Staff reporter/ Taha Asadi
There are over one million Muslims in Canada, many of them students, who are affected daily by hate based on their religion, also known as islamophobia. This form of hate can lead to many horrific tragedies happening not just in Canada, but also the rest of the world.
Attacks on Muslims have been occurring a lot recently and the rate of hate crimes have been on the rise in the country. From mass shootings at a mosque in Quebec City to a truck attack on a Muslim family in London Ontario, Muslims all around the country are feeling attacked and this has especially been the case in schools. Some major anti-Islam incidents in Canada everyone should know about (trtworld.com). Many Muslim students around the country have been met with islamophobia and racism. This situation cannot go on any longer. A lot of these comments and views come from a lack of education. This is because the way western media outlets represent Islam is inaccurate. They only show a small minority of Muslims that kill people in the name of religion and portray them as who all Muslims are. But the truth is, that there are almost two billion Muslims in the world and if they were all terrorists then nobody would be safe. Unfortunately, many people believe the lies told to them about Islam and because they have possibly never met or interacted with any Muslims, so they believe that all Muslims are terrorists, and this is the reason why so many hate crimes and attacks happen to Muslims .Islamophobia and hate crimes continue to rise in Canada (theconversation.com)
Amal Alshtweli was a nine-year-old Muslim girl who committed suicide on March 6, 2019, because she was bullied at school for being Muslim. She fled the civil war in Syria in 2015 and at an early age she became a Canadian refuge with her family where she would spend the rest of her life. She was just like all her other peers in school except her difference was that she was Muslim and lived her life according to the guidelines of her religion. In school, she was bullied a lot by her peers the students made hurtful remarks to Amal on frequent occasions and made fun of her religion. Her parents tried taking care of the situation by contacting teachers, but nothing seemed to work and that’s why her family decided to change her school. Two weeks before leaving the environment, her classmates said goodbye to her by telling her that she should kill herself since no one was going to love her at the new school. That is exactly what she did .Bullying in Canada: a refugee family mourn suicide of nine-year-old Amal (trtworld.com)
Many Muslim students at Gleneagle have also been affected by racism and islamophobia. “Islamophobia made me feel really bad about my identity, who I am, and my religion,” said Sofia Mezban grade 10.
“[Islamophobia] made me want the change my identity” said Paul Salman grade 10.
Islamophobia cannot go on any longer and schools need to do something about it because it is a perfect example of hate speech and hate against somebody’s religion. This is something that happened in Nazi Germany, and it should not be happening at Canadian schools in 2021. Because no matter what god we believe in, what nationality we come from, or what the color of our skins are, we should all be treated equal because red is the color that we all bleed.
Sources:
Some major anti-Islam incidents in Canada everyone should know about (trtworld.com)
Islamophobia and hate crimes continue to rise in Canada (theconversation.com)
Bullying in Canada: a refugee family mourn suicide of nine-year-old Amal (trtworld.com)
picture:
attacks on muslims – Bing images
