A man is recuperating in hospital today after being struck by a speeding vehicle at the intersection of Russell and Huron Streets Sunday. A U of T official called the incident a hit and run motivated by road rage, but there are disturbing signs that racism was also a factor.
A group of four young men, who were attending a Muslim theology seminar hosted by a non-profit organization called the al-Maghreb Institute, were returning from a break when an altercation broke out between them and the suspect. According to witnesses, the victim mocked the suspect after he caught him urinating on a wall. A verbal dispute ensued and culminated with the victim kicking the suspect’s car, evidently infuriating him.
“My attention was diverted as soon as I heard the suspect yelling out racial slurs like ‘You fucking niggers, don’t fucking kick my car,'” said Fowzia Duale, who witnessed the incident. “The four guys were talking back to the suspect but I couldn’t hear them…After a minute he got into his car and went after them. He drove onto the sidewalk and tried to hit them but missed; I thought it was over when he sped off.”
The suspect quickly returned, said Eman Ahmed, a second eyewitness. “As the guys were crossing the street, the moment they stepped off the curb, we heard tires screeching. From where I was standing the next thing I saw was the [man] rolling off the hood of this guy’s car and falling on the road.”
Last week, two Muslim students were assaulted in a Hart House washroom in what was apparently a racially motivated attack. Later, a group of Muslim students were egged. Police investigations are ongoing into those incidents. There is no evidence of a connection between the previous attacks and Sunday’s altercation, but that will be of little comfort to students who are already feeling unsafe.
“The al-Maghreb Institute had posted the article about the Hart House incident on their website and told us to walk in groups for safety purposes,” said Ahmed.
U of T officials were quick to reach the scene.
“It’s being handled by metro police,” said David Farrar, vice-provost students, as he stood near the intersection where the incident occurred. “The victim was transported to hospital; I gather he was conscious when they transported him.”
Farrar pointed out the al-Maghreb Institute, which is not affiliated with U of T, has held events on campus in the past without incident, and played down any connection between assault and the university community. “To our knowledge none of the participants are students at the university and the suspect was not a member of our community,” he said, “it actually sounds like a road rage kind of incident.”
Outgoing SAC VP Equity Shaila Kibria disagrees with Farrar’s assessment that the incident was purely an isolated incident of road-rage.
“I’m disgusted by what this person did. The guy used racial slurs during the altercation and then tries to run over that group of Somali men twice, hitting one, all within five minutes? If that does not constitute a hate crime, then what does?” asked Kibria. “My main concern is that the university has not acted promptly. It has been 12 days since the first incident at Hart House. I appreciate the fact that the U of T’s president appeared at Friday prayers to address the concerns of Muslim students, but when will the university come out and make a press statement?”
Nouman Ashraf, the Anti-Racism and cultural diversity officer at U of T, said he is taking steps to combat hate on campus. “My office is running focus groups on the St. George campus, the Mississauga campus and the Scarborough campus,” he said. “Next week at UTM we’re running a session entitled ‘Recognizing Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism: an anti-racist paradigm.'”
According to Kibria, this incident is the worst of a string of Islamophobic attacks at U of T’s. “Even if the police investigation does not conclude that this was a hate crime, which it appears to be, its repercussions still affect a significant portion of the U of T’s student body,” she said. “Muslim students must feel safe on this campus and that won’t happen until the proper protective measures are taken.”
