The Kamloops Islamic Association is hosting a prayer service this Friday to honour the victims of the New Zealand mosque shootings.

It’s being held at the Ayesha Mosque with prayer taking place between 6 PM and 7 PM.

Association Director Umme Mansoory says there has been a lot of support from the Kamloops community since the shootings on March 15.

“Churches and other places of worship in Kamloops opened their doors to say, ‘Hey, if you want to hold a prayer service, we may have larger capacity than your mosque. Please know that our doors are open to you if you want to hold something in our space,'” she said.

“That is also very meaningful to us that we have our interfaith partners in Kamloops open their doors for us.”

Mansoory says they’ll be able to host hundreds of people at the mosque, noting that people will also be able to share their feelings that day.

“A component of the program will be where we talk about as a greater Kamloops community, how do we move forward?” Mansoory added. “How do we make sure that we are not spreading this message of hate? If we see messages of hate, if we see micro-aggression, how do we address this?”

“How do we stop this from growing into something bigger?”

She noted that last Friday, March 15, Kamloops RCMP were at the mosque as people gathered to pray, to reassure peeople who might have been feeling scared after the shootings in New Zealand.

“This happened at a mosque. A couple of months ago, it happened at a synagogue, before that it happened at a nightclub,” Mansoory added. “It’s no longer becoming a specific targeted thing.”

“Everybody is experiencing it in their communities, so that’s what I mean. How can we come together and solve this issue as a community because it’s becoming more systematic.”

The March 22 event at the Ayesha Mosque on 2805 Highway 5A, in Knutsford, is open to everyone.

(Photo: Ayesha Mosque/facebook)