Local mosque taking steps to prevent extremism
Posted October 24, 2014 2:35 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BURNABY (NEWS1130) – In the wake of the deadly attacks this week in Ottawa and Montreal, the Al-Salaam Mosque in Burnaby is taking steps to prevent extremism.
Many of these cases of self-radicalization happen after people consume online propaganda. So, Aasim Rashid with the BC Muslim Association says his group will counter with an online campaign of its own.
“This is a preventative program to educate muslims and non-muslims about the actual teachings of Islam, as opposed to the radical version portrayed by groups like ISIS,” he tells us.
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the man who opened fire in Ottawa on Wednesday, attended the Al-Salaam Mosque in Burnaby for about four months in 2011.
Since that fact has come out in the media, Rashid says the mosque and others have received threats.
“Towards Muslims, or their religion or their places of prayer,” Rashid says. “The idea was to sort of create this fear that you’re not safe from us — whoever these people are.”
Rashid says this program was in the works before this week’s attacks and a meeting had been held on Saturday to discuss it.
During his time attending the mosque, Zehaf-Bibeau had several issues with its administration. According to Rashid, Zehaf-Bibeau attempted to sleep at the mosque multiple times despite instructions not to — he got in on one occasion and staff had to replace the locks as a result.
