Close to three years after the mosque shooting that left six people dead and five injured, Quebec City’s Islamic Cultural Centre is beefing up security and adding space for worshipers with renovations estimated at $1.5 million.
The renovation project is currently underway on the Ste-Foy building’s facade, where the former large windows will be replaced with a solid wall. Two security doors will be added to the front of the building. A minaret will also be built over the front entrance to reflect the building’s religious character.
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“It will look like a mosque, a real mosque with the large doors,” said former president Mohamed Labidi, who is now a member of the board of directors of the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre. “It’s our duty to secure the people who come in.”
The majority of costs, an estimated $1.2 million, will be spent on security and redesigning the building’s façade. An estimated $300,000 will be spent on expanding the interior for worshippers.
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“We need more space and with the new waves of immigration, especially francophone ones that come from North Africa or Africa, the major part of them are Muslim,” Labidi said.
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The mosque’s former president insists the renovation plans were already in place when a man entered the mosque and began shooting on Jan. 29, 2017. Electronic access codes were added to the front door in the months following the tragedy.
Labidi hopes the new design will help worshipers feel safer.
“After the tragedy, we had advice from the RCMP to make it safer, so this is what we’re doing,” he said.
The cultural centre is still in the process of raising the necessary funds for the renovation project. Renovations to the mosque should be complete by June 2020.
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