Rising Anti-Semitism's Source in Canada

"[....] I found the traditional definition of Islamophobia as a 'fear or hatred of Islam and Muslims' to be limiting. So in my definition, I place it in a broader sociological framework where fear and hatred manifest into individual, ideological, and systemic practices (on this, other scholars might differ). Individual practices include things like name-calling, vandalism, assaults, and the like. And that the ideologies that justify these actions include stereotypes such as seeing Islam as a violent faith or seeing Muslims as terrorists, or as people who do not accept 'Canadian values,' and these notions are inculcated into systemic practices such as racial profiling and domestic security policies targeting Muslims."
"While the law permits a legitimate critique of religion, the demonization of a particular faith is different. This type of demonization becomes mapped onto its adherents and can lead to mass violence and genocide, and to argue otherwise works against the weight of history." 
Jasmin Zine, Professor of sociology and Muslim studies, Wilfrid Laurier University

"That [the figures for rising anti-Semitism in Canada] means an average of four to five incidents of anti-Semitic harassment, vandalism, or violence occurring every day in our country, a country where we pride ourselves as being one of the most tolerant int he world."
Michael Mostyn, CEO, B'nai Brith Canada

"While some have sought to link the global increase in anti-Semitism to November's presidential election in the United States, it's worth noting that the months of September through December actually saw a relative decrease in anti-Semitic incidents in Canada, in relation to previous years."
"Unfortunately, Holocaust denial is no longer only coming from its traditional home in the extreme right. More and more, Islamist extremists are also co-opting this position and spreading the rhetoric of denial, especially within Arab-language media right here in Canada."
Amanda Hohmann, national director, B/'nai Brith Canada League for Human Rights

"The social media aspect has become very big. Why stand on a corner and yell: ‘you’re a dirty Jew,’ when you can do it on social media and have everyone in the world see it?"
"There are many Jewish students who feel they don’t have a safe place at Concordia [University in Quebec]. If they protest and try to respond, they are cursed and threatened and feel unsafe."
"This is something that we have pushed [hate crimes investigation by Montreal police] for and the police are responding very well."
Harvey Levine, B’nai Brith’s executive director for Quebec.

So while the righteous Professor Zine, a Muslim scholar, waxes indignant over 'Islamophobia', claiming that distrust of Muslims is unwarranted, as is regarding them as disposed to terrorism and Islam is not a violent faith, the world reels in horror at the manifestations of Islam's penchant for teaching its young and impressionable that as the Koran emphasizes, non-Muslims are inferior and their presence on Earth an affront to Islam, encouraging the faithful to engage in jihad. Violent jihad has many faces; the slaughter of innocents, both Muslim and non-Muslim, as well as the slander of Jews.

And for the most part, in Canada, Muslims have embarked on a disinformation campaign denying the horrors of the Holocaust, while demonizing and delegitimizing Israel and Jews, targeting Jewish students and speakers invited to address students at universities, and generally making life fairly uncomfortable for anyone who espouses Zionism and defends the right of existence of the Jewish state of Israel. Yet to criticize Islam for its views on the 'kuffars' and its sacred precepts that it will conquer the world, is to defame Islam, even while quoting directly from the Koran or the Hadiths.

Hate crimes targeting Jewish populations

There were 181 hate-motivated crimes targeting the Jewish religion reported by police in 2013, or an estimated rate of 54.9 police-reported hate crimes per 100,000 individuals reporting that they were Jewish.

Hate crimes targeting Muslim populations

Police reported 65 crimes motivated by hatred against the Muslim religion in 2013, representing an estimated rate of 6.2 hate crimes per 100,000 individuals reporting that they were Muslim
Statistics Canada http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2015001/article/14191-eng.htm

B'nai Brith has produced Canada's most recent report, called "Made in Canada" on the incidence of anti-Semitism in the country noting that it is on the rise; a 25 percent increase from 2015. There were, the report noted, 1,728 reports to the Jewish advocacy group, the highest they have reported in the last 35 years. The anti-hate hotline operated by the agency along with police data comprised the source of the numbers that were compiled and released in their 2016 report. A particular rise in Holocaust denial was noted as a five percent increase, reflecting 20 percent of the reported incidents.

The example of the al-Saraha newspaper out of London, Ontario, published a report denying the scope of the Holocaust and arguing that any slaughter that may have taken place of Jews by the Nazi regime would have been justified. A local government-funded immigrant settlement organization had promoted the newspaper as a recommended source of information, later condemned by Ontario government officials once B'nai Brith brought the issue to their attention.

According to the opinion of Barbara Perry, a University of Ontario Institute of Technology professor studying hate crimes: "It's really a form of 'othering' across the board, and the Jewish community is one of many targets". She points out the obvious, that anti-Semitism in Arabic-language media in Canada has its roots in global conflicts, without making inconvenient reference to the added incitement coming directly out of Koranic texts.

One Arabic speaker only had the moral fortitude to bring to the attention of B'nai Brith incidents from within the Arabic community in a language not understood by most Canadians, demonizing Jews. Of the reported incidents, eleven were categorized as violent, 158 represented vandalism, and the rest were viewed as harassment, inclusive of social media posts defaming Jews and revelling in anti-Semitism.

Corey Fleischer removes the word NAZI from a concrete wall in Montreal in 2015. Anti-Semitism in Quebec is down slightly in 2017, B'nai Brith says. Allen McInnis / Montreal Gazette