Attack on Terrorism: 'Muslim, not a Terrorist!' by Joshua Toledo

Attack on Terrorism: 'Muslim, not a Terrorist!'

by Joshua Toledo for Ms. Walling's Blog spot Posted January 17th, 2020

Photo created by Joshua Toledo

How many knees must fall to the ground to be bruised, how many families and friends must shed tears, how much blood ought to drip on the white tiled floor until everyone realizes that the only thing, we must fear is our own hatred. 2017, 29th of January, Quebec City, Alexandre Bissonnette released vicious bullets in a Mosque, injuring 19 Muslims, 2 who suffered from critical injuries, and 6 were killed. Bissonnette’s motive was born from the fear of Muslims, fear of the Terrorism category of attacks that were lead by groups that happened to be Islamic, and an example are terrorist movement in 9/11 and the bombing attacks in Europe. 

           

            There haven’t been many recent cases of hate-crime in Canada as terrible as the Quebec mosque shooting massacre, yet. Small cases of hate-crime are recently reported, proves that the awareness caused by the Quebec mosque shooting incident has not removed islamophobia in Canadian society, completely.

March 21st, 2019, a letter was found in Quebec City, south shore, 

“The letter urges the members of the mosque to stay quiet, stop criticizing and continue to pray until their death.” quotation from CTV Montreal. “'Stay Quiet': Threatening Letter Left at Mosque in Levis.” 

Crimes or hatred are not as pronounced in public because Citizens of Canada are 'protected' by the law, free from discrimination and other.

Under section 319 of the Criminal Code (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46)

: (1) Every one who, by communicating statements in any public place, incites hatred against any identifiable group where such incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace is guilty…


Is the enforcement of law enough to protect innocent Islam parties and Muslim citizens in Canada against hate-crimes. 

The answer is, the law by itself is not enough to stop the spread of Islamophobia. If actions were to be taken against anti-Islam movements, the first thing to do is to understand that Islamophobia, discrimination, and xenophobia mean the exact same. Ignorance, that leads to fear and hatred. Second, is to spread awareness. Making the word islamophobia well known, so everyone is aware of the problem, until all of Canada and hopefully the whole world realize that Muslims are not terrorist, that they are also people. Fear is mostly constructed from misunderstanding or not knowing. Fear is a strong emotion that disrupts are process of thinking. If we were to inform others to understand and accept instead, more people will be out of the fog and less would be lost.

Work Cited:

CTV Montreal. “'Stay Quiet': Threatening Letter Left at Mosque in Levis.” Montreal, CTV News, 25 Mar. 2019, montreal.ctvnews.ca/stay-quiet-threatening-letter-left-at-mosque-in-levis-1.4351237.

Page, Julia. “Quebec City Mosque Shooter Sentenced to at Least 40 Years in Prison | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 9 Feb. 2019, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/alexandre-bissonnette-sentence-quebec-city-mosque-shooting-1.4973655.

Legislative Services Branch. “Consolidated Federal Laws of Canada, Criminal Code.” Criminal Code, 14 Jan. 2020, laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-46/section-319.html.

“National Council of Canadian Muslims.” NCCM, www.nccm.ca/map/#.