CANADA:-The
shooting at a Quebec mosque during Sunday night prays which reportedly killed
five people was a "terrorist attack on Muslims", said Canadian Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau.“We
condemn this terrorist attack on Muslims in a center of worship and
refuge," Trudeau said in a statement.
Five
people were killed after gunmen opened fire in a Quebec City mosque, the
mosque's president told reporters on Sunday. A witness told Reuters that up to
three gunmen fired on about 40 people inside the Quebec City Islamic Cultural
Center."Why
is this happening here? This is barbaric,” said the mosque's president, Mohamed
Yangui.
Quebec
police said there were many victims and deaths, but did not confirm the death
toll. They said two people had been arrested, but there were no immediate
details on the suspects.A
witness said a heavily armed police tactical squad was seen entering the
three-storey mosque. Police declined to say whether there was a gunman inside
the mosque at the time.
Police
tweeted later that the situation was under control and that the mosque had been
secured and occupants evacuated.Yangui,
who was not inside the mosque when the shooting occurred, said he got frantic
calls from people at evening prayers. He did not know how many were injured,
saying they had been taken to different hospitals across Quebec City.
"Tonight,
Canadians grieve for those killed in a cowardly attack on a mosque in Quebec
City. My thoughts are with victims & their families," Trudeau tweeted
earlier in the night.The
shooting came on the weekend that Trudeau said Canada would welcome refugees,
after U.S. President Donald Trump suspended the U.S. refugee program and
temporarily barred citizens from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering
the United States on national security grounds.
New
York Mayor Bill de Blasio said police were providing additional protection for
mosques in that city following the Quebec shooting. "All New Yorkers
should be vigilant. If you see something, say something," he tweeted.Canada's
federal Liberal legislator Greg Fergus tweeted: "This is an act of
terrorism -- the result of years of demonizing Muslims. Words matter and
hateful speeches have consequences!"
---------------------------------------'NOT
SAFE HERE'-------------------------------------------
Like
France, Quebec has struggled at times to reconcile its secular identity with a
rising Muslim population, many of them North African emigrants.In
June 2016, a pig’s head was left on the doorstep of the cultural center.
"We
are not safe here," said Mohammed Oudghiri, who normally attends prayers
at the mosque in the middle-class, residential area, but not on Sunday.Oudghiri
said he had lived in Quebec for 42 years but was now "very worried"
and thinking of moving back to Morocco. Mass
shootings are rare in Canada, which has stricter gun laws than the United
States, and news of the shooting sent a shockwave through mosques and community
centers throughout the mostly French-language province.
"It’s
a sad day for all Quebecers and Canadians to see a terrorist attack happen in
peaceful Quebec City," said Mohamed Yacoub, co-chairman of an Islamic
community center in a Montreal suburb. "I hope it’s an isolated
incident."
Incidents
of Islamophobia have increased in Quebec in recent years. The face-covering, or
niqab, became a big issue in the 2015 Canadian federal election, especially in
Quebec, where the vast majority of the population supported a ban on it at
citizenship ceremonies.
In
2013, police investigated after a mosque in the Saguenay region of the province
was splattered with what was believed to be pig blood. In the neighboring
province of Ontario, a mosque was set on fire in 2015, a day after an attack by
gunmen and suicide bombers in Paris. Zebida
Bendjeddou, who left the mosque earlier on Sunday evening, said the center had
received threats.
"In
June, they'd put a pig's head in front of the mosque. But we thought: 'Oh,
they're isolated events.' We didn't take it seriously. But tonight, those
isolated events, they take on a different scope," she said. Bendjeddou
said she had not yet confirmed the names of those killed, but added:
"They're people we know, for sure. People we knew since they were little
kids."
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