Quebec: What We Now Know

It appears much of the dust has settled and we can make some safe conclusions about the shooting attack at a Quebec City mosque that killed 6 people.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4173602/Quebec-mosque-gunman-arrives-court.html

One shooter has been charged and police say he is believed to be the lone gunman. He is Alexandre Bissonnette. Another person who was in custody, previously identified as Mohamd El Khadir or Belkhadir, is not listed as a witness.

At this point, without sticking my neck out too much, this appears to be the act of a young man who wanted to kill Muslims.

Last night, the Internet was buzzing with rumors about who the shooter(s) were. Many on the left were quick to point to white supremacists. Two French Canadian names were floating around until it was reveled that these names had earlier appeared in some sort of Reuters parody. Others on the right were claiming it was two Syrian refugees who had arrived in Canada a week prior and gave two Arabic names supposedly picked up on a police radio. Then it was a Moroccan, a Moroccan (presumably El Khadir) and a French Canadian, who might be an Islamic convert. Many of these reports went out as confirmed fact.

This should serve as a lesson for all of us to wait and let the investigative facts play out until definitive facts are known. It’s one thing to report what others are saying, but when it comes to publishing names, caution must be exercised.

As far as I know, this is the first case of an armed and deadly assault on a mosque in North America
( not including the deadly assault on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin a couple of years back). Hopefully, it will be the last. To lash out at innocent Muslims is inexcusable. Murder is murder.

Does this mean that we should stop speaking out against Islamic terror? No. We have to speak out and defend ourselves from the threat of extremist Islam. But we have to do it in a responsible manner. This is not about hating Muslims.

Let’s hope this does not happen again.