Canadian Muslims Learn How to React to Hate
"We want to educate our community on how to react to certain Islamophobic gestures or slogans by certain people in the community," Mohamed Nur, the vice-chair of the Windsor Islamic Association's public relations board, told CBC on Friday, April 24.
"Windsor is a great city but there are those people who have those beliefs, especially towards Muslim women who are covered.
"So we want to educate them on how they should react, what they should do, how they should carry themselves and not feed into those perceptions those Islamophobes have."
Co-organized by the Windsor Islamic Association and the University of Windsor's Muslim Students Association, the event was held on Saturday, April 25, at the University of Windsor from 10 am to 3 pm.
The event came as Islamophobia has reached unprecedented levels in Canada following terror attacks committed by so-called Islamic State (ISIL)
According to the Collectif Québécois Contre l’Islamophobie, more than 123 Islamophobic attacks have been documented since Charlie Hebdo attacks earlier this year.
Muslim women have reportedly become the prime target of Islamopbobic attacks because of their Islamic appearance.
"I have never had an issue with Islamophobia because I don't carry my Islam on my face or body like most Muslim women," Nur said.
"So, with Muslim men, they can blend into society more than Muslim women, they are the ones who get the burden from Islamophobes most often."
A Welcoming City
Despite the rise of Islamophobic attacks across Canada, Windsor is among the cities that has the least number of such attacks, according to its Muslim community.
"Windsor is a very welcoming city. It's a very multicultural city at the same time," Nur said.
A similar opinion was shared by Ronnie Haidar, the media director for the Windsor Islamic Association who often speaks on behalf of the local Muslim community.
"Windsor is an excellent city, every institution and organization welcomes Muslims with open arms and it is reciprocated in our institutions and organizations as well.
"We have a strict open-door policy at the Windsor Mosque and all mosques across the city that welcome Windsorites in all shapes and sizes, in all ages and all genders," he said.
"Windsor has been, in my opinion, one of the better cities when it comes to the relationships with the Islamic community and the outside Canadian communities."
Organizers of the workshop hope that it will be "a step-by-step workshop which provides an introduction and brief overview of how the world of journalism and media works".
Muslims make around 2.8 percent of Canada's 32.8 million population, and Islam is the number one non-Christian faith in the country.
