The London Muslim Mosque and the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) put forward 61 recommendations ahead of the upcoming National Summit on Islamophobia.
During a news conference Monday morning, the CEO of the NCCM, Mustafa Farooq, expressed the urgent need for change.
“The reality is that Canada has suffered more mass killings motivated by Islamophobia in the last five years than any other country in the G7,” he said. “This cannot be allowed to continue.”
Recommendations include reforming the Canada Revenue Agency and Criminal Code Amendments to better deal with hate crimes, developing anti-Islamophobia strategies in education at the provincial level, and launching municipal anti-racism campaigns.
“This body of recommendations was compiled after talking to (thousands) of Canadian Muslims (from) coast to coast with the diversity (of) gender, race and class,” Farooq said.
London lawyer Nawaz Tahir also spoke at Monday’s news conference about the recommendations’ significance.
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“The good news is these 61 recommendations are achievable (if) our elected officials do what we’ve been asking them to do, which is to provide united leadership and set aside partisan politics.”
“Some of them (may) take time to implement, but we hope the commitment to implement happens right away,” Farooq added.
The London Muslim Mosque, alongside the Muslim community, called for the summit after the London vehicle attack that killed four members of the Afzaal family on June 6.
The National Summit on Islamophobia is set to take place on July 22.
A PDF that sets out the 61 recommendations is available online.