Several hundred people attended a vigil at the Human Rights Monument in downtown Ottawa on Tuesday evening to honour the victims of a fatal truck attack that killed a Muslim family in London, Ont. which police believe was motivated by Islamophobia.
The service honoured Salman Afzaal, 46, Madiha Afzaal, 44, their daughter Yumna Afzaal, 15, and Salman’s mother Talat Afzaal, 74, who were all killed in the attack. The family’s nine-year-old son, Fayez, survived and remains in hospital.
The vigil was organized by the Canadian Council of Muslim Women and featured speeches by several community members and politicians, as well as a moment of silence to pray for the Afzaals.
Speakers at the event expressed disappointment in the media, the police and the government, who they said each contributed to Islamophobia in Canada or failed to prevent the attacks.
“The politicians have failed us,” said Fareed Khan, community organizer and founder of Canadians United Against Hate. “Thoughts and prayers are no longer enough, speeches at parliament are no longer enough, standing at vigils is no longer enough.”
After his speech, Khan read a poem “We Are One,” which he wrote in response to the Quebec City mosque shooting in 2017. Khan dedicated the poem to nine-year-old Fayez.
Catherine McKenna, Liberal MP for Ottawa Centre and current Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, also spoke at the vigil.
“Our government will do everything to fight against hate, but we need your help,” McKenna said. “We need to call out hate and stand together.”
Speakers also criticized the relationship between the news media and Islamophobia, including the over-reporting of violence committed by Muslims and the under-reporting of violence committed towards Muslims.
“We take back the narrative of the Islamic terrorist attack that is put upon our people,” said Berak Hussain, a psychotherapist and international student counsellor at Carleton University.
The decision by the courts to not pursue terrorism charges in relation to Islamophobic attacks such as the one at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City in 2017 was a central point of discussion throughout the night.
“The first action is to name the act so I hope that terrorism charges will be laid against the person who perpetrated this crime,” said Nabila Kaci, who hosted the vigil, in an interview after the event.
During an address to the House of Commons on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the attack a “terrorist attack.” The perpetrator of the attack is currently being charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.
“The level of frustration is building up. What does it take? Do we have to eradicate a whole family before people see that we’re going through something as a community?” said Madeeha Tariq, a teaching assistant at the Abraar School in Ottawa who attended the vigil.
Several speakers and attendees also said that Muslim women, especially those who wear hijabs as a symbol of their faith, are especially vulnerable to harassment and violence.
According to a recent report from Statistics Canada, violent incidents targeting Muslim populations were more likely to involve female victims than other types of hate crimes. The report notes the high proportion of female victims could be attributed to the practice of wearing head coverings which may make religious identity more visible for Muslim women than for men.
“We hear little girls saying ‘We love the hijab, we want to wear it,’ but then they feel like they’re being looked at in a certain way by others,” said Hoda Elshayeb, an elementary school teacher who attended the vigil.
The attack in London represents another high-profile Islamophobic terrorist attack against Muslim people and a continuation of a worrying trend in Canada, according to Hussain.
“We take it for granted that we are in a country that is peaceful and peace-loving towards each other, but then when these shocking realities come they wake you up,” Hussain said after the event. “There are people who have this kind of hate and it’s a reality we have to talk about and have to face.”
For Ahmed Shalaby, who attended the event with his wife and his daughters Layla and Maryam, the vigil was a show of hope and resistance to the objectives of the attacker.
“The goal of the person that did this horrific act is to make us scared, to make us stay home,” Shalaby said.
“We’re going to mourn, we’re going to be sad, but we’re going to go back to our lives as normal and we’re going to show that nothing is going to break us.
Muslim youth seeking support can call the Naseeha Helpline: 1-866-NASEEHA (627-3342) operating from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. EST seven days a week.
Feature photo by Spencer Colby.
