ISLAM NEWSROOM - “UPDATE - NOW - 6 (SIX) DEAD, MORE WOUNDED at Quebec City Mosque”
January 29, 2017 — Tragedy Strikes Muslims at Prayer in Canada
Police in Quebec City Police tell us a number of are dead following shots fired at the Quebec City masjid (mosque).
Many more are feared wounded, according to report from CBC's French-language service, Radio-Canada. Exact condition of those wounded is not yet known.
Several ambulances are taking on victims just outside of the Islamic cultural centre of Quebec in the Sainte-Foy neighborhood.
Three men opened fire on 40 worshippers, killing 6 and wounding 5 others, in the Masjid (place of prostration) called "mosque" in English.
The Muslims were there to pray to the God of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, John the Baptist and Muhammad, peace be upon all of them.
A large perimeter has been set up around the mosque.
Last June, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, someone placed the head of a pig on the doorstep of the masjid.
Many are asking the question: "Why Is This Not HATE CRIME? Or TERRORISM?
-- Rueters news report:
Five Six (6) people were killed, 5 wounded, after gunmen opened fire in a Quebec City mosque during evening prayers, the mosque's president told reporters on Sunday.
Earlier, a witness told Reuters that up to three gunmen fired on about 40 people inside the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Center. Police put up a security perimeter around the mosque.
Quebec police confirmed the shooting at a Quebec mosque in a tweet, and police on the scene said there had been fatalities.
"There are many victims ... there are deaths," a Quebec police spokesman told reporters.
A police tweet said there were deaths and injuries and that suspects had been arrested.
"Why is this happening here? This is barbaric,” said the mosque's president, Mohamed Yangui.
Yangui, who was not inside the mosque when the shooting occurred, said he got frantic calls from people at esha prayers. He did not know how many were injured, saying they had been taken to different hospitals across Quebec City.
In June 2016, a pig’s head was left on the doorstep of the cultural centre.
Like France, Quebec has struggled at times to reconcile its secular identity with a rising Muslim population, many of them North African emigrants.
The face-covering, or niqab, became a big issue in the 2015 national Canadian election, especially in Quebec, where the vast majority of the population supported a ban on it at citizenship ceremonies.
Incidents of Islamophobia have increased in Quebec in recent years. In 2013, police investigated after a mosque in the Saguenay region of Quebec was splattered with what was believed to be pig blood.
Also, in the province of Ontario, near Quebec a mosque was deliberately set on fire back in 2015.
-- by Kevin Dougherty in Quebec City
So, we are still left with the question:
"Why Are These Horrific Attacks - Not Being Treated As HATE CRIMES? Or TERRORISM?