The Montreal police (SPVM) hate crime unit is investigating after a fake severed hand covered in blood was thrown at the Islamic centre in Verdun. The Canadian Muslim Forum (FMC-CMF) posted with “outrage” on Monday after a Sunday afternoon gathering, including families with children, was “turned into a scene of anxiety and intimidation.” “During a weekend gathering attended by families, children, women, and worshippers, a suspect reportedly threw a plastic bag containing what appeared to be a severed, blood-covered human hand at the entrance of the Centre,” the CMF wrote. “While the object was later determined to be an artificial imitation, the fear and distress it caused were very real.” Canadian Muslim Forum President Samer Majzoub said it was “terrorizing” to the people there. “You can imagine that at this moment it was really fear because, for kids, for women to be there, and then suddenly you see, what appears to be a hand full of blood,” he said. The Montreal police (SPVM) responded to 911 calls at around 2:30 p.m. after the bag was thrown at the centre, located on Verdun Street near 1st Avenue. Officers located the object and determined that it was a fake hand. SPVM spokesperson Florence Stafford said that the investigation has been transferred to the hate crimes unit and that no arrests have been made. The “blood-like” substance is also being analyzed. Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada said what happened was unacceptable and deeply concerning in a post on social media platform X. “Montreal condemns all acts of Islamophobia and hate,” she wrote. “The SPVM is currently conducting an investigation to shed light on this incident. Our city must remain a place of dialogue, respect, and living together, where every person, regardless of their faith or origin, can feel safe and respected.” Verdun’s interim borough mayor, Sterling Downey, said he’s saddened by the incident. “The only reaction you can have is disappointment and concern,” he said. “I mean, these heinous, cowardly acts that happen are just inexcusable.” In condemning the act, the CMF says it “bears all the hallmarks of Islamophobic intimidation.” “Such actions have no place in Quebec or Canada,” the CMF said. “This incident does not occur in a vacuum. It comes amid a troubling rise in Islamophobia, online hate, and divisive rhetoric that increasingly targets Canadians of Muslim faith.” At the same mosque in 2023, Montreal police investigated another incident caught on camera that appeared to show a man shouting insults at two members of the mosque before he tried to enter the building. Downey said the Verdun borough has been in contact with the mosque and hopes to schedule a meeting between the mayor and the imam this week. “Hopefully the person responsible is caught. Hopefully the person responsible, has access to the resources necessary to change their mentality or behaviour,” he said. Majzoub said it’s important incidents like these are taken seriously. “When we start normalizing hate, normalizing islamophobia, normalizing antisemitism, what comes out is that there are elements within any society, any province, any city, that are on the extreme side,” he said. “They will receive that it’s fine to target you and me and everyone for what they believe in.” So far no arrests have been made.
