Sunday, September 11, 2022

Black, Muslim women in Edmonton face multifaceted discrimination, senators told

Andrea Huncar - Thursday - CBC

Senators are hearing about the many ways Black, Muslim women in Edmonton face discrimination, as the Senate Committee on Human Rights stops in select Canadian cities most impacted by Islamophobia.

Dunia Nur, president of the African Canadian Civic Engagement Council, urged senators Thursday to look at Islamophobia from a multifaceted lens.

Black, Muslim women face Islamophobia, in addition to anti-Black racism, Afrophobia and gender-based discrimination and violence, Nur told senators.

"When you identify and you experience that pain on a daily basis, it is as if you are excluded and you feel a sense of isolation and you belong to no community," Nur told CBC News, after her presentation.

The committee hearings were born out of the alarming rise in Islamophobia in Canada, said Sen. Salma Ataullahjan, the chair of the committee.

Police-reported hate crime against Muslim people in Canada rose from 84 incidents in 2020, to 144 incidents in 2021, Statistics Canada data shows.



Sen. Salma Ataullahjan said the Senate Committee on Human Rights will look at gendered Islamophobia.
© Min Dhariwal/CBC News

"The one thing we're finding out: it's really bad for Muslim women," Ataullahjan said while on CBC Radio's Edmonton AM.

"We're going to be looking at gendered Islamophobia, and if you're Black and Muslim, then your experiences are worse."

Black, Muslim women have been the target of a string of verbal and physical attacks in Edmonton in recent years.

One of the victims said Edmonton police initially discouraged her from filing a report, an allegation Nur flagged to the committee Thursday.

Nur said Black, Muslim women need a hearing of their own because they have largely been left out of consultations to address the violence.

"Black Muslim women need a space where they can add and contribute," Nur said.

"I don't see anybody here that is directly from that community."

Senator 'shocked'


B.C. Sen. Mobina Jaffer was shocked by what she heard about Edmonton police, and said the committee will follow up.

"To hear from the community they had very little support from the police, that has shocked me," Jaffer said. "That's not the image I have of our police."

CBC News contacted the Edmonton Police Service for comment, but it did not immediately respond.

Senate committee members heard from Muslims and academics in Vancouver on Wednesday. They will be visiting Quebec City and Toronto in the coming weeks.

Their findings will be the basis of a report that will provide recommendations to the federal government about how to address Islamophobia.

Edmonton's Muslim community testifies to Senate human rights committee on Islamophobia

Anna Junker - Thursday-Edmonton Journal


“Violent Islamophobia is here in Alberta” a Senate human rights committee studying Islamophobia heard Thursday morning.



Farha Shariff speaks to the Senate human rights committee hearing examining the sources of Islamophobia, its effect on individuals, and incidents of discrimination, physical violence and online hate against Muslims, in Edmonton Thursday Sept. 8, 2022. 
Photo By David Bloom

Members of Edmonton’s Muslim community testified in front of the committee at the Signature Sandman Hotel in Downtown Edmonton. The study began in mid-June with an aim to examine the sources of Islamophobia, its effect on individuals, and incidents of discrimination, physical violence and online hate against Muslims.

Senator Salma Ataullahjan, the chair of the human rights committee, proposed the study on Islamophobia.

“When I was looking at the stats and I found out that the most Muslims killed in a G7 country, were in Canada, I was shocked to find that out, because we don’t think of Canada as a place where you have so much violence,” she said. “I realized that there’s a bigger issue here.”

The morning session heard from a number of witnesses, including Said Omar, the Alberta Advocacy Officer for the National Council of Canadian Muslims. He described to the committee recent attacks against Black and Muslim women over the past two years .

“The problem of violent Islamophobia is here in Alberta,” Omar said. “Violent Islamophobia is a prominent threat that looms over our community.”

He detailed the most recent reported incident in the city, when on Jan. 1, a woman and her children were attacked outside a mosque by a man . The man punched and spat on the vehicle while uttering Islamophobic threats, then left the mosque and returned with a shovel. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail.

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Farha Shariff, senior advisor for equity diversity, inclusion and decolonization at the University of Alberta, told the committee she has been a target of Islamophobia and so have her loved ones.

“My parents have been the targets of Islamophobia,” she said. “My three children, girls, have been the targets of Islamophobia. My husband has been the target of Islamophobia. The living stories of Islamophobia exist in this room.”

She said Islamophobia is an example of systemic racism in Canada.

“However, Muslims and other racialized groups will always bear the collective guilt and responsibility for actions committed or alleged,” she said.

Witnesses also talked about trying to report instances of Islamophobic attacks, but being turned away by police or not being taken seriously.

“We have no mechanisms of reporting Islamophobia,” said Dunia Nur, president and CEO of the African Canadian Civic Engagement Council.

She stressed to committee members that Black Muslim women need to have a seat at a table when trying to address the issue of Islamophobia and other hate crimes.

“We have been left out of recommendations, we have been left out of consultations, we have been left out of our own communities,” Nur said. “We have been left out of legislative recommendations in terms of what a path of moving forward means.

“We have a lot of rich knowledge we can share.”

Ataullahjan said the speakers were very powerful, and there are now many aspects of the study that need to be looked at, including potentially renaming “Islamophobia.”

“We’ve had speakers express concern that to have a phobia means you’re just scared of someone, but it doesn’t address the issues of the Muslims,” she said. “We need to look at the fear that the Muslims live in, the discrimination that they face.”

After an abrupt adjournment due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the committee resumed in the afternoon and heard from eight more witnesses. The committee plans to hear from more witnesses in Quebec City and Toronto and will ultimately publish a report with recommendations.

ajunker@postmedia.com

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