Quebec City has accepted a Muslim community’s offer to buy land to build a cemetery.
The Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec (CCIQ) bought the land next to the Belmont cemetery, priced at $270,000 and spanning 5,706 square metres, south of Frank-Carrell Street.
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The city explained the area is already zoned for a cemetery, so no changes will have to be made.
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“For more than 400 years, Quebec has welcomed people from all cultures, languages and religions,” said Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume.
“To live together, no matter our origins, is fundamental for our society to succeed.”
This comes just weeks after a proposal to build a Muslim cemetery in Saint-Apollinaire, 35 kilometres southwest of Quebec City, was rejected by citizens.
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After the referendum was voted down 19 to 16, Mayor Bernard Ouellet insisted he wouldn’t make residents vote on the subject again.
“For an ordinary cemetery, I imagine it wouldn’t have been a problem, but this is a Muslim cemetery. That’s what created this conflict,” he said at the time.
He added that some people told him they think a mosque will be next and that Muslim people would start buying houses and that they would “invade.”
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“It’s so flagrant it was a prejudiced vote,” said Mohamed Kesri, who proposed the Saint-Apollinaire project with the CCIQ.
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The plan for the cemetery was developed after January’s deadly mosque shooting; opponents of the project had argued Muslims should be buried in Islamic sections of existing cemeteries.
— With files from The Canadian Press.