The Edmonton Muslim community was faced with Islamophobic aggressions within a span of two weeks in late January and early February of 2019. As a growing community of over 40,000 strong adherents or approximately 5.5% of the Edmonton population, this climate of hate rearing its ugly head so fresh into the new year, instills unease as to any potential escalation of Islamophobic acts and/or rhetoric with provisional and federal elections on our doorsteps.

Visiting my Syrian family, who I co-sponsored with nine other families in early 2017 and helped them settle in Canada, is always fun.

Hate crimes targeting Canadian Muslims increased 151% in 2017. The data released by Statistics Canada on November 18, 2018 indicated a significant increase in hate crimes against most racial, religious and other minority groups. Two year later, Canadians are still reeling from the terrorist attack in Quebec that claimed six lives and injured 19 others when Alexandre Bissonnette opened fire on worshipers in a Quebec City mosque on January 29, 2017.