Passover Bomb at Montreal Jewish Community Centre
Dear Friends and Partners,
While Canadians celebrate Passover and Easter during this spring holiday season, the Montreal Jewish community is once again jittery after a small bomb exploded in front of Ben Weider Jewish Community Centre on Tuesday night. The device, described as a crude bomb or Molotov cocktail, exploded at about 11 pm on the second night of the Jewish Passover celebration. Employees of the community centre heard the explosion but there was little damage and no one was injured. Police are investigating the incident.
For the Montreal Jewish community this incident took place just two days before the anniversary of the 2004 firebombing of the United Talmud Torah elementary school library and only a few months after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the entrance of an Orthodox Jewish school in September 2006. B’nai Brith has indicated that anti-semitic incidents rose in 2006 by 70 % in Quebec and 12.8 % across Canada. Among the most important of Canadian values is the respect we have for each other’s differences and the strong conviction that violence and intimidation are not an acceptable way to deal with differences. Even though no one was hurt or killed in Tuesday’s explosion, we must make it clear as individual Canadians and as a nation that we do not tolerate hateful attacks on anyone’s beliefs.
Please PRAY:
• for the Montreal Jewish community as they celebrate freedom from slavery and oppression this Passover season, that they would experience peace and security and be able to celebrate free from fear and threats of violence; and,
• that the Canadian values of respect and tolerance would be established and God’s peace would penetrate hearts so that all Canadians can live together in peace and harmony.
ACTION:
The Bible teaches that faith without action is dead, so please take action and write (contact details are included below):
• to the Ben Weider Jewish Community Centre, expressing your concern and support for the Jewish community of Montreal. Let them know that we have not forgotten them and that we are thinking about them and supporting them even in the midst of our own Easter celebrations; and,
• to the federal and provincial Ministers for Public Safety, the Honourable Stockwell Day and Monsieur Jacques Dupuis, encouraging the authorities to make sure that the perpetrators of this cowardly and spiteful act will be brought to justice and to strengthen law enforcement agencies in order to ensure that such incidents or worse do not take place again.
Please remember to send us a copy of your correspondence at:info@onefreeworldinternational.org
Remember, that the persecuted Christians are dying every day, but they are still smiling. They are in a very deep dark night, but they have the candle of the Lord. The enemy can have a very strong weapon and a very strong army, but we have the Lord Almighty.
"They can kill the dreamer, but they cannot kill the dream" in the Lord’s name.
Be with God and may God be with you.
Rev. Majed El Shafie President and Founder One Free World International El Shafie Ministries
Sources: CTV.ca, CBC.ca, theStar.com
CONTACT:
Ben Weider Jewish Community Centre 5400 Westbury Avenue Montreal, QC H3W 2W8 Telephone: (514) 737-6551 E-mail: info@ymywha.com
The Honourable Stockwell Day Minister of Public Safety House of Commons Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6 Tel.: (613) 991-2924; Fax: (613) 995-1154 Email: day.s@parl.gc.ca Webform: http://www.psepc-sppcc.gc.ca/abt/electronic-en.asp
M. Jacques P. Dupuis Ministre de la Sécurité publique 2525, boul. Laurier, 5e étage Tour des Laurentides Québec, QC G1V 2L2 Tel.: (418) 644-6826; Fax: (418) 643-0275 Email: ministre@msp.gouv.qc.ca