Sudbury Muslims react to mosque attack: 'If that happened in Quebec, it could happen here too'

EjazWattoolooked around a little more Monday morning as he left his home on his way to class at Laurentian University.

"I was totally terrified," the fourth year engineering student said after hearing the news of six men shot dead while they prayed at a Quebec City mosque Sunday night.

"I was kind of scared to go out."

Wattoo is a member of the Laurentian University Muslim Students Association, who have a room on campus where they hold prayers.

He says he won't be nervous about going to pray and still generally feels safe on campus and in Sudbury, but says it's hard to shake those fears.

"If that happened in Quebec, it could happen here too. But, like, I'm not that scared, but there's those feelings inside of you," says Wattoo.

At the Islamic Association of Sudbury, which runs one of two mosques in the city, Imam AbdulDabliz says he feels no fear and is not planning to increase security at their mosque in New Sudbury.

"Here in Sudbury we live in peace and harmony with everyone," says Dabliz, who called the Quebec City attack "inhuman."

He said their association has always been committed to moderate views and years ago turned away a few visitors who took a more extreme, politic view of islam.

"We met a few that had extreme views and they knew that they had nothing to do with us, so they just took off," says Dabliz.