QUEBEC: Muslims in Quebec City are finally going to have a plot of land for the burial of their beloved ones after the city has conditionally accepted an offer from the Islamic community to buy land near a local cemetery.
The 6,000 square-meter parcel of land, which sits on a former snow dump next to the Notre-Dame-de-Belmont cemetery and close to the Quebec Islamic Cultural Center, is being sold by the city for about $270,000 (SR1 million) plus taxes. It is expected to be ready this fall.
The good news comes just weeks after Saint-Apollinaire, a town of around 6,000 southwest of Quebec City, rejected a zoning change proposal during a referendum that would have allowed for a Muslim cemetery to be built there.
Tradition dictates that burial should take place, preferably within 24 hours, after a Muslim person dies. The cremation and burying of ashes is forbidden in the Muslim faith.
Quebec City’s Islamic community has been looking for a cemetery for two decades, but made a renewed push after they completed the payment for the city’s main mosque in 2011.
A gunman killed six men and injured 19 others in the main prayer hall of the mosque during a shooting in January.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a message over Twitter, congratulated the Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume for taking action, calling the move “an important and courageous step for dignity and decency.”
Quebec Muslims to finally get own cemetery for burials
Updated 05 August 2017