As was the case in many cities on Saturday, a few people who think Muslim people are a problem were out claiming to want freedom of speech (and fighting Sharia Law, which I’m sure they are well versed in). In Edmonton, this hateful rhetoric was met with a much larger group of people coming together in protection of the rights of our Muslim neighbours, people of colour, women and all those whose rights would be trampled by the angry minority.
Drown out Hateful Noise was organized by the Edmonton chapter of Black Lives Matter. People were asked to bring some literal noise to Churchill Square, to diminish the sounds of xenophobia and Islamophobia of those hiding behind calls for freedom of speech.
News stories portrayed this as a “clash” or “rivals” confronting each other, which speaks more to the need of local news to have some kind of “conflict” at the heart of a story and less to the reality of the afternoon. In fact, the main crowd paid little attention to those out promoting hate and misinformation. As it should be.
Black Lives Matter organizers. Photo by Abdul Malik
If you want to let your member of Parliament (MP) know you support Motion 103 – which calls for research into hate crimes and incidents involving Muslim Canadians – you can find your MP’s contact details online.