HAMILTON, Canada

A Canadian Muslim advocacy group called for urgent action Thursday after a violent attack on a Muslim woman left her traumatized and injured.

"The details of what happened doesn't just make me sad, it makes me angry," Omar Khamissa, chief operating officer of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), said at a news conference in front of Oshawa City Hall.

"How many of these incidents do we have to live through as a community?" he asked.

The incident occurred early Wednesday outside a restaurant in Oshawa, Ontario, said Durham Regional Police, adding that the woman was violently assaulted by a group who pulled off her hijab and stomped on her head.

Khamissa emphasized the growing number of Islamophobic incidents in Ontario, citing recent vandalism targeting mosques and hateful graffiti in neighboring cities.

"Just this past March, I stood in a similar press conference 15 minutes down the road at the city of Ajax. Another Muslim woman was almost lit on fire in her local library," he said.

He demanded that Canadian officials move beyond words and develop "a real plan with real solutions."

Khamissa said: "We cannot keep waiting for the next attack before we make a move for change."

The victim's daughter, who did not share her name due to ongoing threats, said her mother remains deeply shaken.

"Although we have faced multiple instances of verbal harassment and abuse over the last few years in her place of business, nothing like this has happened to us before," she said.

"This act was not isolated, but an escalation of discrimination," she stressed.

Ruby Sahota, Member of Parliament and secretary of state responsible for combating crime, emphasized the growing problem of hate in Canada.

"We are seeing an alarming increase in hate-motivated crimes, specifically Islamophobic crimes," she said.

Saying that the government has "brought forward a new framework on combating hate," she said, "We are going to be increasing funding for the security infrastructure program from public safety."

"There's various other conversations we're having with police of jurisdiction across this country to provide the appropriate training and awareness so that hate crimes can be identified correctly when they do occur," she added.

Canada has made some strides, such as the creation of the Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia with the appointment of Amira Elghawaby in 2023, but much work remains to be done.