Mansoor’s Musings: Rise of Islamophobia incidents alarming

By Mansoor Ladha on August 5, 2025.

A Toronto woman allegedly made Islamophobic comments recently and assaulted a victim wearing a hijab in North York. Police are calling it a suspected hate-motivated assault.

Also, police east of Toronto are investigating what they describe as the “violent swarming” of a woman at a restaurant by a group of young people.

A Winnipeg woman was forced to remove her hijab while trying to board a Flair Airlines flight at Toronto Pearson International Airport. The airline employee said that her passport didn’t match her face, so she had to remove her hijab.

The above three recent incidents and other unreported episodes of Islamophobia should concern every Canadian. It is unfortunate that Canada, renowned for its tolerance, multiculturalism and a favourite destination of immigrants should go through such an unfortunate wave of Islamophobia. Incidents of Islamophobia in Canada have skyrocketed since Hamas-Israel conflict of Oct. 7, 2023.

According to Amira Elghawaby, Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia, “Canada holds the devastating and regrettable distinction of having the most targeted murders of Muslims of any G7 country. Quite simply, being Muslim in Canada is not as safe as it should be.”

What is the root cause of racialism? The simple answer is: It’s ignorance and lack of contact between the races. Majority of people have little or no contact with Muslims on a personal level. Every one of us has a part to play in eradicating racism; one should invite one’s Muslim neighbours or colleagues for coffee and get to know them. It’s only through friendship and personal contacts that one would know that Muslims are the same as anyone else; they may look different or speak diverse languages, but they are human beings like anyone else.

One of the main reasons for hatred towards Muslims is because of the terrorist attacks undertaken by the so-called jihadists and the stereotypical belief prevalent among the majority that extremism and radicalism is sponsored by Muslims. The so-called jihadists fighting in the name of religion have no legitimacy or right to unleash a reign of terror in the name of Islam. They do not represent the religion, nor do they have any right to speak on behalf of Muslims. They are a bunch of hooligans out to cause death and destruction.

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) has conducted an armed paramilitary campaign in Northern Ireland and England, aimed at ending British rule in Northern Ireland for years yet no one blames all Catholics as dangerous or terrorists. A distinction must be made between political ambitions of a few and Islam.

As the late Aga Khan, spiritual leader of Shia Ismaili Muslims, said during the opening of the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, the Muslim world, with its history and culture, is still unknown to the West. “Very little of the Muslim world features in the study of humanities in the West, where courses are essentially centered around Judeo-Christian civilizations. This lack of knowledge is a dramatic reality which manifests itself in a particularly serious way in western democracies, since public opinion has difficulties judging national and international policy vis-à-vis the Muslim world. The two worlds, Muslim and non-Muslim, eastern and western, must as a matter of urgency make a real effort to get to know one another, for I fear that what we have is not a clash of civilizations, but a clash of ignorance on both sides.

“Tolerance, openness and understanding towards other peoples’ cultures, social structures, values and faiths are now essential to the very survival of an interdependent world. Pluralism is no longer simply an asset or a prerequisite for progress and development, it is vital to our existence,” he said.

Ignorance breeds suspicions and prejudice towards others while a pluralist, cosmopolitan society is one, which not only accepts differences, but also actively seeks to understand it and to learn from it. Diversity is not a burden to be endured, but an opportunity to be welcomed.

One of the ways to eradicate this venom is to initiate a campaign of intermingling of different races. Religious leaders, especially Imams and mullahs, should hold interfaith functions to educate their congregations about different religions.

Local school boards and trustees have a responsibility to devise curriculums that teach different religions and cultures. While we continue trumpeting our country as the most diverse and multicultural nation on earth, yet our students go through the education system without ever hearing about the plurality of our society.

The media’s role in cementing ties and building bridges among communities should not be underemphasized. Whenever there is a terrorist attack, the media is quick to identify it with Muslims and Islam. They must impose self-discipline, not succumb to fear-mongering and avoid referring to incidents of terrorism as Islamic terrorism.

I loved the Canadian TV show, Little Mosque on the Prairies, shot in a fictitious town called Mercy, depicting religious brotherhood when a Christian church offers space to Muslims to hold their services. What a superb gesture of religious co-operation, camaraderie and non-denominational brotherhood. Little Mosque on the Prairies may be a fictional sitcom but it’s message – two religions working for everyone’s betterment in harmony – is universal and applicable to present day Canada.

Islam is a religion of peace, not a religion of violence. I sincerely hope that Canadians will not judge Muslims because of the acts of some murderers, but by millions of good Muslims who are their neighours, colleagues and friends. Trust us, we are Muslims, but not terrorists.

Mansoor Ladha is an award-winning Calgary-based journalist, travel writer and author of Aga Khan: Bridge between East & West, Memoirs of a Muhindi: Fleeing East Africa for the West, Off the Cuff and A Portrait in Pluralism: Aga Khan’s Shia Ismaili Muslims. He is currently working on a novel and a non-fiction.

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