Earlier this summer, a Calgary woman was verbally attacked by a self-proclaimed Nazi who hurled racist insults at her for wearing a hijab. The confrontation was captured on video and uploaded by Kaniz Fatima to her Facebook page on Wednesday.“Take your head towel off … it supports Muslims!” the man yells at Fatima while standing in a parking lot in Pinawa, Manitoba. The incident took place in July in the small town north of Winnipeg while Fatima, a teacher, was visiting family over summer break.
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“I’m a fucking Nazi, bitch!” the man continued, as the other man he was with tied a kayak to the roof of the car. “Go back to your country!”In response, Fatima told the man he was being racist and that she can dress any way she wants.“This is my hijab. Why should I take it off?” she says. And: “This is my country. I love this country. I live here.”Fatima’s video sheds more light on increasing rates of reported hate crimes against Muslims and a spate of anti-Semitic and racist incidents across Canada. There has also been renewed public attention toward neo-Nazis and white nationalists in the wake of the 2016 presidential campaign, and, most recently, the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.About 30 seconds into the video, two women passing by confront the man and tell him to stop. “They have just as much of a right to fucking be here,” said one woman. “This is embarrassing,” said the other.Fatima told CBC News she uploaded the video to raise awareness about racism and Islamophobia in Canada. She said she had not experienced anything like it before.“I’m a fucking Nazi, bitch!”
“I felt like I need to uphold my Canadian values and stand up for inclusion and justice because this is our country and we belong to this country,” said Fatima, who moved to Canada from Bangladesh in 2009.“This man doesn’t represent Canada,” Fatima told the news outlet. “The other two ladies who stood up for us, they truly represent Canada.”“This man doesn’t represent Canada”