A 25-year-old woman from Ajax faces multiple charges after allegedly attempting to set fire to a woman’s hijab inside the Ajax Public Library’s Main Branch last Saturday.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) is calling for police to investigate the incident as a hate crime. During a press conference at the library on Monday, the organization shared the victim’s account of the attack.
“I never imagined that a visit to my favourite, quiet corner of the library would turn into one of the most terrifying moments of my life,” read a statement from the victim, delivered by NCCM Senior Advocacy Officer Fatema Abdalla.
Omar Khamissa, NCCM’s chief operating officer, expressed frustration that such attacks continue to occur in Canada.
“Canada is the leading country among G7 nations when it comes to Islamophobia-related deaths,” Khamissa said. “What happened on Saturday could have easily increased that number. It is an emergency issue, not just for our community, but for all of those who want to live in Canada without hate.”
Khamissa called on political leaders to take concrete action, stating that “every party should approach Canadians with a detailed plan on how they will deal with Islamophobia and hate.”
The severity of this incident is underscored by alarming national statistics. In November 2023, the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights released a report titled Combatting Hate: Islamophobia and Its Impact on Muslims in Canada. As per government of Canada, Canada recorded the highest number of Islamophobia-related fatalities among G7 nations between 2016 and 2021 due to targeted hate attacks.
This troubling trend continues, as Statistics Canada reports police-reported hate crimes against Muslims saw a dramatic 71 per cent increase in 2021 compared to the previous year.
Dr. Barbara Perry, director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism at Ontario Tech University and the UNESCO Chair in Hate Studies, said Islamophobic violence is widespread.
“It is one of the most frequently targeted communities. So if we look at them specifically in terms of religious motivation, it’s second only to anti-Semitic hate crime,” Dr. Perry said.
She emphasized the gendered nature of such violence, noting that “when we look at most communities, the violence tends to target men, but when we’re looking at the Muslim community—and I think probably the only other community like this is the Indigenous community—women are more frequent victims.”
She pointed to the visibility of Muslim women wearing religious coverings as a key factor.
“This woman was covered, and that was the focus of the attack—there was an effort to remove her hijab and then to set it alight,” she said.
Dr. Perry explained Islamophobic violence stems from several interconnected factors: post-9/11 stigmatization, inflammatory political rhetoric like U.S. president Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim statements, during his first presidency, and the inadequate response to tragedies such as the 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting.
Addressing the specific incident, Piyali Correya, chair of the Ajax Public Library board, acknowledged the unprecedented nature of the attack. “We’ve never witnessed anything like this at our library,” Correya said. “However, it’s not a complete outlier for the community at large.”
Correya emphasized the library’s commitment to safety and announced that staff are receiving additional training to prevent and respond to such incidents.
“I’m happy to share with you that the victim in this incident has since come into the library and has used the library facilities, so I think that is the biggest testament to how safe and warm and welcoming a space our library is,” she said.
Speaking about the broader implications, John Henry, chair and CEO of Durham Region, strongly condemned the attack. “It just doesn’t affect our Muslim community, it affects all parts of our community, and it is something that is simply not accepted,” Henry said.
He went on to express concerns about the criminal justice system’s handling of repeat offenders who are released back into the community.
“Simply being released back in the community is probably not the best answer for this,” he said. “Over the years, we have become a country that is light on crime, and we have countless people being released back into our communities that have done multiple offenses.”
However, Dr. Perry argued that punitive responses alone are not enough to combat hate crimes, advocating instead for restorative justice approaches.
“If you put them in jail, they’re actually going to be more embittered. It feeds into their victim complex,” Dr. Perry said. “So perhaps this individual works with an imam, learns about the community—because unless you change their attitudes, you’re not going to change their behaviours.”
She advocated for restorative justice mechanisms, particularly educational approaches that would allow offenders to learn directly from the community they’ve harmed: “This individual works with imam, side by side, and learn from the imam about the community.”
She emphasized that behavioural change can only come through a shift in attitudes.
Dr. Perry also highlighted the growing challenge of online hate speech. She noted that social media platforms have become increasingly problematic, especially as content moderation policies have shifted. For instance, Facebook has moved away from active monitoring, instead relying on community reporting of policy violations.
“The online spaces are the worst and that’s really where these narratives are being disseminated,” said Dr. Perry.
Echoing these concerns, Henry called for stronger action against online hate speech.
“Making a statement that is a hate crime statement needs to be treated the way it is,” he said. “You shouldn’t be protected by a social post.”
Dr. Perry stressed the importance of community solidarity in the face of hate-motivated violence.
“Remind the community that there are more people who stand beside them than those who stand against them,” she said.