TORONTO – A Toronto mother is concerned for her two children’s safety after anti-Muslim graffiti was discovered inside the hallway of her apartment building Monday night.
“It’s very scary just thinking about it. I’m a stay-at-home mom,” said Sumaiya Dadabhai. “For anyone who is home alone, you never know what someone can come up and do.”
Police said the graffiti was found written on the hallway of a 16th floor apartment building located in Toronto’s Flemingdon Park area, near Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue East.
READ MORE: Muslim woman attacked while picking up children from Toronto school: police
Dadabhai said the words “Muslims go home!!! We do not what you here!” were written across from her front door.
“I have kids come to my house to study. So, they opened the door. It was written outside and they started taking pictures of it,” she said.
“It actually hurts. My home is Canada. I was born here. So there’s no where else I would want to go.”
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Dadabhai, who filed a police report of the incident, admits the deadly attacks in Paris may have been the reason behind the alleged hate crime.
READ MORE: Paris attacks prompt Canadian Muslim group to issue warnings of potential backlash
“Most probably this is because of whatever is happening in Paris,” said Dadabhai.
The anti-Muslim graffiti has since been washed off, but a video recording of the incident was forwarded to Global News.
“My neighbour came and he started cleaning it up. So I opened the door and I started helping him,” said Dadabhai.
This is the third reported anti-Muslim related incident in Ontario since the deadly Paris attacks that have claimed over 100 lives.
READ MORE: Trudeau condemns mosque fire in Peterborough, Ont.
Toronto police are currently searching for two suspects who allegedly robbed and hurled racial slurs at a Muslim woman as she was picking up her children from a school in the same Flemingdon Park neighbourhood on Monday.
It is alleged the suspects tore off the victim’s hijab and called her a terrorist. The woman was taken to hospital for unspecified injuries and was later released.
Over the weekend, a mosque in Peterborough was ravaged by a fire and is now being investigated as a hate crime.
In a statement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “deeply disturbed” by the incident and that the federal government would work hard to find those responsible for setting the mosque on fire.
An online fundraising campaign has since raised over $110,000 to repair the damaged building.
“There are no words to describe how amazing our community has represented itself as a giving, loving, peaceful and supportive community,” wrote Duane Rouselle, who started the online campaign on Saturday.
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