Hikma Public Affairs' Statement on the recent Islamophobic attack near Western University
Hikma Public Affairs Council is extremely alarmed by the recent incident near Western University in London, Ontario.
Earlier this week, a visibly Muslim woman walking to her car with her daughters was confronted by a man in a parked vehicle who demanded she take off her hijab. He told her to go back to where she came from, said she does not belong in Canada, and said he did not care that he was being filmed. On video, he confirmed he was being racist. When two Western students who were passing by stood up to him, he turned on one of them with racial slurs.
This is the city where four members of Our London Family were murdered in a terrorist attack in 2021. We do not need another reminder of where this hatred ends.
Let us be crystal clear: this man was not afraid of the camera, the witnesses, or the law. For years, rising Islamophobia has been met with little to no consequences. Hatred of Muslims has been normalized in public discourse, women who wear the hijab are the most visible and frequent targets, and hate speech on the street is rarely investigated, so offenders learn that nothing follows.
Institutions at all levels have a duty to protect Muslims as they do every other community. Instead of stronger measures to deter this behaviour and hold hateful individuals to account, we see existing protections scaled back, or no action at all. The de-prioritization of Islamophobia and the divisive, dangerous language of some politicians, at all levels, have helped create a reality where individuals like this one feel empowered to act without repercussions. That language must end.
Enough is enough. Our community members must be protected, they must have their Charter-protected rights safeguarded, and they must feel safe in the country they call home.
We call on the Government of Canada to immediately intensify its consultative work on the legislation to address Islamophobia that the Prime Minister committed to on June 6, 2026. It must be comprehensive and actionable, especially following the untimely closure of the Office of the Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia.
We call on the Province of Ontario to prioritize combatting Islamophobia, and on the Attorney General to make timely decisions on consent for hate propaganda charges under the Criminal Code and to direct Crown attorneys to treat public hate speech as a priority. The criminal system must work for victims, not against them, and education against Islamophobia must be prioritized.
Our community also expects Western University to condemn this incident publicly, support the students who intervened, publish a safety review of the areas around campus with Muslim students, staff and community members at the table, improve the reporting path for on- and off-campus hate incidents, and commit in writing to ongoing consultation with Muslim community organizations.
We thank the London Police Service for its swift action and will keep working with them and our partners, including NCCM, to hold the hateful individual to account. We urge police and the Crown to pursue every available and relevant charge under the Criminal Code, including its hate propaganda provisions.
We ask our community to remain vigilant. Anyone with information about this incident, or who has experienced something similar, should report it to the London Police Service, Hikma, and NCCM.
Hikma Public Affairs Council