BC Islamophobia Legal Assistance Hotline

But the climate is doing more than inspiring fear around personal safety it’s also creating barriers for Muslims to find or hold on to meaningful work, housing and community acceptance. Islamophobia is holding people back economically, and it’s time to talk about it. On average, newcomers to Canada identifying as Muslims face a higher risk of living on low incomes, according to Statistics Canada’s 2016 General Survey. Forty-six per cent of immigrants who identified as Muslim were much more likely to have an annual income below $20,000 as compared with 29 per cent of immigrants of other faiths. Muslim immigrants were also less likely to be in higher income brackets, despite the fact that immigrants are often more highly educated than the Canadian-born population.

Hasan Alam from the BC Islamophobia Legal Assistance Hotline talks about the horrific Christchurch shootings and the role of white supremacy and Islamophobia.