Muslim Council of Montreal condemns attack on Dorval mosqueApril 16, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Montreal, Quebec, April 16th, 2011- The Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) condemned the recent attack on a Dorval mosque, in which vandals broke several windows and doors and stole a computer.
“It is indeed distressing that in a pluralistic and multicultural society such as ours, we have religious institutions being targeted again and again in crimes of hate and violence,” stated Salam Elmenyawi, president of MCM. “These attacks go against the very Canadian values and principles that we are all committed to and must be condemned in the strongest terms.” MCM calls for harsher penalties and zero-tolerance for all hate crimes and religious discrimination and further calls on the federal government to initiate a countrywide campaign to help raise awareness of hate crimes and racism within Canadian society and to fight these social ills. “More concerted efforts are needed to effectively fight hate, racism and discrimination within our society,” Elmenyawi said. “A clear message must be sent out that hate crimes are atrocious acts which absolutely must not be tolerated in our society, or in any society. This is a criminal act of hate not just on one center, but on the values of respect, peace and tolerance that we all hold dear in our nation.”
The Dorval mosque has been a victim of attack several times in the past, including four incidents in 2009. MCM urges anyone with any information about the attacks to come forward to the authorities.
CONTACT:
Website: http://www.muslimcouncil.org
The Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) is an umbrella organization representing a number of Islamic institutions in the Montreal region. There are over 250,000 Muslims in Montreal, about 1,100,000 in Canada and 1.9 billion worldwide.
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Muslim Council of Montreal
The Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) is an umbrella organization representing number of Muslim institutions in the Montreal region.
