Six people were killed and eight wounded after two masked gunmen opened fire during a prayer service at a Quebec City mosque Sunday night, in what Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called ‘”a terrorist attack on Muslims”.
Quebec City Police chief Étienne Doyon said there were approximately 40 men gathered inside the mosque when the shooting began just before 8 p.m.The victims were between 35 and 70 years old.
Police said two suspects had been arrested.
The Canadian newspaper La Presse reported that one of the two suspects is 27 years old and one of them was carrying an AK-47, but no details were released about their possible motive.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau immediately condemned the attack, calling it a terrorist act.
“It was with tremendous shock, sadness and anger that I heard of this evening’s tragic and fatal shooting at the Centre culturel islamique de Quebec located in the Ste-Foy neighborhood of the city of Quebec,” he said in a statement.
“Muslim-Canadians are an important part of our national fabric, and these senseless acts have no place in our communities, cities and country” he added.
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard echoed Justin Trudeau’s words, calling the shooting an act of terrorism and offering solidarity with the families of the victims.
“Quebec categorically rejects this barbaric violence” he said.
Some Twitter users quickly blamed the crime on fear mongering and hateful rhetoric towards Muslims bolstered by the Trump administration, as exemplified by the travel ban targeting Muslim majority-countries it signed off on Friday, sending the country into legislative chaos and confusion over the weekend.
One user called Kumail Nianjani commented:”There was a shooting in a mosque in Quebec today. Trump spreads hate and evil. Bannon spreads hate and evil. This is by design.”
Another one called Cathal said: “The attack on a mosque in Quebec City is a direct result of the hate fostered by Trump & his insane clown posse.”
In response to a tweet Donald Trump sent on Sunday deploring the “slaughter” of numerous Christians in the Middle East, a woman called Hend Amry said: “Think about what Trump tweeted yesterday then think about this coordinated attack on this mosque.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had announced in response to Trump’s executive order on immigration that he would welcome refugees and all those “fleeing persecution”, suggesting that Canada may take in some of the immigrants who found themselves banned from entering the US.
One witness who wished to remain anonymous told the CBC’s French language service Radio Canada that the masked gunmen appeared to speak Quebecois.
“It seemed to me that they had a Quebecois accent. They started to fire, and as they shot they yelled, ‘Allahu akbar!’ The bullets hit people that were praying. People who were praying lost their lives. A bullet passed right over my head,” the person said.
According to the CBC, this is not the first time that the Quebec City Islamic Cultural center has been the target of attacks. Last June, during Ramadan, a pig’s head was left outside the mosque.
