A radicalized, right-wing, white Trump supporter walks into a place of worship and terrorizes a room full of innocent Muslim men as they submit in peace and prayer. How depressingly ironic! These men became the victims of the very label that the media and public use to condemn them: terrorist.

When radicalization is publicly discussed in Canada, it is almost always with a reference to Islamic extremism or terrorism. It's as if this phenomenon is strictly confined to individuals who have adopted extremist Islamist ideas like those of ISIS. Yet, this narrow conception of radicalization has, without a doubt, allowed for the atrocities in the Quebec City mosque to take place.

By failing to acknowledge the threat coming from the radicalization of individuals and the presence of more than 100 right-wing groups throughout Canada, we have blinded ourselves to the possibility of something like this ever happening.

On Monday, January 30, 2017 many Nova Scotians woke up to the shocking news that  six Muslim men -- IT worker Mamadou Tanou Barry from Guinea; analyst and programmer Abdelkrim Hassane from Algeria; Laval chemical-engineering professor Khaled Belkacemi originally from Algeria; Aboubaker Thabti, a pharmacy worker; Azzeddine Soufiane a geologist from Morocco who ran a halal grocery store; and Ibrahima Barry from Guinea who worked for the Québec health-insurance bureau -- all were fathers, sons, husbands, and respected community members&nbsp

While details are still unfolding on the Quebec City mosque attack Sunday night, there is little question that the shooter was motivated by hate for Muslims.  As such, Quebec and Canadian political leaders should take a long, hard look at how their statements and actions may exacerbate such hate.

Quebec Muslims rightly see the Quebec City mosque killings as just the latest escalation in a trend of growing harassment against Canada's Muslims.  "The Muslim community in Quebec is suffering from a flood of hate attacks...and now the attacks are escalating and bringing...the death of innocent people," lamented Samer Majzoub, president of the Canadian Muslim Forum.