Stockwell Day’s recent comment about Muslims and Canadian values is wrong and dangerous

Day’s comments fit neatly into a pattern where Muslims are framed as inherently suspect, inherently foreign, and inherently incompatible with Canadian values.

By Fareed Khan

A version of this article can be found on Substack.

When former Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day recently questioned the compatibility of Muslim values and Canadian values, he did more than repeat a worn-out, groundless talking point. He poured gasoline on a fire already burning across the country — a fire stoked by years of political opportunism, media sensationalism, and a growing willingness among public figures to treat Muslims as a problem that Canada had to deal with rather than as full citizens. Day’s claim is not only demonstrably false, it is reckless, inflammatory, and deeply harmful to millions of Canadians who have every right to call this country home.

Day has a record of rejecting facts about racism in Canada, famously insisting on national television in 2020 that systemic racism does not exist in Canada — a statement so out of touch with reality that it cost him his seat on the board of Telus, his position as a strategic advisor with the law firm McMillan LLC, and his role as a regular panellist on CBC’s Power & Politics. His latest comments follow the same pattern — sweeping declarations that erase the lived experiences of a racialized community, denying historical reality, and emboldening those who already view Muslims with suspicion or hostility.

This comment comes at a time when Canada is experiencing a surge in Islamophobia unlike anything seen since the aftermath of 9/11. During the 12 months after October 2023 incidents of anti-Muslim hate rose by 1,800% according to the National Council of Canadian Muslims and another 72% the following year.  During the same period political rhetoric has hardened, and media narratives increasingly frame Muslims as outsiders or threats because of their advocacy for Palestinians and their demonstrations against the genocide Israel is committing in Gaza. In this climate, Day’s words do not exist in isolation. They legitimize prejudice, signal permission for bigotry, and tell Muslim Canadians — especially youth — that their place in this country is conditional, fragile, and perpetually under review.

If Day truly believes Muslim values clash with Canadian ones, he should be asked to specify which values he means. Charity? Justice? Equality? Respect for religious diversity? These are not fringe concepts for Muslims, but rather foundational principles of the Islamic faith.

Zakat, the obligation to give to those in need, is one of the five pillars of the faith. The Qur’an also teaches that all humans share a common origin and that no race or tribe is superior to another other than through piety (49:13). In addition, Islam recognizes Jews and Christians as “People of the Book,” granting them respect and religious legitimacy. These teachings align seamlessly with Canada’s stated commitments to multiculturalism, equality, and human dignity.

If these values are “un‑Canadian,” then Muslims aren’t the issue it’s people like Stockwell Day.

Canada’s social contract and who is breaking it

Canada’s strength has always come from its ability to integrate people from every corner of the world into a shared civic project. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are not fringe concepts, they are central to the country’s identity. Yet Day and others on the political right have spent years attacking these principles as “woke,” a term now used as shorthand for those who oppose racism and hate, embrace inclusion and diversity, and defend human rights.

When politicians rail against “wokeness,” they are not critiquing policy — they are signaling hostility towards the diversity of people who make up Canada. Quebec’s secularism law (Bill 21), which targets Muslim women who wear hijab, is a prime example of how governments cave in to public prejudice and weaponize hate and bigotry rather than uphold the fundamental Charter rights of Canadians. As documented in analyses of the law’s impact, Bill 21 has already derailed careers, pushed Muslim women out of public‑facing jobs, and normalized state‑sanctioned discrimination.

Similarly, federal and provincial leaders have used police powers and legal threats to suppress peaceful protests against the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza by Israel — protests largely led by Muslim Canadians exercising their Charter rights. These actions contradict the very democratic values and freedoms politicians like Day claim to defend.

If anyone is violating Canada’s social contract, it is not Muslim Canadians, it is those politicians who selectively apply rights and freedoms depending on who is exercising them.

The human cost of Day’s rhetoric

Day’s comments inflict a heavy psychological burden on Muslim youth. Imagine growing up in Canada — celebrating Canada Day, cheering for national teams in hockey or the recent World Cup, dreaming of representing your country in sports or wanting to run for public office, only to hear a former national political leader declare that your faith makes you incompatible with the nation you love.

Whether he accepts it or not, Day’s words have real world impacts. Muslim Canadians have lived through decades of being “othered” by politicians like him, especially after 9/11, when children were assaulted on school grounds and called “terrorist,” mosques were vandalized, Muslim community  leaders received death threats, and Muslim businesses were targeted. The demonization of Muslims in media and politics helped create the conditions that led to the Quebec City mosque massacre in 2017, the murder of a Muslim volunteer outside a Toronto mosque in September 2020, and the killing of three generations of the Afzaal family in London in June 2021.

These tragedies did not emerge from a vacuum. They grew from toxic and racist narratives — the same narratives Day is reinforcing with his comment.

Recent analyses show that Islamophobia has become deeply embedded in Canada’s political and media ecosystem. Right‑wing outlets profit from sensationalist and prejudiced coverage that casts Muslims as threats. Right wing politicians exploit fear to mobilize voters. Governments pass laws that disproportionately target Muslim communities. And public figures like Day feel comfortable making dangerous and sweeping claims with little regard to the lives affected.

This normalization of anti‑Muslim hate is documented extensively in reporting on Canada’s response to global conflicts, particularly Israel’s war on Gaza, where Muslim voices, which are the largest segment of the anti-genocide movement, have been marginalized, vilified, or dismissed as disloyal. When Muslim Canadians speak out against human rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza, they are accused of being terrorist supporters. When they demand accountability from political leaders, they are told they are undermining Canadian values.

Day’s comments fit neatly into this pattern, where Muslims are framed as inherently suspect, inherently foreign, inherently incompatible.

Even under minimal scrutiny Day’s assertion collapses under the weight of the historical record. From the time that Islam expanded from the Middle East across North Africa to the Atlantic and west to South Asia, Muslim civilizations were among the most pluralistic in the world. In Andalusia, Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together peacefully for centuries, producing advances in science, philosophy, and culture that helped spark the European Renaissance. The Ottoman Empire welcomed Jewish refugees fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. Persian and Mughal empires had vibrant Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist and Hindu communities, which produced some of history’s greatest works of art, architecture, and literature.

Meanwhile, Christian Europe repeatedly expelled Jews, launched violent pogroms against Jewish communities, and waged wars of religious domination against non-Christians for centuries.

If anything, the historical record shows that Islamic societies were more tolerant, more diverse, and more inclusive than many Western ones, even into the 20th century when Muslim states from Morocco Iraq had vibrant Jewish and Christian communities until Zionist elements instilled fear into those communities and convinced them that they could only be safe in Israel.  So the idea that Muslim values are incompatible with Canadian values is not only wrong, it is historically illiterate.

Muslims helped build Canada since before Confederation

Muslims are not newcomers to Canada. They have been here since before Confederation, contributing to the country’s development in every sector. Today, nearly 2.3 million Muslims call Canada home — about 5% of the population — and their achievements reflect the best of Canadian society.

Justice Mahmud Jamal made history in 2021 when he became the first racialized person and the first Muslim justice to sit on the Supreme Court.  Toronto human rights lawyer Faisal Kutty, an acclaimed legal scholar and writer has consistently been named among the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the world for his extensive social justice advocacy.  Nazem Kadri, a celebrated NHL forward became the first Muslim hockey player to win the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022, famously bringing the trophy to his local hometown mosque in London, Ontario. Mohammed Ahmed, Canada’s most decorated long-distance runner and a multi-time Olympian, secured Canada’s first ever Olympic silver medal in the 5000m at the Tokyo Games and a World Championship bronze. Naheed Nenshi served three terms as the Mayor of Calgary (2010–2021), becoming the first Muslim mayor of a major North American city and winning the 2014 World Mayor Prize. He is currently the leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party. Ibrahim “Obby” Khan played nine seasons in the Canadian Football League, later transitioning into business and becoming the first Muslim elected to the Manitoba Legislative Assembly, and subsequently being selected as the leader of the Manitoba PC Party. Zarqa Nawaz created the ground breaking CBC television comedy series Little Mosque on the Prairie, recognized globally as the first mainstream sitcom about a Muslim community living in the West. Bilal Baig made history as the first trans-feminine South Asian Muslim creator and star of a Canadian prime-time television series with the critically acclaimed CBC show Sort Of. And Ali Abouchadi pioneered trade and commerce in northern Alberta during the 1920s by operating a floating general store that served isolated communities along the Athabasca and Arctic waterways.

These are examples of a long tradition of Muslim excellence — people whose values allowed them to thrive and succeed in Canada despite not being part of the white majority.  If these individuals, and millions like them, are “incompatible” with Canadian values, then the term has lost all meaning.

Day’s logic collapses further when applied consistently. If the actions of extremists define an entire community, then white Canadians — whose members committed the Quebec City mosque massacre, the Toronto mosque murder, and the London truck attack — would also be “incompatible” with Canadian values. But you don’t hear that association being made by people like Day, because that would be absurd. No serious person judges an entire faith or ethnicity by the actions of a very small minority. Except, apparently, people like Stockwell Day.

Muslim Canadians should never be made to feel they must choose between their faith and their country. They are neither guests nor outsiders, and they are not conditional citizens. They are part of the Canadian story — historically, culturally, politically, and socially.

Day’s remarks aren’t merely wrong — they are reckless. They give oxygen to bigots, fracture social trust, and signal to millions of Muslim Canadians that their belonging in this country is somehow negotiable. Canada deserves leaders who strengthen our social fabric, not men who tear at its seams for attention.

Stockwell Day’s era of relevance ended long ago. He has nothing meaningful to contribute to conversations about Canadian identity, diversity, or democratic values. The most constructive thing he can do now is step back, stay silent, and stop injecting ignorance into a national discourse already poisoned by rampant Islamophobia.

© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

Celebrating Canada Day: A rightward political drift, post 9/11, and sleepwalking towards a cliff (Part 2)

The convergence of Canada’s treatment of Indigenous peoples, the escalating attacks on residential school truth‑telling, and the vilification of pro‑Palestinian demonstrators reveals a political environment where dissent is increasingly criminalized and racialized communities are systematically targeted.

By Fareed Khan

A version of this article can be found on Substack.

As Canadians get set to celebrate Canada Day tomorrow, we all need to demand an honest assessment of the country’s political trajectory. Since the post‑9/11 era, Canada has been drifting steadily to the right, reshaping its laws, institutions, and public discourse in ways that erode civil liberties, normalize racism and Islamophobia, and legitimize far‑right political views. Many Canadians, comforted by the belief that “it can’t happen here,” are sleepwalking Canada towards a cliff and the rest of us are doing little or nothing to stop it.

The post‑9/11 security climate marked a turning point. Under the banner of fighting terrorism, Canada expanded surveillance, strengthened security agencies, and introduced legislation that disproportionately targeted Muslims, Arabs, and other racialized communities. Islamophobia became embedded in policy and practice, with Muslim communities treated as suspect and their institutions subjected to heightened scrutiny. This securitized mindset has never fully receded, it has simply shifted targets and language.

Recent commentary has documented how Islamophobia and anti‑Palestinian racism have become entrenched at the highest levels of Canadian politics. One analysis of the appointment of MP Anthony Housefather as special advisor on antisemitism argues that his record of pushing anti‑Palestinian narratives reflects a government willing to appease pro‑Israel organizations while ignoring the surge in hate against Palestinians and Muslims. This is not an isolated incident; it reflects a broader pattern in which those who protest genocide are smeared, surveilled, and punished.

Since October 7, 2023, this pattern has intensified. Palestinians and their allies have been vilified as “terrorists” and “antisemitic” simply for opposing Israeli state violence and pointing out that it is committing genocide in Gaza. Pro‑Palestinian protesters have faced harassment, doxing, job loss, and political condemnation. It can be safely said that Palestinians are “the most persecuted people in the world today,” in light of the fact that Western leaders—including Canada’s—have seemingly shed their humanity towards Palestinians by treating their deaths at Israeli hands as acceptable collateral damage. The refusal of both the Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney governments to intervene to stop genocide, do nothing beyond issuing PR platitudes, even as polls show overwhelming Canadian opposition to current Canadian policy, exposes the gap between democratic rhetoric and actual practice.

This widening gap is where Canada’s rightward drift becomes most visible. When hundreds of thousands of Canadians march against the Gaza genocide and their leaders respond by continuing arms sales, diplomatic cover, and launching smear campaigns against protesters, democracy becomes a façade. A detailed analysis of Canada’s complicity in the Gaza genocide argues that successive governments have maintained military cooperation with Israel despite clear evidence of genocidal acts, thereby breaching both domestic and international legal obligations. This is not just foreign policy failure; it is moral bankruptcy.

At the same time, Canada’s right‑wing parties have moved further into territory that can only be described as quasi‑fascist. The Conservative Party under Pierre Poilievre has embraced rhetoric and talking points that mirror those of the Republican Party under Donald Trump—attacks on “woke” culture, demonization of refugees and immigrants, hostility toward journalists and academics, and a constant framing of political opponents as enemies of “real Canadians.” While the specifics differ, the underlying strategy is familiar—weaponize resentment, stoke cultural division, and present strongman politics as the solution to perceived chaos.

The People’s Party of Canada (PPC), led by Maxime Bernier, has played a crucial role in legitimizing far‑right discourse even without major electoral success. A 2021 analysis of the PPC argues that the party has normalized racist, xenophobic, and anti‑immigrant narratives, giving them a veneer of political respectability. By railing against “globalists,” attacking immigration, and flirting with conspiracy theories, the PPC has helped shift the narrative—making previously fringe ideas part of mainstream debate. Even if the PPC fails at the ballot box, its impact on political culture is undeniable.

This is how far‑right politics advances, not only through winning elections, but through changing what is considered acceptable to say in public. When parties like the PPC push fascist talking points—about “invasions,” “replacement,” or the supposed threat posed by racialized communities—they create space for larger parties to adopt softer versions of the same narratives. Over time, the centre of gravity moves rightward, and what once seemed extreme becomes ordinary.

Meanwhile, Canada’s media ecosystem has often amplified these shifts rather than resisting them. Right‑wing commentators and outlets have demonized pro‑Palestinian protesters, framed solidarity encampments as security threats, and echoed government talking points about “extremism” and “hate” against Jews, even though many Jews are part of the movement. Anti‑Palestinian racism and Islamophobia are not only present in political institutions, they are reproduced daily in Canada’s news media ecosystem, through coverage and opinion columns. Multiple published commentaries have argued that this media environment dehumanizes Palestinians and legitimizes state violence against them.

The convergence of Canada’s treatment of Indigenous peoples, the escalating attacks on residential school truth‑telling, and the vilification of pro‑Palestinian demonstrators reveals a political environment where dissent is increasingly criminalized and racialized communities are systematically targeted. The same forces that once justified the dispossession and dehumanization of Indigenous nations now rationalize contemporary efforts to suppress solidarity with Palestinians. Residential school denialism and anti‑Indigenous propaganda have become tools for undermining truth‑telling and defending the settler‑colonial status quo, while politicians, right‑wing media, and pro‑Israel advocacy networks deploy similar tactics to delegitimize pro‑Palestinian voices — branding them extremists, security threats, or enemies of “Canadian values.” In both cases, historical and ongoing state violence is obscured through narratives that portray marginalized communities as dangerous or suspect, and those who challenge official narratives as destabilizing forces. As a result, protests against genocide and colonialism are met with police crackdowns, university sanctions, employment terminations, and political condemnation, reinforcing a broader pattern in which far‑right narratives seep into mainstream discourse and the machinery of the state is mobilized to silence those who resist it.

Canadians often comfort themselves with the belief that “we’re not like the United States or the United Kingdom” and that what’s happening to their politics can’t happen here. But the trajectories are increasingly similar. In the US, the far right has captured The Republican Party and reshaped national politics around authoritarian impulses and racial resentment. In the UK, xenophobia and anti‑immigrant hysteria have become central pillars of political discourse, with far‑right groups exploiting economic instability and cultural anxiety. Canada is not immune because it is simply at an earlier stage of the same process.

As Canadians get set to mark Canada Day they must remember that a nation complicit in genocide cannot credibly celebrate itself as a force for good. When Canada continues to sell weapons to a state accused of genocide, refuses to support international legal efforts to hold that state accountable, and punishes those who protest its actions, it forfeits any claim to moral leadership. Silence is not neutrality—it is complicity.

Canada is at a crossroads. It can continue drifting down the path towards a right-wing, authoritarian future, with the scapegoating of racialized peoples, and moral abdication, or it can choose a different future. But that choice will not be made by politicians alone. It will be made by Canadians who decide whether to accept the drift or resist it.

Millions of Canadians will celebrate Canada Day tomorrow and they are free to do so. But if they celebrate without reflection, without reckoning, without pushing back against the rightward political drift that has been happening for years, they may find that the country they once celebrated no longer exists. And by then, it may be too late to turn back from the cliff.

© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

Canadian leaders fail Muslims amid rising Islamophobia as Canada marks fifth anniversary of Afzaal Family murders

Islamophobia in Canada is systemic, persistent, and worsening. Statistics Canada has documented sharp increases in Islamophobic hate crimes in recent years, with one report noting an 1,800% increase year over year.

By Fareed Khan
A version of this article can be found on Substack.

On June 6, 2021, in London, Ontario, a white supremacist deliberately drove his pickup truck into a Muslim family out for an evening walk, killing four members of the Afzaal family: Madiha Salman, Salman Afzaal, Talat Afzaal, and 15‑year‑old Yumnah Afzaal. Nine‑year‑old Fayez survived but was orphaned in an instant. The attack was quickly recognized as an act of Islamophobic terrorism, rooted in a climate of rising anti‑Muslim hatred across Canada and the West. Five years later, as communities gather to honour “Our London Family,” the conditions that enabled this atrocity have not only persisted—they have intensified.

Despite vigils, marches, and public statements, Canadian political leaders continue to offer symbolic gestures while failing to enact the structural changes Muslim communities have long demanded. This failure is especially stark given that Muslims remain the only faith group in Canada to have experienced multiple mass‑casualty hate‑motivated killings in recent memory, including the murder of a Muslim volunteer outside a west end Toronto mosque in September 2020, the 2017 Quebec City mosque massacre along with the 2021 London attack.

A rising tide of Islamophobia

Islamophobia in Canada is not episodic. It is systemic, persistent, and worsening. Statistics Canada has documented sharp increases in police‑reported hate crimes targeting Muslims in recent years, with one report by the National Council of Canadian Muslims marking an 1,800% increase between October 2023 and September 2024. Scholars note that these numbers significantly undercount the true scale of the problem due to chronic underreporting, fear of retaliation, and mistrust of government and policing institutions.

The rise in Islamophobia is part of a broader global trend. Gallup polling shows that anti‑Muslim sentiment remains deeply entrenched across Western societies, shaped by decades of narratives centred around national security, and media portrayals that cast Muslims as threats. Research from the University of Chicago’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies highlights how Western media routinely deploys negative stereotypes, framing Muslims through a lens of violence, extremism, and cultural backwardness.

This pattern has intensified in the wake of global events—the Persian Gulf War, the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War, the Gaza genocide, US and Israeli attacks on Iran. Studies from Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative show that Western media coverage of pro‑Palestine campus protests has fueled Islamophobic narratives by portraying Muslim, Palestinian and Arab students as dangerous or extremist. Similarly, analyses from The Conversation demonstrate how disinformation ecosystems are responsible for manufacturing Islamophobia and anti‑Palestinian racism, often blurring the line between legitimate political expression and alleged extremism.

These narratives do not remain confined to media—they shape public opinion, public policy, and ultimately contribute to acts of hate motivated violence.

The political retreat from combatting Islamophobia

Consequently, with Islamophobic hate on the rise it came as a shock to Canadian Muslims when in February 2026, the federal government eliminated the Office of the Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia (as well as the special envoy to combat antisemitism), and created a broader Ministerial Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion. This decision was widely criticized by Muslim organizations, including the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), which argued that dissolving a dedicated office at a time of rising hate against Muslims signaled a dangerous deprioritization of Muslim safety.

The original office had been created in response to the Quebec City mosque attack and the London murders, recognizing that general anti‑hate frameworks had repeatedly failed Muslims. Its elimination represents a retreat from targeted protections precisely when they are most needed, and portrays a government that is less interested in protecting a community that has been the victim of deadly hate-motivated crimes.

Muslim groups have long advocated for the Our London Family Act, which includes measures such as anti‑Islamophobia education, stronger human‑rights protections, and support for victims of hate. Yet political leaders have stalled or diluted these proposals, offering condolences while avoiding substantive action.

This selective listening reflects a broader pattern sending the message that while all communities deserve protection, Muslim concerns are often treated as secondary or subsumed under generic “anti‑hate” initiatives that fail to address the specific dynamics of growing Islamophobia across Canadian society.

Media ecosystems and the normalization of hate

Hate targeting the Muslim community does not emerge in a vacuum. It is produced and amplified through media, rhetoric from right wing political voices, and hate propagated on social media networks. Research from Berkeley’s Center for Race and Gender maps an “Islamophobia industry” in Canada—an ecosystem of think tanks, commentators, and advocacy networks that generate and circulate anti‑Muslim narratives, which often intersect with geopolitical discourses.

Analyses from Mondoweiss and Al Jazeera show how Islamophobia is intertwined with foreign policy debates, particularly around the Middle East, where Muslims are frequently portrayed as threats to Western interests. Studies from the Insan Center and Al Jazeera’s media institute document how Western media coverage of foreign policy issues related to Muslim countries has reinforced ugly stereotypes that cast Muslims as inherently violent or irrational.  This environment shapes public perception. Angus Reid polls show that negative views of Muslims remain widespread across Canada, particularly in Quebec, where debates over secularism and Bill 21 have normalized suspicion toward visibly Muslim individuals. Scholars argue that this “national amnesia” about past anti‑Muslim violence allows prejudice to fester unchecked.

Islamophobia is not only a social phenomenon—it is embedded in public and private Canadian institutions. A Senate Human Rights Committee report exposed systemic Islamophobia within the Canada Revenue Agency, where Muslim charities were disproportionately targeted for audits and sanctions. Muslim communities have also raised concerns about discriminatory practices within CSIS, CBSA, and other security agencies. These institutional biases contribute to a climate where Muslims are automatically viewed through a lens of suspicion, reinforcing the very narratives that fuel hate crimes.

The human cost: Violence, fear, and alienation

The consequences of Islamophobia are devastating. The London attack was not an isolated incident but part of a pattern of escalating violence. The Tyee has documented how Islamophobia in Canada is “deep, deadly, and growing,” with Muslims facing threats ranging from vandalism and harassment to physical assaults and murder. Additionally, Canadian Muslims report daily microaggressions, employment discrimination, and fear for their safety and that of their children. The Walrus has explored how alienation among Canadian Muslims can arise not from inherent cultural differences but from a society that marginalizes and stigmatizes Muslim identities. 

These experiences are compounded by global events. Reports from Al Jazeera and US civil‑rights groups show that Islamophobic rhetoric surges during international crises, leading to spikes in hate crimes and online harassment.

Studies and investigative reports have documented how well-resourced advocacy networks—often aligned with Zionist or Israeli geopolitical interests—have played a significant role in promoting anti-Muslim narratives. These networks have supported and amplified portrayals of Muslims as inherent threats, influenced policy debates, and worked to marginalize Muslim voices in public discourse. Because they typically enjoy far greater access to political decision-makers than Muslim community organizations, their perspectives often carry more weight in shaping government priorities.

This imbalance has been evident in several high-profile campaigns targeting Muslim communities. Two prominent examples of anti-Muslim campaigns include the early 2000s effort in Boston to block construction of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center and the intense opposition to the Cordoba House project (later rebranded as Park51) in lower Manhattan, which critics pejoratively dubbed the “Ground Zero Mosque.”  The same disparity appears in security funding allocations. Muslim communities have repeatedly pointed out that the resources provided to them are not proportionate to the threats and risks they face, especially when compared to the substantially higher funding directed toward Jewish community security.

Why the fifth anniversary matters

The fifth anniversary of the Afzaal family murders is not merely a moment of remembrance—it is a test of political courage. Honouring the victims requires more than vigils and speeches. It demands that Canadian leaders confront uncomfortable truths about how Islamophobia is produced, normalized, and institutionalized in in this country.

To tackle the growing hate that Muslim communities dealing with they are calling for:

• Implementation of the Our London Family Act;
  
• Restoring or strengthening of dedicated anti‑Islamophobia initiatives with appropriate funding;
  
• Comprehensive anti‑hate education in schools;
  
• Proportional security funding for Muslim institutions given the much larger population;
  
• Accountability for those spreading anti-Muslim hate; and
  
• Structural reforms in institutions where systemic Islamophobia has been documented.

These are not radical demands—they are necessary steps to protect a vulnerable community that has already suffered lethal violence, and Canada’s political leaders need to listen to a community whose political and economic clout has increased by 400% since the year 2000.

Canada prides itself on being a pluralistic and multicultural nation. But this ideal is hollow if political leaders fail to protect those most targeted by hate. Islamophobia threatens not only Muslim communities but the integrity of Canada’s social fabric, and when leaders ignore or minimize the concerns of more than 2.2 million Canadian Muslims, they signal that some lives matter less than others.

The Afzaal family’s memory demands action. The choice before Canadian leaders is clear: continue offering performative gestures while Islamophobia continues to expand across the country, or commit to meaningful, targeted measures that ensure Muslims can live, worship, and walk down the street without fear.

The future of a truly pluralistic Canada depends on how governments across the country respond.

© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

West is the main source of global Islamophobia, and has been waging “war” against Muslims for decades

The evidence is overwhelming—Western political and cultural portrayals, amplified by conservative media and leaders, are the primary drivers of the explosion in Islamophobia.

By Fareed Khan 
A version of this can be found on Substack.

 

For decades, Western governments and societies—particularly in the United States, United Kingdom, and France—have waged a war against Islam and Muslims. This is not a conflict of tanks and missiles but of narratives, policies, and cultural framing that have systematically portrayed Muslims as hostile, perpetual threats, incompatible with Western values, and inherently suspect. Through political rhetoric, conservative media amplification, negative portrayals in films and on TV, and institutional bias, these forces have cultivated hostility toward Muslim diasporas, Muslim-majority societies, and the Islamic faith itself. The result has been an explosion of Islamophobia since the mid-1970s, a surge after the Persian Gulf War in 1990, a sharp escalation after the 9/11 attacks, and a renewed torrent following Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which experts and respected global human rights organizations describe as genocidal. This manufactured fear doesn’t serve security or truth, but rather political expediency, cultural dominance and oppression.

The roots of the Islamophobia seen today in Western society and globally has a long history, but traces back to the mid-1970s. The 1973 oil crisis, the Iranian Revolution, acts of resistance to Israeli occupation by the Palestinian Liberation Organization were all used by Western governments and news media to frame Muslims as geopolitical adversaries in Western discourse. Academic analyses documents how US and European media shifted from neutral coverage of Muslim societies to one dominated by “Islamic threat” narratives. A foundational 1997 report by the Runnymede Trust in the UK identified this as “Islamophobia”—a form of prejudice rooted in negative media stereotypes and institutional exclusion that viewed Muslims as monolithic in their thinking, inferior, and violent. By the 1980s and 1990s, narrative shifts in Western journalism—documented in studies of US and European outlets—recast “Islam” as synonymous with extremism, laying the groundwork for widespread hostility towards people practicing the faith, even if they had lived in Western societies for generations.

The terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 supercharged this dynamic. What followed was not balanced news coverage but agenda-driven media narratives that equated Islam with terrorism. A 2024 computational analysis of over 10,000 articles in major US and UK newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, Daily Mail, etc.) between 2003–2018 found systematic biases in how Muslims were portrayed.  Muslims accused of planning violent attacks but not carrying them out received 700% more media coverage than attacks that resulted in death by non-Muslims, with the reporters using more fear-inducing and violent descriptive language. This framing, echoed in a 2020 analysis of Western media from 2011–2019, created a feedback loop, with negative portrayals fuelling public anxiety, which was exploited by politicians through their own anti-Muslim rhetoric and social media posts. In the US, post-9/11 policies like the Patriot Act and FBI surveillance programs disproportionately targeted Muslim communities, reinforcing a public image that the community was suspect. Similar patterns emerged in France, where laïcité (secularism) was weaponized against visible Muslim practices, and in the UK, where Prevent programs cast Muslim communities as breeding grounds for extremists.

Recent events have intensified the attacks against diaspora Muslim communities in the West. Since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began in October 2023—widely condemned internationally as disproportionate and inhumane—Islamophobia has surged globally. In the US, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) documented thousands of bias incidents, linking the rise directly to media and political narratives that conflate those criticizing Israeli actions as enemies of the West. Canadian data mirrors this, with the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) reported a 1,800% spike in hate incidents targeting Muslims and Palestinians between October 2023 and August 2025. European studies, including those on France, show parallel increases tied to Gaza coverage that frames Muslim anti-genocide protests as threats while downplaying Palestinian suffering. These events did not create Islamophobia, they exposed and amplified a pre-existing infrastructure of prejudice that had been built over decades.

Key instigators of this metaphorical war against Muslims are Western political leaders, especially from right-wing or conservative parties, and conservative-leaning media outlets. They platform and amplify far-right voices and issue vilifying statements that normalize hate against Muslims. In the United States, Donald Trump’s 2015 call for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” exemplified this, framing them as an existential threat to Americans, while Conservative media amplified it. Additionally, there are Republican figures, like Representatives Randy Fines openly and unapologetically calling for hate targeting Muslims, Andy Ogles saying that “Muslims don’t belong in American society,” and Sen. Tommy Tuberville posting on social media, “The enemy is inside the gates,” in reference to Muslims in the US. CAIR has repeatedly condemned such rhetoric as fanning “anti-Muslim bigotry,” noting in reports that it renders Islamophobic language “socially acceptable” among conservatives.

In the United Kingdom, right-wing media and politicians also bear primary responsibility for an explosion in Islamophobia. The Centre for Media Monitoring’s 2025 report analyzed over 40,000 articles and found nearly 50% contained measurable bias, with 70% linking Muslims or Islam to negative themes like conflict or threat. Outlets such as The Spectator, GB News, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, and The Sun—often aligned with Conservative or Reform Party voices—drove the most egregious distortions. Rizwana Hamid, Director of the Centre, stated: “When nearly half of all articles referencing Muslims or Islam are biased, and almost 70% associate Muslims with negative aspects or behaviours, it points to a systemic problem within our media ecosystem.” Conservative Party politicians have also platformed white nationalist figures like Tommy Robinson, whose anti-Islam activism receives sympathetic coverage in right-wing British media, while at the same time they downplay the dangers of far-right extremism. The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has highlighted how this media and political bias manifests itself in “hate crimes, media misrepresentation, and institutional discrimination,” with nearly 40% of religious hate crimes in 2024 targeting Muslims.

Canada also provides a stark North American parallel—the only G7 nation where 11 Muslims have been murdered in a series of Islamophobic attacks in 2017, 2020 and 2021. While the political and media rhetoric is less overtly inflammatory than in the US or Europe, Conservative politicians and media have contributed to rising Islamophobia. A prime example occurred during the February 2017 parliamentary debate on an Islamophobia motion, which took place in the wake of the Quebec City mosque attack that killed six Muslim men. Despite the targeted mass murder of Muslims, Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs spoke against the motion, with some even endorsing or participating in anti-Muslim protests across the country.

There is also the case of audits by the Canada Revenue Agency disproportionately targetting Muslim charities. This despite the fact that they account for less than 0.5% of registered charities but for 67% of audits, reflecting a systemic bias documented by experts like Prof. Jasmin Zine. Conservative political discourse has echoed US-style “invasion” narratives around immigration, while right-leaning outlets amplify stories framing Muslim communities as culturally incompatible with Canadian society. The NCCM has testified before Parliament that such environments fuel violence, noting in 2024 hearings that “being Muslim in Canada is not as safe as it should be,” with post-Gaza surges in incidents tied to political inaction and media framing.

These portrayals do not exist in a vacuum. They generate real hostility toward Muslim diaspora communities, Muslim societies, and the Islamic faith in general. This cultural war extends deeply into entertainment media as well. For decades Western films and television shows have consistently portrayed Muslims negatively or with outright hostility, often as violent extremists, cultural invaders, barbaric villains, or one-dimensional antagonists. These depictions embed Islamophobic narratives into popular consciousness far beyond news cycles, reaching billions through global distribution and normalizing prejudice in everyday entertainment.

Scholarly and advocacy analyses document a century of such tropes in Hollywood and Western cinema, routinely casting Muslim characters as fanatical, culturally backward, or existential threats, with little nuance or positive representation. Classic examples include Disney’s Aladdin (1992), widely critiqued for orientalist stereotypes that depict Arabs and Muslims as dishonest, menacing, and exotic dangers, as well as pre-9/11 films like True Lies (1994), Executive Decision (1996), The Siege (1998), and more recent blockbusters such as American Sniper (2014) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012), all of which have been shown to exacerbate anti-Muslim sentiments by framing Islam as synonymous with violence and Muslims as barbaric enemies. Psychological and media studies confirm that repeated exposure to these hostile portrayals heightens public support for discriminatory policies and contributes directly to the surge in societal Islamophobia since the 1970s and especially post-9/11.

National Muslim organizations in Western nations have long warned of this dynamic. In the US, CAIR has stated that conservative media and politicians “fan the flames of anti-Muslim bigotry” through disinformation and false narratives, directly linking it to extremism and policy harms. In the UK, the MCB has called for audits of media toxicity, asserting that biased coverage “poisons our nation” and demands accountability from outlets and leaders. In Canada, the NCCM has urged governments to address systemic racism and Islamophobia, highlighting how political and media failures exacerbate anti-Muslim hate, and calling for public education campaigns to counter the hostility. These voices—representing millions—underscore that the metaphorical war against Islam and Muslims is not abstract, it inflicts daily harm on communities seeking only dignity and belonging.

The evidence is overwhelming—Western political and cultural portrayals, amplified by conservative media and leaders, are the primary drivers of the explosion in Islamophobia. From the 1970s oil embargo era to post-9/11 national security narratives targetting the Muslim community, and the vilification of Muslims protesting the Gaza genocide, this is a deliberate ecosystem of hostility that has been labelled “The Islamophobia Industry.”

Until societies confront this war on Muslims—through media accountability, political courage, and rejection of far-right bigoted narratives—Muslims will continue to pay the price of engineered fear and hate. The path forward demands recognizing that anti-Muslim prejudice weakens the West’s social fabric and its own democratic ideals. Only by dismantling these biased structures can genuine coexistence emerge, and can there be peace within the multicultural societies where members of the Muslim diaspora have sunk their roots and built their lives. 

© The View From Here. © Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

On international day to eliminate racism Canadian politicians’ PR performances demonstrate their hypocrisy

Commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Racism is political theatre for Canadian politicians. It costs nothing, changes nothing, and allows politicians to virtue-signal.
 

By Fareed Khan 

A version of this can be found on Substack.

Every year on March 21, Canadian governments at all levels solemnly mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Flags fly, statements are issued, and anti-racism programs are highlighted as evidence of governments’ actions to fight racism. Yet this annual ritual rings hollow when right-wing politicians and media outlets actively enable hate by refusing to condemn white supremacists or platform them for political gain.

As Islamophobia explodes according to Statistics Canada data, as academic research documents a surging white supremacist movement, and as Donald Trump normalizes bigotry from the White House, the gap between rhetoric and reality exposes a profound hypocrisy. Despite public commitments and taxpayer dollars poured into anti-racism efforts, Ottawa and the provinces have failed to adequately confront the hate poisoning Canadian society. Their deafening silence on the Gaza genocide—now formally acknowledged by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and leading Holocaust scholars including Raz Segal, Omer Bartov, and Amos Goldberg—has only fuelled anti-Palestinian racism at home.

A report from the National Council of Canadian Muslims reports a shocking 1,300% spike in hate crimes targeting Muslims since October 7, 2023, with independent monitors documenting surges as high as 1,800% in some regions. These are not abstract statistics, they reflect real terror—vandalism of mosques, death threats, workplace discrimination, and violent assaults. Academic studies from institutions tracking far-right networks reveal a parallel surge in white supremacist organizing. Groups like the Active Clubs and networks tied to figures such as Jeremy MacKenzie have shifted from online echo chambers to street rallies, propaganda campaigns, and recruitment drives across Alberta, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. Their messaging—explicitly supremacist, xenophobic, and often intertwined with anti-Muslim and anti-Arab tropes—has moved from fringe forums into mainstream conservative discourse. Right-wing media outlets amplify this poison daily, framing immigrants, Muslims, and racialized communities as existential threats while platforming politicians who wink at the rhetoric.

Trump’s return to power has supercharged the trend. His casual bigotry—racist rants against migrants, praise for white nationalist ideas, and relentless dehumanization of Palestinians, and racist social media rants—provides a global template. Canadian right-wing politicians and commentators echo the same language, importing MAGA-style division into our politics. The result is a toxic feedback loop—hate crimes rise, white supremacist groups grow bolder, and governments respond with performative gestures rather than decisive action.

The federal government and provinces trumpet their anti-racism funding—grants for community programs, task forces, and funding for security around mosques and synagogues. Yet these efforts remain superficial. They fund workshops and awareness days while ignoring root causes. Police-reported hate crimes continue to climb because enforcement is lax and data collection severely under counts the crisis. In the most recent federal election which returned the Liberals to government the issue of fighting racism wasn’t even discussed.

Online hate proliferates unchecked on platforms that profit from division and fuels violence. Most alarmingly, successive governments have refused to address how their own foreign policy stokes domestic racism. The Gaza genocide—documented in exhaustive reports by international human rights organizations and noted genocide scholars has been met with equivocation at best, complicity at worst.

Additionally, Canada’s leaders have offered tepid calls for Israeli “restraint” while maintaining arms exports, diplomatic cover, and economic ties, unlike Ireland, Norway, Spain and other nations, which have taken much stronger and principled stands against the Gaza genocide. This failure to unequivocally condemn the systematic destruction and horror in Gaza—potentially more than 680,000 dead, entire family lines erased, infrastructure reduced to rubble, conditions deliberately calculated to make life unlivable—has direct domestic consequences, and legitimizes anti-Palestinian racism. When Palestinian voices are silenced on campuses, in workplaces, and in public debate, when pro-Palestine protesters face disproportionate policing while hate marches receive kid-gloves treatment, the message is clear--some lives matter less. Anti-Palestinian bigotry, often disguised as “criticism of Hamas,” has surged alongside Islamophobia. Jewish Canadians who oppose the genocide are smeared as self-hating, Arab and Muslim Canadians are collectively demonized, and the Charter rights of Palestinian Canadians are systematically violated. The government’s inaction turns what should be a human rights consensus into a wedge issue that divides communities and emboldens racists and bigots.

The hypocrisy deepens when we examine specific leaders. Mark Carney, Doug Ford, François Legault, and their counterparts continue to deny Palestinians the full protection of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They refuse to recognize the inherent racism embedded in Zionist ideology—an ethno-supremacist framework that privileges one group’s national rights over another's in the same land, justifying dispossession, settler-colonialism, occupation, and now genocide.

These politicians speak of “shared values” and “two-state solutions” in platitudes, yet they block calls for accountability, label Palestinian solidarity as extremism, and equate anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel with antisemitism, a claim vehemently rejected by progressive Jewish organizations in Canada and the US. They meet with the leaders of legacy Jewish community organizations to condemn antisemitism while ignoring or marginalizing Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim voices pleading for consistency. They fund anti-racism programs with one hand and undermine them with the other by refusing to apply Charter principles universally.

When sincere anti-hate advocates—civil society groups, scholars, and affected communities—offer concrete recommendations (stronger hate speech enforcement, independent oversight of policing, ending arms sales linked to genocide, public recognition of anti-Palestinian racism as a distinct category, and genuine consultation with impacted groups), the response is lip service. Photo-ops and press releases substitute for structural change. Leaders nod solemnly on March 21, then return to policies that protect the status quo.

Commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Racism under these conditions is political theatre. It costs nothing and changes nothing. It allows governments to virtue-signal while right-wing enablers stoke division, white supremacy groups organize openly, Islamophobia explodes, and the Gaza genocide’s spillover hatred festers unchecked. True commitment demands more--unequivocal condemnation of all racism, including the ethno-supremacist ideology driving the Gaza genocide—full Charter protections for all, accountability for foreign policy failures, and implementation of community recommendations rather than performative gestures.

Canadians deserve better than annual hypocrisy. Until governments match their anti-racism rhetoric with courage—confronting right-wing hate, addressing surging white supremacy and Islamophobia, and ending complicity in genocide abroad—the International Day will remain an empty ritual. Hate will not be eliminated by press releases and political platitudes. It requires moral consistency, political will, and the recognition that Palestinian rights are human rights. Anything less is mere theatre, not justice.

© The View From Here. © Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.