On November 14, firefighters responded to a fire at the only mosque in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. The fire at the Masjid Al-Salaam broke out at around 11pm. Heavy smoke damage inside the mosque could cost more than $80,000 to fix. Nor did the flames injure anyone inside. Around 30 minutes earlier, 70 worshipers had welcomed and celebrated the birth of a young couple’s child. Peterborough Police Service are treating the fire as a hate crime. At a press conference they confirmed that a mosque window was broken and an accelerant was placed inside and then set on fire. It shocked communities of all faiths and none into action. Within hours, thousands had donated to an online crowdfund in support of the mosque. Within 48 hours of the arson, donations had reached $91,000. In total, the appeal raised $110,536. The Kawartha Muslim Religious Association (KMRA) asked to stop the fundraising appeal after meeting its repair goal. Any outstanding money will go to other charitable causes. Canada’s Anglican community also helped raise funds. The clericus of the regional deanery in Peterborough donated $250 and asked other parishes to match the amount. That appeal should help raise thousands of dollars, according to Dean [...]
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The anti-Muslim backlash following the recent Paris atrocities is creating its own acts of solidarity. In Toronto, Canada, four high profile anti-Muslim incidents have made headline news. A Muslim woman was assaulted as she went to collect her children from school on Monday. According to police, two males pulled at her hijab and stole her mobile phone. The brother of the victim said she was punched in the stomach and face, called a “terrorist” and told to “go back home” during the assault. Metrolinx staff found anti-Muslim graffiti inside a bathroom of a busy train station. On November 19, a Muslim student at the University of Toronto, named Osama Omar, 21, was spat at as he waited for a streetcar in downtown Toronto. Omar wears a topi, or Muslim prayer cap. The perpetrator told Omar to take his “turban” off and attempted to punch him twice. In a Facebook post, he described how an elderly woman who saw the incident from across the street came over to ‘apologise on behalf of the man’. She told Omar not to see him as a ‘generalized representation’ of what society has become. At around 6pm on Wednesday, two Muslim women faced verbal abuse [...]
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