Good morning, Madam Chair and honourable members. Thank you for the invitation to appear before this committee for its study on Islamophobia.

My name is Shaffni Nalir. I grew up in Toronto, where I currently live with my wife and four children. I immigrated with my parents, who fled civil war and religious persecution in Sri Lanka. I grew up going to the Bond Street Nursery School, which was operated by the Metropolitan United Church. I grew up, like most Canadians in my age group, with 50¢ freezies, saving up pennies to buy candy from the corner store and watching The Elephant Show with Sharon, Lois and Bram. However, unlike most Canadians, I can brag that I saw them live—twice.

Growing up as a visible minority, you learn to have thick skin. Don't disrupt the peace. Stay quiet and absorb the offhanded insults, sarcastic comments and occasional physical bullying. Up until recently, I stopped seeing myself as a grateful guest in Canada and realized that I am in fact a host, and I hope to be a gracious one. Canada is as much my country as any other Canadian's.

I want to share our community's experience with Islamophobia and hate-motivated violence targeting our places of worship. I'm the general manager at the Toronto Islamic Centre and Community Services, the first and only mosque on Yonge Street and the only mosque in the University—Rosedale riding. On October 10, 2020, our mosque received a threatening email from an individual claiming to be associated with the Jewish Defense League, or JDL, an organization listed as terrorist by the FBI. Some of the content of the threatening email included, “We will [kill] every muzzie. We have the guns to do a Christchurch all over again”. We reported this threat to local law enforcement, and they advised us to close the mosque for a few days as they assessed the threat. For four long weeks, our mosque was closed to the public and to our congregants. There was fear and panic among them.

I want to remind this committee that our community lives with the trauma of the Quebec City mosque terrorist attack that took the lives of six worshippers in January 2017. During this time, my family was concerned for my safety and would often discourage me from going to our mosque to do any administrative work for fear that I would not return home. Since that incident, we've had several hate-motivated graffiti incidents at our mosque and the occasional banging on our doors and windows while we were inside praying.

However, on November 18, 2023, threats to our mosque turned into action. At around 6:30 in the morning, just after the morning prayer, I, along with around 50 congregants, including small children, heard several loud bangs on the windows and door of our mosque. A few congregants and I rushed outside to see what occurred, only to be met with an individual on a bike hurling racist threats at us, saying, “You effing Arabs. You effing Muslims. We're going to finish you all.” Then this individual spat several times in our direction and rode off.

I went inside to call the police and report what happened. Shortly after, this individual returned and threw a large rock at a group of congregants who were socializing in front of the mosque. Thankfully, he narrowly missed the elderly caretaker of the mosque by a few inches. He then yelled, “You're all dead” and sped off once again.

I and a few congregants chased him down and managed to corner him. Thankfully, at the same time, a traffic officer happened to be in the area to help control the situation. Police arrived on the scene shortly after. After the officers learned what had happened, they proceeded to arrest him. I felt a huge sigh of relief. Later that evening, Toronto police released a statement. We learned that this individual had also committed several other offences a few days prior and had attacked two other individuals because of their faith. He was charged with a total of 14 charges.

Since that day, I cannot fully focus on my prayer in the mosque because I'm always thinking about who will walk in and how I will respond to protect my community members. Every time I hear the door open, my whole body tenses up because I fear the worst. My children grew up at this mosque. In fact, my youngest son took his first steps in this mosque. My wife and I, along with many other parents, consider our mosque to be a safe space for children to roam freely, without parents feeling the need to worry. This individual robbed our community of its sense of safety at our mosque, which is the foundation of our community.

I admit we were afraid, but we were not deterred. We still pray in congregation but have increased our annual security budget from $4,800 to $36,000. Our budget includes 24-hour monitoring and recording, and active-shooter drills and training for our congregants. Nowadays, we always have worshippers standing guard while others pray.

Today, I want to ask this committee to take action against the Islamophobia and violence that our communities are facing and ensure that our government provides protection for our places of worship.

Thank you.