An Islamophobia monitoring group has warned that the biased media coverage fosters divisions and racism in the French speaking province of Quebec, especially following Paris attacks that victimized Muslims cross Europe.
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"What is new really is that it’s in the schools,” Adil Charkaoui, coordinator of the Collectif Québécois Contre l’Islamophobie, was quoted by Montreal Gazette.
“We have many students in college, in universities, in secondary school who (face) fairly Islamophobic racist remarks from teachers, especially teachers, asking them ‘What do you think about those attacks? Do you agree with what Islam is teaching you?’
"So those people are feeling that they have to defend themselves in front of all of the classroom.” Charkaoui made his comments after attending a Montreal conference on Islamophobia on Thursday, January 22.
Speaking at the conference, Charkaoui said that his group has documented more than 123 Islamophobic attacks since Charlie Hebdo attacks earlier this month.
About 187 complaints against local media outlets were also fielded by the non-profit Collectif Québécois Contre l’Islamophobie group.
Among the 409 complaints lodged by the group in 2014, 12 complaints were fielded over mosque attacks.
Moreover, several parents have complained of Intelligence Security raids on their homes and searching their children's computers and cell phones.
The Muslims activist, Charkaoui, has blamed media for promoting anti-Muslim sentiment and discrimination by using “us” and “them” while referring to the Muslim community.
According to Charkaoui, introducing the controversial Charter of Values in 2013 and 2014 has led to a sharp increase in Islamophobic attacks that mainly targeted Muslim women.
Quebec's Charter of Values prohibits public servants from wearing conspicuous religious symbols, including hijabs, turbans, yarmulkes and larger-than-average crucifixes.
The dual terror attacks in Ottawa and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, a few months ago, coupled with Paris shooting spree have led to unprecedented levels of anti-Muslim attacks in Canada where several mosques ere vandalized.
Muslims make around 2.8 percent of Canada's 32.8 million population, and Islam is the number one non-Christian faith in the country.
A recent survey showed that the overwhelming majority of Muslims are proud to be Canadian, and that they are more educated than the general population.
