Canada anti-Muslim attack: ‘It could have been any one of us’

Montreal, Canada – Like so many others have done during the coronavirus pandemic, the Afzaal family was out for an evening walk. But on Sunday, as they waited to cross a street in London, Ontario, they were run down by a driver police say was motivated by anti-Muslim hate. For members of Muslim communities across the country, the Islamophobic attack that killed four people, including a teenage girl, and seriously injured a nine-year-old boy, harkens back to painful memories of a deadly assault on a Quebec mosque more than four years ago. It is also a sign that something is terribly wrong. “The sentiment that I’m hearing across the board, and I think everybody is feeling, [is] that it could have been any one of us,” Selma Tobah, a 31-year-old graduate student at Western University who has lived in London for more than 10 years, told Al Jazeera. “They were just out on an evening walk. I take evening walks all the time with my friends and family. I wear hijab – my mom, my sisters, my friends. So it literally could have been any one of us.” Play Video Family targeted London police told reporters on Monday that three adults and two children were hit in “an intentional act” about 8:40pm local time on Sunday (00:40 GMT on Monday). “We believe the victims were targeted because of their Islamic faith,” police chief Steve Williams said. The slain victims – a 46-year-old man, two women aged 74 and 44, and a 15-year-old girl – were all members of the same family, police said. The boy is in hospital with serious injuries, but is expected to recover. A statement released by the family and shared on social media, as well as Canadian media outlets, have identified the family members as Salman Afzaal, his wife Madiha and their daughter Yumna. Salman’s mother was also killed, but her name has not been released. Al Jazeera is not publishing the name of the boy because he is a minor. A 20-year-old London man, Nathaniel Veltman, was arrested and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. “There’s no question that we’re aching, we’re in pain. Our hearts are broken, our minds are numb,” Abd Alfatah Twakkal, a Muslim community faith leader in London, told Al Jazeera. “At the same time, there are concerns and feelings of fright, fear – because of the egregiousness of this horrific act and crime, which had the impact of instilling terror within our community members.” People put up a sign at a makeshift memorial where a man ran over a Muslim family in London, Ontario [Carlos Osorio/Reuters] Twakkal said London’s Muslim community – one of the oldest in Canada – has received an outpouring of support and solidarity, which provides some comfort. But he urged concrete action to address rising Islamophobia and racist vitriol that is often spread online. Statistics Canada said in March that police-reported hate crimes targeting Muslims “rose slightly” to 181 incidents in 2019 – the last year for which the data is available. That is up from 166 incidents the previous year. “It’s not enough just to say we reject Islamophobia, we reject xenophobia, we reject racism, discrimination… but it’s also even more critical that it doesn’t stop there,” he said. “Steps need to be taken for people to say that we don’t accept it. When they come across it, to reject it, to call it out, to say that this is not acceptable.” London Mayor Ed Holder said in a statement on Monday that three days of mourning would be held in the city after the attack. “Let me be clear: This was an act of mass murder, perpetrated against Muslims — against Londoners — and rooted in unspeakable hatred,” Holder said. A moment of silence was also observed on Monday in Parliament in the capital, Ottawa, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the deadly violence as “a terrorist attack motivated by hatred in the heart of one of our communities”. “Unlike every other night, that family never made it home. Their lives were taken in a brutal, cowardly and brazen act of violence. This killing was no accident,” said Trudeau, promising to take stronger action against far-right groups in Canada. Play Video ‘Floodgates of fear’ But Tobah said anti-Muslim hate and Islamophobia are not new in London – or across the country. For years, politicians of all stripes in the French-speaking province of Quebec have debated the “reasonable accommodation” of immigrants, leading to the passage of a law that now bars some public servants from wearing religious attire. This includes hijab worn by Muslim women, who are the most directly affected by the legislation, known as Bill 21. Former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in his failed 2015 re-election campaign, proposed barring Muslim women from wearing a niqab during Canadian citizenship ceremonies.