The Thorncliffe and Flemingdon Park communities rallied on Saturday, November 21, against a string of Islamophobic incidents in their neighbourhoods.
More than 200 people marched from Don Mills and Overlea to Grenoble Public School, where on November 16 a Muslim woman was punched, her hijab ripped off and her cellphone stolen while she was picking up her children. The perpetrators seemingly were responding to the ISIS attacks in Paris on November 13. The assault occurred days after a mosque in Peterborough was burned. Reports have also emerged of Muslim women being targeted on the TTC.
Rally participants called for an end to wars in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq that have exacerbated anti-refugee and anti-immigrant sentiment.
Here’s what a few of them had to say:
“I came from Afghanistan in 2002 with no English as a refugee. I worked hard. I felt like everyone was welcome here. That definitely isn’t the Canada we live in now. But we [Muslim people] are not here to apologize for what happened in Paris, because we are not ISIS. We are not going to apologize for something we didn’t do.”
Yousuf Faroqi, civil engineer
“As a black man, I know how it feels to be harassed, verbally assaulted by people who are racist and don’t understand that unifying together is something that should be celebrated in this country. Every time there is a spike in shootings where actions of black people are called into question, they start targeting all of us.”
Joyeux Hendrickson, Flemingdon Park resident
“In a lot of the Islamophobia that has affected me, there has been a strong underlying tone of sexism and misogyny as well. A couple of years ago, I was involved in an anti-war action on Remembrance Day. I happened to be wearing a headscarf. Sun News Media picked up the story. As a visible Muslim woman protesting against the war, in their view [I was] an Islamist, a jihadist, a Taliban supporter. For weeks I was receiving threats online.”
Suraia Sahar, activist
“When I read about the attack in front of this school I was infuriated. This is the most cowardly thing to do. We shouldn’t have to even say this, but in our society we clearly need to.”
Nuha Azmi, college student
“Instead of saying these racist attacks do not reflect Canadian values, we should be uniting with different racial groups.”
Sadia Khan, march organizer
“I am here to affirm the kind of city we want and the fact that we are collectively a part of what happens here. Demonstrations like this aren’t something new in the face of prejudice, racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia, [but] we make sure that approach isn’t welcome here. This is what we do, and what is welcome here is unity like this.”
Ausma Malik, Ward 10 Toronto District School Board trustee
“We don’t want to be apart from others. We want to live in peace with everyone.”
Hadia, grade 3 student
