ALBERTA – Amid increasing fears of hate attacks, an Alberta Muslim group has launched a new hotline to help people report Islamophobia attacks, incidents of vandalism and discrimination after vandalism of Alberta mosques and an attack on a Muslim woman at the University of Alberta.
“We just want to be proactive,” Faesal Khan Suri, president of the Alberta Muslim Public Affairs Council (AMPAC), told CBC News.
“It’s not something that has happened now. But with some Syrian refugees coming in, too, there could be some possible backlashes.”
Suri said that the toll-free phone line was launched last week.
People who experience Islamophobic incidents in the province can call the hotline at 1-800-607-3312 and leave a message.
The Muslim group, AMPAC, will respond within 24 hours by directing callers to support agencies, lawyers or the police.
The new hotline was urged after increase of hate attacks targeting Muslims.
A mosque in Cold Lake was vandalized with graffiti in October 2014 and again in November 2015.
An LRT station in Edmonton and some cars in the neighboring parking lot were spray painted in December 2015 with racism Islamophobic graffiti.
Two men were arrested in that case, and one of them was charged with a hate crime.
Help
The hotline was welcomed by weary Muslims who have been sensing increase of intolerance in the community.
“As a Muslim myself, I can tell you that most of us are tired of the anxiety and stress caused by the issue,” Shahtaj Shahid, a student at Alberta College of Art & Design (ACAD), told Calgary Metro news on Wednesday.
Calgarian Shima Safwat said the hotline could help women who wear hijab and niqab.
“I haven’t experienced anything, thank God, but my husband is telling me to take care and stay home, because it’s not always safe anymore,” she said.
Shahid, who admitted that Alberta people was tolerant, said that the hotline is a preemptive approach to helping people
“I think it’s a way of emphasizing the fact that the Calgary public cares about the Muslim community,” she said. “It will make Muslims feel included and less scared, and that’s genuinely what we really want.”
A similar hotline was launched earlier this month by the legal community in British Columbia.
The number, 604-343-3828, is being run by Access Pro Bono Society of BC, a non-profit that assists individuals of limited means to obtain free legal services.
Muslims make up 3.2 percent of Canada’s population making Islam the second largest religion in the country after Christianity.