Calgary Muslims fear backlash

Calgary’s Muslim community is preparing for a potential backlash in the wake of the Ottawa shooting.

They’ve been forced to deflect perceived connections between their community and the shooting that claimed the life of Corporal Nathan Cirillo.

“It’s totally natural for us to be concerned,” said Umair Khan, Baitun Nur Mosque Imam.

“We’ve beefed up security. At the same time, we see that Calgarians are very understanding,” he said.

“We believe through transferring and exchanging knowledge and having dialogue a lot of the mistrust that is happening right now because of the actions of a few individuals.. these kind of initiatives can remove those wrong impressions.”

The Muslim community is engaged and active in handling the seemingly increase in radicalized youth.

They know there are challenges – but it’s a responsibility they are willing to accept.

“The difficulty is criminals hide themselves and their behaviors and don’t want people to know they’re criminals,” said Dr. Dave Liepert of United Muslim Voice Calgary.

“These individuals hide in the community and they are not known to us.”

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The aim is to reach these people long before they turn to crime.

“If somebody has more than one risk factor, it makes them more likely to go down that path,” said Mahdi Qasqa, a Muslim youth worker.

“And the two again that we want to make sure that the authorities know about and researchers are looking into, including ourselves, is the vulnerable transition.. but also the intensity of feeling that violence is the only response to injustice anywhere in the world,” he said.