All faiths must fight anti-Muslim actions

We believe ourselves as Canadians to be different, better than our American cousins. Today, even more so, given the racist and xenophobic machinations erupting from the White House and beyond.

After all, wasn’t it Canada that warmly embraced 30,000 Syrian refugees when others were looking for ways to deny them entry to their countries? Wasn’t it Canadian political leadership that spoke out strongly against all forms of racial and religious discrimination at a time when the United States talked of building walls to keep out Mexicans and proposing policy to virtually ban Muslim refugees and immigrants? And wasn’t it Canadian Mounties who appeared to rescue and welcome fearful Muslim refugees fleeing from, of all places, the U.S.A.?

However, let’s not be too smug. Canada and some loud, bigoted and hateful Canadians have engaged in some of the most vituperative, hateful and disgusting forms of Islamophobia over the last six months that has rocked me to my very core.

It was only eight short weeks ago that an Islamophobe sauntered into a mosque in Quebec City and, with both casualness and purpose, shot to death six Muslim Canadians at prayer while wounding five others.

In the aftermath of the terror much comfort was said and done, but today this horrible massacre may as well have occurred decades ago.

It was only two weeks after the Quebec City shootings that hundreds rallied under the banner of Rebel Media, Canada’s offensive Breitbart North, at an evangelical church to ostensibly decry the rise of Islam in Canada. Referred to as a “Freedom Rally” seemingly objecting to Motion 103 (a parliamentary motion condemning Islamophobia and all forms of racial and religious discrimination now passed in House of Commons) as an attack on free speech.

With large pickets proclaiming “Say No to Islam” and poisonous rhetoric exclaiming “Islam is Evil” and “Mohammed was a pedophile,” it was more a vile Islamophobic mob rant.

Weeks later, Torontonians were witness to a number of anti-Muslim rallies targeting downtown mosques that strangely brought together fringes of the Jewish community, specifically the Jewish Defence League, with white nationalists in the guise of the Soldiers of Oden. They, along with others, loudly and provocatively instigated hate and have created a climate of fear in the Muslim community.

And only a couple weeks ago, we saw the spectre of a small phalanx of parents whose children attend the Peel Region School Board loudly condemning the board’s very correct decision to allow space for Muslim students to pray once per day.

During the meeting, shameful epithets were shouted against Canadian Muslims. The meeting ended with a frenetic individual loudly shouting his hateful bile while publicly ripping to shreds the Qur’an, Islam’s holy book.

All this from a Canada many refuse to see or acknowledge. Yes, school board trustees stood gallantly against hatred, local politicians harshly criticized the haters, but is that enough?

While Motion103 passed Parliament, the schism it produced has hurt us all. How is it possible that, according to Angus-Reid polling, fully 47 per cent of Canadians opposed support for the motion, including the leadership of my own Jewish community?

How is it possible that this same leadership — which advocated only two years earlier for a similar motion opposing antiSemitism, who understand what it means to be hated because of their faith — would deny the very same protections they rightly demanded for themselves?

And most importantly, why the silence and cowardice in the face of hatred toward our fellow Canadians?

It is time that more than just a few activists, journalists and politicians speak out.

We must break the silence of immorality. It is time that all the leaders of Canada’s great faith communities — from the Roman Catholic archdiocese to the Anglican Church of Canada from the United Church to the Board of Rabbis from Canadian Hindu Temples to Buddhist and Mormon leaders and so many more — speak out, forcefully and in unison. They must speak out with courage and conviction in defence of the vulnerable Canadian Muslim community.

The great philosopher and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel once said, “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

It is time for us to take sides.