"They wanted my blood." Mosque attack moulana speaks
Image: JACKIE CLAUSEN
“They wanted to kill me. They wanted my blood.”
These are the chilling words of Shia Muslim cleric Ali Nchinyane‚ who survived a knife-attack at the Imam Hussain Mosque in Ottawa on Thursday.
In a moment he said marked the line between life and death‚ Nchiyane grappled with one of the three men who had stormed the mosque intent on killing him.
“Whether I was the target or our building was‚ I don’t know…but I do know for certain that this was not a robbery‚ these men did not come here to steal things‚” he said.
“He said he wanted to kill me and I grabbed his knife. He shouted at me to let it go and I told him that I would let go when he unhanded me. In that moment I know he wanted to take my life‚” he recounted.
It is understood that the trio‚ dressed in traditional Muslim attire‚ had arrived at the mosque after midday prayers had drawn to a close.
The caretaker and muzzien (the man tasked with leading the call to prayer)‚ Muhammad Ali‚ had noticed the men at the gate and thinking they were coming to pray‚ let them inside.
Once in the property‚ the men attacked Ali and Nchiyane with knives before torching the mosque's library.
Mechanic Abbas Essop‚ who had responded to Ali’s screams‚ had run into the mosque. He too was attacked and with his throat slit‚ lost a large volume of blood.
He later died in hospital.
Ali remains in a serious condition in a Durban hospital after his attackers slashed at his midsection a blade.
Nchiyane had been stabbed in his upper body.
The moulana said that their Shia beliefs had drawn scorn of Islamic extremists‚ who disagree with the teachings of their sect.
“This was a religious attack‚ which is all that this thing was about. They wanted to kill us all [and raze the mosque] because of our beliefs‚” he added.
The Shia believe that the direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad should lead the faith.
They maintain that Ali‚ Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law‚ was the rightful heir to the leadership of the Islam religion after Muhammad's death.
- TimesLIVE
