebabs and a mango smoothie with our family, the criminal would have changed his mind. My son now wonders if his native Canada is really a safe place. Does his Muslim identity make him less Canadian?
As Muslims, we pray five times during the day. In the past, when my son had to pray in public, he had no issue, but now when he has to pray, he's conscious that people are judging him, or worse, that someone will desire to hurt him. He wonders when he puts on his hockey jersey with the name “Islam” emblazoned on the back what name or comments other parents may throw. He says that he used to look at his home as a safe place. “Canada is still my only home,” he says, “but now I'm not so sure how welcome or safe I feel.” He is 13.
My middle son, a teenager one year younger than Yumna, told me that hatred of Muslims has taught him that it's dangerous for a Muslim Canadian to feel attached to anything or anyone because nothing is guaranteed, not even tomorrow. He's 16.
My daughter, my eldest child, just two years older than Yumna, lost her vivaciousness and sense of belonging. She fell into deep isolation, using it as a shield in an environment that was telling her that Muslims do not belong. She says that she didn't feel heard or valued by society. She has learned that striving for happiness is unrealistic; instead, we should strive for peace. She is 18.
For my wife, the effect of the violent expression of Islamophobia is that, in her mind, she now says a final goodbye whenever the children and I walk out the door every single day. It's exhausting for her, but this is her reality. She has lived through a war and seen and experienced violence overseas, but she never felt as vulnerable as she does now. She says perhaps it's because she felt lied to about Canada's diversity and promise of equality for everyone. She feels short-sighted for believing that this promise was for everyone. Since the attack, she has lost faith that society will give equal worth to its citizens. Is equal worth only for Canadians of European heritage?
A young woman in my family who wears the hijab is scared about the what-ifs when she steps outside. The hijab, a sign of humility, a signal to others about her honesty and devotion, now makes her a walking bull's eye. Not only does it put her in danger, but it puts anyone alongside her in danger, so on top of carrying fear, she now has to carry guilt.
As we approach the third anniversary of the attack on our London family, let me read to you some of the comments sent in over the last few weeks to the volunteers and the City of London employees organizing the vigil on Thursday evening. “Islamophobia is not a thing.” “When will the City of London stop sucking Islamic ****?” “Stop pandering to a people who would sooner slit your throat than help you.” “People like you are the problem.” “What have ‘muslims’ done for us, besides nothing?” “No sympathy.” “Stop terrorizing Jewish folks in Toronto.“ “Piss on Islam.” “You all will be held accountable. We are coming for all of you.” “Keep London Pure.”
As a family that was the victims of a hate crime, we feel there is an unrealistic lack of resources and insufficient willpower to understand hate and to talk about how it develops, how it's propagated and how it can be combatted. I ask Parliament to do a better job of explaining why Islamophobia matters if it only affects 5% of the population. Is it real? Is it being exaggerated? Why should 95% of Canadians care about it? I ask parliamentarians to say what should be obvious: Is Canada ultimately a nation for the descendants of white Europeans, or is it something else?
Listen to your conscience. Stop the intentional othering and dehumanization of Muslim Canadians. Look to your right and left when you sit in the House, and call out your colleagues. We are Canadian. Pass or amend the online harms bill to protect our youth, but get it passed.
I've seen foot-dragging at the provincial level with no passage of the our London family act, the act that includes proposed changes to education and creates safe zones around religious institutions. There's a Senate report on Islamophobia that came out in November 2023. Will this committee be taking that off the shelf?
I saw, Madam Chair—
