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Islamophobia Has No Place in Canada: Trudeau

SHAFAQNA- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Islamophobia and right-wing extremism have no place in our society following threats to a Toronto mosque.

He said he is “deeply disturbed” after a Toronto mosque received a sinister threat referencing the Christchurch terror attacks, and vowed to do more to counter anti-Muslim hatred.

“Islamophobia and hate have no place in our country, and this kind of behavior and language will not be tolerated. We must do more to counter hatred and we will,” Trudeau said on Twitter, responding to a letter posted on the social media site by Canada’s Muslim Caucus, the Middle East Eye reported.

The letter addressed an incident from the weekend in which an unidentified mosque in Toronto received an email saying: “we have the guns to do a Christ church all over again”.

The mosque in question was not identified due to an uptick in attacks in the Toronto area this year. Toronto police said they are currently investigating the threats.

“We have watched with growing concern acts of violence that have occurred around the world due to racism, Islamophobia, and white supremacy,” the Caucus said, which consists of Muslim MPs.

While acknowledging the work being done by the federal government to combat hate and white supremacy, the Caucus said that “incidents of hate, violence, and murder continue to occur and far-right hate groups fester on dark corners of the web and in person”.

“We recognize much more needs to be done. Lives are being lost, and there is deep concern. We have a responsibility to do more,” the MPs said.

The threat comes less than a month after a Muslim volunteer at the International Muslims Organization (IMO), a Toronto-area mosque, was stabbed to death outside the house of worship.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) had sent out a stern letter following the murder, calling on Trudeau and the federal government to create an action plan to dismantle white supremacy.

“Faith-based communities, as well as racialized communities, have faced attacks on our homes, our places of worship, our children, and our congregants at the hands of white supremacist organizations,” the coalition said in the letter.

“We are calling on the federal government to establish a national action plan on dismantling white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups that threaten Canadians who are Black, Indigenous, Jewish, Muslim, or Sikh, amongst other communities.”