Al Mahdi Islamic Centre in Thornhill (a Toronto suburb) target of hate crime

Empowering Weak & Oppressed

Crescent International

Rabi' al-Awwal 21, 1444 2022-10-17

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

Al Mahdi Islamic Centre in Thornhill, a suburb of Toronto, was vandalized by terrorist groups spray-painting hateful graffiti on its walls.

The incident occurred on the night of October 13, a day before the Centre was to hold a program on the birthday of the Prophet, upon whom be peace.

Since the mosque caters to largely Persian-speaking Muslims, the hateful graffiti was spray-painted in Farsi on the outer walls of the building.

There is a large expatriate Iranian community that resides in Thornhill and Richmond Hill.

The vast majority of these people are monarchists as well as members of the terrorist outfit, the Mujahideen-e Khalq Organization (MKO), better known as munafiqeen.

For decades, these groups have carried out terrorist acts in Iran murdering thousands of innocent people.

They do not, however, shy away from indulging in terrorist acts outside Iran either, aware that the authorities usually take a lax attitude to their criminal acts.

The racist graffiti slogans painted on the walls were, ‘Death to the Islamic Republic,’ ‘Death to Khamenei’ (referring to the leader of the Islamic Republic), and ‘Death to the Mullahs’.

Under Canadian law, these clearly constitute hate crimes.

Yet some Canadian politicians including the recently-minted leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre, attended a rally in support of these criminals in Richmond Hill, last month.

In recent weeks, these terrorists have attacked the Islamic Education Centre in London, England, an Arbaeen march also in London, as well as the Islamic Center in Hamburg, Germany.

The Arbaeen march is organized on the 40^th day of Imam Husain’s martyrdom.

The march is attended by not only people from Iran but also Pakistan, India, Iraq, Lebanon, and many other parts of the world.

In London, the pro-monarchist terrorists and munafiqeenviolently attacked Arbaeen participants in the presence of the police.

The police took no action against these violent terrorists.

In one instance, one innocent Muslim was so badly beaten, in the presence of the police, that his head started to bleed profusely.

He also suffered major injuries to his face and body.

The police merely pushed the assailant away. He was not arrested.

One can imagine the reaction if committed Muslims had carried out such an attack.

They would not only be arrested but there would be endless condemnation in the media as well as by officials screaming against “Muslim terrorists”.

So, why is it that when innocent Muslims are so brutally attacked, there is scant attention paid to the crimes of the monarchists and the munafiqeen?

The Islamic Centre in Thornhill that was attacked was built in 1980.

It is a beautiful structure and holds regular prayer sessions as well as sessions for youth to improve their morals.

York Region police, the area where the incident occurred, has not issued a statement so far regarding the hate crime attack on the mosque.

In June 2003, these same groups of terrorists had attacked a number of Muslims outside the Islamic Society of York Region centre in the presence of the police.

One of the victims was so badly injured that he suffered concussion and had to be hospitalized for a week.

Despite an official complaint lodged with the York Region hate crime unit, no action was taken against the assailants.

The police had asked for photographs and video of the assailants.

These were provided.

A month later, the police were contacted to find out what had happened to their investigation.

Their response was that they could not identify the assailants because members of the pro-monarchist groups refused to cooperate with them.

It was clear that the police were not interested in pursuing the case because the victims were committed Muslims and the assailants were pro-monarchist and munafiqeen criminals.

Should the police continue to indulge in such behavior, there is little doubt that these terrorists would get emboldened and would carry out even more serious crimes.

The Muslim community in Canada is waiting to see how the police pursues this case in apprehending the criminals that carried out the hate crime against Al Mahdi Islamic Centre.