Masjid in Toronto Threatened with a "Christchurch All Over Again"

NCCM calls for action to dismantle the 300 violent xenophobic, white supremacist, and neo-Nazi groups in Canada.

(Toronto – October 12, 2020)

Our communities are still reeling from the incident that took place on September 12, 2020. On that day, a member of the Canadian community, Mohamed-Aslim Zafis, was ruthlessly killed in front of the IMO Mosque in Toronto by an individual with apparent links to brand of neo-Nazism. This attack did not occur in isolation.

On Saturday, October 10, a downtown Toronto mosque (which NCCM will not be naming so as to protect them from further threats or attacks) was sent violent messages. The text of one of the threatening messages is reproduced below [censored for distribution]:

"F*** ISLAM! We will murder every muzzie...! We have a right to defend ourselves from the terrorists! F****g Islam! The police will take our side. Islam will not defeat us. We have the guns to do a Christ church all over again in our office. We have...soldiers who have experience as snipers. F**k ISLAM!"

"Enough is enough", said Mustafa Farooq, CEO of the National Council of Canadian Muslims. "While we greatly appreciate the efforts of Toronto Police Service in conducting an investigation into this particular incident, we need action now from the federal government to develop a national action strategy on dismantling xenophobic groups that preach violent ideologies of hate and violence. We've seen the murders at the Quebec City Mosque in 2017. In September, we had the killing at the IMO. Today, we are dealing with threats to murder members of the Toronto Muslim community en masse. What more needs to happen before action is taken?"

Last week, NCCM and a number of other organizations issued an open letter to all federal leaders to take action now, so that Canadians never have to fear another killing at the hands of organized white supremacist, neo-Nazi, or Islamophobic organizations.

See the open letter here.

The time for action is now.