Montreal Muslim Uber driver threatened in ‘Islamophobic attack,’ Muslim rights group says

Montreal police are investigating after a Muslim Uber driver reportedly had a knife pulled on him because of his faith, with the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) calling it an Islamophobic attack.

The NCCM is alleging the passenger demanded the 39-year-old driver disclose his faith before threatening him. The organization says it happened on the night of Dec. 6 near Saint-Antoine Street and Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle.

“He asked him, ‘are you Muslim?’ And the driver didn’t respond. He said, ‘I know you’re Muslim.’ At which point in time he threatened to slit his throat, pulled out a knife and a struggle ensued,” recounted NCCM CEO Stephen Brown.

The SPVM confirms it received a report a few later.

He “was allegedly threatened by a sharp object, but was not injured,” police spokesperson Florence Stafford told CityNews. “The suspect allegedly made comments about the victim’s origin.”

Stafford says the SPVM hate crime unit has taken charge of the investigation. There has been no arrest.

The NCCM believes the driver was uninjured only because another passenger intervened, calling it an act of heroism. Police did confirm there was another person in the vehicle.

“At some point, the driver stopped the car and the suspect left the Uber,” Stafford said. “There was another man in the car and he is considered a witness and the investigators are still looking for him right now.”

The National Council of Canadian Muslims says the incident was reported to Uber, and that the ride-sharing company has footage of the incident that’s been turned over to investigators.

Uber tells CityNews it’s blocked the suspect from using its services.

“Safety is our top priority, and threats of violence will not be tolerated,” an Uber spokesperson said. “Based on the information available to us, including video footage, we have removed the rider’s access to the platform. We are in touch with the driver and stand ready to assist law enforcement.”

Uber adds any form of hate has no place on its platform, and that riders are forbidden from making racial comments, using slurs, discriminatory remarks or asking questions of origin, race, and ethnicity.

The company also listed driver safety features it’s developed over the years, including audio recording and shareable GPS tracking.

The NCCM is calling on politicians to condemn the alleged incident.

“The idea that somebody could have their throat slit simply for doing their job because they’re Muslim is truly concerning,” Brown said.

He hopes a suspect who is allegedly “going around the city of Montreal, threatening people with lethal violence because of their Muslim identity is taken off the streets.”

Samer Majzoub, the president of the Canadian Muslim Forum, says the incident is a sign of the times.

“The way in which he has been exposed to a direct threat to his life, unfortunately, sadly, I have to say it, it doesn’t come as a surprise,” Majzoub said. “The political rhetoric, the situation, the environment, the high rising of Islamophobia, whether in Quebec or in Canada in general, in social media, in certain media, in certain political class, in certain directions, regulations, bills are being presented, unfortunately, all those combined together, it gives this environment a lack of safety.”

Majzoub pointed to Bill 9, Quebec’s new secularism bill, as one of the driving forces creating an environment of unrest.

“(It) creates a situation where some individuals within the society, some extremists, some individuals with their own mentalities, might believe or think that it is approved to target citizens of Quebec because of their face, of their skin colour or of their beliefs,” he said.

The SPVM has been compiling statistics of reported offences — though not necessarily convictions — specifically targeting Montreal’s Arab-Muslim and Jewish communities since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, 2023.

In the last roughly 12 months — from Dec. 11, 2024, to Nov. 30, 2025 — Montreal police say there were nine reported hate crimes against people, five property crimes and five incidents targeting the city’s Arab-Muslim community.

During the previous 12-month period — from Dec. 20, 2023, to Dec. 11, 2024 — there were 23 reported hate crimes against people, five property crimes and 15 incidents targeting the city’s Arab-Muslim community.

But Brown feels the numbers are not accurate because many incidents go unreported.

“We’ve seen a massive rise in reported hate crimes coming to our legal clinic,” he said. “And this is a major concern because this is obviously somebody being targeted uniquely and just because he’s a Muslim person.”

Brown says he’s seeing growing anti-Muslim rhetoric, from political discourse to social media, that’s having an impact on the average Quebecer.

“When you’re fanning the flames of anti-Muslim discourse, when Muslims are portrayed in society as dangerous to the culture or dangerous to women or dangerous to social cohesion, and when all Muslims are left in the same basket, then what you wind up seeing is the most fragile members of our society tend to lash out.”

From 2023 to 2024, the number of hate crimes involving a person’s religion dropped 10.9 per cent in Montreal — from 137 to 122. The number of hate incidents involving religion increased 14.6 per cent — from 89 to 102. Those end-of-year statistics do not break down the figures by religion.

–With files from Lola Kalder