Following the aftermath of last year’s mass shooting at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre, Canada’s Jewish communities have reached out to their Muslim neighbors and shared valuable advice on security matters. Crisis managers and religious leaders say that the coming together of the two faiths, along with the local police, has been a pivotal experience to establish a better sense of safety. “I suppose between every bleak, dark avenue there is a pinpoint of light,” says Bernie Farber, executive director of the Mosaic Institute, a non-profit think tank focusing on religious diversity. “This terrible tragedy brought together two communities that are united by hateful acts against them.”
At an interfaith dinner, Jeffrey Brown, an Orthodox Jew, met Mohammed Hashim, a crisis manager for the Quebec Muslim community, and offered to share his experience on security matters from his own synagogue. Mr. Hashim gladly welcomed the advice. “I don’t think we could’ve gotten this level of help from anyone other than the Jewish community because I don’t think any other faith group has felt under siege as much as them,” says Mr. Hashim. “They’re so advanced in their state of security that it’s only natural that it was someone like Jeffrey.”
Now, the two men are working together on common security practices to be shared with all Quebec mosques. According to The Star, “In this way, both men have become crisis coordinators for their communities, someone who, in the event something happened, would have police on speed dial and a response at the ready.”
“People come to mosques to find peace, but that sanctuary was violated in the most horrific way,” says Mr. Hashim. “I think people saw that as a violation of one of our most basic provisions and rights, which is the right to practice freely and safely.”
