Advocacy group welcomes appointment of Amira Elghawaby to advisory function as ‘historic second for Muslims in Canada’.
Canada has appointed its first particular consultant on combatting Islamophobia as the federal government seeks to stem hatred and discrimination after a sequence of assaults concentrating on members of Muslim communities within the nation in recent times.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced on Thursday that human rights advocate Amira Elghawaby would take up the put up, with a mandate to help Ottawa’s efforts to finish Islamophobia and to supply recommendation on authorities insurance policies, laws and different programmes.
“Variety actually is one in all Canada’s biggest strengths, however for a lot of Muslims, Islamophobia is all too acquainted. We have to change that. Nobody in our nation ought to expertise hatred due to their religion,” Trudeau stated in a statement.
Elghawaby’s appointment, he added, “is a crucial step in our fight against Islamophobia and hatred in all its types”.
For years, Muslim group leaders in Canada have known as on authorities in any respect ranges to deal with racism, hate-motivated violence, and the prevalence of far-right groups.
Researchers in 2020 discovered that the variety of hate teams working within the nation had tripled in recent times, with anti-Muslim rhetoric one of many “most salient” subjects amongst right-wing extremists on-line.
A yr later, Trudeau’s authorities held nationwide summits on Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in a push to deal with the issues. That effort got here after a series of deadly attacks and harassment concentrating on Muslim communities throughout Canada raised alarm and spurred calls to motion.
In June 2021, four members of a Muslim family had been killed when a person ran them over together with his truck in London, Ontario, whereas a gunman killed six Muslim men as they prayed at a mosque in Quebec Metropolis in 2017.
On Thursday, the Nationwide Council of Canadian Muslims advocacy group welcomed Canada’s appointment of Elghawaby, who beforehand labored with the organisation, as an “historic second for Muslims in Canada”.
“That is the primary time the battle in opposition to Islamophobia may have a longtime dwelling in Canadian authorities,” the group’s CEO, Stephen Brown, stated in a press release.
“There are pressing adjustments that have to be met, from higher oversight for our nationwide safety businesses, to stopping our group organizations from being unfairly audited. We have now lots of work forward and we’re so excited that there’s now an Workplace that may assist us result in these adjustments on the institutional degree.”
A contributing columnist on the Toronto Star newspaper, Elghawaby currently works on the Canadian Race Relations Basis. She additionally was a founding board member of the Canadian Anti-Hate Community, a non-profit that tracks hate teams in Canada.
