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Canada : The first Muslim cemetery inaugurated in Quebec

Les Jardins Québec, a cemetery at Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures city./Ph. Lépine Cloutier
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A cemetery for Muslims in the region of Quebec has been inaugurated on Sunday 9th of July, six months after the deadly shooting that targeted a mosque in the city. A funeral business in Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, city located in central Quebec Canada, offered a portion of the existing cemetery for Muslims, Global news reports.

Yvan Rodrigue announced on Wednesday 26th April that it will open a section for Muslims in Les Jardins Quebec cemetery. The town is going to provide 500 plots for the Muslim community in the city at the end of May 2017.

The project was maintained without the participation of the Centre Culturel Islamique de Quebec which is working on its own project opening a Muslim cemetery in Saint-Apollinaire. The same source indicates that «the centre’s secretary Mohamed Kesri explained that the portion of the cemetery in Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, would not fulfill the needs of the Muslim community», adding that «according to him, the majority of people prefer knowing their loved ones are buried in a place owned by the community, where the rites and customs will be followed».

The idea of creating a cemetery for Muslims residing in Quebec was initiated a month ago. According to the same source, in March 200 people organized a meeting in Apollinaire, a town southeastern Quebec, to negotiate the opening of a Muslim cemetery. Half of the attendants welcomed the project and others were uncertain about it.

The section dedicated to Muslims will cover a land of 940 square meters and will allow the community to burry its dead in the region instead of sending the bodies of its dead to Montreal or their countries.

The problem of Muslim cemeteries arose right after the mosque shooting in Quebec. On January 2017 six people were killed and nineteen others were injured in a mosque in Quebec when a gunman opened fire after the end of evening prayers. The victims were buried overseas since there was no Muslim cemetery in the region where the shooting occurred.   

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