Mohammad Moiz Omar agrees that the attack is a terrorist act
Court documents show that a man who attacked Muslims at a mosque in Mississauga, Ontario, last year had been planning the attack for a year. He did this because he hated Muslims and wanted to scare them.
Mohammad Moiz Omar “intended to cause a mass casualty event” when he walked into the Dar Al-Tawheed Islamic Centre during early morning prayer on March 19, 2022, and sprayed bear spray at worshippers while swinging a hatchet, according to a statement of facts read at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Brampton, Ont., on Wednesday.
At the time of the attack, Omar was 24 years old. One of his lawyers, Jacob Roth of Robichaud Criminal Lawyers, said that Omar pleaded guilty to three charges. Among these charges are giving a poisonous substance with the intent to endanger life or cause bodily harm, assault with a weapon, and causing damage to religious property out of religious bias, prejudice, or hate.
“As part of his plea, Mr. Omar admitted that being guilty of these three charges is terrorist activity,” Roth said in a phone call Wednesday.
Ibrahim Hindy, the imam of the mosque, said that the news that came out in court on Wednesday confirmed the worst fear of his community.
“This wasn’t someone having a bad day or an episode of mental illness. Hindy said, “This person had a clear plan for what he wanted to do and how he wanted to kill Muslims.” “All I can say is that I’m glad our church was able to stop him before he could hurt someone.”
‘You are all terrorists,’ attacker sai
The statement of facts says that Omar walked into the mosque at 7 a.m., when about 30 people were there for morning prayer. He came up behind them and swung the hatchet while spraying them with bear spray.
During the attack, people in the church heard him say, “I hate you” and “You are all terrorists.”
Congregants pushed Omar to the ground and held him down, which stopped the attack.
Even though no one was seriously hurt, one person was kicked in the stomach and several people got sick from the bear spray. Fixing the damage to the mosque cost $16,000.
When police searched his car, they found a large knife, a cleaver, a hammer, rope, drill bits, safety goggles, fire extinguishers, and something they didn’t know what it was. Most of them were bought recently at a Canadian Tire.
Document from court shows that a man said he hated Islam
While Omar was in police custody, he told them he was born into a Muslim family but didn’t believe in God.
He said that he hated Islam and Muslims and was upset that he couldn’t do more serious damage to the victims.
The document says that Omar told police he was “provoked” by what he called “an intolerant and violent religion.”
“The attack was also meant to scare a certain group of people (Muslims) about their safety,” it says.
Omar told the police that he tried to get guns for the attack but couldn’t. He also said that he thought about making a bomb but didn’t have the knowledge or skills to do so. He also told them that he had thought about attacking other places, like a different mosque or the Pakistani consulate, or running down Muslims with his car.
“When asked if he wanted to encourage others to do the same thing, he said, ‘In a way, yeah. “You can always have hope,” says the document.
During a search of Omar’s home, investigators found a hard drive with video of the March 2019 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, where a white supremacist killed 51 people and hurt another 40. Omar told the police that he liked seeing a woman get shot during that attack.
Police also found proof that Omar tried to get a 3-D printer that could print a gun and that he sent himself emails that showed “a high level of planning.”
Could have been an attack like the one on the mosque in Quebec
Steven Zhou, a spokesman for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, also said that the congregation’s quick response that day was great.
“If it weren’t for their bravery, we might have had to go to more funerals than just the one today,” Zhou said. “They could have been killed in another attack like the one in Quebec City, or in the truck attack in London, Ontario, which happened just a few months before this attack, or in the killing of a caretaker at the IMO mosque in Rexdale, which isn’t too far from here.”
Zhou said that these attacks show “a trend of people violently attacking Muslims because of who they are and what they believe,” which is something that all Canadians must deal with.
In June, both the Public Prosecution Service of Canada and the Ministry of the Attorney General agreed that Omar should be charged with terrorism. Because terrorism is a special kind of crime, prosecutors can ask for harsher sentences than they would for a regular crime.
Roth, who is Omar’s lawyer, said that his client will stay in jail until he is sentenced.
Both the prosecution and the defense have asked for a sentence of eight years in prison.
Hindy said that wasn’t good enough.
“I think anyone who wants to kill a lot of people in Canada and makes plans to do so deserves more than eight years in prison,” he said.
Omar will go back to court on Tuesday for a hearing about his sentence.