Diversity award winner says Islamophobia still exists in Waterloo region

Less than a month after the shooting in a Quebec mosque last year, Fauzia Baig set up shop in Carl Zehr Square to hand out cookies to strangers and engaged them in conversation about Muslim faith and culture.

An event that won her the provincial Champions of Diversity award.

"I felt very overwhelmed by the recognition," Baig told CBC News. "The outcome [of the event] was rewarding enough."

Baig won in the category of "cross-cultural understanding." She is the director of community programs at the Coalition of Muslim Women Kitchener-Waterloo.

Handing out cookies was part of a week-long "Salaams Canada" campaign she ran with volunteers as an attempt to bridge different communities in Waterloo Region.

"We really opened ourselves up to the community and they responded with the same warmth and kindness that we shared with them," Baig said.

Baig and the volunteers' response to the shootings was inspiring for Sarah Anderson.

Anderson had worked with Baig to secure the use of Carl Zehr Square in her role as a neighbourhood liaison for the City of Kitchener.

"For me to be able to, as a city staff, find ways to support this kind of leadership is what makes my role satisfying," Anderson told CBC News, "Their gesture was so disarming and so full of friendship and love that I think it was just the right thing."

The Coalition of Muslim Women Kitchener-Waterloo will be hosting an anniversary vigil on Sunday Jan. 28 to remember the victims of the mosque shooting at the Kitchener City Hall.

Islamophobia still 'prevalent'

Recently outside the region there was an alleged attack against a Muslim girl that turned out to be false. Some people have been using that to suggest Islamophobia doesn't exist.

Baig said that isn't the case.

"We know that incidences are still occurring in our community," she said. "You can't evaluate an entire issue on one event."

In June 2017, Statistics Canada reported the number of hate crimes against Muslims have increased by 60 per cent in 2015 compared to 2014.

And in the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo, they rank third in the country for reported hate crimes.

Islamophobia is not a thing of the past, Baig said, but things have been changing since Baig moved to the region two decades ago. A resident of Waterloo, Baig has moved through her milestones from school to becoming a mother to finding her first job.

"Not only has [the city] grown in terms of tech and industry and business, but it's really grown in terms of being open to change and being open to differences and accepting," she said.

But she still sees Islamophobia in the region as "prevalent" through her work with the Hate Crime Initiative in Waterloo Region.

"We keep our ears to the ground in this community and we know that our work here isn't done."