People from multiple faiths prayed together Monday night in Saskatoon in the wake of Sunday’s deadly shooting at a Quebec City mosque.
Shabir Mia was among about 200 people who attended the prayer service, hosted by the Islamic Association of Saskatchewan.
“I’ve always, ever since coming to this country, I’ve always felt Canadian. And this kind of entrenches that feeling in me, that this is what it is really like to be Canadian,” he said.
Mia said news of the shooting, which saw six people killed and 19 wounded, left him shaken — but since then, he said his spirit’s been restored by a flood of emails, messages and flowers that have poured in since the attack.
“Throughout the day it kind of uplifted you. You wake up in the morning with that feeling of dread and suddenly all these messages coming in and you start feeling a lot better, basically, about being in this community,” he said.
Joined by members of many different faiths, including Catholics, Hindus, Jews and people practicing traditional indigenous spirituality, Romesh Kachroo said it was more necessary than ever for all religions to come together and denounce violence following the shooting.
“Those kind of things will keep happening. We have to do things to make sure that less of those things happen,” he said.
-with files from 650 CKOM’s JT Marshall