Muslim Council of Montreal calls on all mosques to ensure adequate security systems are in place

January 10, 2012
COMMUNITY ALERT

Montreal, Quebec, January 9th, 2012- The Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) calls on all mosques and Islamic institutions to take the necessary measures to ensure that their facilities are equipped with adequate surveillance and alarm systems.

“It is alarming to see the rising number of attacks of vandalism and hate taking place at our religious institutions and our communities must protect themselves,” stated Salam Elmenyawi, president of MCM. “In order to help keep our communities safe, we strongly urge all institutions to ensure they have all the required operational security equipment to deter such attacks, such as intrusion detection security systems, closed-circuit surveillance cameras, fire alarm systems, proper lighting etc. Staff should also be properly trained to ensure they know how to operate the security infrastructure, and together with regular members of the congregation should be trained to identify and report any unusual activities in or around the institutions. All of these measures should be undertaken immediately so that our communities can practice their faith in peace, without fear of attack.”

MCM welcomes the “Communities at Risk: Security Infrastructure Program”, recently announced by The Honourable Vic Toews, Canada's Minister of Public Safety. The program will help provide funding for security infrastructure improvements for not-for-profit organizations, including places of worship that have a history of hate-motivated incidents.

For more information about the Communities at Risk: Security Infrastructure Program, including the eligibility criteria, please visit: http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/prg/cp/sip/index-eng.aspx. The deadline to submit applications is February 9th, 2012.

 

CONTACT:

Salam Elmenyawi

Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM)

Ph.: (514) 748-8427

E-mail: info@muslimcouncil.org

Website: http://www.muslimcouncil.org

 The Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) is an umbrella organization representing a number of Islamic institutions in the Montreal region. There are over 275,000 Muslims in Montreal, about 1,200,000 in Canada and 1.9 billion worldwide.

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