Montreal, Quebec, Canada – Canadian Muslim leaders are calling for an end to Islamophobic rhetoric and intimidation as the country prepares to mark the ninth anniversary of the Islamic revolution. deadly attack on mosque in Quebec.

Stephen Brown, CEO of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), said Thursday’s anniversary is a reminder that Islamophobia in Canada “is not benign.”

“Unfortunately, this is a deadly thing,” Brown told Al Jazeera. “(The anniversary) forces us to remember that hate has real consequences.”

On January 29, 2017, a gunman opened fire at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Center in Quebec City, killing six Muslim men. Marks the deadliest attack A chapel in Canadian history.

Attack brings ties closer in Quebec City Muslim community deeply shakensparking vigils and condemnation across Canada and shining a spotlight on a global rise in anti-Muslim hatred and radicalism.

The Canadian government condemned the shooting as a “terrorist attack” against Muslims and pledged to address the underlying issues.

In 2021, it announced Designated January 29 as a national day of remembrance for the Quebec City mosque attack and action against Islamophobia.

But Brown said he’s not sure the lessons learned from what happened in Quebec City are fully remembered today, nearly a decade later.

“After the Quebec City mosque massacre, there was a real desire in society to try to heal some wounds and build some bridges,” he said.

“Unfortunately, what a lot of people are1769642559seeing – especially Muslims living in Quebec – is a massive return to exploiting Islamophobia and spreading fear about Muslims for political gain.”

law and rhetoric

Brown noted that Quebec’s right-wing Coalition Avenir Québécois (CAQ) government has proposed a series of measures that human rights groups say target Quebec Muslims.

The CAQ, in power since 2018, passed a law in 2019 banning some civil servants from wearing religious symbols at work, including hijabs, Sikh turbans and yarmulkes worn by Muslim women.

The government justified the law, called bill 21as part of its efforts to protect secularism in the province, which underwent a so-called “quiet revolution” in the 1960s to break the Catholic Church’s influence on state institutions.

But rights advocates say Bill 21 discriminates against religious minorities and will have a disproportionately harmful impact on Muslim women in particular.

As the CAQ’s popularity plummets in recent months, it has passed and proposed more legislation to strengthen its so-called “national secularism” model ahead of upcoming provincial elections later this year.

Most recently, in late November, the CAQ introduced a bill This would extend the ban on religious symbols to places such as daycares and private schools.

Bill 9 also bans schools from serving meals based solely on religious dietary requirements, such as kosher or halal lunches, and prohibits “collective religious activities, especially prayer,” in public.

"Quebec has adopted its own model of national secularism," explain Jean-Francois Roberge, provincial minister responsible for secularism.

Roberge rejected the idea that the bill targets Muslim or Jewish Quebecers. tell reporters At a press conference on November 27, “the same rules apply to everyone.”

But the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), which is involved in the lawsuit against Bill 21, which will be heard by Canada’s Supreme Court later this year, said Bill 9 “masks discrimination as secularism.”

Harini Sivalingam, Director of Equity Programs at CCLA a statement.

NCCM’s Brown said the Quebec government’s actions “send a message to society that being a visibly, devout Muslim is inherently dangerous or wrong.”

He warned that when people in power use anti-Muslim rhetoric to try to score political points, “it gives those who already hold a lot of Islamophobic views or hateful views a license to really take their anger out on people”.

‘Hate continues to threaten’

At the federal level, Amira ElgawabiCanada’s special representative to combat Islamophobia said the Canadian government has demonstrated a continued commitment to addressing the issue.

These include the launch of the Action Against Hate Initiative in 2024, which has invested millions of dollars in community groups, anti-fascist programs and other initiatives.

But El-Gawabi told Al Jazeera that Islamophobia is still on the rise in Canada “whether it’s through police-reported hate crimes (or) Canadians sharing they experience discrimination at work (and) school.”

according to statistics canadaIn 2023, police received 211 reports of anti-Muslim hate crimes, a 102% increase from the previous year. The number increased slightly in 2024, the most recent year for which data is available, with 229 incidents reported.

Elghawaby’s office was established in Another anti-Muslim attack Canadians killed four members of a family in London, Ont., in 2021, saying the figures underscore “hate continues to threaten Canadians.”

“While Canada has a global reputation for being welcoming to people from all over the world, it does struggle with the rise of division, polarization and extremist rhetoric,” she said, adding that it remained crucial to remember the Quebec City mosque attack.

“(The victims’ families) don’t want their loss to be in vain. They want Canadians to continue to stand with them, to continue to speak out against Islamophobia and to do their part in their own circles to help promote understanding,” Elgawabi said.

“If we don’t learn from the past, history will unfortunately repeat itself.”