Calgary Muslims react to funeral shooting - Action News
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Calgary Muslims react to funeral shooting

While RCMP continues to investigate an altercation that ended in gunfire following a funeral at the Muslim Cemetery near Cochrane on Friday, members of Calgarys Muslim community are also wanting to learn more about the root causes of that violence.

You're there to bury the deceased and then you're all of a sudden running to save your life.'

Police are still seeking witnesses to a shooting at a Muslim cemetery Friday near Cochrane. (CBC)

While RCMP continues to investigate an altercation that ended in gunfire following a funeral at the Muslim Cemetery near Cochrane on Friday, members of Calgary's Muslim community are also wanting to learn moreabout the root causes of that violence.

The ominous setting of a cemetery wasn't lost on Zaheera Tariq when she heard about Friday's shooting.

"You're there to bury the deceased and then you're all of a sudden running to save your life," Tariq tells CBC News.

Tariq is with the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada in Calgary.

Tariq wasn't at the funeral, but knows people that were, including an imam who left just before the shooting started.

"It's scary," she said.

Four young men were shot in the gunfire Friday afternoon, all were left with non-life threatening injuries.

Police believe this was a targeted attack and they're looking into whether it could be gang-related.

Ghazanfar Zafar of the Muslim Council of Calgary says as the city grows, youth violence may be on the rise.

Ghazanfar Zafar of the Muslim Council of Calgary says there are lots of questions around the Friday shooting at a cemetery near Cochrane. (CBC)

"All we know is that they were a bunch of youth that came and started shooting at each other," Zafar said.

"We definitely need to allocate much more resources to these matters to find out to what extent it's a problem within the community that needs to be addressed and to what extent we need to cooperate with the outside agencies to make sure we can help."

The council is working with police, who are still seeking witnesses to the Friday incident.

With files from Kate Adach and Evelyne Asselin