Alternative Africa

Top Menu

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact Us

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business
  • Environment
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Reports
    • Africa-Observers
      • Read Reports
      • Submit a story
  • MORE
    • Health
    • News Now
    • World
    • Technology
Sign in / Join

Login

Welcome! Login in to your account
Lost your password?

Lost Password

Back to login
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact Us

logo

Alternative Africa

  • Home
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business
  • Environment
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Reports
    • Africa-Observers
      • Read Reports
      • Submit a story
  • MORE
    • Health
    • News Now
    • World
    • Technology
  • Inside the “filthy, inhuman barracks” for UK asylum seekers

  • British billionaire killed employee in Namibia over sex demand

  • How eating a plant-based diet can prevent COVID-19

  • Meghan contemplated suicide after Royal family expresses ‘concerns’ about how dark Archie could be

  • EU medicine regulator urges caution on Russia’s Sputnik COVID-19 vaccine

News NowWorld
Home›News Now›Canadians rally support for Quebec mosque attack ‘hero’

Canadians rally support for Quebec mosque attack ‘hero’

By alternativeafrica
December 20, 2017
630
0
Share:

One of the last things Aymen Derbali remembers is standing in the Quebec City mosque as a gunman opened fire on worshippers all around him.

But the father of three did not panic.

Instead, he drew the attacker’s focus on himself, in the hopes of saving his fellow congregants.

“I tried not to panic or flee,” Derbali recently told The Globe and Mail.

“I tried to concentrate so that he wouldn’t fire on others. I would rather have been paralysed for life than to have fled and been left unscathed, without having done something to help people.”

Six Muslim men were killed in the targeted attack on the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre on January 29.

Derbali was shot several times at close range and rushed to a local hospital in Quebec City, where he spent two months in a coma.

When he finally woke up, he learned that he would never walk again.

‘He is a hero’

Now, Canadians are raising money to help Derbali, who uses a wheelchair and is undergoing treatment, move into a new home with his family that will meet his needs.

“Essentially, he is a hero,” said Amira Elghawaby, an Ottawa-based volunteer with DawaNet, a Muslim community group in Ontario that organised the fundraiser.



Funerals for the six victims were held in Quebec City and Montreal [Chris Wattie/Reuters]

“He was shot seven times. Two bullets are permanently lodged in his spinal chord now. He cannot walk. He has been in a rehabilitation centre since the tragedy,” Elghawaby told Al Jazeera.

Derbali’s wife and three children currently live in a small apartment on the fourth floor of a building in Quebec City, she said.

“It’s completely inaccessible. If there’s any type of emergency, if there’s a fire or anything else, there’s no way for him to leave safely,” Elghawaby said.

In a video shared by DawaNet, Derbali said his condition was improving every day.

“I’m moving my arms and I’m doing physiotherapy,” he said, thanking the people who have reached out to check on his health.

By Wednesday, the online campaign had raised just over $33,800 (over $43,500 Canadian dollars).



Derbali says his condition is improving by the day [Courtesy DawaNet]

Organisers hope to raise $311,000 ($400,000 Canadian dollars) to help Derbali move into a home that is wheelchair accessible.

Elghawaby added that it is important for him to live near the mosque, where he still attends weekly Friday prayers.

“His heart is there. Even despite this tragedy, he’s very connected to the local community, to his brothers and sisters there,” she said.

“It really is up to all of us to step up and be a hero in his life.”

Hate crimes

Muslim communities in Quebec and across Canada are still reeling from what happened.

Alexandre Bissonnette, a Quebec university student, was arrested and charged with six counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder in relation to the attack.

But as the one-year anniversary of the deadly shooting nears, Quebec City officials have warned about a rising number of hate incidents targeting the local Muslim community in 2017.

{articleGUID}

Robert Pigeon, the city’s police chief, recently told reporters that police-reported hate crimes targeting Muslims or Muslim institutions in the city doubled since the shooting.

So far this year, 71 hateful incidents were reported in Quebec City and 42 of those targeted Muslims, Pigeon said, according to CBC News.

Last year, 21 out of 57 total reported hate incidents in the city were directed at Muslims.

According to Elghawaby, Derbali’s story should be seen as “an incredible act of courage and sacrifice in the face of hatred”.

“The best way to confront hatred is through love. The love that already has been showered on Aymen and his family … is really hopeful,” she said.

SHARE ON:
TagsBreakingNewsWorld
Previous Article

Fifa appoints normalisation committee to run Mali ...

Next Article

Uganda MPs vote to scrap presidential age ...

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

alternativeafrica

Related articles More from author

  • News Now

    Zimbabwe renames airport after Robert Mugabe

    November 9, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News NowWorld

    North Korea fires ballistic missile

    November 28, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • BusinessNews Now

    United Nations Development Board Worldwide Tender Opportunities

    October 10, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News NowWorld

    Social media crackdown stifles dissent in Pakistan

    November 24, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News Now

    Warning signs

    October 10, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News NowPolitics

    What next in Kenya election crisis?

    October 11, 2017
    By alternativeafrica

Leave a reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You might be interested

  • AfricaAfrikaTVBusinessFeatureHealthNews Now

    Lesotho, the tiny African country living on Cannabis

  • AfricaBusinessNews Now

    Nigeria: Zakat Foundation spends N46.6m to empower 99 Entrepreneurs in 5 years

  • BusinessNews Now

    AfDB seeks global support for Africa’s young farmers – Highlights agribusiness as solution to Africa’s youth unemployment

Timeline

  • March 9, 2021

    Inside the “filthy, inhuman barracks” for UK asylum seekers

  • March 9, 2021

    British billionaire killed employee in Namibia over sex demand

  • March 9, 2021

    How eating a plant-based diet can prevent COVID-19

  • March 8, 2021

    Meghan contemplated suicide after Royal family expresses ‘concerns’ about how dark Archie could be

  • March 8, 2021

    EU medicine regulator urges caution on Russia’s Sputnik COVID-19 vaccine

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Lagos govt confirms first case of deadly coronavirus infection in Nigeria

    By alternativeafrica
    February 28, 2020
  • Keynote Address of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at 2018 Oxford Africa Conference

    By PSJ Africa
    May 14, 2018
  • Morocco begins regional integration by connecting Casablanca Airport with High Speed Train

    By alternativeafrica
    January 4, 2020
  • Kenyan govt pressure Facebook for data on Kenyan users

    By alternativeafrica
    November 20, 2019
  • Nigeria: 32,000 capacity Lagos rice mill to start production in 2020

    By alternativeafrica
    December 23, 2019
  • Ado zagi
    on
    January 12, 2021

    Nigeria: EFCC Academy to begin award of degree

    Diploma leave areply from
  • Ethiopia joins Africa's Artificial Intelligence revolution | Alternative Africa
    on
    October 2, 2020

    Spending on Artificial Intelligence Systems in Africa, Middle East to top $374 million in 2020

    […] Many African countries ...
  • The 5 most popular Africans 2020
    on
    September 25, 2020

    Celebrating Congolese doctor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the man behind breakthrough of Ebola cure

    […] Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe ...
  • Millitants in Central Mali Set Jail Ablaze in Attack Killing Two | taktik(z) GDI (Government Defense ...
    on
    August 11, 2020

    Fifteen gendarmes killed in another attack on Mali camp

    […] attack fol­lowed a January ...
  • Millitants in Central Mali Set Jail Ablaze in Attack Killing Two
    on
    August 11, 2020

    Fifteen gendarmes killed in another attack on Mali camp

    […] attack followed a ...
AlternativeAfrica.com is an independent Pan African News Website dedicated primarily to influencing the negative narratives about Africa. We hope to do this by focusing and showcasing the many developmental strides sweeping across the continent.

Read more >>>

Contact Info

  • info@alternativeafrica.com
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Inside the “filthy, inhuman barracks” for UK asylum seekers

    By alternativeafrica
    March 9, 2021
  • British billionaire killed employee in Namibia over sex demand

    By alternativeafrica
    March 9, 2021
  • How eating a plant-based diet can prevent COVID-19

    By alternativeafrica
    March 9, 2021
  • Meghan contemplated suicide after Royal family expresses ‘concerns’ about how dark Archie could be

    By alternativeafrica
    March 8, 2021
  • Lagos govt confirms first case of deadly coronavirus infection in Nigeria

    By alternativeafrica
    February 28, 2020
  • Keynote Address of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at 2018 Oxford Africa Conference

    By PSJ Africa
    May 14, 2018
  • Macron in Ivory Coast to launch anti-terrorism academy

    By alternativeafrica
    December 21, 2019
  • Kenyan govt pressure Facebook for data on Kenyan users

    By alternativeafrica
    November 20, 2019
  • Ado zagi
    on
    January 12, 2021

    Nigeria: EFCC Academy to begin award of degree

    Diploma leave areply from
  • Ethiopia joins Africa's Artificial Intelligence revolution | Alternative Africa
    on
    October 2, 2020

    Spending on Artificial Intelligence Systems in Africa, Middle East to top $374 million in 2020

    […] Many African countries ...
  • The 5 most popular Africans 2020
    on
    September 25, 2020

    Celebrating Congolese doctor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the man behind breakthrough of Ebola cure

    […] Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe ...
  • Millitants in Central Mali Set Jail Ablaze in Attack Killing Two | taktik(z) GDI (Government Defense ...
    on
    August 11, 2020

    Fifteen gendarmes killed in another attack on Mali camp

    […] attack fol­lowed a January ...

Photostream

    Follow us

    • Home
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
    © Copyright Alternative Africa 2019. All rights reserved.