Sherbrooke groups to mark mosque attack anniversary this weekend

By Gordon Lambie – Local Journalism Initiative
Sherbrooke groups to mark mosque attack anniversary this weekend
Abdelilah Hamdache speaking at a vigil held this past summer for the victims of an Islamophobic attack in London, Ontario. (Photo : Record archives/Gordon Lambie)

This coming Saturday evening a collection of Sherbrooke organizations will be hosting a public online gathering to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Quebec City mosque attack. From 4 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. representatives of the different partner organizations will join together in a simple ceremony to remember the loss of Ibrahima Barry, Mamadou Tanou Barry, Khaled Belkacemi, Aboubaker Thabti, Abdelkrim Hassane, and Azzedine Soufiane, and to encourage and promote dialogue in the community.

“We want it to be a simple activity for everyone,” said Abdelilah Hamdache, a representative of the Institut du Monde Arabe et Musulman de l’Estrie and one of the members of the group planning the event.

This marks the second year that the vigil will be taking place online, due to the constraints of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the fifth year that a gathering of some kind will be held in the city in memory of the six muslim men who were killed, and the nineteen other worshippers injured in the 2017 attack.

“Our common goal is a just, inclusive and respectful society,” Hamdache said, offering the attack as a demonstration of the fact that terrorism can impact anyone, regardless of their faith or cultural background.

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