Muslim Council of Montreal calls for harsher penalties against all hate motivated crimes

November 30, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Montreal, Quebec, November 30th, 2011- The Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) calls for harsher penalties for crimes motivated by hate, following the recent verdict of a suspended sentence for a woman who pleaded guilty to assault after pulling of a Canadian Muslim woman’s face veil at a Toronto shopping mall.

“Canada, and especially the Greater Toronto Area, is an increasingly pluralistic and multicultural society and it must be clear that hate motivated crimes will never be tolerated,” stated Salam Elmenyawi, president of MCM. “The seriousness of such crimes is diminished when those found guilty are given suspended sentences and merely have to perform community service. Such verbal and physical attacks go against the very Canadian values and principles that we are all committed to and must be condemned in the strongest terms.”

Inas Kadri was shopping with her two young children at the Sheridan Centre in Mississauga, Ontario when she was approached by two women. After first verbally attacking Ms. Kadri, security footage from the mall Ontario shows Rosemarie Creswell pulling off Ms. Kadri’s face veil.

“More concerted efforts are needed to effectively fight hate, racism and discrimination within our society,” Elmenyawi said. “Additionally, there is also a great need for increased sensitivity training for law enforcement officials when it comes to identifying and dealing with hate directed at religious communities, which is particularly lacking in Quebec.”    

MCM calls for harsher penalties and zero-tolerance for all hate motivated crimes and religious discrimination and further calls on the federal government to initiate a countrywide campaign to help raise awareness of hate crimes and racism within Canadian society and to fight these social ills. Furthermore, MCM encourages all to fight crimes of hate, fear and suspicion by the strengthening of relations with those of other backgrounds and helping to promote values of respect, peace, tolerance and freedom.

 

 CONTACT:

Salam Elmenyawi

Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM)

Ph.: (514) 748-8427

E-mail: info@muslimcouncil.org

Website: http://www.muslimcouncil.org

 

The Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) is an umbrella organization representing a number of Islamic institutions in the Montreal region. There are over 275,000 Muslims in Montreal, about 1,200,000 in Canada and 1.9 billion worldwide.

 

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