Yellowknifers will gather Monday night to show support for the city’s Muslim community following a deadly shooting that killed six people at a Quebec City mosque during evening prayer on Sunday.
Nazim Awan, president of the Islamic Centre of Yellowknife, says the gathering was planned after the centre received a flood of emails and phone calls from non-Muslim citizens wanting to show their solidarity and support.
“This is what communities that support each other do,” Awan said.
“I know in Yellowknife we can count on Yellowknife residents, we know Yellowknife is a community where this will happen on its own, we haven’t even initiated [this gathering].
“It is after the calls and emails from this community who said, ‘don’t feel alone, we are with you, if you need we can even stay with you in the Islamic Centre.’ You feel at home.”
The gathering will take place at the Islamic Centre of Yellowknife at 4100 Franklin Avenue around 5:15 p.m. after evening prayer.
“After the prayer there will be a gathering of these citizens who will come there to support the Muslims and Islamic Centre in Yellowknife,” Awan said.
At the moment there is no set agenda, Awan says, but members of the community will be welcome to speak and show their solidarity.
He hopes tonight’s gathering sends a message to Yellowknifers and Canadians to not be affected by negativity happening in our country or with US President Donald Trump’s travel ban south of the border.
“We hope that people in Yellowknife and Canadians certainly will not be affected by that negativity,” he said.
“Canadians, they will prove that we are certainly different and we can do much better than our neighbours in the south.”
