I need to speak about what happened in Belfast. Because I cannot stay silent. And neither should any of us.
This week, masked mobs burned homes, torched buses, and hunted immigrant and Muslim families through the streets of Northern Ireland. The Belfast Islamic Centre canceled evening prayers. Families were escorted out of their own homes by emergency workers while their neighborhoods were set on fire around them.
And the world's richest man, with 240 million followers on a platform he personally owns, was right there amplifying every bit of it. Calling immigrants invaders. Pushing for mass deportation. Doubling down when anyone dared to push back. Northern Ireland's First Minister said it plainly: people like him sit comfortably in their homes, orchestrating hate and tension from a distance while real families pay the price.
This is not a debate about free speech. This is incitement. It has a pattern. And it has consequences.
I am running to be the Mayor of Toronto. Nearly half of Toronto's residents were born outside of Canada. Our city was built by immigrants. It is sustained by newcomers. It belongs to every community that chose to make it home, including our Muslim neighbours, our Palestinian community, our newcomer families, and every person who came here looking for safety and dignity.
What we are watching is not random. Hatred does not organize itself. It gets platformed. It gets amplified. It gets monetized by people who face zero consequences for the fires they start.
I am calling on Canadian and Toronto's political and media leaders to stop treating anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim and anti Palestinian hatred as just another perspective to be balanced out. It is not a debate. It is a direction. And if we do not name it, we become complicit in it. Words have consequences.
Toronto must lead. Not just in words, but in how we govern, who we protect, and what we refuse to normalize.
Our communities deserve safety. Our values demand courage. And I will not look away.
Bahira Abdulsalam, PhD, P.Eng.
Candidate for Mayor, City of Toronto
Be The Change Movement
@ultras_antifaa I only watch football if women play in leather shorts and after the game , have a a farting fetish orgy in the change rooms dressed in tight leather shorts with back silver buttoned pockets
What has happened at the #2026WorldCup over the last 48 hours:
• Swiss footballer Embolo's visa was put under review and he was only able to join his team days later.
• Iraqi national team player Aymen Hussein was held for questioning for nearly 7 hours upon entering the United States.
• The Iranian national team spent days dealing with visa procedures at the U.S. Consulate in Türkiye. The U.S. only allowed them entry on match days. Fifteen members of the delegation were denied visas.
• Omar Abdulkadir Artan, named CAF's Best African Referee of 2025, was denied a visa. Despite travelling to the U.S. with a diplomatic passport, he was refused entry and sent back. FIFA announced that he will not be able to officiate at the tournament.
• The South African national team arrived in the United States much later than planned because part of the delegation was not granted visas.
• Members of the Senegal national team staff were forced to remove their shoes and subjected to lengthy searches, sparking accusations of racism.
• The Uzbekistan national team was searched with bomb-sniffing dogs and the footage went viral in international media.
• Some Scottish supporters, despite being eligible to enter the U.S. visa-free under the ESTA programme, had their travel authorisations revoked just days before departure.
• Many supporters who had already bought tickets and booked accommodation had their visa applications rejected, resulting in financial losses.