Recent Coverage


Government faces questions about anti-Muslim bias over Syrian refugees

By Lee Berthiaume | Ottawa Citizen December 12, 2014 The Conservative government is facing renewed questions about an alleged anti-Muslim bias following revelations it wants to cherry-pick which Syrian refugees will be accepted into Canada. Sources say the government wants to prioritize religious minorities as a condition for resettling thousands more Syrian refugees in Canada over the next two years. . . . The head of one of Canada’s largest Muslim organizations, the National Council of Canadian Muslims, issued a statement Friday saying he was “deeply ...

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National Muslim group condemns latest Islamic State threat

By Peter Edwards | Toronto Star December 8, 2014 A leading national Muslim group has categorically denounced the latest call for violence against Canada and other nations by the terror group that calls itself Islamic State (ISIS). “We condemn the depraved violence and extremism by this and other terror groups,” Ihsaan Gardee, executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said on Monday. “It is both a civic and religious duty to contact the authorities if one has any information about plans to hurt or harm anyone,” Gardee said. The ...

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Quebec City, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu mosques vandalized

Mosques in Limoilou, Ste-Foy and Quebec City proper were targeted with message 'Islam out of my country' CBC News | November 10, 2014 Four mosques in the province — one in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and three near Quebec City — were the target of vandalism over the weekend. In St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, a rock was thrown through one of the windows of the Centre Culturel Al-Imane. Near the Quebec City area, three mosques were targeted with xenophobic messages. . . . The National Council of Canadian Muslims condemned the attacks. "While these types of acts ...

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Harper’s silence on anti-Muslim backlash disheartens Muslim groups

By Joan Bryden | The Canadian Press November 1, 2014 OTTAWA – Muslim groups are disappointed that Stephen Harper hasn’t spoken out against a spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes since two separate attacks by jihadist sympathizers left two Canadian soldiers dead last week. . . . “Our leaders have a very important role to play,” concurred Amira Elghawaby, human rights co-ordinator for the National Council of Canadian Muslims. “It’s the leaders who have to set the positive tone.” Immediately following the 9-11 terrorist attacks in New York and ...

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Anti-Muslim bullying on rise after Canada attacks

By Richard Valdmanis | Reuters Canada October 30, 2014 OTTAWA (Reuters) - Reports of anti-Muslim harassment in Canada have risen, Muslim organizations say, after attacks last week in which two soldiers were killed by people authorities say were inspired by the militant group Islamic State. The National Council of Canadian Muslims said it has seen a tenfold increase in reports of harassment, including racial slurs on public buses, notes left on car windshields and bullying at schools. "There are some very positive signs that we’ve noticed in the form of calls of ...

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Muslim group holds ‘Islamophobia boot camp’ in Ottawa

CBC News | October 26, 2014 People attending a boot camp course on how to respond to incidents of Islamaphobia Saturday did so with renewed focus on the issue after Wednesday’s shootings in Ottawa. The National Council of Canadian Muslims’s boot camp was planned before Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who had frequented a B.C. mosque while criticizing it for being “open and welcoming”, shot and killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo. After the shooting an Alberta mosque was vandalized, a local Toronto election candidate was assaulted and there have been reports of Muslims being ...

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Security experts warn of new ‘lone wolf’ terrorist phenomenon

CTV News | October 25, 2014 Security experts are warning of a new wave of violence by so-called "lone wolf" radicals, impressionable individuals who fall prey to extremist ideology and choose to act on them. It’s proving difficult to police these “self-radicals,” who may be inspired by militant organizations that, via social media and online postings, encourage others to kill and terrorize in their home countries... . . . As investigators link some of the offenders to ideals held by extremist organizations such as the Islamic State, mainstream Muslim ...

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Volunteers help clean vandalism from Cold Lake mosque

CTV News | October 24, 2014 Dozens of community members in Cold Lake, Alta. came together on Friday afternoon to clean up a local mosque after it was vandalized. . . . Ihsaan Gardee, executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said the incident doesn’t represent the sentiment of the “vast majority” of Canadians. “It’s kind of ironic that the word Canada was printed (on the mosque) because I think the vast majority of our fellow citizens would say this is un-Canadian,” Gardee told CTV’s News Channel Friday... http://www.ctv...

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Canadian Muslims denounce attacks

Muslim groups respond to the Ottawa shooting CBC News | October 23, 2014 Canadian Muslim groups have condemned the two deadly attacks this week, saying the incidents have no connection to Islam or its beliefs. Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed a guard at the National War Memorial in Ottawa on Wednesday before launching an attack in the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings... . . . Ihsaan Gardee, the executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, denounced the attacks in a news conference on Thursday. He said an attack on one Canadian ...

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Canadian Muslim group calls Ottawa attacks ‘repulsive’

National Council of Canadian Muslims says it’s ‘horrified and shocked’ by gunman’s attack on Parliament Hill. By: Peter Edwards | Toronto Star Thursday, October 23, 2014 A Canadian Muslim civil rights group calls the attacks on Parliament Hill “repulsive” and says it stands united with other Canadians. “All Canadians are horrified and shocked by these repulsive attacks in Ottawa and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families today,” Ihsaan Gardee, executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said in a ...

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