A mosque in Fredericton showed their appreciation to members of the community for their support over the past week by opening it to the public on Sunday.
“It's for us to show them the place that a lot of people see from the outside and then they build an image about the whole faith on what they see,” said Abdelhaq Hamza. “It's better for them to walk in and speak to us and get a picture from inside out.”
It's been one week since the deadly shooting in a Quebec City mosque. Despite the heartache, Muslims in the Maritimes say they've seen more support than they could have ever imagined.
“We all felt sad and shocked that it happened,” said Farah Nafil. “The same day we come here to our mosque and we find all this flowers and notes from our neighbours and Canadian citizens that just made us feel happy.”
Members of the community also opened their wallets, raising over $28,000 so that a new mosque could be built.
Prayer is scheduled at the mosque five times a day. With the increase in refugees to the city, the prayer hall can see up to 300 people.
They're now looking for land to build the mosque, one they hope will be much more central and better known in the city.
“It's pretty small. But the warmth that you get inside makes it look huge. And when we walk in we don't look at the walls we look at everything else. It's home for a lot of people as far as faith is concerned,” Hamza said.
Hundreds of people were expected to visit throughout the day. For some, it was a chance to see where their money went.
“This is a fantastic, fantastic gesture and the support has been great,” said Fredericton South MLA David Coon. “I'm so proud of Frederictonians and Canadians generally for the outpouring show of solidarity that people have been making.”
The actions of those a week ago left many speechless. But the support since has people at the mosque grasping for words for a completely different reason.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Brown.
