443 results for author: Kashif Ahmed

NCCM welcomes new federal office for community outreach & security issues

Additionally praises restoration of Court Challenges Program (Ottawa - March 23, 2016) The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), a prominent civil liberties & advocacy organization, welcomes the federal government's creation of a new office to engage with communities on security and counter-radicalization matters, as well as the restoration of federal funding for the Court Challenges Program. The federal budget released yesterday announced funding for an Office of the Community Outreach and Counter-radicalization Coordinator under Public Safety Canada. According to Budget 2016, the forthcoming office will "provide leadership on Canada's ...

‘It’s not him’: Questions raised about mental health of Canadian military stabbing suspect

By Tamara Khandaker VICE News Canada | March 15, 2016 The suspect who allegedly cited Allah during a double stabbing at a Toronto military recruitment center was a calm and religious person, according to one friend, who said Ayanle Hassan Ali struggled to cope with an ill mother, and would only leave home to get groceries or go to a mosque. "I don't know what his mom was diagnosed with, but she was pretty sick," Amolak Grewal told VICE News in an interview, hours after Ali, 27, was charged in a violent attack that injured two Canadian soldiers on Monday. Amarnath Amarasingam, a Toronto-based researcher on jihadism and foreign fighters, ...

‘It’s not him’: Questions raised about mental health of Canadian military stabbing suspect

By Tamara Khandaker VICE News Canada | March 15, 2016 The suspect who allegedly cited Allah during a double stabbing at a Toronto military recruitment center was a calm and religious person, according to one friend, who said Ayanle Hassan Ali struggled to cope with an ill mother, and would only leave home to get groceries or go to a mosque. "I don't know what his mom was diagnosed with, but she was pretty sick," Amolak Grewal told VICE News in an interview, hours after Ali, 27, was charged in a violent attack that injured two Canadian soldiers on Monday. Amarnath Amarasingam, a Toronto-based researcher on jihadism and foreign fighters, ...

U.S. Olympian who wears hijab offers riposte to Trump

By: Patty Winsa, News reporter Toronto Star | March 15, 2016 When fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad goes to the Rio Games this summer she will make history as the first U.S. Olympian to compete wearing a hijab. But as she blazes a path on the world stage, she is worried about her security — at home. She fears it is being compromised by presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who has called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S. “When you incite hateful speech and rhetoric like that, the people who say it never think about the repercussions and how that affects Muslims,” Muhammad said in a recent Time magazine article. “Specifically Muslim ...

U.S. Olympian who wears hijab offers riposte to Trump

By: Patty Winsa, News reporter Toronto Star | March 15, 2016 When fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad goes to the Rio Games this summer she will make history as the first U.S. Olympian to compete wearing a hijab. But as she blazes a path on the world stage, she is worried about her security — at home. She fears it is being compromised by presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who has called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S. “When you incite hateful speech and rhetoric like that, the people who say it never think about the repercussions and how that affects Muslims,” Muhammad said in a recent Time magazine article. “Specifically Muslim ...

Islamophobia hotline to help victims launched by B.C. legal groups, lawyers

By MARK HUME The Globe and Mail | March 9, 2016 It’s a phone they hope never rings, but the B.C. organizers of the first Islamophobia hotline in Canada know it’s only a matter of time before it does. Hasan Alam, a Vancouver lawyer who helped set up the service that launched Wednesday, said it’s needed because of an increase of anti-Muslim incidents across the country. He said the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) has reported “at least 20 incidences of hate crimes against Muslims or people perceived to be Muslims” in recent months. “Just recently in January here in Vancouver, we saw that a group of Muslims, gathered ...

Islamophobia hotline to help victims launched by B.C. legal groups, lawyers

By MARK HUME The Globe and Mail | March 9, 2016 It’s a phone they hope never rings, but the B.C. organizers of the first Islamophobia hotline in Canada know it’s only a matter of time before it does. Hasan Alam, a Vancouver lawyer who helped set up the service that launched Wednesday, said it’s needed because of an increase of anti-Muslim incidents across the country. He said the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) has reported “at least 20 incidences of hate crimes against Muslims or people perceived to be Muslims” in recent months. “Just recently in January here in Vancouver, we saw that a group of Muslims, gathered ...

B.C. legal groups and lawyers set up hotline to help victimized Muslims

Camille Bains, The Canadian Press CTV News | March 9, 2016 VANCOUVER - Legal groups and lawyers in Vancouver have banded together to launch a hotline for Muslims who have faced discrimination in British Columbia because of their religion. The Islamophobia Legal Assistance Hotline is supported by various organizations including the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, the B.C. branch of the Canadian Bar Association and groups that represent black, Asian and South Asian lawyers. . . . Amira Elghawaby, a spokeswoman for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said Muslim women who wear a niqab or a hijab are victimized more often than ...

B.C. legal groups and lawyers set up hotline to help victimized Muslims

Camille Bains, The Canadian Press CTV News | March 9, 2016 VANCOUVER - Legal groups and lawyers in Vancouver have banded together to launch a hotline for Muslims who have faced discrimination in British Columbia because of their religion. The Islamophobia Legal Assistance Hotline is supported by various organizations including the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, the B.C. branch of the Canadian Bar Association and groups that represent black, Asian and South Asian lawyers. . . . Amira Elghawaby, a spokeswoman for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said Muslim women who wear a niqab or a hijab are victimized more often than ...

The Star now says ‘Daesh’ instead of ‘the Islamic State’ or ISIS

By Olivia Ward, Foreign Affairs Reporter Toronto Star | March 3, 2016 Everyone knows Al Qaeda, but most people have forgotten it means “the base.” Boko Haram, which kills and kidnaps schoolchildren, means, unsurprisingly, “Western education is forbidden.” But the term that makes politicians, pundits and journalists slap their foreheads is Islamic State — or the awkward acronyms ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) or ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.) That’s because the criminal gang that has murdered, raped and pillaged its way across the Middle East, while sending sycophants to slaughter civilians abroad, is neither ...