Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown and his Council colleagues (Councillors Gurpreet Dhillon, Rowena Santos and Paul Vicente) took time out from attending the annual conference of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to visit the Centre culturel Islamique de Québec (CCIQ) in Sainte-Foy, Quebec City tonight. Watch Video.
CCIQ is the Quebec mosque where a gunman opened fire on January 29, 2017 killing 6 worshippers and leaving others with life-long injuries.
Mayor Brown gave a well received address to the gathering reflecting on Brampton’s efforts to eliminate Islamophobia and the city’s recent outdoor Iftar event for over 1,000 people. The Mayor said he wanted the event outdoors because he wanted the entire community to see that Islam “is a religion of love.” He added that “I want you to know, even though we are 800km away, that you’ve got a lot of love in the City of Brampton.”
“Those who know the Muslim community well know that it is a community of love. A community that helps its brothers and sisters. A community that helps the less fortunate. – Mayor Patrick Brown”
Mayor Brown on his Twitter feed noted that he also fasted today in solidarity with the community. Observant Muslims are currently fasting from dawn to sunset abstaining from food and water and engaging in charitable acts. Many believe that tonight is also Lailatul Qadr (Night of Power) where sins can be forgiven and are spending extra time in personal prayers. Mayor Brown can be heard in the video saying he visited all of the mosques in Brampton last year during the Night of Power.
