Quebec mosque attacked

[soleiltropiques]

Quebec mosque attack: 'Five dead' and many injured

President of mosque in Canada says attackers opened fire during evening prayers, killing five.

Comments

[soleiltropiques]

Apparently everyone who was in the Mosque has been evacuated.

A witness has apparently reported that the shooters spoke with a 'Quebecois' accent (i.e. a French Canadian accent).

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-city-mosque-gun-shots-1.3957686

[ioplokon]

this is so horrible. and so close after the us election & bans it's hard to feel that it's not connected to that. not that there wasn't anti-muslim sentiment beforehand, but that people feel emboldened to be violent.

[maynardsong]

God damn. I expected better from our northern neighbor. WTF.

[vindictaa]

this is so incredibly sad but i am really not surprised

[soleiltropiques]

That's just terrible (i.e. the racist examples you described).

And iac.

Canada also has a long long long standing and huge racism issue when it comes to its treatment of indigenous peoples. Yet there is this strange disconnect where white Canadians seem to think racism is somehow less of an issue here.

(I'd forgotten about Bill C-51 and the Liberals' support of it. That's a really good point.)

[vindictaa]

exactly. and i feel canada has not faced up to its history of racism enough, its part in the slave trade or its continued treatment of indigenous folks.

the amount of money being put into this 150 anniversary and it's like... what are you celebrating. there is just such a disconnect.

[soleiltropiques]

iac.

[policraticus]

Right wing terrorism? You sure about that?

[amw]

Well, you could argue that religious extremists of any bent are right wing. Though I would classify most all spree killers as psychopaths regardless of their political leanings. Which, incidentally, is why the Muslim ban (or talk of "radical Islamic terror" in America) is total nonsense.

[policraticus]

You could argue that, but I think I could argue the opposite quite forcefully, as well. In either case, I don't believe that was the OP's implication.

[amw]

I agree. I wasn't comfortable with the OP's implication last night so left the article here to see what would pan out once they caught the perps.

I think it's problematic to jump to conclusions that any violence against Muslims is automatically committed by racists, especially considering the vast majority of Muslim terror victims worldwide are collateral damage in political - not racial - conflicts. On the other hand, given the exceedingly racist right-wing administration just south of the border, it doesn't feel completely off the wall to fear that this normalization of bigotry could trigger a mentally fragile and bigoted Canadian to lash out.