A Calgary event celebrating Muslim heritage witnessed anti-Muslim show, as a man dressed in an outfit inspired by the Crusades gatecrashed the event.
The incident occurred on Saturday amid at an event planned to celebrate Muslim food, art, and history.
Wearing an outfit inspired by what the Catholic Knights Templar wore during the Crusades, University of Calgary associate professor Tinu Ruparell said the person was sending a clear anti-Muslim message, , City News reported.
📚 Read Also: Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes Surge in Canada: Report
“This is a pretty conscious effort to isolate one community — Muslims in Calgary — for hatred and bigotry,” Ruparell said. “I think it’s appalling.”
“To use this kind of iconography is a conscious way to bring up these kinds of ideas that suggest that people who aren’t Christian, people who aren’t western, people who aren’t whatever — in this case, Muslims — need to be exterminated and driven from a particular land,” Ruparell explained.
Learn About Community
Ruparell added that people should take steps to know better about the community around them.
“I think most of us want to dismiss them, ignore them, but I think we do so at our peril, we have to take them seriously,” Ruparell said.
“Learn more about other traditions, other religious traditions. One of the easiest ways to do that, I think is to humbly and honestly ask our Muslim friends, our colleagues.”
📚 Read Also: Muslims Welcome Alberta Gov’t Funding to Deter Hate Crimes
Hate crimes targeting Muslims significantly increased last year according to a new report released by Statistics Canada earlier this month.
The report said that 3,360 hate crimes were reported by police last year, an increase from 2,646 in 2020.