Surrey mosque incident not racially motivated, RCMP say

Mounties in Surrey have determined a disturbing incident at the Surrey Jamea Masjid earlier in the week was not racially motivated.

Wednesday night, a car sped by a group of Muslims leaving evening prayers and someone in the moving vehicle threw water onto pedestrians near 124 Street and 72 Avenue. Officers say the vehicle returned and tried to run someone down.

No one was injured in the incident.

This incident sparked shock, frustration, disappointment and sadness from Muslim community members as it comes on the heels of a number of incidents where the community has been targeted across the country.

Three days after the incident, the RCMP says it’s identified everyone involved — including six victims and two suspects — who are cooperating with police.

According to Mounties, the pair from the suspected vehicle are two teens who are part of the Muslim community.

Mounties add efforts are now underway to resolve the matter using a restorative justice approach.

“[This] would allow all parties to come together and express the impacts that this incident had on them and the greater community,” a statement from the RCMP reads.

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Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards adds Mounties have spoken with the president of the British Columbia Muslim Association, “and had a positive discussion about the outcome of this event as well as our shared objective of ensuring safety of all communities, including our Muslim residents.”

“The RCMP recognizes that any incidents such as this one that are initially believed to be a hate crime are traumatizing to our community. However, once it was discovered that the nature of the incident was not hate motivated, it was important for us to update the public,” Edwards adds in a statement.

“This event demonstrates the importance of reporting all such incidents to police so they can be fully investigated. The Surrey RCMP takes allegations of hate/bias related crimes very seriously and encourages reporting of such matters. That is precisely what we are here to do – assess and investigate.”

The latest statistics from 2017 show an increase in police-reported hate crimes against Muslims in Canada. There was a jump to 349 cases – a 151 per cent increase – from the 139 cases recorded in 2016. However, Statistics Canada says about two-thirds of hate crimes across the country go unreported.

– With files from Sonia Aslam