Police in Canada are investigating a report that a Somali woman wearing her hijab was attacked.
This is the latest Islamophobic attack on Muslims in Canada in recent months, including the massacre of four family members a few weeks ago in London, Ontario, which was the largest mass-killing in the city’s history.
Jibril Ibrahim, president of the Somali Canadian Cultural Society (SCCS), said the woman from Edmonton, Alberta, was assaulted as she was grabbed by her neck and pushed down to the pavement by an unknown person while out for a walk near the city’s Northmount neighbourhood.
Though it is thought that the woman’s injuries are not life-threatening, Jibril said her face was bloodied, some of her teeth loose, and that as a result she had had to spend Friday night in hospital.
“She was just walking on this street in the evening just to get a little bit of fresh air,” Ibrahim said Sunday. “And all of a sudden, someone just grabbed her by the neck, and she was thrown on the ground.”
“The whole family is still reeling from the incident,” he said.
“So far, it looks like more or less, our leadership from the prime minister to the mayor, they’re hoping that these people will go away. But it doesn’t work that way,”
“Hate doesn’t start with killing. It starts with harassment. It starts with looking at people in a certain way, making them feel uncomfortable,” We need to look into those definitions and come up with solutions.”
