Montreal mosque says windows broken after man shot at building with air pistol

Montreal police say they will be investigating a video posted to social media that appears to show a man shooting an air pistol at a city mosque.

The Centre Communautaire Islamique Assahaba in east-end Montreal posted a security video on its Facebook page Tuesday morning that it says shows an attack on the mosque Monday evening.

The video shows a man wearing a hoodie and a blue medical-style mask firing a hand-held gun 11 times before running away.

In the Facebook post, the mosque says windows were broken in the incident but no one was injured.

The mosque did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Canadian Press.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims, however, issued a statement on Tuesday expressing concern over the incident.

“This has been yet another devastating blow to the feeling of safety and security for Quebec Muslims,” said Yusu Fairi, NCCM Quebec director of public affairs.

Fairi pointed to recent events that had left the community shaken, including the fatal stabbing of Mohamed-Aslim Zafis outside an Etobicoke mosque in Sept. 2020 and the 2017 Quebec City mosque massacre that left six men dead.

“While a more fulsome investigation needs to be completed before we can understand the motivations of the attacker, it is clear that we all have to work together to stamp out all forms of hate and Islamophobia,” he said.

Police said they had not yet spoken to representatives of the mosque as of Tuesday morning.

— With files from Global News’ Annabelle Olivier