One family’s struggle, one year after the Quebec City mosque shooting

*Names of the Cherif family have been changed.   On a sleepy Sunday evening late last January, Yousseff Cherif, a 44-year-old IT professional in Quebec City, was preparing to leave the house, hoping to catch isha, the final prayer of the day at the Grand Mosque, one of two mosques in the city run by the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec. It would take him 12 minutes or so to drive from his quiet suburban neighbourhood, a trip he made frequently, shuttling his nine-year-old son Ramy to the mosque for weekly Arabic classes, and catching up with friends after prayers. Yousseff’s wife, Mulka, was unable to go as often since she cared full-time for the couple’s six-year-old daughter Shayma, who has disabilities.   “Why don’t you stay?” Ramy piped up from the couch. Yousseff glanced at the time. It was 7:25 p.m. Prayer would start in five minutes and he was already late so he opted to stay home, chatting with Ramy until the boy went to bed 20 minutes later. Just after 8 p.m. Yousseff received a call from a panicked friend, asking if he was at the mosque.     Shortly after isha ended on January 29, 2017, a man parked his car in front of the men’s entrance to the mosque. As he stepped inside, armed with a rifle and handgun, he opened fire on the first two worshippers he encountered, Ibrahim Barry, 39, a public servant and Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42, a computer technician. The gunman continued firing, killing Azzedine Soufiane, 57, a butcher who owned a nearby shop; Khaled Belkacemi, 60, a Université Laval professor; Abdelkrim Hassane, 41, a public servant; and Aboubaker Thabti, 44, an employee at a poultry processing plant. Another 19 people were injured, including Aymen Derbali, 41, who had heroically attempted to distract the gunman to protect others. In all, the shooting left six women grieving their husbands, and 17 children without fathers.   Half an hour after the attack, a 27-year-old French-Canadian named Alexandre Bissonnette, called police to turn himself in... Read more