This audio is brought to you by Muslim Central.com.

My name is Samiha Omer and I'm the Director of Legal Affairs of the National Council of Canadian Muslims and CCM.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you all to today's virtual event

where we will be discussing Islamophobia and the Muslim community

hosted by Joaquin Institute in collaboration with NCCM and Alma Grum Institute.

It is my pleasure to be your MC today and to introduce you to our esteemed speakers who

will explore various aspects of Islamophobia.

Please note that at the conclusion of all presentations,

we will have a quick,

we will have a question answer session

and you will have the opportunity

to ask our panelists questions towards the end.

But before I turn to our panelists, I want to provide a brief

introduction to NCCM in the work that we do. NCCM has a mandate to protect

community human rights and civil liberties, challenge discrimination, Islamophobia,

and advocates for the public concerns of Canadian Muslims.

We engage in various types of work, including education, outreach, advocacy, policy, media engagement, and support and legal services.

The cases of Islamophobia that members of the community report to NCCM are wide-ranging and often tend to be very multifaceted.

They can be devastating to our community, the victims and their families.

Our community witnessed a tragedy of an innocent brother horrifically murdered in front of a Masjid in Toronto.

Masjid's being vandalized or threatened, women being physically assaulted in public spaces because of their hijab, members of our community being

discriminated, profiled, or the target of Islamophobic slurs. The list of

...