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Independent topical source of current affairs, opinion and issues, featuring stories making news in Canada from immigrants, newcomers, minorities & ethnic communities' point of view and interests.

Pulse Report: Cent Muslims

pulse report: That is who we are, according to NOW Magazine. But many Canadian Muslims could be forgiven for wondering whether the PM's self-assured paean to tolerance is, in fact, who we are. During a funeral oration for victims of last January's Quebec City mosque massacre, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised that we will rise from this darkness stronger and more unified than ever before. The Ontario Human Rights Commission's OHRC newly released Taking The Pulse report found that fewer than half the respondents had positive views of refugees 46 per cent Muslims 45 per cent or Arab people 44 per cent . While some of the blame for growing anti-Muslim sentiment in Canada can be rightly linked to Donald Trump's rise to power, the OHRC's numbers tend to reflect a historic homegrown discrimination that saw a 253 per cent increase in police-reported hate crimes against Muslims in Canada between 2012 and 2015. Canadians should not be smug nor take for granted the impact of global trends and also the role various Canadian actors may play in promoting Islamophobia here at home, says Ihsaan Gardee, executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims NCCM . Gardee notes that the current rise in Islamophobia also occurs against the backdrop of a time where there has been an alarming and well-documented rise in the growth of far-right extremism, which targets not only Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim but Canadians from other racial and religious backgrounds as well. During that time, Stephen Harper's Conservatives with Liberal support passed some of their most regressive legislation, from the inflammatory Zero Tolerance For Barbaric Cultural Practices Act to the infamous C-51 Anti-Terrorism Act, both of which disproportionately target members of the Muslim community. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.