 Print
Sunday, January 29th, 2017 a dark date for Canadian Muslims
2-07-2017
Sunday, January 29th, 2017, will forever be remembered as one of the darkest day in Canadian history. It was the day when one young Self radicalized man, walked into a Mosque in Quebec City, and started shooting indiscriminately at Muslim worshippers performing their evening prayers.
The cornerstone of Canada’s Constitution is freedom. Freedom of religion, and each Canadian has a right to be able to practice their faith in peace. When the basic fundamental cornerstone of our constitution is attacked, it becomes a duty of all citizens to ensure its stability. That is exactly what all Canadians did.
Let’s remove all qualifiers, White, Christian, Arab, African, Muslim, and, what we are left with is Canadians killed by a Canadian. It’s a day when Canada lost its innocence. It’s the day Canadians realized that our sense of multicultural harmony and our sense of security has been stolen. It was an enormous loss, and the response by Canadians from coast to coast to coast was equally enormous.
The vast Canadian society from all walks of life, religion, ethnicity, colour and creed, rallied behind the Canadian Muslims, in a show of solidarity, and support, sharing their grief, mourning their loss. Indeed, this was the day when the Canadian multicultural society transformed itself from being a passive and tolerant society to an open and active society. The lion share of the credit of this unconditional support sits on the shoulders of Canada’s Prime Minister, Right Honourable, Mr. Justin Trudeau, who immediately, upon learning of the attack on mosque, denounced it as a "Terrorist Attack." We thank the Honourable Prime Minister for his bold and courageous stand.
As Canadians we may also share some responsibilty for the massacre which took place in Quebec. Alexandre Bissonnette, A University graduate to took this extreme action without any association with any gangs, or groups.
On February 6, the RCMP Commissionaire, Mr. Bob Paulson, before a Senate Committee warned Canadians about a "non-classic" terrorism "that feeds on hate and controversy on social media, blaming growing political polarization for the deadly shooting at a mosque in Quebec City."
Canadians, and especially Muslim Canadians can no longer sit passively in a comfort zone, believing that such incidents cannot take place in Canada. This incident is a wake-up call to all Canadians, that we cannot let our guards down any more.
There are several things, which became obvious to all, since Jan 29. First, the rise and spread of Islamophobia in Canada, especially in social media, is more pervasive than people had anticipated. So much so that it poisoned the mind of a young individual, becoming fearful of Islam and Muslims so much so that he decided to take up arms and kill them in their safest sanctuary.
Undoubtedly, the Canadian Muslim community must share some blame for this rise and spread of Islamophobia. Day after day, people with very little knowledge and understanding spew hatred against Islam and Muslims through social media, poisoning people's minds and creating fear about Muslims. Yet, the one million strong Muslim community in Canada has yet to organize and counter the spread of Islamophobia. Better yet, provide real information about Islam to mainstream Canadians to make an informed and educated decision. We've failed miserably.
The second contributor, which fuels the Islamophobia is the lack of Political Empathy. There are those politicians who thrive upon the politics of hatred and divide in order to appeal to certain segment of the population to garner support, and possibly even victory at the ballot box. They are succeeding simply because the Canadian Muslims are absolutely passive when it comes to political activism.
The silver lining to this tragedy is that Canadians across the land embraced Canadian Muslims, shared their grief, and expressed their intent of support. This is the clear indication that despite the perpetrators of Islamophobia a large majority of the Canadian society have rejected hate towards Islam and Muslims. In fact, what this tragedy has uncovered is that only a vary small minority of Canadian population has been affected by Islamophobia.
It is now an obligation upon us all to engage the wider Canadian society at all levels from politicians and law makers to our neighbours, and show them the beauty of Islam.
It is an obligation upon the Muslim leadership to establish channels of communication and engagement with the rest of the Canadian society.
The question is what are our Muslim leaders, Instituions and Imams going to do about this. More importantly, we should ask ourselves " what are we willing to do about it and or what should we do about it Individually and collectively in an organized manner?
We can start small at an individual level pledge to be kind and helpful towards to our neighbors and Colleagues. After all Islam is reflected by our behaviour and Character on a daily basis.
As a society, each and every Masjid/Musallah must conduct a OPEN HOUSE to invite all your neighbors to come and visit the Mosque.
Keeping this in mind we at AlAmeen Post has taken the initiative of starting a blood drive in memory of six Quebec Mosque shooting victims, and are encouraging all Muslims to take part in this #MuslimBloodDrive. This is one way for us to show our appreciation, as well as contribute to the Canadian Society.
This tragedy is an adhan – Call to act and we must do so NOW. InshaAllah.
Footnotes:
|