KELOWNA – The terrorist attacks in Paris may have fostered a Muslim backlash in the Okanagan.
“I feel like there is a sense of tension in the air,” says UBCO student Rohma Khurram Nawaz.
Nawaz says she was trying to get into a Kelowna bar Saturday night but was turned back at the door.
“I got denied entry on the basis that my ID was from Pakistan and the person basically said to me ‘All you people from Arabia that come here and have these ID’s, you’re not getting in.'”
Kelowna resident, Adnan Bhat, is a member of the Okanagan chapter of the B.C. Muslim Association. He says what Nawaz experienced leaves him sad and frustrated.
“We try to hold events and bridge the gap between Muslims and non-Muslims and cultures on campus and in Kelowna,” says Bhat. “Yet one more event or attack or atrocity like this happens and all of our efforts kind of vanish away.”
Bhat and Nawaz agree most people understand the vast majority of Muslims do not support the radicalized version of the Islam religion.
On Saturday night, there was an arson attack on a Peterborough, Ontario mosque.
And in Toronto, police say the Monday assault and robbery of a Muslim woman wearing a hijab appears to be a hate crime with the two attackers hurling bigoted slurs at their victim.
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