By Faisal Kutty
Vehicle ramming in London, Ontario, is just the latest incident showing that Canada has much to unlearn and relearn about Islam
(MIDDLE EAST EYE) A man driving a pickup truck plowed into a Muslim family of five out for a Sunday evening stroll in the Canadian city of London, Ontario, in what police are calling a “premeditated” hate crime.
A teenage girl and her grandmother, father and mother are dead, while their nine-year-old son is in hospital.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday called it a terrorist attack, saying of the family members who died: “Their lives were taken in a brutal, cowardly, and brazen act of violence. This killing was no accident. This was a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred, in the heart of one of our communities.”
Last year, a volunteer sitting outside a Toronto mosque had his throat slit by a man with alleged links to white supremacist groups. And three years before that, a terrorist entered a mosque in Quebec City and gunned down worshippers, killing six people and seriously injuring 19 others.
How is this possible in a country touted for its multiculturalism and tolerance? This is no accident: Canadians have a lot to unlearn and relearn about Islam.
Speaking at a 2017 ceremony marking the murders in Quebec City, Imam Hassan Guillet said: “We don’t have enemies; I repeat, we don’t have enemies. We have people who don’t know us.” After eulogising the victims, the imam said that the terrorist killer was also a victim.
Indeed, such killers do not just wake up one morning and decide to kill Muslims. Long before they execute their evil deeds against the innocent, hateful ideas – more dangerous than bullets or vehicles used as weapons – are planted in them. Much of the blame for their radicalisation rests with certain politicians and segments of the media.
