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3 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,June 17,2021 insidehalton.com Opening Thursday, June 24th 2ruO nd elilvk OaOa n!oitacoL n!oitacoL Our 2nd Oakville Location! 2441 Lakeshore RdWest,at Bronte Rd• FARMBOY.CA Flowers were laid, can- dles were lit and passionate speeches were made. On Wednesday, June 9, roughly 500 people came out to the Oakville Public Library at 120 Navy St. in memory of the family killed by a vehicle attack in London. The event ran for more than an hour and fea- tured speeches that regu- larly included a mix of an- ger, sadness, frustration and calls for societal change. On June 6, four mem- bers of the Afzaal family, a Pakistani Muslim Canadi- an family, were killed in what has been called a tar- geted attack. A fifth victim, a nine-year-old boy is cur- rently in hospital with seri- ous injuries. The incident has been widely labelled as a terror- ist attack and an example of Islamophobia in Canadi- an society. "We are all gathered here to mourn the loss of an innocent family victim to yet another hate crime against Muslims," said Sid- ra Anjum, one of the event's organizers, to the crowd. "We are privileged to get together and mourn this loss as a family while a young child is in a hospital who will wake up to none. So, during these tough times it is necessary to come together and support one another and listen and grieve as a community." Attendees laid flowers and lit candles in memory of the victims. Similar vigils have been occurring around Ontario, including a June 8 one that drew thousands and in- cluded dignitaries such as Prime Minister Justin Tru- deau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford. In Oakville, many speakers expressed a need for political changes that would address what they felt were the underlying problems behind the Lon- don attack. Eyad Abdalla called for unity, both within the Mus- lim community and with Canadian allies, around the issue of Islamophobia. "Our greatest strength is our shared weakness and shared pain, and by God, we are in pain. We are strong," said Abdalla. "To the Muslim community, we need to put aside this ridic- ulous infighting, our in- ability to get together to work together and we need to work together to crimi- nalize Islamophobia." Many local dignitaries were present at the Oak- ville vigil including Mayor Rob Burton, MP Adam van Koeverden, MP Anita Anand, MP Pam Damoff and MPP Stephen Craw- ford. Speakers regularly directed their comments directly to the politicians. Another focus of the vig- il was what many felt was an unfair depiction of Mus- lims in the media. They ar- gued that Muslim people are regularly labelled as terrorists while other groups receive a more sym- pathetic narrative. The crowd cheered in support whenever the driv- er of the vehicle that hit the Afzaal family was called a terrorist. Muhammad Tameem is a cousin of the nine-year- old boy seriously injured in the attack. After the vigil, he said he felt a big part of the problem is the way the media labels people. "This has happened in the past where someone of my faith has committed a terrible act and we con- demn that as a society, but they are portrayed differ- ently. The first thing is he's a terrorist, he's got that beard, he makes his wife wear a hijab, he's not active in his community -- things like that," said Tameem. "We are portrayed differ- ently in the media. So the first thing we can do to change the mindset is by la- belling them all the same way, which is just people." Following the event, or- ganizer Sidra Anjum said she hopes people left with a desire to make things bet- ter. "We need to use our voices to make change and change our reality so our future generations don't have to experience what we are seeing on a daily basis. I'm a hijabi and I have to look at every car and truck to make sure they don't slam me to death," said An- jum. "It's scary." VIGIL FOR SLAIN FAMILY SEES TEARS AND CALLS FOR CHANGE Top, Eyad Abdalla calls for unity, both within the Muslim community and with Canadian allies, around the issue of Islamophobia. Right, candles were lit and bouquets were laid in for the family slain in a vehicle attack in London. Roland Cilliers/Metroland ROLAND CILLIERS rcilliers@metroland.com NEWS HUNDREDS GATHER TO SHARE GRIEF AND FRUSTRATION "Our greatest strength is our shared weakness and shared pain and by God, we are in pain. We are strong." - Eyad Abdalla