January 26, 2024 | City News Montreal

Montreal – Montrealers came together on Friday before the seventh anniversary of the Quebec City mosque attack – for Muslim Awareness Week.

They commemorated the six men that died on Jan. 29 in 2017, after a gunman went into the Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec City and killed worshippers as evening prayers ended.

“This is a show of solidarity, showing of compassion, to those who lost their lives on January 29th in Quebec City,” said Samer Majzoub, president of the Canadian Muslim Forum.

The event was held at Square Victoria and was called ‘Standing Hand in Hand Against Islamophobia.’

Friday’s event was organized by the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC), Canadian Muslim Forum (FMC-CMF), and Islamic Relief Canada.

“We have to come together irrespective of what is going on overseas. Because fighting, hate and discrimination and Islamophobia has nothing to do with international issues,” explained Majzoub.

Since the start of the war on Oct. 7, 40 cases of hate crimes or incidents targeting the Arabic-Muslim community have been reported to Montreal police (SPVM).

“And that’s why we always encourage our citizens to come forward and report whatever sort of intimidation they are facing or hate incident or even hate crimes without any hesitation.”

Samer El Niz is the Quebec communications co-ordinator for the Muslim Association of Canada and attended the event. He said that everyone should know each other more than they do.

“If you have a Muslim friend or Muslim neighbour, or, you should know him more. We live in peace and we want peace in this country,” he said. “So we should know more about each other and to love each other.”

“We should do it every year to not only remember [the victims of Jan. 29, 2017] but also to remember their story and the meaning of this event.”

Read full article: Montrealers commemorate 2017 Quebec City Mosque attack | CityNews Montreal