EDMONTON — As people around the world continue to come to grips with the attacks in Paris Friday, members of Edmonton’s Muslim community came together to show their support for the victims.
Members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Edmonton gathered in prayer Sunday afternoon at the Hadi Mosque. The community’s outreach director said it was important for them to come together to express their grief and anger.
“We want to express sympathy with the innocent people who got killed,” said Mohyuddin Mirza. “Everybody felt that we need to talk to with each other and try to comprehend why these people, so called Islamic State in the name of the religion which I preach and practice, which I believe is peaceful… Why they are using the name of Islam to cause such an atrocity.”
Standing in front of a sign that read ‘Love for all, hatred for none,’ Mirza expressed his sadness for the 129 people who were killed and the hundreds more who were injured. He also wanted to make sure Edmontonians know that Islam is a peaceful religion.
“Muslims are not terrorists. What these people are doing in the name of my religion is not Islam at all,” he said. “Killing people like this is not justified by any standards of humanity.”
READ MORE: A timeline of the Paris massacre
On Saturday, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the wave of attacks in Paris and said France would remain at the “top of the list” of its targets.
An online statement said eight militants armed with explosive belts and automatic weapons attacked carefully chosen targets in the “capital of adultery and vice,” including a soccer stadium where France was playing Germany, and the Bataclan concert hall, where an American rock band was playing, and “hundreds of apostates were attending an adulterous party.”
READ MORE: ISIS claims responsibility for Paris attacks; France remains the ‘top of the list of targets’
France launched massive air strikes on the Islamic State group’s de-facto capital in Syria Sunday night, destroying a jihadi training camp and a munitions dump in the city of Raqqa, where Iraqi intelligence officials say the attacks on Paris were planned.
With files from The Canadian Press.