(IPS) news feature Prime Minister Jean Chretien visited a mosque here recently to express what he called ''shame'' for anti-Muslim incidents in the wake of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in the neighbouring United States.

"I turn my back on the people who have done this. I have no time for them," Chretien told the Friday congregation, two hours after Parliament unanimously passed a resolution condemning mistreatment of Muslims and Arabs living in Canada.

This followed the beating last weekend of a 15-year-old Lebanese-Canadian boy, by assailants who accused him of supporting terrorists.

Alexa McDunnough, leader of the left-of-centre New Democratic Party, made the motion that "this House (a) issue an urgent and immediate appeal to all political, community and faith leaders to speak out against violence, intolerance or hatred of any kind directed at Muslims, Arabs and other visible minorities and (b) in the name of the Canadian people re-assert our country's fundamental adherence to the rule of law and to preserving and protecting our humans rights as outlined in our charter."

Escalating violence

Despite politicians' denunciations of attacks on Muslims in recent days, many Islamic and Arab community leaders say the violence is escalating, rather than subsiding.

"There is the Canada before the 11th of September and now, as I see it, there is the Canada after the 11th of September," said John Asfour, president of the Canadian Arab Federation.

"Certain things have come to the surface. That tolerance we pride ourselves on may be wasn't there."

On Sept 14, a Caucasian man reportedly attempted to strangle a female doctor with her own headscarf in an elevator at Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital. He fled when the elevator's doors opened.

In Hamilton, 40 km west of Toronto, police are investigating a fire that badly damaged the Hindu Samaj Temple. A mosque in the town was threatened and two others were attacked.

By the night of Sept 18, students and other demonstrators converged on the US consulate in Toronto to protest the anti-Muslim backlash in this country, the United States, and Britain.

Many carried signs reading, ''Condemn scapegoating of Arabs'' and ''Stop anti-Muslim hate.''

''It's disgusting for me and I'm afraid,'' Abdel Razzaq Takriti, a student leader at the University of Toronto, told the crowd. ''I was even afraid of coming here tonight."

Great anxiety

Chretien sought to reassure the Ottawa Muslim community, which numbers more than 100,000, that the government would protect them and vigorously prosecute anyone caught committing racially-motivated crimes. He said recent amendments to the country's criminal laws impose tougher sentences for hate-motivated crime.

"I know the days since September 11, 2001, have been times of great anxiety for Muslims in Canada because the cold-blooded killers (involved in the US attacks) invoked the name and the words of Islam to justify their actions,'' Chretien said.

"Some people in your community have been singled out for attacks and violence. These have no place in a civilised country and I feel shame as Canada's prime minister, " he added.

Sarmite Bulte, a member of the governing Liberal Party who represents a predominantly immigrant constituency in Toronto, told the Canadian house of commons that attacks on visible minority people must be stopped.

"Targeting refugee claimants and immigrants is not the answer. Those who have attacked Muslim Canadians are as mindless as those who danced with joy at the news of the United States' misfortune,'' Bulte said.

"Combating elusive terrorists is not nearly as straightforward as fighting a conventional war. What is needed is a measured and concentrated international response, a strike force comprising as many nations as possible, standing up for a way of life and a set of shared believes, the beliefs that define mankind," she said.

Canada has 700,000 Muslims and 300,000 ethnic Arabs, only some of whom are Muslim. Most live in the cities of Montreal, Toronto, and here in the capital.

Muslim community members say threats and vandalism against mosques and harassment of Muslim women who wear headscarves are not new. But they fear the frequency of such incidents have increased since Islamist militants allegedly hijacked US aircrafts and crashed them into the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Centre.