U of T president David Naylor issued an official statement to the Governing Council and the university community last Thursday condemning the string of racist activities targeting members of the Muslim community that have occurred over the past few weeks.
Naylor acknowledged four particular incidents that have made “the current environment difficult for members of our Muslim community.” He stressed the need to clarify the “misinformation” that he said had accompanied these incidents.
Comprising the four incidents were anti-Islamic epithets yelled at a Muslim student and her friend on March 7; a March 8 incident in which eggs were thrown at SAC student leaders, two of whom were wearing hijabs; fliers posted around campus on March 9 showing one of the controversial Danish cartoons of Mohammed; and the hit-and-run on campus of a Somali man on March 20.
The president stressed that while the hit-and-run did not directly involve the university, as neither the victim nor the alleged assailant were members of the U of T community, U of T police were still quick to respond by sending constables to escort attendees after the meeting.
Naylor also emphasized free speech, saying that it “is a cornerstone of free academies in democratic societies” but that “the university will not tolerate actions that appear to rise to the level of a hate crime.” He acknowledged that there would always be “offensive expressions that we cannot censor because of our respect for the core value of free speech.”
Several professors of Near and Middle Eastern civilizations, diaspora and transnational studies, women and gender studies, and other disciplines subsequently issued a public statement in response to the president’s speech.
“It is an important milestone to tackle the increasing insecurity felt by Muslims and those who appear to be Muslims on this and other campuses around Canada,” said the statement.
The group proposed the creation of “substantial policies” that would combat Islamophobia, or anti-Muslim hatred. They advocated a “mechanism” allowing victims of the attacks “to be spoken to in person, so that their grievances may feed directly into the university’s wider response.”
The Students’ Administrative Council (SAC) welcomed Naylor’s speech, but was quick to criticize the delay.
“Until today, we have not seen any public condemnation of the acts of Islamophobia on our campus,” said the organization in a statement.
SAC stressed that the university must issue a public response as quickly as possible after such events, and expressed a desire to work with administration on a policy “to standardize our collective response to hate and intolerance on campus, so that all actions in the future can be dealt with [in] a quick, clear message.”
