Anti-Islamic graffiti sprayed outside Edmonton daycare for 2nd time this summer
Posted August 6, 2026 5:21 pm.
It’s the second time anti-Islamic graffiti has hit a north side Edmonton daycare in two months, with police investigating the first as a hate crime.
In June — at the exact same spot — similar anti-Islamic graffiti was sprayed on the wall directly facing the Edmonton Islamic Academy.
“Protect women. Rise against Islam,” was written in all-capital red lettering on the white half-wall.
READ: Graffiti outside north Edmonton Islamic daycare being investigated by hate crime unit
This time, “Jesus loves you. Muhammad lies to you,” was sprayed last week, with a heart symbol.
The graffiti was still up when CityNews went to the scene Thursday morning.
While Edmonton police’s hate crimes unit is investigating the June incident, police were unable to provide details on the latest graffiti by late Thursday afternoon.
Hate crime researchers say messages like that are hard to prosecute as a hate-motivated crime in Canadian courts.
“The message might seem harmful to some — especially the targeted community,” said Irfan Chaudhry, a hate crimes researcher at MacEwanUniversity. “On a more objective frame of reference, the language used and the context used wouldn’t hit the threshold of a hate-motivated act.
“But the criminal act would be there for the vandalism. That’s what the police would be assessing.”
An advocacy group representing Canadian Muslims says the graffiti is part of a disturbing trend that’s been growing across the country.
“We’ve seen in aggregate, in the past month or so, one — if not more — such incidents like vandalism, threats, violent attacks per day,” said Steven Zhou with the National Canadian Council of Muslims (NCCM).
Zhou wants the federal government to crack down on online hate speech while encouraging police across the country to be active in the community to combat incidents like this.
But just last week, Edmonton police put out the call on social media for Edmontonians to report online hate speech. That move drew criticism from Alberta’s premier and public safety minister, with Danielle Smith saying it could be a threat to free speech and that police in the province should be focusing on stopping violent crimes.
But Chaudry says he applauds EPS’ post to raise awareness, adding all levels of government, including the province, need to be on the same page when it comes to stopping hate speech.
“There are definitely challenges when you have reports of hate, because who is defining it, if it doesn’t hit the threshold of a crime,” Chaudhry said. “But at the same time, to just say this kind of a reporting process erodes free speech, I don’t think is a helpful contribution to the current environment.”
