Justice committee  Can you make some comment on the use of the Internet by white supremacist organizations to promote hatred against both Muslims and Jews?

Justice committee  Look, white supremacists absolutely crucially understand that this is an opportunity for them to spread hatred against Muslims and Jews and to play them off against each other. I think what's been so dispiriting about the last nine months since October 7 has been seeing the way that platforms, algorithms and sometimes groups themselves have played the tune of white supremacists, who hate all of us, frankly.

Justice committee  The great replacement theory specifically is the theory that Jews are encouraging migration of Muslims and Blacks to destroy the white race through intermarriage and interbreeding.

Justice committee  It's taking the lives of Jews, Muslims and others.

Justice committee  I would like to note that today is the third anniversary of the act of Islamophobic terrorism in London that took the lives of the Afzaal family and shook the Muslim community across Canada. Our London family is in our prayers today and all days. I would like to ask Mr. Brown to comment on how acts of Islamophobia like this impact the sense of safety and security that members of the community feel in Canada and whether there is a specific example of the increase of the Islamophobic incidents in the past few months.

Justice committee  Leading up to Bill 21, there were long discussions in society about basically the discomfort many people faced with Muslim women in particular. Many governments prior to the CAQ had made recommendations to remove people's rights, but it was in 2019 that the Quebec government moved to enact a law that would take away the rights of citizens to practise certain professions.

Justice committee  It states that everyone is free to practise the religion of their choice and to display whatever religious symbols they choose, regardless of whether they belong to the Jewish community, the Muslim community, the Christian community, the Catholic community or whatever. However, the state must keep its nose out of it, if you'll pardon the expression. The state must remain neutral, it must be secular.

Justice committee  I want to thank the witnesses for being with us today, and in particular on this day, which is a difficult one for the Muslim community around the country, and particularly in London. I would like to acknowledge once again that we were privileged in our first session to hear from family and friends from London who talked about the real impacts of Islamophobia on everyday life.

Justice committee  I mean, my name is Stephen Brown, and I don't look like I'm from South Asia or western Asia, so I heard everything that people had to say about Muslims and Arabs at that time. However, the fact of the matter is that it wasn't just then. There are issues now as well. For example, Marco Mendicino shared content from Meir Weinstein. This is not a one-party issue; this is a multi-party issue.

Justice committee  I also remember that at the federal level, when the last government, the Conservative government, was running an election, there was gross maligning of Muslims and there were caricatures being put forth. Every other day you would see a niqab-wearing person on the cover of a paper or in some cases being referred to in almost every stump speech by the Conservative Party in the election campaign.

Justice committee  For our first panel, we have with us in person, representing the National Council of Canadian Muslims, Stephen Brown, chief executive officer. We have virtually, representing the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Imran Ahmed, chief executive officer and founder. We have, representing the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians, Ms.

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm trying to understand how condemning or pointing the finger—not at an ethnic or religious group, but at a terrorist group—could discredit us in the Arab‑Muslim world.

Foreign Affairs committee  The selective aspect will be immediately obvious from a public opinion perspective in the Muslim world, because—

Foreign Affairs committee  —in Muslim public opinion will be “selectivism”. Canada will undoubtedly be branded an Islamophobic country.

Foreign Affairs committee  If Canada decides to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization now, under the current circumstances, it will first and foremost simply destroy this image. Second, in both Shiite and Sunni circles throughout the Muslim world, Canada will unfortunately be associated with the mass slaughter now taking place in Gaza. My point is that the drawbacks of this decision far outweigh the benefits. Moreover, as I said, the IRGC members aren't choirboys.