Eight Years After the Quebec City Mosque Attack: Islamophobia is Still Killing Us
January 29, 2025
Justice For All Canada reflects on the tragic events of eight years ago, when six Muslim men were murdered while praying at the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec (CCIQ). Their names were Ibrahima Barry, Mamadou Tanou Barry, Khaled Belkacemi, Abdelkrim Hassane, Azzedine Soufiane, and Aboubaker Thabti. Nineteen others were seriously injured. This was not an isolated act of violence, but the culmination of years of anti-Muslim hate that had been growing unchecked in Canada. Today, eight years later, Islamophobia is not only still present–it is escalating.
According to reports, Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism surged by over 1,000% between October 7, 2023, and early 2024. A Senate report from November 2023 confirmed what Muslims in Canada already knew: Islamophobia is systemic, it is deadly, and it is intensifying. Hate crimes against Muslims have skyrocketed, from street-level harassment to political leaders openly pushing anti-Muslim rhetoric. In Quebec, discriminatory policies such as Bill 21 continue to disproportionately affect Muslims, particularly Muslim women who wear the hijab.
When Islamophobia is normalized, violence follows. We have witnessed what happens when governments ignore the growing climate of hate, such as the deadly attack on a London, Ontario, Muslim family in 2021. The countless hijab-wearing women harassed on transit. The surge in workplace discrimination cases, which increased by 400% in 2023. The fact that visibly Muslim women face disproportionate levels of violence and discrimination. These numbers, these harms, and these failures of leadership are real.
Canada’s government has made promises without action. A National Action Plan to Combat Hate was promised, but we have yet to see meaningful steps to implement it. The federal government appointed a Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia, but has not also implemented serious enforcement mechanisms and accountability measures. Meanwhile, hate crimes go unpunished, and online Islamophobia festers unchecked.
This issue is part of a global pattern of rising anti-Muslim violence and state-sponsored Islamophobia. In Gaza, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued a ruling warning that Israel is committing a plausible genocide against Palestinians, yet Western governments, including Canada, have failed to act.
When governments enable anti-Muslim hate, it emboldens violence against our communities. On this National Day of Remembrance of the Quebec City Mosque Attack and Action Against Islamophobia, we remember the victims, but we refuse to stop there. We demand:
January 29 must be a call to action. The victims of the Quebec City mosque attack were killed because of a system that allowed Islamophobia to grow unchecked. How many more lives must be lost before Canada takes this crisis seriously?
Justice For All Canada reflects on the tragic events of eight years ago, when six Muslim men were murdered while praying at the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec (CCIQ). Their names were Ibrahima Barry, Mamadou Tanou Barry, Khaled Belkacemi, Abdelkrim Hassane, Azzedine Soufiane, and Aboubaker Thabti. Nineteen others were seriously injured. This was not an isolated act of violence, but the culmination of years of anti-Muslim hate that had been growing unchecked in Canada. Today, eight years later, Islamophobia is not only still present–it is escalating.
According to reports, Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism surged by over 1,000% between October 7, 2023, and early 2024. A Senate report from November 2023 confirmed what Muslims in Canada already knew: Islamophobia is systemic, it is deadly, and it is intensifying. Hate crimes against Muslims have skyrocketed, from street-level harassment to political leaders openly pushing anti-Muslim rhetoric. In Quebec, discriminatory policies such as Bill 21 continue to disproportionately affect Muslims, particularly Muslim women who wear the hijab.
When Islamophobia is normalized, violence follows. We have witnessed what happens when governments ignore the growing climate of hate, such as the deadly attack on a London, Ontario, Muslim family in 2021. The countless hijab-wearing women harassed on transit. The surge in workplace discrimination cases, which increased by 400% in 2023. The fact that visibly Muslim women face disproportionate levels of violence and discrimination. These numbers, these harms, and these failures of leadership are real.
Canada’s government has made promises without action. A National Action Plan to Combat Hate was promised, but we have yet to see meaningful steps to implement it. The federal government appointed a Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia, but has not also implemented serious enforcement mechanisms and accountability measures. Meanwhile, hate crimes go unpunished, and online Islamophobia festers unchecked.
This issue is part of a global pattern of rising anti-Muslim violence and state-sponsored Islamophobia. In Gaza, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued a ruling warning that Israel is committing a plausible genocide against Palestinians, yet Western governments, including Canada, have failed to act.
When governments enable anti-Muslim hate, it emboldens violence against our communities. On this National Day of Remembrance of the Quebec City Mosque Attack and Action Against Islamophobia, we remember the victims, but we refuse to stop there. We demand:
- A fully implemented National Action Plan to Combat Hate with clear funding, accountability, and enforcement mechanisms.
- Stronger protections for Muslim workers who face discrimination, including legislative action on religious accommodations in workplaces and schools.
- A crackdown on online Islamophobic hate speech, which fuels real-world violence.
- Government leaders at all levels to denounce Islamophobia unequivocally, including Quebec’s discriminatory Bill 21, which continues to target Muslim women who wear the hijab.
- Concrete action to address the rise of state-sponsored Islamophobia worldwide, including Canada ending its complicity in human rights abuses against Muslims globally.
January 29 must be a call to action. The victims of the Quebec City mosque attack were killed because of a system that allowed Islamophobia to grow unchecked. How many more lives must be lost before Canada takes this crisis seriously?