Mutual understanding needed to tackle hate, Regina man says after London attack

In his reaction to a deadly attack on a Muslim family in London, Ont., a member of Regina’s Muslim community believes preventing hatred requires an effort to foster understanding between diverse groups.

Ashique Hossain attends the Darul Falah Islamic Centre in Regina and says people need to get to know each other better.

“People tend to fear differences. When they see somebody else is very different, they don’t like to be with them,” Hossain said. “But if you find, ‘OK, this person also thinks like me (and) acts like me,’ then you feel more safe around them and then you don’t have any issues with them.”

Hossain says in a “global village,” when people get to know each other, they realize they have more commonalities than differences.

“Ninety-nine per cent of things (we have) in common, maybe one or two things we differ,” he said. “It shouldn’t be an issue.”

Mosques in Regina have done their part by opening their doors to the public and visiting schools, Hossain says. But when it comes to creating the conditions for peaceful co-existence, the work isn’t distributed equally.

“Anytime you are a minority, people will not notice you unless you do something crazy,” he said. “Anytime there is news about Muslims, (it) will happen only when you do something crazy or something crazy comes up.

“So it’s a little harder, definitely. But we need to continue our work. We cannot be stopped.”

Hossain warns against making generalizations based on the ethnicity of the London attacker. He also says it’s out of his control if he becomes a target for violence.

According to his faith, Hossain says the response to the attack must be met with a “better” response. To him, that means the attacker is held accountable, the family sees justice and the community fixes what allowed the incident to happen in the first place.

“Call for justice, definitely. If somebody did something wrong … he should be punished, no doubt about it,” he said.

“But as a community, we need to find the actual problem and work for the solution.”