Muslims in Quebec City have finally acquired their own cemetery, the city\u2019s mayor and members of the Muslim community said Friday at a news conference.
\nThe announcement comes three weeks after a referendum narrowly defeated the establishment of a Muslim-only burial ground — a project headed by the Quebec Islamic Culture Centre — in a nearby town.
\nThe city sold the 6,000-square-meter (20,000-square-mile) site to the center for $270,000 plus taxes. When it opens this fall, it will be the first Muslim owned and operated cemetery in the Quebec City region. It has been decades in the planning.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a great day,\u201d Mohamed Labidi, head of the center told reporters. \u201cIt is an historic day for Quebec City. Today, we are reaping the benefits of 20 years of hard work.\u201d
\nBoufeidja Benabdallah, interim coordinator of the cemetery project, said the cemetery means Muslim families in the area will not have to face a long trip to visit their deceased relatives and friends. The closest Muslim cemetery is 266 kilometers (165 miles) away in Laval.
\n\u201cMany Muslim families in Quebec City will no longer have to endure the sorrow of the remoteness of their deceased,\u201d he told Canadian media. \u201cWe will die in peace.\u201d
\nQuebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume said his city has always embraced all peoples.
\n\u201cFor over 400 years, Quebec has been a welcoming city for all cultures, languages and religions,\u201d he said.
\nThe site is next to the Notre-Dame-de-Belmont cemetery, where prominent Quebecers are buried, and near the center, where six Muslims were gunned down while at prayer earlier this year.
\nBenabdallah said the approval of the cemetery assuages some of the hurt of the killings.
\n\u201cI\u2019ll finish up with a fraternal thought for our six brothers who died in the tragedy last Jan. 29,\u201d he said. \u201cToday\u2019s announcement will put a bit of balm on this tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Muslims in Quebec City have finally acquired their own cemetery, the city\u2019s mayor and members of the Muslim community said Friday at a news conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c102-muslim-minorities"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n