Thank you so much for the invitation to speak at this committee.

My name is Dr. Nadia Hasan, and I'm an assistant professor at the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies at York University in Toronto. My research and my work focus on Islamophobia and racism.

Just four days ago, we marked the three-year anniversary of the Islamophobic terror that was visited upon our London family, and just six days from today we will mark another shameful anniversary. It will have been five years since the passage of Bill 21 in Quebec, a law that has legitimized discrimination and Islamophobia, with unacceptable impacts on Muslim women's lives.

As we sit here between these two anniversaries, I invite you to take a moment to think about this very real and very violent context as we proceed today. I'm presenting to you today alongside a panel member who has led a whole community at the Quebec City mosque through the devastating grief of the 2017 Islamophobic massacre of their loved ones, and we do this in the context of an unprecedented rise in Islamophobia in this country.

You would be right to ask: What on earth is happening here? How is it possible that so many efforts have been made to study and understand Islamophobia in this country, yet here we are amidst a frenzy of Islamophobic and racist attacks, discrimination and profiling of Muslims and Palestinians in Canada?

You have already heard numerous stories of Islamophobic and racist incidents from the witnesses who have appeared before this committee thus far. You've heard about children being beaten up because their name sounds like Hamas. You've heard from student protesters who have been threatened with violence and vilified for exercising their right to protest. You've heard from the loved ones of those who have perished in fatal Islamophobic attacks.

The reality is that to go through every such incident, this committee would need to meet for weeks on end to hear them all.

In these last eight months, though, we have seen something distinct that needs to be noted. The rise in Islamophobia has dovetailed with the rise in anti-Palestinian racism, with many Muslims being targeted because they are Palestinian, are speaking out for Palestinians or are perceived as Palestinian.

Over the weekend, as my colleague Ms. Elghawaby mentioned, the home of a Muslim family in London who had an “Our London Family” sign and a “Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights” sign on their lawn was lit on fire.

We have also seen racist epithets like “terrorist” and “terrorist sympathizer” being thrown around with impunity, triggering not-so-distant memories of the swift clawback of rights, freedoms and safety that such terms unleashed on Muslim communities after 9/11. Seeing the ease with which such dangerously racist tropes become repopularized and weaponized, even against our children, it is as though they had never truly left our collective consciousness. These are also the tropes that come up in nearly every act of Islamophobic violence. This rhetoric is not benign.

At this moment, it is also important to remember that Islamophobia is not just fuelled by hateful rhetoric spewed by fringe groups. Islamophobia is also present in everyday life.

In October 2023, for example, the Markham Public Library decided to take down displays that were up for Islamic Heritage Month because being Muslim was too controversial at that moment. The fragility of DEI initiatives became undeniable, as they were proven to be inadequate to guard against the wholesale demonization of Muslims and Palestinians in this moment. Islamophobia is systemic, and it is endemic.

Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism intersect in significant and important ways, but they are distinct and require distinct and coordinated approaches to combatting them. We have come a long way since 9/11 in recognizing Islamophobia, and I'm glad to see that we are continuing to deepen our understanding of evolving forms of Islamophobia through exercises such as this, but if the last few months have taught us anything, it is that the gains we have made in reclaiming our rights and freedoms were inadequate and are fragile.

We have a long way to go to truly dismantle Islamophobia, and I would like to add three recommendations to those you are already considering that reflect the needs of the current climate.

One is that we need political leadership to speak unequivocally in support of the protection of the rights and freedoms of Muslim and Palestinian communities and, by extension, of all Canadians.

Two, we need to dismantle systemic forms of Islamophobic discrimination and racial profiling of Muslims and Palestinians in government agencies and laws.

Three, we need to take urgent steps to engage Palestinian communities and understand anti-Palestinian racism.

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