Attack at the Grand Mosque | Commemorations against a backdrop of tensions in Quebec

(Quebec) The war in the Gaza Strip has cast a painful shadow over the commemorations of the attack at the Grand Mosque. A Liberal minister was accosted in Quebec on Monday evening, while a major Muslim organization canceled a planned meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to denounce Ottawa’s position on the conflict in the Middle East.

In Quebec, more than a hundred people gathered Monday evening in the prayer room of the great mosque, the same place where six Quebecers of Muslim faith were shot dead on January 29, 2017.

But the usually peaceful commemoration was disrupted by a member of the public who interrupted the speeches to attack Liberal Minister Jean-Yves Duclos. “Duclos, you have blood on your hands, ask for a ceasefire, Duclos, you are complicit in a genocide,” the man began to shout in the direction of the elected official. “Leave here, Duclos,” he repeated.

Members of the public quietly ushered him out. “There are children of victims here,” a man whispered to him. “Yes I know, but there is a genocide,” retorted the protester, who was given a ticket for disorder.

“He ruined the sauce a bit. But we are in a country of opinion, we can say things. He spoke out. Unfortunately, he did it at a time when we were thinking about families, about the population,” indicated the spokesperson for the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec (CCIQ), Boufeldja Benabdallah.

The Palestinian ambassador to Canada, Mona Abuamara, was also present in Quebec for the commemoration evening. Canada’s special representative responsible for combating Islamophobia, Amira Elghawaby, delivered a brief speech where she said that Muslim communities in the country “are seeing an increase in Islamophobia.”

A meeting with Trudeau canceled

Earlier Monday, the National Council of Canadian Muslims (CNMC) canceled a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, planned as part of the National Day of Remembrance of the Quebec City Mosque Attack and Action Against It Islamophobia.

The NCCM explained that since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October, its members have become increasingly uncomfortable with the Trudeau government’s positions. The “straw that broke the camel’s back”, however, was Ottawa’s recent refusal to clearly support the provisional decision of the International Court of Justice, which ordered Israel to prevent a genocide of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

“What the International Court of Justice is asking, roughly speaking, is that Israel take steps to avoid genocide. She’s not even asking for a ceasefire,” said Stephen Brown, CEO of the CNMC.

There is, according to him, “the Muslim community in Canada is fed up”.

The president of the CCIQ, present alongside Mr. Brown in Ottawa, affirmed that he also saw a rise in intolerance. “Once again, as before that fateful day [du 29 janvier 2017], today our lives seem cheap. We are watching thousands of Palestinians being massacred! », lamented the president of the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec, Mohamed Labidi.

Remember that seven years ago, a shooter burst into the prayer room of the Grand Mosque of Quebec. He killed Mamadou Tanou Barry, Abdelkrim Hassane, Khaled Belkacemi, Aboubaker Thabti, Azzeddine Soufiane and Ibrahima Barry, 39 years old.