Still no Muslim cemetery in Quebec two years after mosque attack

QUEBEC CITY: Two years after six people were killed in an attack at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec, the local Canadian Muslim community still does not have its own cemetery to bury their dead.

Land had been chosen in 2017 for a new cemetery about 40 kilometers from the capital of Canada’s Quebec province, but the project was rejected in a referendum. Quebec City later sold land adjacent to a Catholic cemetery to the mosque, but its opening has been delayed by technical issues.

"In this area, the water table is a little too high," explained Frederic Fournier, spokesman for Quebec’s environment ministry. The Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec (CCIQ), he said, "must propose a solution to lower the water table to prevent the coffins from coming into contact with the groundwater and avoid contamination."

CCIQ president Boufeldja Benabdallah said it is pressing ahead but the water woes could take a few more months to resolve. Once opened, the new cemetery will be able to accomodate a few hundred burials. "The graveyard will be good to use for 50 years," he said. "In years past, there were only two options for the deceased," Mohamed Labidi, a former president of the CCIQ, told AFP.

Either their remains were repatriated to their birth country -- the six killed in the 2017 mosque shooting had emigrated to Canada -- or they were buried at a Muslim cemetery in Montreal, about 250 kilometers from Quebec City.