'I just want the hate crimes to stop': Toronto remembers mosque volunteer fatally stabbed one year ago

TORONTO -

On Sept. 12, 2020, a volunteer caretaker was helping monitor COVID-19 capacity at a Toronto-area mosque when he was approached by a man from behind and stabbed to death.

A year later, members of the mosque and its community remembered Mohamed-Aslim Zafis for his kindness and generosity—carrying on his legacy by launching a food drive in his honour.

“The first time I actually met him, it was after a long day of traveling. I was looking really haggard, I was wearing sweatpants and Muhammad saw me, and I think he thought that I was one of the needy,” Mustafa Farooq , CEO of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said at a news conference. “He immediately grabbed some food, he grabbed whatever he could and said ‘take it, make sure that you can go feed your family tonight.’ This this was the man that he was.”

“Only a few months later after that, one year ago today, I was back here at the (International Muslim Organization). And this time, I had to find the brother, I had to find the body of Mohamed-Aslim Zafis in the parking lot. I will personally never forget the flashing sirens, the confusion, the care of violence so close to home … the loss of a man I had just started getting to know.”

Zafis was outside of the International Muslim Organization (IMO) mosque, located near Rexdale Boulevard and Islington Avenue, around 8:40 p.m. when a man stabbed him in the neck. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A memorial for Mohamed-Aslim Zafis is seen outside the International Muslim Organization mosque. (John Musselman/CTV News)

His murder, which police called “vicious” and “gruesome,” shocked the entire community. Video of the incident released by the National Council of Canadian Muslims showed a dark figure walk past Zafis, who is seated in a chair, twice before approaching him holding something in his hand.

In the video Zafis does not appear to realize that anyone is behind him.

A suspect, identified as 34-year-old Guilherme “William” Von Neutegem, was arrested on Sept. 18, 2020 and is currently being tried for a first-degree murder charge.

The charge has not been proven in court.

Speaking to reporters at the mosque, Imam Junaid A. Bhaiyat said that a “beautiful, kind, compassionate soul was viciously, mercilessly attacked and killed” that day.

“I can enumerate the time that has elapsed since, but how can I possibly enumerate the amount of tears that have been shed. How can I possibly enumerate the countless sleepless nights. How can I enumerate and quantify the pain and the agony and the suffering and the hurt, from the elders in our community to the youngest children in the community?”

Following the news conference, members of the mosque took pantry baskets full of donated food to those in need.

The program, called #WeAreIMO Food Drive, ran from Sept. 6 to Sept. 12.

Bhaiyat said that the food hampers would be prepared “just as Brother Mohammed” would have done so.

‘I JUST WANT THE HATE CRIMES TO STOP’

Zafis’ daughter spoke briefly on Sunday of her father’s death, saying that his life was taken away too early.

“I miss him,” Bebi Zafis said. “I have people around me that take care of me, that are always there for me…I’m not alone, but he’s not with me and never will again.”

Mohamed-Aslim Zafis, 58, was killed in a stabbing outside a mosque in Rexdale. (Handout)

Bebi Zafis also made a plea to end Islamophobia and discrimination—a plea that was made repeatedly by many people throughout the news conference on Sunday.

“I’m afraid to go to mosque, to wear a hijab,” she said, mentioning the more recent attack in London, Ont. that left a family of four dead and a nine-year-old boy severely injured. “I’m not the next victim but sometimes I feel I am.”

“I just want the hate crimes to stop.”

In the weeks that followed Mohamed-Aslim Zafis’ deaths, members of the Muslim community had called for the murder to be classified as a hate crime.

The Canadian Anti-hate Network, an independent nonprofit organization which monitors and tracks hate groups in Canada, said in October 2020 that a review of the suspect’s social media accounts found links to a neo-Nazi occultist group known as “the Order of the 9 Angles” (O9A).

Toronto police have not publicly confirmed any connection to the group.

However, since then Farooq said that some progress has been made.

“Today we are here because we will not allow hate to win. Because the killer of Mohammed could have never known that when he engaged in the killing of Brother Mohamed-Aslim Zafis’, our communities would come together to call for action on dismantling white supremacist groups,” Farooq said.

“Canada has taken some of the strongest steps of any of our allies to dismantle white supremacist groups. This was because all of communities came together and brought all the federal parties together to call for the dismantling of white supremacist groups … Now let's be clear. We shouldn't have had to see the death of a man outside in the parking lot to have had action happen, but because we all came together--communities, communities, not politicians—we were able to accomplish historic change.”