Mosque shooting victim says police should have warned Muslims about 'climate of hatred'

One of the victims injured inthe Quebec City mosque shooting saida warning from police that there was a "climate of hatred" directed towards Muslimsin the provincial capitalcould have prevented some bloodshed.

Those are the words police used in the investigation report intothe pig's head left on the doorstep of the mosque in June 2016.

• Pig's head left outside Quebec City mosque with 'bon apptit' note

CBC obtained the police report, as well as photographs of the card signed by an unknown group calling itself "Qubec Identitaire."

Sad El-Amari is one of five men who survived being shot in the Jan. 29 attack,in whichsix other men died.

"In my mind, if police had acted then, there would have been fewer consequences during the mass shooting," El-Amari told CBC.

It's the first interview the father of fourhasgiven since being shot twice in the right leg and on the left side of his abdomen.

El-Amari spent two months in hospital recovering fromthe gunshot wounds.

"We would have taken precautions," said El-Amari. "Even if the door had been locked, at least the killer would have slowed down, at least momentarily. Either he'd havefled, or if he'd succeeded in opening the glass door, it would have taken more time, and people inside the mosque could have gone out the emergency door."

El-Amari said everything happened so quickly, no one had time to flee or hide.

'Race against death' to safeguard mosque

The new headof the mosque's board of directors,Mohamed Labidi, said mosque administrators had already started planning renovations to the buildingto make it safer.

The Islamic cultural centre isa former bank, and the front is all glass. Labidi said an architect had dropped off plans to expand and safeguard the mosquejust weeks before the shooting.

"We felt like it was a race against death, making the mosque safer," said Labidi.

Labidi also said he wished police had alerted mosque administrators about the "climate of hatred."

"We were disappointed [the pig's head incident]was not treated as a hate crime," said Labidi.

He said there had been signs of escalating hatred targeting Muslimsin the years leading up to the shooting. In November 2014, two people were caught on videotape sticking posters on the city's three main mosques telling Muslims to "go home."

There was the June 2016 incident involving the pig's head.

And in the fall of 2016, members who identified themselves as members of the far-rightgroup LaMeutedropped off business cards at severalhalalgrocery storesin the city.

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Labidi said he is at peace with how mosque administrators reacted to those incidents.

"We don't regret anything," said Labidi."We insisted to police we were worried, and no one listened."

He said he racks it up to the inexperienceof the Quebec City police service, adding that no one could have predicted the shooting.

Complaints never trivialized, police say

Quebec City police say they did everything possible to investigate the incidents against Muslims.

"When an event is flagged, it is never trivialized," said Cpt. Mario Vzina who works in the Quebec City police force's major crimes unit.

Vzina saidthe term "climate of hatred," used in the report to describe the incident when the pig's head was left at the mosque, might be going too far.

Vzina prefers to say someone was "sending a message" meant to disturb people there.

He added that every detail of the police investigations was passed along to mosque leaders so that they could make the final decision.

Labidisaid the mosque now has a chip-card system on its doors, so only its 300 members can enter. He also said the police are patrolling regularly.