Push underway to get the Muslim vote out in Canada

TORONTO (NEWS 1130) – Discussions about what Muslim Canadians do and say have dominated political forums during across the country during this federal election campaign.

Now, the official push is now underway to get the Muslim vote out in Canada.

This comes as anti-Muslim sentiment or Islamaphobia has become increasingly prominent.

Muslims point to controversial laws as examples of the ways the federal government has unfairly targeted them and stoked Islamophobia, says Rachel Browne, a reporter for VICE who looked into the topic.

“A lot of people from Muslim communities from across Canada are seeing an increase in rhetoric around various government legislation and government initiatives around counter-terrorism and citizenship that seem to, in their minds, target them as Muslims to demonize Islam as a religion and to equate terrorism with being a Muslim,” says Browne.

So the Muslim-Canadian community is pushing back by encouraging people to vote.

“For the first time in history of Muslim-Canadians when it comes to politics, there have been numerous efforts that have cropped up over the past several months to mobilize Muslims to get out and vote. We really haven’t seen this kind of initiative happening before,” says Browne.

“They are just really trying to get Muslims to vote — especially in the advanced polls — over the next couple of weeks. There are numerous groups for Muslim youth — just getting them engaged in the political process, having a dialogue on social media, that sort of thing. Those are the kinds of effort we’re seeing.”

Browne says Canadian Muslims believe that at this point, their vote matters more than ever.

The first-ever debate for Muslim youth was recently held in Toronto, attracting more than 350 people with candidates from the four major parties.