CALGARY, Alberta - TelAve -- Canadian Muslims for Peace and Justice (CMPJ) today expressed sorrow and outrage following the May 18 shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, which claimed the lives of three men. San Diego police are treating the attack as a hate crime, and the FBI is assisting in the investigation. The two teenage attackers, who died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds, reportedly left behind a manifesto espousing Islamophobia, and the words "hate speech" were written on one of the firearms used. The attack took place on the first day of Dhul Hijjah, one of the holiest periods in the Islamic calendar.

"A mosque is a sanctuary. A school is a place of safety. To attack people inside either is to attack the conscience of every decent person across this continent," said a spokesperson for CMPJ. "An attack on a mosque is an attack on a church, a synagogue, a temple, a gurdwara. Anyone who has ever knelt, bowed, or stood in prayer should understand what was taken on Monday, and should refuse to let it be taken again."

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CMPJ extends its condolences to the families of the three men murdered and expresses solidarity with Imam Taha Hassane, the leadership of the Islamic Center, and the teachers and students who were safely evacuated.

This attack did not happen in a vacuum. A manifesto steeped in anti-Muslim hatred and the words "hate speech" inscribed on a weapon are the predictable consequence of an environment in which Islamophobic rhetoric has been allowed to circulate unchallenged. Words become permission. Permission becomes violence.

CMPJ is calling on authorities across Canada and the United States to act. The hate-crime classification of this attack must be preserved without political interference, and federal civil rights authorities must pursue every online network or platform that incubated the attackers' ideology. Governments must commit to a serious strategy against Islamophobia, including hate-crime data collection, accountability for online incitement, education, and the protection of mosques, Islamic schools, and community centres throughout Dhul Hijjah and beyond. Elected officials of every party must publicly reject the dehumanizing language about Muslims that has become normalized.

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CMPJ urges media, civic leaders, and faith communities to speak with one voice. Silence is complicity. Solidarity must be active, not ornamental.

We remember Amin, Mansour, and Nader. We stand with the living. We will not be intimidated, and we will not be silent.

About Canadian Muslims for Peace and Justice Canadian Muslims for Peace and Justice is a Canadian advocacy organization committed to the protection of Muslim communities, the advancement of interfaith understanding, and the defence of civil and human rights for all people of conscience.