Thread by @AliChahbar

A small favour to ask. Do not refer to this as an “unthinkable tragedy”. Truth be told, I think about it all the time. When I enter the mosque, I think about the New Zealand & Quebec City mosque shootings & the possibility that my wife & children could lose their husband & dad.

I think about Muslim women (including members of my own family) who wear a hijab in observance of their faith with full knowledge that in doing so, it renders them a target for scorn, hate, insults, ridicule, violence or in #LdnOnt on June 6th, 2021, a target for murder.

I think about a non-binding, symbolic motion before the House of Commons in 2017 seeking to condemn Islamophobia which was opposed by 91 MPs, predominantly from one party, because for too many of our elected officials, politics trumps principle.

I think about Bill 21 in Quebec which makes it illegal for public servants to wear religious attire & work forcing certain citizen of this country to choose between their faith & their career while simultaneously castigating & differentiating “them” from “us” in the process.

I think of recent election campaigns in Canada where ideas such as a ‘Barbaric Cultural Practices Tip Line’ or ‘Niqab Ban’ were used as politically expedient wedge issues to score political points at the expense of our Muslim community making them targets of fear & suspicion.

I think of a certain American president who peddled in vitriolic & divisive rhetoric that castigated an entire faith causing him to institute a “Muslim Ban” which stoked fear & enmity against over a billion people across the globe.

I think about campaigns I was involved in where I was expected to dignify questions about advancing hidden agendas of shariah law while simultaneously being asked to reaffirm my Canadian credentials despite being born & raised in this country.

I think about all of those times I was “randomly” selected for enhanced screening or told that I should change my name or that I should stay out of the sun or called a terrorist or on one particularly sad occasion, when I was referred to as a sand n____r.

I think about that one time my friend @NeedlesOnNews had me on his radio show to talk about some issue & how after I left the station, he got a call from a listener asking why he didn’t have a “real Canadian” to provide commentary on the topic.

I think about my grandparents & parents who immigrated to this country in 60s to carve out a better life for their children & grandchildren & the stories of hate & systemic discrimination they had to endure along the way in order to give their grandson a chance to succeed.

I think about the stigma too many people attach to newcomers & refugees who come to Canada seeking opportunity & safety in this country & how they’re forced to endure slurs & accusations of coming here to take “our milk & honey” or seeking sanctuary in our cities.

I think about my children and how the fact that their skin tone or Arabic names or how/where they pray may cause my babies to be on the other end of someone’s hate, vitriol, abuse, bullet or pick up truck and it rips me to absolute pieces.

I think about common perceptions & depictions of Muslims in film, popular culture & media and how these portrayals reinforce a narrative about how Muslims are different, suspicious, untrustworthy on one end of the spectrum to enemies or terrorists on the other end.

I’m not saying that any single one of these are solely responsible for what happened to that family on June 6th, but viewed collectively & taken as a whole, they create a larger narrative about Muslims that we quite literally deal with & must think about on a daily basis.

So, I implore you, when you’re searching for the words to describe the indescribable tragedy that happened in #LdnOnt this week, please don’t refer to it as “unthinkable”, because I swear to you, for too many of us, we think about it almost every single day of our lives.