Recent Coverage
Hate crimes targeting Muslims rose in 2013 but overall number of incidents fell: Statistics Canada
Postmedia News
Douglas Quan | June 9, 2015
The number of hate crimes targeting Muslims went up in 2013 but fell for all other religious groups, according to a Statistics Canada report released Tuesday.
Police reported 65 crimes motivated by anti-Muslim hate that year, 20 more than in 2012. Hate crimes against Jewish people were the most frequently reported, but the number of incidents dropped to 181 in 2013 from 242 in 2012.
Compared with other religions, hate crimes against Muslims were more likely to be violent (33 per cent). Muslims also had the highest ...
Muslim civil rights group to launch online hate-crime tracker
Online map will track anti-Muslim incidents and hate crimes in real-time in an effort to raise awareness and encourage people to come forward with their experiences.
By: Noor Javed, News Reporter
Toronto Star | June 9, 2015
A Muslim national civil rights organization is launching an online map to track anti-Muslim incidents and hate crimes in real-time in an effort to raise awareness and encourage people to come forward with their experiences.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims says it believes many Muslims face discrimination and hate, but are reluctant to ...
Islamic school apologizes after its all-male soccer team refuses to play opponent with female players
By Roger Belgrave
Mississauga News | June 1, 2015
BRAMPTON — A Mississauga-based Islamic private school “regrets” girls on an opposing soccer team had to sit out of a game last week when religious beliefs and gender equality clashed on the playing field.
The high school soccer game became a lightning rod for controversy after an all-male team fielded by the Muslim private school refused to play a team with female players.
. . .
The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), a civil liberties advocacy group, also weighed in on the issue Friday.
The ...
Canadian youth with ‘identity issues’ drawn to radicalization: expert
CTV News | May 20, 2015
The RCMP is continuing its investigation to determine whether a group of Quebecers arrested over the weekend is linked to a wider terrorist network.
Authorities questioned and released 10 Montreal-area youths suspected of wanting to join Islamic State militants in the Middle East.
The youths were arrested at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport last weekend just as they were about to board a flight bound for Syria.
. . .
Amira Elghawaby, a spokeswoman for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, told CTV News Channel that ...
Harper not backing down on Omar Khadr
The Canadian Press | May 8, 2015
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper sounded an unrepentant note Friday about his Conservative government’s failed efforts to keep former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr behind bars.
. . .
After his release on bail Thursday, he [Khadr] offered a comment on Harper’s hardline stance: “I’m going to have to disappoint him, I’m better than the person he thinks I am.”
In an ad hoc press conference in the driveway of his lawyer Dennis Edney on Thursday, Khadr also apologized for the pain he has caused in some of his ...
Omar Khadr released on bail
Steven Blaney says he regrets 'that a convicted terrorist has been allowed back into society'
CBC News | May 07, 2015
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney says his Conservative government is not happy that Omar Khadr was freed on bail by an Edmonton judge.
"We are disappointed by the decisions of the court, because we feel that victims should be considered in those decisions," he said from the Dorval airport in Quebec.
. . .
National Muslim council reacts
The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) was quick to react to the news that Khadr had been ...
Webber Academy appeals $26K fine after denying Muslim student prayers
By Erika Tucker and Sarah Offin
April 17, 2015 | Global News
CALGARY – Calgary’s prestigious Webber Academy is appealing a decision by the Alberta Human Rights Commission to fine the private school $26,000 for not allowing two Muslim students to pray on campus grounds.
In 2011, the two Grade 9 and 10 students were told their praying—which requires bowing and kneeling—was “too obvious” in a non-denominational school.
The teens continued to hold their prayers in secret in the school, or even outside in the snow.
They were then refused enrollment for ...
Tories unrepentant for ‘McCarthyesque’ attacks on security bill critics
By Ian MacLeod, OTTAWA CITIZEN
March 13, 2015
Conservative MPs ignored opposition demands Friday to apologize to some of Canada’s leading environmentalists, civil liberty advocates and Muslims for remarks that appeared to insinuate critics were national security threats because they spoke out against the government’s security legislation...
The harsh remarks led the head of a group representing some of Canada’s Muslims to accuse veteran Conservative MP Diane Ablonczy of engaging in “McCarthyesque” tactics, a reference to U.S. Republican Sen. Joseph ...
Muslim group denounces Kenney’s misrepresentation of photos as “corrosive”
By Glen McGregor, OTTAWA CITIZEN
March 10, 2015
Defence Minister Jason Kenney’s misrepresentation of photos of a Muslim religious ceremony to bolster support for the war against ISIS is “corrosive” and “inflammatory,” a group representing Canadian Muslims said Tuesday.
. . .
The National Council of Canadian Muslims called Kenney’s Twitter message “another example of our elected leaders, at best, ignorantly conflating Islam and Muslims with extremism and terrorism, and at worst, deliberately attempting to score political points by stoking divisions ...
Muslim school holiday recognition unlikely in Canada
NYC schools will close for Muslim holidays Eid al-Adha, Eid al-Fitr, Mayor Bill de Blasio says
By Aleksandra Sagan, CBC News
March 7, 2015
Despite a move by New York City to close its schools for two Muslim holidays starting next fall, it's unlikely anyone but Muslim Canadian students will be allowed to miss those school days north of the border. But some wonder if at least some Canadian schools should follow the Big Apple's lead.
When New York City schools close their doors for Eid al-Adha (the Festival of Sacrifice) and Eid al-Fitr (the end of Ramadan), ...