Alexandre Cloutier defends holiday greeting to Muslim Quebecers

Parti Qubcois leadership hopeful Alexandre Cloutier is standing by his decision to extend his best wishes to Muslim Quebecers celebrating a religious holiday.

Lastweek,Cloutier tweeted out a message to those celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadanand was promptly criticized, most notably by his fellow leadership candidate Jean-Franois Lise.

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Lise echoed another critic's question do you do the same for those celebrating Easter? and added one of his own, musing about a day for celebrating atheists.

In a letter published on the Huffington Post website Thursday, Cloutier said he does, in fact, offer his best wishes to those celebrating Easter.

He said it's high time that the PQ follows through with its long-running promise to become more inclusive.

"When the opportunity arises, I will continue to mark celebrations and important moments for the cultural communities that contribute to the modern Quebec identity because I firmly believe that is how the PQ opens its horizons andbrings people together," he said.

Cloutier said while he still believes in the need to secularize Quebec's public service, wishing peoplea happy holidays doesn't call that belief into question.

Difference of views

The clash between the two rivals is one of the first in the race to revolve around an issue other than sovereignty.

The topic of a secular public service became one of the hot-button issues of the 2014 provincial election, which saw Bernard Drainville and Lise champion what became known as the secularismcharter.

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After that election, in which the Liberals won the province's first majority government since 2008, Cloutier distanced himself from the charter, saying he would prefer to focus on other issues such as education.

In announcing his bidto lead the party, Cloutier said diversity is key to the province's identity.

The PQ will select its new leader Oct. 7.