While the wounds from the recent Islamophobic attack on a Pakistani-Canadian family are still fresh, who were mercilessly murdered in broad daylight while taking a walk on a roadside, new news has come out of Canada, that is circulating different forums online.
On an online forum defence.pk, a user shared a picture that showed some anti-muslim activity of a Hindu nationalists group named Canadian Hindu Advocacy.
According to the forum, this extremist group is led by rabid Islamophobe Ron Banerjee, who according to the forum is planning to take out a rally in support of the terrorist who killed four Muslims with his truck in the Canadian city of London.
The advocacy’s official Twitter disagrees with the killing of the Muslim family being labeled as terrorism. The latest post said, “Canadian Hindu Advocacy security analysts and experts. are in touch with Canadian police to uncover the truth about #nathanielveltman. Various agencies have reached out to us for assistance. We will counter political interference which has tainted this investigation.”
https://twitter.com/canhinduadv/status/1404583035354365956?s=20
The group believes that the politics of the Muslims has led Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other politicians to call the London attack a terrorist incident even before the police investigation was completed.
Read More: Canada witnesses another Islamophobic attack
The group on 13th June wrote, “It is with great disgust that we see the bodies of the London vehicular incident were draped in Canadian flags for their funeral.”
The same group did an End the Lockdown march today under Rise Canada’s banner.
It must be mentioned that the Afzaal family were out for an evening walk near their home on 6th June when they were mowed down. It took the life of Salman Afzaal, 46, his 44-year-old wife, Madiha Salman, their 15-year-old daughter Yumna and her 74-year-old grandmother, Talat Afzaal, but the nine-year-old son Fayez was the only surviving member of the family.
Canada’s deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, reacted to the new charges afterward, saying: “It is really important for us to name it as an act of terror … and it is important for us to identify the terrible threat that white supremacism poses to Canada and to Canadians.”
The prosecution in London has laid terrorism charges against a man named Nathaniel Veltman, who perpetrated this heinous act against the family.
A funeral for the family drew hundreds of mourners to the Islamic Centre of Southwest Ontario over the weekend, where their bodies were laid down in Canadian flags, and later a public funeral was also held.
It must be remembered that the London attack was not the first against Muslims in Canada, of course. Prominent on the too-long list is the 2017 shooting attack on a mosque in Quebec City that killed six people and wounded eight.
Mustafa Farooq, the chief executive of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, told NY Time’s Ian Austen that the national summit on Islamophobia, which the Canadian Muslim community has been calling for, will have to look beyond just the violence Islamophobia breeds, examining the systemic forms it takes in places like national security agencies and how educational systems teach about racism.
Read More: Canada bids farewell to Muslim victims of truck attack
This includes according to Mr. Farooq, examination of laws like Quebec’s Bill 21, which proposes a ban on wearing of religious symbols in public, and workspaces.
Pakistani PM’s remarks on Islamophobia
Even Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan talked about a review of such laws in his recent interview with CBS’s chief political correspondent Rosemary Burton, who was doing a show discussing the recent attack in London, Ontario.
Talking to her, the Pakistani Prime Minister said, “We regularly hear about these incidents and many of them are not reported, and our embassies tell us about those. So, this gap needs to be closed”. He asked the host the question as to why it became a big issue when someone wears a hijab (headscarf) or grows a beard in the west. “People objecting to hijab and a beard is quite bizarre for me. In liberal democracies, why is this an issue?”
PM Khan went on to label the recent Quebec’s Bill 21 as a form of “secular extremism”.
He argued, “I find this law secular extremism as it really is against, you see the whole idea behind secularism is liberalism, you want human beings to be basically free on how and the way they want to dress up if it does not cause pain or hurt others. This is how I understand how liberalism is. If some cover their hair or their head, why has it become such a big issue.”
Read More: UN chief expresses outrage over killing of Muslim family in Canada
In a recent Islamophobic event, suspects were arrested by the Toronto Police following an Islamophobic attack at the Islamic Institute of Toronto on Tuesday, June 15.
According to a CBC news report, “Two people were arrested Tuesday after allegedly trying to enter a mosque in Scarborough and threatening building staff’’.
According to witnesses, a man and a woman tried to break into the mosque and threatened a custodian at the site. One of the witnesses told CBC News that the intruders threatened to set off an explosive.