Mosque shooting: A shout, hail of bullets, then death
QUEBEC: Abdi was sitting cross-legged on the floor reading the Quran with his friends when the shooting began - a staccato spray of bullets into the crowd of worshippers gathered on Sunday at the mosque in Quebec City, Canada. It was the shout from the doorway that alerted them: “Allahu akbar!” which means “God is greatest!” “We all turned and that’s the point when they started shooting,” said Abdi, a 22-year-old student who declined to give his last name, fearing for his safety.
Abdi hit the floor, arms over his head and ears. But he could still hear the men around him praying for their lives until gunfire cut them short. He felt a trio of bullets whisk over his head. “Everyone got down, and those people standing in prayer, two of them were in the same row as I was, and the bullets hit them,” said Abdi, who spoke with Reuters Monday from his home in Montreal. He was in Quebec City visiting friends when he was caught in the carnage.
“People were praying to God, ‘Save us from this hell; save us from this massacre.’” Again and again, Abdi heard the sound of reloading guns. He prayed the attackers would not go upstairs, where the women and children were gathered. “I thought I was going to die.” Abdi is convinced he saw two shooters. Police say there was only one. It was not until police cleared the scene that Abdi opened his eyes. He stood and beheld “a graveyard” - dead, dying and injured people just feet from where he and his friends had lain. “It was a horrible moment.”
The phrase “Allahu akbar” is a common religious invocation that has been uttered by some attackers in incidents inspired by Islamic State. But that night, Abdi said, he could tell it was not a Muslim speaking it. “The tone of voice is different for a person who speaks Arabic or who can recite the Quran.”