Anti-Muslim slurs aimed at second Gatineau mosque

A second Gatineau, Que., mosque was the target of anti-Muslim slurs last week just hours after vandalism at another mosque. Hicham Ouhaid, president of the Mosque of Aylmer, said he received an email early last Monday urging Muslims to get out of Canada. The message, he said, included a photo of a 2010 Time magazine cover depicting a young Afghan woman whose nose and ears were cut off.

This is not the first time the Aylmer mosque, located at the corner of Park Street and Chemin Eardley, has been targeted, he added, as a hateful letter was dropped in the mailbox last spring. “We felt very concerned. We felt our community is somehow targeted,” Ouhaid told the CBC’s Alistair Steele. “Although we don’t really understand why, because we have been there for quite some time and everything was fine.”

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Quebec mosque again hit by vandals

Gatineau mosque graffiti2A mosque in Gatineau, Que., that has been a target of vandalism was spray-painted with graffiti overnight.

Workers at the Outaouais Islamic Centre awoke Thursday to discover swear words and derogatory references to Arabs and Allah spray-painted in white. The vandals painted messages on the front doors, across the building’s side and on two other entrances to the building.

The mosque had earlier been vandalized Monday morning when windows were damaged and someone attempted to set fire to two cars in the parking lot.

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Quebec mosque target of arson and vandalism

Outaouais Islamic Centre vandalism

Representatives of a Gatineau, Que., mosque say they are concerned about vandalism after someone tried to set fire to two cars in their parking lot early Monday morning.

Sometime between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. a person attempted to set fire to two cars parked at the mosque but was unsuccessful, according to Amadou Thiam, the secretary general for the Outaouais Islamic Centre. Two windows at the mosque itself were also broken.

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JDL and far-right parties find common ground

“Right-wing movements previously associated with anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi ideologies are increasingly opting for a surprising tactic to garner legitimacy within mainstream politics: Forging alliances with extremist Jewish organisations under the banner of fighting ‘Islamisation’.”

Nour Samaha of Al Jazeera examines links between the Jewish Defense League and far-right organisations in Europe and North America.

‘Hijab rule: what took so long?’ Quebec newspaper backs right of women prison staff to wear headscarf

The Montreal Gazette has an editorial supporting the Quebec government’s decision to allow Muslim women prison staff to wear the headscarf:

Hijab rule: what took so long?

When the Quebec government announced it will reasonably accommodate female prison guards who choose to wear hijabs – the traditional Muslim head scarf – the Parti Québécois called the decision crazy.

What is crazy about this matter – apart from the fact that it became an issue in the first place – is that it took four years to be resolved after a discrimination complaint was filed with the Quebec human-rights commission by a prison-guard trainee who had been forbidden to wear a hijab.

Considering that there was never any restriction on inmates wearing hijabs, maintaining a ban on the garment for guards would have meant the prisoners had more rights than the jailers.

Now that would indeed have been crazy.

Quebec government denounced by opposition for allowing Muslim prison workers to wear headscarf

Sondos AbdelatifThe Quebec government, which said Tuesday it will allow Muslim women working in provincial jails to wear a head scarf, has been accused by the Opposition of caving in to an “excessive” demand.

The Quebec Public Security Department passed the new rule after reaching a deal with Quebec’s human rights commission, following a complaint made four years ago. The ministry chose to enforce what it calls an “accommodation” rather than take the matter to the provincial human rights tribunal.

The Parti Québécois lambasted the government Tuesday for caving in to this “excessive” demand. “This is completely unacceptable,” said PQ critic for secularism issues Carole Poirier. “The guards are state employees and should not wear any conspicuous religious symbols, especially not in a jail where the neutrality of the state should be obvious.”

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Canada: face veils banned for citizenship oaths

LEBANON MPSThe government is placing a ban on face coverings such as niqabs for people swearing their oath of citizenship, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Monday. The ban takes effect immediately.

As a result, Muslim women will have to remove their niqabs or any other face-covering garments, such as burkas, before they can recite the oath of citizenship to become Canadians. Citizenship judges will be directed to enforce the rules at ceremonies over which they preside.

It’s a “public declaration that you are joining the Canadian family and it must be taken freely and openly,” he said, calling it “frankly, bizarre” that women were allowed to wear face veils while they swear their citizenship oaths.

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Canada: face veils banned for citizenship oaths

LEBANON MPSThe government is placing a ban on face coverings such as niqabs for people swearing their oath of citizenship, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Monday. The ban takes effect immediately.

As a result, Muslim women will have to remove their niqabs or any other face-covering garments, such as burkas, before they can recite the oath of citizenship to become Canadians. Citizenship judges will be directed to enforce the rules at ceremonies over which they preside.

It’s a “public declaration that you are joining the Canadian family and it must be taken freely and openly,” he said, calling it “frankly, bizarre” that women were allowed to wear face veils while they swear their citizenship oaths.

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Ontario: suspended sentence in niqab assault case

A woman who pleaded guilty to assault after pulling off a Muslim woman’s face veil at a Mississauga, Ont., shopping mall was given a suspended sentence on Friday.

Rosemarie Creswell pleaded guilty to assault after mall security footage showed her pulling off Inas Kadri’s traditional face veil, known as a niqab, at Sheridan Centre in Mississauga in August 2010. Kadri was with her two small children when the attack occurred.

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Ontario: woman has niqab pulled off in assault

A Muslim woman from Mississauga, Ont., who had her niqab pulled from her face at a local mall, says her young children no longer feel secure with only her nearby.

Inas Kadri, whose assault at Sheridan Centre in Mississauga was caught on a security camera, spoke to CBC News on Tuesday as she awaits the sentencing of the woman who attacked her.

Kadri was shopping with her three-year-old son and two-year-old daughter when she was approached by two women. One of the women began swearing at her, about her religion and her veil, telling her, “Leave our country. Go back to your country,” Kadri said.

The woman can be seen in the video grabbing Kadri’s veil and pulling her off-camera. The attacker walked away while Kadri ran for help.

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