1/11 Like so many others I have been trying to collect my thoughts as I grieve the loss of four people killed in London in an act of anti-Muslim hate. I don’t use the term islamophobia as this was not an act of fear, but an act of hate.
2/11 These murders have deeply wounded and affected many people in our communities, especially Muslim people, and especially those that are visibly Muslim.
3/11 These murders are tragic. Reading about people’s fear about going out for a walk, their children’s fears about becoming orphans, it’s heartbreaking. And it’s also enraging.
4/11 Killing people for being Muslim is a consequence of racist policies and rhetoric that are mainstream, that serve to “Other” people, making them targets for discrimination, hate and violence.
5/11 Racist policies like “no-fly” lists. Racist policies like the “War on Terror.” Racist policies like bans on religious clothing in public professions.
6/11 Racist rhetoric that positions Muslims, especially in the Middle East, as the arch-enemy of the West (especially since the dissolution of the USSR and other communist countries, and 9/11). Racist rhetoric about the need to “Take Back Canada.”
7/11 These are mainstream Canadian positions. They discursively produce the systemic racism faced by Muslims in our community. They are central to our white supremacist, settler-colonial society. Anti-Muslim hate and violence are tragic and heartbreaking, but not surprising.
8/11 Our societal response needs to go beyond words of sadness and a plea for tolerance.
9/11 We need to address the white supremacist policies, foreign and domestic, that systematically produce the anti-Muslim, anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, anti-Palestinian, antisemitic, anti-immigrant, (&tc) racism that pervades our society.
10/11 This is all of our collective responsibility. Act by using your voice, by organizing towards collective action, by donating money. Act by supporting anti-racist politicians, (by running for office?), by voting against those whose mission is to uphold the racist status quo.
11/11 Let us turn our grief into action, to create a better world.
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