Hamilton police host hate-crime symposium amid increase in incidents

Years ago, Imam Abd Alfatah Twakkal got a call at the London Muslim Mosque from a man who was anti-Islam.

He posed several questions to me," Twakkal recalled at a hate crime symposium hosted by Hamilton police Wednesday. Is it true that Muslims believe X, Y and Z? That Islam teaches to kill if those who don't believe in Islam?"

Twakkal responded with his own set of questions.

Have you ever been to a mosque? Have you ever met a Muslim?" he asked the man. Let's have conversation. Come see me."

So, the man, a self-professed internet troll, visited Twakkal at the mosque. The pair spoke for an hour; Twakkal taught him about the misconceptions surrounding Islam.

At the end of it, he says, I had it all wrong in my head,'" Twakkal remembered. It was a complete 180 about-face, and he became a person who would stick up for the Muslim community."

These types of interactions are one of many small, but effective steps to stemming the rising tide of hate in Canadian communities, Twakkal said at the symposium, the first such event Hamilton police have hosted.

Being engaged with others and able to reach out and educate, these are active things we can do. We have to take steps that are concrete and will have an impact."

Twakkal was one of about a dozen people to speak at the daylong symposium, which featured talks about the nuances and challenges of hate-crime investigations, the laws around them, the ways they impact the broader community and how to best pinpoint trends.

It comes about a month after a report showed there were 174 incidents of hate reported to Hamilton police last year, an uptick of about 61 per cent compared to 2021 that one advocate said follows a disturbing trend."

The number speaks to the importance of coming together and talking about different solutions," said Det. Fabiano Mendes of the hate-crime unit, noting last year's increase is reflective of both heightened reporting and a growing pattern of polarization.

I takes all of us to build wraparound solutions to address hate in our city."

Among those solutions are understanding the drivers behind hate incidents, what motivates perpetrators and why extremist ideologies continue to grow.

Collectively, these lead to greater awareness about hate in communities and heighten reporting of incidents. For Twakkal, they also might help prevent tragic events, like the four members of a Muslim family who were run down in London, Ont., and killed in 2021.

Hate incidents don't happen out of the vacuum," said the Imam. If there are more ways to be able to track these types of things and where they're taking place, flags can be alerted and police can take action. Otherwise, they can lead up to worst-case scenarios."

While most of the hate incidents reported to Hamilton last year were random" and believed to be committed by individuals and not by organized groups," it's important to look beyond the incidents themselves, said Barbara Perry, director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism.

Perry pointed to the perpetrator of the hate crime in London. He acted alone, she said, but he was materialized by what he saw online."

They're not lone actors; they're network individuals," she said at the symposium, alluding to how chat rooms and social-media groups radicalize people.

Things like social media, chat rooms and even gaming platforms have normalized" extremist ideals, Perry added, noting 80 per cent of Canadian youth report seeing hate online. It underscored a need to strengthen regulations around digital hate speech.

The online space has contributed greatly that normalization or greater acceptance of hate speech and actions because people feel anonymous."

Sebastian Bron is a reporter at The Spectator. sbron@thespec.com