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Armed Raid on Prayer Room Angers Canadian Muslims
OTTAWA, July 25 (IslamOnline) - Ottawa police are investigating a complaint by two Islamic groups that a tactical squad raided a Muslim prayer room last month, frisking worshippers and tossing a Qur'an - the Muslim holy book - on the floor, a Canadian newspaper reported Wednesday.
Dressed in bulletproof vests and wielding automatic weapons, tactical officers accompanied by two immigration officials entered a downtown Ottawa apartment on June 13 in search of a wanted refugee, witnesses told the daily newspaper,
The Toronto Star.
Police harshly ordered worshippers into the hall at gunpoint, searched them for weapons, and brought them back inside one by one to be interrogated by immigration officials about their identities and status in Canada.
They were shown a photograph of the man sought - a man no one at the prayer service recognized. No one was arrested.
As witnesses re-entered the prayer room for questioning, they saw the Muslim holy book was on the floor, prayer clocks were inexplicably altered to indicate incorrect prayer times, and the apartment's phone was cracked in the middle, they said.
Immigration department spokesperson Giovanni Gatti told The Star
that immigration officials held a warrant for the arrest of a wanted person. He refused to elaborate, saying the information is not yet public.
The zealousness of the officers upset many at the prayer service, the Star reported. When told
that the eight to ten people inside the room praying, police were not deterred.
Officers later told those present that they were acting on a tip received by immigration officials two weeks earlier,
which allegedly indicated that the man sought would be present at the apartment, which is used by local Muslims for prayer services five times a day.
The paper quoted a Muslim lobbyist as saying that he met Tuesday with police to express his concerns, and
that his group wants an investigation, written apologies, sensitivity training for police and a liaison officer to ease relations between police and the Muslim community.
David Pepper, a spokesperson for Ottawa police chief Vince Bevan, said the police department was unaware the young Muslim men had been offended by police actions at the time, but
is now anxious to mend any rifts.
"We've not received a complaint, but if something of that nature happened, obviously we apologize. That would be the last thing that we would want to
occur'', he said.
Irene Bader, Ontario director-general of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, said she's asked for a report
"to ensure that proper procedure was followed.''
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