Local groups fear Muslims in Edmonton under-reporting hate incidents

FatmehKaloutisays she felt the backlash last fall whena Somali refugee was charged after a man attacked anEdmonton police officer and ran down pedestrians on downtown sidewalks.

A Muslim woman who wears a hijab, Kalouti didn't know the accused man, but heard about the ISIS flag he reportedly hadwith him before his arrest.

In early October, days after theattacks, Kaloutiwas leaving a north-end Walmart in her car when a vehicle pulled up beside her, swerving into her lane.

"He kept trying to come into my lane and push me into the curb," she said.

When she slowed down to let him pass, he slowed down; when she sped up, so did he. That went on for about two minutes.

"He rolled down his window and said, 'Go back to your country. You're not welcome here,' " she said.

Under-reporting of hate incidents

Kalouti isa member of a group called Safety Within the Muslim Community, which formed after the Sept. 30 attacks. She told herpeers at a meeting Tuesday she didn't report her encounter on the road.

"I was just, like, nothing's going to come out of this," said Kalouti,whoworks at the Mennonite Centre for Newcomers. "Nothing is going to happen. So, I didn't bother."

Some families were fearful about sending their children to school in the days after the attacks, said Kalouti, who also chairs the city's Safety Summit Committee, which plans annual conferences to address safety concerns in the city.

Safety Within the Muslim Community hopes to helpMuslims feel safer in Edmonton. But so far it has been difficult to get a grasp on the scope of the problem, saidAhmedAbdulkadir, one founderof the group.

They wantto encourage Muslims in Edmonton to report hate incidents committed against them.

In the past few months,Kaloutisaid, she has heard from five to 10 people who have experienced the type of vitriol she did. They also didn't report the incidents.

"Hate incidents happen to the Muslim community, to Muslim women, often," saidAbdulkadir, executive director of the Ogaden Somali Community.

He said he has witnessed or been told about 15 hate incidents, but knows ofonly three that were reported.

Hate incidents versus hate crimes

Irfan Chaudhry, an Edmonton-based hate crimes researcher and thefounder of the stophateab.careporting database (which does not focus on the targeting of specific communities), points to academic studies that suggest hate crimes, in general, are under-reported.

Victims can feel stigma and shame. Or they may mistrust law-enforcement officials, or a lack a clear understanding about what constitutes a hate incident or ahate crime, he said.

Hate incidents and hate crimes are both motivated by hatred, bias or prejudice toward an identifiable group based onrace, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or any other similar factor.

According to Edmonton police, hate incidents are non-criminal while hate crimes include the commission of a criminal offence. There is a high Criminal Code threshold for determining hate crimes.

Edmonton police do not track reports by religious affiliation.

'Undertones of Islamophobia'

In other jurisdictions, it has been documented that Islamophobia has become more pronounced after radicalattacks by or on Muslims. After the shootings at a Quebec City mosque in January 2017, police in that province found there has been an increase in hate incidents and crimes targeting Muslims.

"There is definitely sentiments and undertones of Islamophobia, I'd say in Canada, globally as well,"Chaudhrysaid. "Because of some of the connotations people have around the faith and it's perceived connection to violent extremism."

OwaisHikmat,a member of Safety Within the Muslim Community anda director at the AlRashidMosque, said he encourages people to report hate incidents and crimes, but noted the results have been less than satisfactory. He said he knows of about five incidents that were reported"and not taken care of as much as [victims]wished."

Creating a record

roberta.bell@cbc.ca

@roberta__bell