“I’m angry to learn that women wearing hijabs were the target of a violent attack in London, and a mosque in Winnipeg was the target of hateful harassment,” Trudeau said on his official X account on Friday.

According to a statement by the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), two women wearing the Muslim headscarf were attacked Thursday in front of their children in London, where four members of a Muslim family were killed in a ruthless attack in 2021.

The statement noted that a knife-wielding man punched the women in their faces and made inappropriate comments. “The Israelis did a good job of landscaping Gaza. They’ll do the same to Lebanon,” and other slurs of an Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian nature,” according to NCCM.

“Needless to say, the incident amounts to yet another disturbing example of how Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism, often intersecting, continues to pervade corners of our communities, primarily targeting the vulnerable,” the civil rights organization said, adding that anti-Muslim hatred led to the killing of the Muslim family three years ago, and earlier this year, a Muslim family’s house was set on fire due to anti-Palestinian racism.

“It is time to act. Now. There is no time for more platitudes and words. Our leaders have to come up with a real plan to address this massive and disturbing rise in hate against our communities,” NCCM statement said.

No details were provided about the attack on the mosque in Winnipeg, in the country’s central Manitoba province.

A horrific mosque attack in Quebec province, where a lone gunman killed six Muslims and wounded 19 during evening prayers, shook the North American country in 2017.

In June 2021, four members of a Muslim family, who were out on a stroll in London, Ontario, were killed after a white nationalist man deliberately drove his truck into them. Countless other attacks occur on an ordinary basis, as Muslims across the country urge the government to take concrete action to stop the crimes.

Islamophobia is entrenched in Canada, according to a report by the country’s Senate Committee on Human Rights.

Source: Daily Sabah

Randy Fine, the Republican state representative for Florida, is facing a wave of anger and accusations of Islamophobia after celebrating the death of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish-American activist who was fatally shot by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank.

“Throw rocks, get shot. One less #MuslimTerrorist. #FireAway,” Fine wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to a post announcing Eygi’s killing last weekend.

Eygi, a US citizen, was shot in the head by Israeli forces during a peaceful protest against illegal Israeli settlements near Ramallah. Eyewitnesses said she was unarmed and “standing there doing absolutely nothing with one other woman” when she was shot.

Fine’s comments have sparked widespread condemnation, calling attention to growing concerns about Islamophobia from US officials.

Many expressed outrage at his apparent endorsement of the killing of an American citizen by a foreign military.

Critics also highlighted what they saw as a double standard in the treatment of public figures. Several people posted about Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who faced backlash and censure for her use of the phrase “from the river to the sea”.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights organisation in the US, along with its Florida chapter, has called for the Florida legislature to censure Fine for his tweet.

“We struggle to think of another time in modern American history when an elected official openly celebrated the murder of an American by a foreign government and encouraged more such killing. Randy Fine has made it clear where his priorities lie, and it is not with the American people,” stated Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR’s national deputy executive director, on Monday.

“We urge the Florida House of Representatives to censure him for this hateful, un-American rant,” the statement added.

His account on X is filled with posts using hashtags like “#MuslimProblem”, “#BombsAway” and “#MuslimTerrorists”.

Cair has highlighted various instances of Fine using langauge that “dehumanises all Palestinians and uses Islamophobic tropes,” including a comment that read: “Proud to stand with my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats, in condemning the Islamic terrorism coming out of Gaza. I fully support Israel using maximum force to punish these animals. #NoMercy.”

More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 16,825 children, in Israeli attacks since 7 October.

Source: Middle East Eye