Massacre at the mosque of Quebec: an evening of prayer, restorative

Aymen Derbali, a survivor of the attack, said he was touched by the evening organized by his friends in the mosque of Sainte-Foy.

Dominique Lelièvre

Saturday, 27-jan-2018 00:00

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Saturday, 27-jan-2018 00:00

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A year after the slaughter that has claimed the lives of six of their peers, the muslims of Quebec were found on Friday night to advance in the grief and support the bereaved families.

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The members of the muslim community have welcomed many, the memory of their fallen comrades in the privacy of the prayer room of the mosque of the chemin Sainte-Foy, in the same place where a gunman has stormed on the 29th of January 2017.

In one end of a busy week of public events, this moment of contemplation, private was important, said the president of the islamic cultural Centre of Québec (CCIQ) Mohamed Labidi. “Essentially, these are the prayers that are made for the souls of the six who died, and then we will have speeches that revolve around patience, to relieve especially the families of the victims,” he said in the early evening.

Even if the wounds are still open, several survivors and relatives of victims have found the strength to move. Aymen Derbali, who was received seven bullets in the attack, trying to divert the attention of the assailant, was of the number. “It is important to be here to remember those who lost their lives “, has simply expressed the one whose history is of interest to many media for several weeks.

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Inside, hundreds of words of encouragement of the population, collected in the last few months, line the walls and remind the muslim community that she is not alone in this challenge.

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A year after the events, the muslim community is still inhabited by mixed feelings, between hope and anxiety. “This is paradoxical because one feels safe in the city, but when you see the messages there, it was [always] afraid,” stressed the spokesman of the CCIQ, Mahédine Djamai.

In spite of the surge of solidarity monster that has followed the tragedy, a minority of people continue to bear a discourse of islamophobic, recalled the president of CCIQ, which had been erased from the public space after the arson of his car, this summer. Another letter hate has been filed with the mosque in the fall, he revealed.

“Unfortunately, yes, there are always things that come to reactivate the pains and sorrows. The hateful messages continued, as if we had not paid enough with six victims “,-it sorry. Although discreet, the Québec police had also deployed a number of cars in the sector, to ensure the security of the faithful. But the community prefers to cling to the support shown by the population. Since the shooting, messages of solidarity have poured in by the thousands at CCIQ, including several from abroad. They now cover the walls of the mosque.

The activities of commemoration of the attack continues on Saturday with the screening of the documentary Your last walk in the mosque, in the afternoon, at the Université Laval. Moreover, the great mosque of Quebec opens its doors to the public on Saturday evening.