In Quebec City, the windows of the main mosque are still pocked with bullet holes. This week I met there with Mohamed Labidi, the director of the mosque where six people were killed by a Quebecois shooter more than a year ago.
Speaking after prayers at the mosque, where dozens of worshippers from North Africa, Africa and the Middle East kneeled down on the floor, Labidi said the Muslim community was still reeling from the attack. He said it had deeply shocked him and underl...ined some growing fissures in Quebec society.
While the gunman’s trial hasn’t begun yet, he blamed the far right and immigrant-baiting “trash radio” hosts for helping to foment hatred.
He stressed that Quebec was a multicultural society where Muslims treasured the freedom of religion, even as he warned that being invisible and Muslim wasn’t possible.
Last year Labidi’s car was lit on fire in front of his home after he sought to build a cemetery for the Muslim community. But he says he is undeterred.
“The situation for us has gotten worse over the past decade,” he said. “It has taken blood to flow for us to build bridges again.”