Fifth Hate Crime and Vandalism Incident at Masjid Toronto

The Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) calls on authorities and elected officials to action. Masjid Toronto, located in downtown Toronto, has been subjected to 5 attacks in the last two months. Three incidents have taken place at the University and Dundas location and just this week the Church and Adelaide location was vandalized twice in the same day.

MAC condemns the Islamophobic and racist graffiti and damage inflicted upon both locations. These hateful attacks threaten the safety of our community.

While police reports have been filed, the Muslim community has yet to see any serious action from local authorities to help put an end to these acts of hate.  The Muslim community needs local authorities to step up to the responsibility and offer the protection needed at this time of difficulty.  We cannot cannot afford to be idle and wait for more incidents.

Online Islamophobia has been on the rise as the COVID-19 pandemic escalates and far-right groups try to use the coronavirus crisis to arouse anti-Muslim sentiment. MAC also noticed an increasing anti-Muslim rhetoric by far-right extremists using the Conservative Leadership race as a platform to incite hate and possible violence against the Muslim community and specifically Masjid Toronto.  MAC continues to monitor this online activity and is concerned that these attacks are linked to the same anti-Muslim bigotry.

Tomorrow Muslims are scheduled to congregate for Eid prayers at Masjid Toronto. Our community members have the right to feel safe in their places of worship. This year has been especially difficult on all Canadians and these acts of Islamophobia have placed a major toll on our congregation.

• We call for the Toronto Police to further investigate these hate incidents and Islamophobic acts towards our community, find the perpetrators, hold them accountable and protect the mosque and Muslims from future attacks.
• We call on the Toronto Police to provide adequate protection to Masjid Toronto tomorrow, for the Friday Eid prayers.
• We call on our federal, provincial and municipal public representatives to condemn these hateful acts that are clearly meant to intimidate the Muslim community.
• We ask all our allies to support our community and call for an end to all types of hatred and to help protect the places of worship at any capacity. An attack on one place of worship is an attack on all.

“As we prepare to celebrate Eid, we need to see a collective stance against growing hateful Islamophobia towards the Canadian Muslim community. We also need to see more concerted efforts to protect the Muslim community and their places of worship from future attacks,” Sharaf Sharafeldin, Executive Director of MAC. 

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