Canadian Muslims launch hate-tracking website

CANADA: A Canadian Muslim support group The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) has launched a website to track Islamophobic incidents in the country, such as hijab pulling, vandalism and other forms of prejudice.

The NCCM along with representatives of other Canadian communities, came together to urge elected officials to take extra measures to address the issue of and educate Canadians about hate crimes and their consequences.

Statistics Canada released some information about the overall drop in hate crimes; from 1,414 in 2012 to 1,167 in 2013, but concerns remain about some minority groups including Muslims, Blacks and Jews who are more likely to face violence. Muslims saw an increase from 45 incidents in 2012 to 65 in 2013.

NCCM has launched a national hate crime awareness project which includes the social media campaign as well as an online map recording hate crimes across Canada.

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Statistics Canada observes that hate crimes are especially under-reported and reveals that just one-third of the victims come forward.

NCCM is hoping to change that by providing the public on Canada, a platform for reporting hate crimes online when they may be afraid to go to the police. The users are requested to share as much detail as possible, which is then plotted into an interactive map.

A further doubling of Anti-Muslim incidents between 2013 and 2014 has been reported by the group’s human rights coordinator, Amira Elghawaby, to VICE. Elghawaby adds that hate crimes against Muslims rose right after the Charlie Hebdo killings and the Parliament Hill shottings.

"The majority of individual assaults target women who are visibly Muslim," she said. "Women who are wearing the hijab are, by far, most frequently the victims of hate crimes."

She adds that a sense of pointlessness prevents people from coming forward and the fear of being stigmatised. She tells the story of two Muslims girls who had their Hijabs puled off: "They didn't want to go public or press charges because they didn't want to bring negative attention to themselves, or to the school," she said. "It was difficult for the two girls. They're young, and they didn't want to testify in a courtroom."

Therefore the site will allow the user to post anonymously, and their name will only be kept  on the file for verification.

"Our aim in launching a national hate crime awareness project is to urge Canadian Muslims, as well as fellow Canadians, to report hate wherever and whenever it happens so that we can find ways to combat it," she said.

A spokesperson for an LGBTQ rights organization joined Elghawaby at a press conference to support the initiative.

"Unless we address the root of the problem — the hateful idea that one group of people can be set above the rest; that one set of characteristics is 'normal' and therefore superior to all others—we will never be successful in addressing any one of its symptoms," said Ryan Dyck of Egale Canada.

The article originally appeared on VICE