Red Deer Imam: Support appreciated, but more needed than ‘thoughts and prayers’
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The Imam of the Red Deer Islamic Centre says Muslims in central Alberta are taking things in stride following the deadly terror attack that killed four people in London, Ontario last Sunday.
Muhammad Patel spoke with rdnewsNOW during a demonstration held in downtown Red Deer on Friday evening, saying the local Muslim community — which numbers about 2,000 in and around Red Deer — sees the attack as an isolated incident in the big picture.
“I’ll be honest, our members are not afraid, and that’s because we understand that isolated incidents can occur anywhere. We can’t stop everything from happening, but what we can do is be confident that we are living as Canadians, worshipping our religion, and not being a source of or doing anything whereby we should be stigmatized,” Patel said.
“If other people are not willing to accept that, the most we can do is remind ourselves to have courage, be confident and try to do a little bit of education to make people aware of who we really are.”
