Meet Amira Elghawabi, Canada’s first anti-Islamophobia advisor

Montreal:

Canada on Thursday appointed its first special representative to combat Islamophobia, a position created after several recent attacks on Muslims in the country.

Journalist and activist Amira Elghawabi will fill the position to “serve as a champion, advisor, expert and representative to support and enhance the federal government’s efforts in the fight against Islamophobia, systemic racism, racial discrimination and religious intolerance,” A statement by the prime minister’s office said.

An active human rights campaigner, Elghwabi is chief of communications for the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and a columnist for the Toronto Star newspaper, having previously worked for more than a decade at the public broadcaster CBC.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praised Elgawabi’s appointment as “an important step forward in our fight against Islamophobia and hatred in all its forms”.

“Diversity is actually one of Canada’s greatest strengths, but for many Muslims, Islamophobia is all too familiar,” he said.

Over the past few years, a series of deadly attacks have targeted Canada’s Muslim community.

In June 2021, four members of a Muslim family were killed after a man ran them over with his truck in London, Ontario.

Four years ago, six Muslims were killed and five were injured in an attack on a mosque in Quebec City.

In a series of tweets on Thursday, Elghwabi listed the names of those killed in recent attacks, saying: “We must never forget.”

The creation of the new job was recommended by a national summit on Islamophobia organized by the federal government in response to the attacks in June 2021.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)