When a multicultural country like Canada faces a stark rise in hatred targeting one ethnic group, its social and ethical solidarity is put to the test. The question for Canada\u2019s Jewish establishment is, how will it respond to the shocking spike in hatred targeting the Muslim community?<\/p>\n
On the heels of the Quebec City mosque shooting, which left six worshippers dead, and then a hate-filled protest outside of a Toronto mosque, a private member\u2019s motion to condemn Islamophobia was introduced in Parliament. Regrettably, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) is opposing the motion, at least in its current form.<\/p>\n
Liberal MP Iqra Khalid introduced the non-binding motion (M-103) urging the government to \u201cbetter reflect\u201d the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by \u201cquell[ing] the increasing public climate of hate and fear,\u201d while \u201ccondemn[ing] Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination.\u201d Her motion also asks Parliament to convene a study to address these issues and \u201cto conduct needs assessments for impacted communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the motion \u2013 intended to express the will of Parliament but falling short of having any legal force \u2013 acknowledges, there are already Charter provisions for opposing racism and discrimination. And Section 319 of the Criminal Code already outlaws \u201ccommunicating statements in any public place, incit[ing] hatred against any identifiable group where such incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace.\u201d But, sometimes, the law is not enough to signal collective revulsion.<\/p>\n
The demonstrators outside the downtown Toronto mosque held signs such as \u201cBan Islam\u201d and \u201cMuslims are terrorists.\u201d Interviewed on camera, one of the protesters makes the following chilling observation: \u201cThey [she presumably means Muslims] start out friendly and, before you know it, they grow so much in population that they take over.\u201d The interviewer challenges her: \u201cThis is sounding a lot like what people said about Jews at one time,\u201d to which the protester replies: \u201cThere\u2019s no comparison. Jews were not evil.\u201d<\/p>\n
For its part, CIJA calls M-103 \u201cflawed.\u201d As CIJA head Shimon Koffler Fogel writes, the motion \u201crequires us to silence legitimate concerns or suppress a public conversation about those strains of Islam that pose a real and imminent threat to Jews around the world,\u201d adding that the motion \u201cdenies space and opportunity within the Muslim community to confront those strains of Islam that do indeed exist and do indeed cause harm to the majority of Muslims who do not subscribe to an extremist ideology.\u201d For these reasons, CIJA is urging lawmakers to oppose it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the first time a private member\u2019s motion has been introduced to focus Canada\u2019s attention on a specific form of hatred. In 2015, Conservative MP James Bezan asked \u201call members [of Parliament] and all Canadians [to] join me in denouncing antisemitism.\u201d In 2015, Liberal MP Irwin Cotler asked the \u201cHouse [to] condemn the alarming development of a new antisemitism….\u201d And then, of course, there\u2019s the 2010 Ottawa Protocol on Combating Antisemitism, which convened parliamentary representatives from an array of countries to call out antisemitism.<\/p>\n
CIJA director of communications Martin Sampson shared with me the amended text of the motion CIJA proposed to Khaled, including trying to add a clause that would \u201crecognize that criticism and condemnation of any and all forms of extremism is not only acceptable but necessary in a free and democratic society; and tasking the proposed study to define \u2018Islamophobia in Canada.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Bernie Farber, former head of Canadian Jewish Congress and now head of the Toronto-based Mosaic Institute, a diversity, peace and justice organization, said he is \u201cbaffled and stunned\u201d by CIJA\u2019s opposition to the motion.<\/p>\n
Is the lack of explicit acknowledgment of the legitimacy of criticizing religion a problem, as CIJA is suggesting? No. Parliamentary motions have no legislative force. The existing Criminal Code \u2013 including laws governing freedom of expression \u2013 will remain unaffected. Fogel\u2019s claim that the motion will silence criticism by force of law is simply wrong. It may serve to dampen enthusiasm for the kind of hateful anti-Muslim demonstrations we saw in Toronto, but that is the point.<\/p>\n
Or perhaps the vagueness of the term Islamophobia is a problem. Sampson calls the word \u201cpolitically charged and imprecise.\u201d Cotler, for instance, is suggesting that M-103 be amended to say \u201canti-Muslim bigotry.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, like homophobia, Islamophobia is simply the term that exists to denote this form of bigotry. When I asked historian of language Liora Halperin why the term got saddled with the more clinical \u201cphobia\u201d suffix instead of acquiring the more straightforward \u201canti\u201d prefix, she acknowledges that phobias are psychiatric diagnoses, not ideologies. But, she adds, \u201cin practice, fear is indeed part of racism.\u201d<\/p>\n
The term antisemitism \u2013 which, ironically, was coined by a German antisemite \u2013 captures the unique phenomenon of Jew hatred. Similarly, Farber argues, \u201chatred of Muslims needs its own specific word to get people to understand the importance of what this kind of hatred of Muslims can do. And we\u2019ve seen it, sadly, right here in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
These times call for solidarity in the face of rising tides of antisemitism, Islamophobia and all other forms of racism. In the wake of the mosque massacre and the hateful protests on Toronto\u2019s usually peaceful streets, coupled with the shadow of U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s xenophobic policies, the time is now for Canadians to stand together against Islamophobia. That\u2019s the word we have, that\u2019s the member\u2019s motion being proposed, and that\u2019s the wave of hatred \u2013 one prominent wave among many, sadly \u2013 that we urgently need to address.<\/p>\n
Mira Sucharov<\/strong> is an associate professor of political science at Carleton University. She is a columnist for <\/em>Canadian Jewish News and contributes to <\/em>Haaretz and the <\/em>Jewish Daily Forward, among other publications. A version of this article was originally published on haartez.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When a multicultural country like Canada faces a stark rise in hatred targeting one ethnic group, its social and ethical solidarity is put to the test. The question for Canada\u2019s Jewish establishment is, how will it respond to the shocking spike in hatred targeting the Muslim community? On the heels of the Quebec City mosque […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[801,6770,3157,458,6805,6731,6771,2427,5080],"class_list":["post-23270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-op-ed","tag-antisemitism","tag-bigotry","tag-canada","tag-cija","tag-iqra-khalid","tag-islamophobia","tag-m-103","tag-racism","tag-trump"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}