Members of Quebec's Muslim community are now asking for calm after condemning last week’s attacks on Canadian soldiers.

Many say they fear a backlash as more evidence comes forward linking the violent attacks to men with extremist Islamic beliefs.

To open a dialogue on the matter, dozens of Quebec Muslims met Monday evening to discuss their concerns at a downtown community centre.

Montreal engineer Mohamed Hachem said he and other Muslim Canadians are feeling insecure.

“I think it's harder every time there is something like that, like what we're going through. I could feel it after what happened,” he said of the attacks in Ottawa and St. Jean sur Richelieu that left two soldiers dead.

 “All Muslim Canadians that right now feel a little bit threatened by everybody saying, ‘Oh because it's your fault, it's radical people from mosques’ and things like that, it's much more complex than that,” said Alexandre Boulerice, the NDP MP for Rosemont-Petite-Patrie.

After a mosque was vandalized in Cold Lake, Alberta soon after the Ottawa shooting, many Muslim Canadians are asking for more understanding.

“When any violence is committed in Canada, the government and the society is responsible and we have to reflect on the real causes,” said Montrealer Houda Debbabi.

“We have been seeing, especially in the social media that there is really a backlash with hatred speech,” said Haroun Bouazzi of AMAL-Quebec, the Muslim and Arab Association for Secularism.

On Friday an 18-year-old man was arrested by the SQ about 100 kilometres east of Quebec City.

He is accused of threatening to cause death or bodily harm to members of the Muslim community via social media.

“People must be really careful when they publish comments or opinions on the internet, even when they talk to somebody else. Uttering threats whether verbal or via internet like social networks, like Facebook or Twitter may subject the (writer) to prosecution,” said SQ spokesperson Melanie Dumaresq.

Many Muslims say Martin Couture-Rouleau and Michael Zehaf-Bibeau likely struggled with mental instability, and it was mental illness that led to their radical views, not the Islamic faith. 

“We've been talking about religion, religion, religion, the Muslim religion again and again, which doesn't seem to be the centre problem of these people. These people needed help,” said Hachem.

The country needs to begin a broader discussion on that matter, he said.