“A degradation of humanity,” PG Muslim Association reacts to NZ terrorist attack

The Prince George Muslim Association is understandably reeling from a shooting in New Zealand that killed 49 people at two mosques yesterday.

“I think currently everybody is in shock,” Mostafa Muhammad, Chairperson of the Association told MyPGNow.com.

Despite efforts from Facebook moderators to keep it under wraps, a live streamed video of the massacre has been circulating.  

“The video distributed around is very, very disturbing. People are praying, and this person, I don’t know if I could call him a person – he’s a terrorist, decided to kill innocent people while praying.”

“I think that this is for the degradation of humanity, unfortunately.”

Currently the community is still in shock but they are working to organize a ceremony or prayer for those killed in the attack.  

“We are still trying to decide what to do to deal with this tragedy.”

For their local chapter, Muhammad said they still feel safe here.

“We know that Prince George is a very safe community and the police are doing a very good job screening things and making sure that nothing like that happens. But nothing is zero percent, so you always have this thing in the back of your mind; what if?”

The Prince George RCMP released a statement earlier today on the event:

Our sympathies go out to the people affected by the tragic incident in New Zealand.

Although some mosques may have an increased frontline policing presence following this event, we are not aware of any specific threats and continue to exercise increased vigilance.  We are reaching out to the local Muslim community to identify whether they have any specific safety or security concerns.

We are also asking for members of the public to report anything suspicious to police.  The Prince George RCMP encourage all victims of hate crime to report these incidents to police or community leaders so the appropriate steps can be taken to address the needs of the victim and take action against the offender.

Anyone with information about possible criminal threats to national security is encouraged to immediately call the RCMP’s National Security Information Network at 1-800-420-5805.