Mosque Shooting in Quebec City Leaves 6 Dead, 8 Wounded

January 30, 2017

Mosque Shooting in Quebec City Leaves 6 Dead, 8 Wounded

by RICHIE DUCHON, CHRIS ESSNER and ALEXANDER SMITH

Canada’s prime minister condemned what he called a “terrorist attack on Muslims” after gunmen shot dead six people and injured eight others at a mosque in Quebec City on Sunday night.

Two suspects were arrested after the shooting but no information was immediately released about them or the motive behind the attack.

Mosque Shooting Shows No One Is Completely Safe: Quebec’s Premier 1:05

One of the suspects was arrested at the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Center, where the shooting took place. The other was apprehended on the Île d’Orléans, an island in the Saint Lawrence River, Quebec provincial police spokeswoman Christine Coulombe told reporters.

More than 50 people were in the mosque at the time of the attack and the victims were aged between 35 and 70, according to Coulombe.

“It is heart-wrenching to see such senseless violence. Diversity is our strength, and religious tolerance is a value that we, as Canadians, hold dear,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 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: “We condemn this terrorist attack on Muslims in a center of worship and refuge.”

Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland echoed Trudeau’s comments.

While police in Quebec City didn’t say whether they believed the shooting was motivated by Islamophobia, officials in New York City said they were beefing up security at mosques and other religious locations throughout the city.

Canada is generally very welcoming toward immigrants and all religions, but it’s less so in the French-speaking province of Quebec, which has had a long-simmering debate about race and religious accommodation, The Associated Press reported.

Incidents of Islamophobia have increased in the province in recent years, according to Reuters.

Sunday’s attack came hours after Trudeau openly rejected President Donald Trumps’ restriction on travel from seven Muslim-majority nations.

Mosque Shooting in Quebec City Leaves 6 Dead, 8 Wounded — People show their support after a deadly shooting at a mosque in Quebec City. Alice Chiche / AFP – Getty Images

Trump’s executive order has sparked protests across the United States and beyond.

While he did not directly reference the demonstrations, Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard echoed the protesters’ sentiments during a press conference early Monday.

“We should not withdraw and become a closed society because of such a terrible event,” he said. “On the contrary, as I indicated, we have to keep working together, striving towards an open, inclusive, peaceful society. That’s the right response to this terrible event.”

Couillard later added that “words matter, gestures matter, written words matter, how we speak about one another, how we describe the type of society that we want, this has an impact.”