“Even though tired of fighting, we continue fighting because we don’t want anybody else to experience this,” she says. “We know how painful it is.”
The coalition is organizing a vigil to mark the two years since the Afzaal family was killed. The theme of the event is “resilience,” Al-Sabawi says.Attacks against Muslim Canadians haven’t stopped, she says, which is why resilience is necessary. Al-Sabawi has had a few frightening experiences herself– a few days after the attack on the Afzaal family, she says she was in a car with her mother when another vehicle tried to run them off the road. She and her Muslim friends have also been told to “go back to where they came from” while at school, she says.
“But overwhelmingly the appetite to do something different and better is louder and stronger,” she says.