Members of other faiths attended a Muslim prayer gathering at the University of Victoria’s Multifaith Centre in a show of solidarity on Friday, after threats posted on the doors cancelled last week’s prayers.
About 120 pairs of shoes filled the foyer of the centre on Friday afternoon. As people knelt in prayer, some who remained standing near the back of the room bowed their heads in respect, including several who wore kippahs, a head covering traditionally worn by Orthodox Jewish men.
Lyndon Sayers, co-pastor at Lutheran Church of the Cross and a Multifaith Centre chaplain, said the Jewish community was the best represented among those who showed up in solidarity, though there were also a number of Christians and representatives of a few other faiths.
“This is how we keep each other safe,” he said. “Through looking after each other and showing up.”
Rabbi Harry Brechner, who attended the prayer, said no one should ever be afraid to walk through the doors of a place of worship. “Acts of hate on any community — this time, it was our Muslim siblings — it’s an act of hate against all of us.
Last week, a custodian working an early-morning shift at the Multifaith Centre discovered two notes stuck to the door targeting adherents of the Islamic faith, prompting a police presence and campus security to close the building.
The notes contained text in English, Hebrew and Arabic targeting the Islamic faith as well as anti-Iran and anti-Palestine messages.
Oak Bay police Deputy Chief Kris Rice said Monday the notes were reviewed by a hate-crimes investigator and had been forwarded to the RCMP hate-crime unit for further investigation.
Elizabeth Croft, vice-president academic and provost, and Kristi Simpson, vice-president finance and operations, sent an email Thursday alerting some UVic faculty and staff about the incident.
In a statement on Friday, UVic president Kevin Hall said the university is committed to “continuing to do everything we can to make UVic a safe place to be for all members of our community.”
The B.C. Muslim Association, which calls itself the largest Sunni Muslim organization in the province, said UVic’s failure to issue any public notice or warning to the Muslim community after the threats were discovered left many to learn about the hateful messages through social media.
“This reprehensible act has caused significant distress, fear, and concern within the Muslim community,” it said in a statement Friday. “The BCMA is particularly troubled by the university’s lack of communication and transparency regarding this matter.”
Mohammed Imtiaz Asin, the association’s vice-president of public relations and communications, said in an interview Friday that he’s happy with how UVic has co-operated with the association since the incident.
Asin encouraged Muslims in Victoria to report any potential hate crime, even if it’s uncomfortable to do so. “We need to provide the government with analytical data that will in turn allow us to support this diverse group. We need to show the government, we need to show the people that things like this are happening.”
Unlike some faith communities, Muslims often downplay targeted acts of hate and try to deal with the problems on their own, Asin said.
B.C. Muslim Association Victoria branch chairperson Adel Guitouni said Hall met with his association and the National Council of Canadian Muslims on Friday morning, where he committed to “addressing biases and shortcomings in communication” that were revealed in last week’s incident.
“We were reassured by President Hall that there will be a robust commitment not only on addressing the failures, but also to create an equitable, inclusive and diverse campus, where everyone, including Muslims, Palestinians and Iranians — who were specially targeted at the notices left on the door of the multifaith chapel — feels at home.”
Meanwhile, Islamic faith programming at UVic will continue as planned, said Gulsen Cok, the centre’s Muslim spiritual care provider.
Cok said Friday she was still a little nervous about her lectures on Saturday following last week’s events. “But it’s not going to stop us. We are going to continue what we are doing.”
