Canadian Muslim group in Alberta launches Islamophobia hotline
The Alberta Muslim Public Affairs Council (AMPAC) is encouraging people who
experience an Islamophobic incident to call 1-800-607-3312 and leave a message
describing it so staff from the council can follow up.
The Council’s President Faisal Suri said with many new Muslim immigrants
arriving in the country and a few isolated incidents they want to make sure
people have somewhere to reach out.
"The goal is to make sure that we are providing a support mechanism,” he said.
Suri said staff are going to assess the calls and decide if they should be
forwarded to police to investigate. He said Edmonton Police have always been
supportive, but some hate crimes directed against Muslims are likely not being
addressed.
"EPS has been fantastic in dealing with a lot of these issues that come to
light, but a lot of issues are not reported to police,” he said.
Mohyuddin Mirza, a spokesperson for the Muslim community, said they combat
Islamophobia in their own way, by being open so people can see negative
stereotypes about Muslims are inaccurate.
"We are gaining more ground by going a different route and opening our
mosque and holding open houses,” he said.
He said their Mosque has been vandalized in the past, but they don’t believe it
was racially motivated.
"Most of the time we found it was not an act of Islamic hatred or Islamophobia,
but rather a couple of drunk people walking around throwing bottles.”
Source: Metro News
