Police in Edmonton are investigating after graffiti was discovered next to an Islamic daycare, an incident now being handled by the Edmonton Police Service's hate crimes unit. The graffiti was scrawled just a few metres from the daycare's windows, and although it was covered up a day later, it still smelled of fresh paint when crews moved to remove it.
The daycare is owned by the Al-Rashid mosque, and the message left behind has been read by those affected as a pointed attack rather than a neutral slogan. The graffiti read protect women, wording that the Muslim community says was clearly aimed at them given where it was placed.
For the people who run the centre, the discovery was deeply unsettling. Principal Abraham Abagush said staff and others connected to the daycare had been shocked and disturbed to see the graffiti appear in what is normally a quiet neighbourhood, with some staff now uncomfortable going outside for recess and parents left uncertain about what to do.
Those most affected pushed back directly on the message itself. One Muslim woman who wears a hijab said that far from feeling protected by the graffiti, she felt violated by it, rejecting the suggestion that Islam does not protect women and insisting the opposite is true.
Noor al-Hindi, a spokesperson for the Al-Rashid mosque, said women who wear hijabs and are visibly Muslim are often the ones most targeted by hatred. She pointed to the women who work at the school, saying it was disheartening to see them made to feel uncomfortable and unsafe in a space that everyone had worked so hard to make safe.
The principal said he was grateful for the work of police to investigate the incident and stressed that efforts were under way to keep the daycare safe. He urged members of the community to speak out against such language, arguing that it does not reflect the country, saying this is not the Canada that he knows or that the community can accept.
The incident drew swift condemnation from public figures in the city. Edmonton politicians described it as an Islamophobic, hateful and unacceptable act in social media posts on Tuesday, among them Mayor Andrew Knack and the federal Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, Mark Miller, alongside the National Council for Canadian Muslims, which first made the incident public. Police are reminding residents that anyone with information about the vandalism should contact them.