EDITORIAL: True to its word, the Canadian government continues to take steps to not just denounce but also combat “Islamophobia and hate-fuelled violence” against Muslims. The Trudeau government was clearly shocked on 29 January 2017, when a deranged shooter killed six people and injured 19 others in a mosque in Quebec City. Last year, it announced its intention to make Jan 29 a National Day of Remembrance of the Quebec City Mosque Attack and Action Against Islamophobia. And this year, on the fifth anniversary of the attack, it announced that “Canada stands with and supports Muslim communities across Canada and reaffirms its commitment to take action to denounce and tackle Islamophobia”.
It also very rightly went on to say that “Islamophobia is a concrete and daily reality for Muslim communities across Canada and around the world. As we honour the victims, we must remember that we have a responsibility to combat discrimination and continue to build a more inclusive Canada”.
To help with this, the Canadian government has announced the appointment of a Special Representative on combating Islamophobia, after it was recommended at a July 2021 national summit on the subject, which shows how seriously it is being taken. Islamabad was among the first to welcome this announcement because Prime Minister Imran Khan has himself led calls for just such intervention from western countries with large Muslim communities. Even as attacks against innocent Muslims have increased in number and expanded in geography, there is a tendency in most world leaders to issue strong condemnation and then get on with life as usual. That’s why the Canadian approach is so significant and hopefully it will set an instructive precedent. It intends to tackle the environment of harassment and intimidation that does not end with specific attacks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a very important statement as well just a few days before Canadian PM Justin Trudeau. Then, as now, Pakistan was the first to voice support. Now PM Imran Khan has offered, through his tweet of appreciation, to “join hands and put an end to this menace”. It’s very important to realise that these aren’t just cosmetic measures that look good for some country’s or party’s politics. It has become one of the biggest problems for the global community in an era increasingly associated with religious intolerance as well as violence. And it is, of course, up to the more advanced nations of the world to take the first and most significant steps on the road to tackling this problem.
Regrettably, much of the last decade or so has seen just the opposite in places like central Europe and even the United States during the Trump presidency. This problem had been simmering for a rather long time but it exploded onto the mainstream with the start of the so-called war against terrorism. Even the White House and 10 Downing Street, the main protagonists of the war, used language that gave terrorism a religious touch. Yet even after it took more than two decades of war and suffering to lower the toxicity, it is some western, advanced countries that aren’t playing along.
But Canada is now showing them the way. Nobody has, or should have, any appetite for conflict any longer, especially easily avoidable ones. There is now a very urgent need to spread this message to other countries with similar issues and problems. The age of globalization cannot go hand-in-hand with tendencies, on very large scales, of intolerance, xenophobia, etc. Everybody has a role to play, and Muslim countries must also pull their socks up and do what they can to help advance this crucial dialogue which Russia and Canada have brought to the global stage.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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