Anti-Muslim posters at University of Calgary prompt rally of support

WARNING: Graphic language

By Robson Fletcher, CBC News Posted: Oct 04, 2016 2:07 PM MT Last Updated: Oct 05, 2016 6:55 AM MTStudents and staff at the University of Calgary responded by coming together to write messages of support and tolerance after the campus was blanketed with vulgar, anti-Muslim posters, an example of which is seen at right (with one swear word blacked out.) (Colleen Underwood/CBC)

Students and staff at the University of Calgary responded by coming together to write messages of support and tolerance after the campus was blanketed with vulgar, anti-Muslim posters, an example of which is seen at right (with one swear word blacked out.) (Colleen Underwood/CBC)

Students, faculty and administrators gathered at the University of Calgary on Tuesday to condemn anti-Muslim posters that were plastered around the campus overnight.

About 40 posters were discovered in various locations by morning, and the university was asking people to turn in any others that are found to campus security.

• University of Alberta investigating ‘disturbing’ racist posters
• Tuscany LRT graffiti offender apologizes to Muslims, Syrians
• Sagar Grewal hangs a message of support to Muslims at the University of Calgary. (Colleen Underwood/CBC)
• The university has involved Calgary police, who are investigating, Cannon noted.”It really is a community coming together and saying the University of Calgary is strong and we respect one another, regardless of where you come from.”Sagar Grewal hangs a message of support to Muslims at the University of Calgary. (Colleen Underwood/CBC)They also included links to one Facebook page calling for Islam to be banned in Canada, and another that purports to “celebrate Canada’s European heritage” but is largely filled with posts about Donald Trump, the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, and links to American websites that decry “race agitators” and people who wear baggy pants.
• Umair Tazeem, president of the Muslim Students’ Association at the University of Calgary, says an incident Tuesday involving anti-Muslim posters was the first of its kind that he had heard of on campus in his four years of study. (CBC)
• Those posters depicted a turbaned man and the message: “F—k your Turban … If you’re so obsessed with your third world culture go the f—k back to where you came from!”Play MediaPremier Rachel Notley said the anti-Muslim and anti-Sikh posters were disturbing and should be condemned.”We embrace inclusion and acceptance and mutual understanding. That’s the kind of province that we’re building and, you know what? It makes our province stronger when we commit to building that.”Muslim Students’ Association president Umair Tazeem, who is in his fourth year of study at the University of Calgary, said this is the first incident of its kind that he has heard of on campus.”It’s a very welcoming, very inclusive community. But the reality is, this stuff does happen.”
• “I was very shocked that this happened. It’s not something very common,” he said.
• ‘I still feel very welcome’
• “It’s very important for the vast majority of Albertans, who I believe join me in being offended by those kinds of posters, those kinds of statements, for all of us to speak out and say that it is not acceptable,” Notley told reporters Tuesday when asked about the latest incident.
• Turban, Eh! event educates students about Sikh faith1:29
• That incident prompted an event in response called “Turban, Eh?” which invited anyone and everyone to get a temporary turban tied on their heads, as a way to show of support for the local Sikh community and to educate others about the head coverings.
• The posters’ appearance at the University of Calgary comes two weeks after similar posters targeting the Sikh faith were found at the University of Alberta campus in Edmonton.
• The removed posters included wording such as “Dear Muslims … F–k your Quran” and “go back to the monstrous s–t holes you come from.”
• People at the gathering wrote messages of support and tolerance on posters of their own, some hanging notes from tree branches on heart-shaped pieces of paper with comments like, “You are a valued member of our community.”
• “But really, we’re here today to support our Muslim students,” she said at a midday gathering outside the MacEwan Student Centre.
• “To see something like this is truly disturbing,” university president Elizabeth Cannon said. “It makes me personally very angry.”