Article content continued

“There’s no doubt that this is hate-motivated,” Kwong said, noting that police typically see a spike in such incidents after events like the attacks in Paris.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for attacks Friday in Paris that sent shock waves around the world. French officials say the attacks were carried out by disaffected French Muslims under the supervision of a Belgian who had fought in Syria.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, who represents the riding where the Toronto assault took place, said Canadians need to guard against racism.

“We need to be vigilant in our communities, whether it’s in Flemingdon in my own riding, or in Peterborough, or anywhere in the province and the country, not to let these horrible events trigger hatred,” she said.

“I think that this is actually a time we need to reach out to our Muslim neighbours and friends and recognize the acts that took place in Paris were acts of terrorism and not borne of religion.”

Toronto Mayor John Tory also denounced the attack.

Some residents of the neighbourhood where the woman was assaulted expressed their dismay.

“It’s some kind of idiot, it’s not the Canadian people,” Sahar Badawi, herself a Muslim, said of the woman’s assailants. “Most people, regardless their religion, regardless what they believe in, they respect Canada, they love Canada. Once we come to this country, we are Canadian like anybody else.”

“Such hateful and cowardly acts are abhorrent to all Canadians who stand united in condemning xenophobia and hatred,” the National Council of Canadian Muslims Executive Director Ihsaan Gardee said in a news release. “While disturbing, we believe these attacks on members of the Toronto Muslim community do not represent the sentiments of the vast majority of our fellow Canadians or residents of Toronto.”

Gardee also urged leaders to publicly denounce the attacks, asking them to “measure their words…around refugee resettlement” and said “many refugees are fleeing their homelands in order to escape the same type of horrific violence that the world witnessed in Paris, Beirut, and Baghdad last week.”