Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/MONTREAL: Canadian government has appointed its first special representative (advisor) to combat Islamophobia, a position created following many recent attacks on Muslims in the country.
Over the previous few years, the deadly attacks have targeted Canada’s Muslim community.
In June 2021, 4 members of a Muslim family were martyred when a man ran them over with his truck in London, Ontario. Four years earlier, 6 Muslims died, and five were wounded in an attack on a Quebec City mosque.
The advisor
The prime minister’s office said that Journalist and activist Amira Elghawaby could fill the post to “serve as a champion, adviser, expert, and representative to support and enhance the government’s efforts in the fight against Islamophobia, Muslim systemic racism, racial discrimination, and religious intolerance,”
An active human rights campaigner, Elghawaby is communications head for the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and a columnist for the Toronto Star newspaper, having worked for more than the decade at public broadcaster CBC.
Prime Minister Trudeau praised Elghawaby’s appointment as “an important step in our fight against anti-Islamophobia and hatred in all its forms.”
“Diversity is one of Canada’s greatest strengths, but for several Muslims, Islamophobia is all too familiar,” he added.
In the series of tweets Thursday, Elghawaby listed the names of those killed in the recent attacks, adding: “We must never forget.”
The creation of a fresh job had been recommended by a national summit on Islamophobia organized by the federal government in June 2021 in response to the attacks.
