Quebec Politicians Playing To ‘Irrational Fears’ About Islamic Extremism
By
Graeme Hamilton
February 18, 2015
Up until last week, everything seemed to be proceeding
smoothly for the Muslim Cultural Centre slated to open in a Shawinigan, Que.
industrial park. The deadline for requesting a referendum on the necessary
zoning change had passed without a single opponent coming forward, and city
council was set to approve the change. The days of travelling the half-hour to
Trois-Rivières for prayers were about to end for Shawinigan’s 20 Muslim
families.
Then council abruptly changed course. The local
newspaper Le Nouvelliste reported that there were cries of “Yes!” from members
of the public when the council rejected the zoning change Feb. 10. Proponents
of the mosque project who expressed their disappointment at the meeting were
greeted with insults, and Mayor Michel Angers had to ask people to leave if
they could not remain civil, the newspaper reported.
There was no evidence the planned centre had any link
to extremists. Mr. Angers later acknowledged that the refusal to allow the
zoning change was a reaction to a flood of last-minute complaints — from within
Shawinigan and beyond — expressing “irrational fears” about Islamic extremism.
Rather than calming those fears, some Quebec
politicians, like the city councillors in Shawinigan, are playing to them. In
Quebec City Wednesday, legislators spent most of the afternoon debating a
proposal from the opposition Coalition Avenir Québec to modify Quebec’s charter
of rights to prohibit “repeated preaching” that runs counter to “Quebec
values.” (The vote on the motion was postponed until Thursday, but both the
governing Liberals and official opposition Parti Québécois said they would vote
against it.)
François Legault, the leader of the Coalition Avenir
Québec who once claimed he was re-entering politics to restore the province’s
fiscal health, has recently switched focus, seeking to outflank the PQ as a
champion of Quebec identity. In the wake of last October’s terror attacks in
Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Ottawa and the January attacks in Paris, both
opposition parties are trying to portray Premier Philippe Couillard as soft on
extremism.
On Tuesday, Mr. Legault sympathized with Shawinigan’s
council and suggested that any new mosque project in Quebec should be greeted
with suspicion. “Who can blame a mayor, confronted with the fears of his
citizens,” Mr. Legault asked. He said before any mosques are authorized, the
government should carry out an investigation to determine what will be preached
there.
“If there are groups who want to repeatedly preach the
denial of the Quebec values that are in the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and
Freedoms, that should be prohibited,” he told reporters. He cited gender
equality and protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation as
values under threat.
Mr. Couillard has criticized Mr. Legault’s proposal to
clamp down on speech that runs counter to Quebec values. In the National Assembly
Wednesday, Mr. Couillard said Mr. Legault’s plan would affect not just mosques
but churches and synagogues. “There exists in Quebec a church that does not
allow women to be celebrants,” he said. “There exists in Quebec another church
that says women and men must be separated in religious buildings.” He said the
CAQ “really likes to talk about Muslims, but religion is a much more complex
phenomenon than that.”
But Mr. Couillard has stopped short of condemning
Shawinigan’s actions. He simply expressed the hope that a dialogue between
municipal officials and Muslim leaders will lead to a solution. Philippe Bégin
Garti, a Shawinigan lawyer involved in the mosque project, declined comment
Wednesday, saying his group is in talks with the city and seeking “an amicable
solution.”
Mr. Legault accused the Premier of giving priority to
free speech over other values and said the government’s inaction was sowing
fear in the population.
If there is a segment of the population with reason to
fear, it is the Muslims who are being told the mere act of worshipping is cause
for suspicion. Instead of denouncing the insults thrown at Shawinigan Muslims
last week, Mr. Legault sought to score political points by feeding the
prejudice.
Shawinigan is a short drive from little Hérouxville.
That is where the 2007 adoption of a “code of life” purporting to tell
newcomers what’s what helped trigger a full-blown crisis in Quebec, as people
objected to the “accommodation” of religious minorities. Then as now, strong
political leadership was sorely lacking.
Graeme Hamilton a graduate
of the University of Western Ontario and Columbia University, Graeme has been
with the National Post since 1998. He is the paper's Quebec correspondent,
based in Montreal, where he began his newspaper career with The Gazette.
Source:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/18/graeme-hamilton-quebec-politicians-playing-to-irrational-fears-about-islamic-extremism/