B.C. mosque not the locale for Ottawa gunman’s radicalization, says Muslim association

BURNABY, B.C. – The B.C. Muslim Association says it is troubled to learn that the man who killed a soldier at the National War Memorial once attended one of its mosques.

Michael Zehaf Bibeau shot the soldier on Wednesday and then entered Parliament’s Centre Block, where he was shot and killed.

The B.C. Muslim Association says Zehaf Bibeau once attended one of its mosques, but it says the Masjid Al-Salaam mosque is not the locale for what the association believes was the man’s radicalization.

It says it has been working on a preventive program that focuses on minimizing the effect of terrorist and criminal propaganda in Canada.

The association’s Aasim Rashid says Zehaf Bibeau visited the Metro Vancouver mosque for several months in 2011 until he was told not to come back.

Rashid says Zehaf Bibeau complained to administrators that the mosque was too liberal and inclusive, and he was told that’s how the mosque runs.