In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy

All praise be to Allah, and may His peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family, his companions, and those who follow him.

With extreme grief and sorrow, the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA) received news of this heinous attack which claimed the lives of numerous worshipers, and injured numerous others, in one of the houses of God in Quebec, Canada. We ask Allah, the Glorified, by His beautiful names and sublime attributes, to envelop those killed in His wide mercy, to magnify the reward of their loved ones, to infuse them with patience and the anticipation of their reward, and to heal those injured and combine for them both the relief and the reward.

In light of this major tragedy, the Assembly would like to reiterate a few realities:

Firstly: The divinely revealed laws, as well as the man-made laws, agree that the houses of worship – irrespective of their congregants’ religion – are not a place of terrorism and murder, and that whoever enters them is safe, and that killing unarmed innocent people – within and outside these houses of worship – is a heinous crime that warrants judicial prosecution, receiving the harshest criminal punishments, beside the punishments that await its culprits on the Day of Resurrection.

Secondly: Canada has been, and remains, the exemplar model of racial and religious diversity, and one of mutual respect and tolerance between its vast spectrum of religions and ethnicities that constitute the Canadian population. The Canadian government has become known for fostering this diversity, and for welcoming migrants from across the globe and providing them with all it can, in order to secure a dignified life for everyone living on its soil. For that reason, we have no doubt that the Canadian authorities will aid its judiciary in pursuing justice, and will apply the strictest just punishments on those who take innocent lives and violate the sanctity of the houses of worship.

Thirdly: Here in the United States, hate crimes against religious and racial minorities have steadily increased during and after the most recent American presidential election. One of its manifestations could certainly be the exportation of hate to its neighboring countries, the likes of which generated this heinous crime [in Quebec]. Perhaps this incident will prompt the new U.S. administration to reconsider the rhetoric it had adopted during the election campaign, and adopt a rhetoric that is keener on tolerance and mutual respect between people.

Fourthly: This painful event proves that terrorism has no religion, nationality, or race. This murderer in Canada was a non-Muslim, and his crime took the lives of innocent Muslims inside their mosque. Prior to him, in America, innocent people from various religions were murdered, and the heartless culprits also subscribed to various religions. So whoever pairs terrorism with Islam is mistaken, and has defied both the current and historical realities.

We repeat our condolences to the families of the victims, those who were killed and those injured. We invoke Allah to envelop those killed in His mercy, and to confer a speedy recovery to those injured, one that leaves no traces of the hurting behind. We ask Allah to blanket the world in peace, and to guide all the leaders to establishing truth and justice in their policies at home and abroad, and in their domestic and foreign relations, so that peace can return to this earth which moans from its atrocities, and so that the peace longed for by the distressed and tormented human race can prevail; a peace that serves the religious, civilizational, and cultural interests of all.

And Allah is the One sought from our endeavors.