'We're here to stay': Quebecers who fought to get Muslim cemeteries built say they're a sign of progress

Standing in front of the gates of the Quebec City Muslim Cemetery,Boufeldja Benabdallah reflects onthe more than two decades he spent trying to establisha localburial groundfor his community.

"It was 22 years of fighting, research and meetings," he said. "People were burying their loved ones at the Muslim cemetery in Montreal."

Benabdallah, who isthe cemetery director and co-founder of the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Centre, said it was extremely difficult to find land that was available, affordable and properly zoned.

Reda Bouchelaghemofthe AssociationCulturelle Islamique de l'Estrie (ACIE) in Quebec's Eastern Townshipssaid his group faced similar challenges.

Both men sayittook a tragedy that shocked the country fortheir cemeteries to see the light of day.

Quebec City mosque attack

It has been five years since thedeadly attack on the Quebec City mosque.On Jan. 29, 2017, six members of Benabdallah's congregation were killed, and five others were critically injured when a gunman enteredthecity's Islamic Cultural Centreduring evening prayers.One of the injured is still ina wheelchair.Alexandre Bissonnetteis serving two concurrentlife sentencesfor the killings.

Following theshootings, the bodies of five of the six Muslim men killedwere sentto their countriesof origin. The sixth was buried in Laval, Que., which at the time had the only two Muslim cemeteries in Quebec.

According to Islamic tradition, the body of a deceased Muslim is to be washed, shrouded and a communal prayer performed before it is interredin the shortest possible time after death something that's been historically difficult for Muslims in Canada.

A few months after the attack, Benabdallahfound a potential cemetery site in Saint-Apollinaire, a town of 6,000about45 kilometressouth of Quebec City. The mayor ofSaint-Apollinaire approvedanIslamic cemetery, but a group of residents protested the project. Theypushed the issueto a municipal referendum, where it wasvoted down.

Former mayor Rgis Labeaume steps in

Benabdallah insteadgot the ear of Quebec City's then-mayorRgis Labeaume, who said he was determined to work with the city's Muslim community in an effort to heal and moveforward after the 2017 attack.

In the days after the shooting rampage at the mosque, Labeaumepromisedto find a suitable site for a Muslim cemetery.

"We are working with them to see what they need. We will help them," he said at the time.

It was Labeaume who later found aparcel of landon Frank-Carrel Street in the sameSainte-Foyneighbourhoodas the Quebec City mosque.

"He knew the difficulties we were having, and all of a sudden, he found a sitethat belonged to the city and was already zoned for a cemetery," said Benabdallah.

After raising more than$250,000 in donations, the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Centre signed a purchase agreement with the city in 2019. The cemeteryopenedin June 2020, and since then, 16 Muslims have beenburied there.

Labeaume'sgesture"really touched the community,"Benabdallah said.

Muslim cemetery in Sherbrooke

In the Eastern Townships, Bouchelaghemshares a similar story. The Sherbrooke man who first came to the region 20 years ago started looking for a burial ground for Muslims in 2015.

"Back then, it felt like we were running up against a wall, but things eventually started to open up for us," he said, "specifically after theattack in Quebec City."

In 2018, the City of Sherbrooke agreed to sell the Islamic cultural association a small site in the north end of the city, near Victoria Park. Following a fundraising campaign and approval from the province, the cemetery opened last November.

"Now Muslims who live here in Sherbrooke don't have to visit Montreal to lay flowers on a grave," said Bouchelaghem. "It's an enormous gain ... spiritually and emotionally."

CBC reached out to city officials inQuebec City and Sherbrooke to ask aboutthe impact the 2017 mosque attack had on their relationshipswith the Muslim communitybut did not hear back.

Putting down roots

Bouchelaghemhas watched Sherbrooke's Muslim community grow over the past two decades, as more international students arrived to studyat Bishop's University andwaves of Syrian refugees and other immigrants settled in the region.

He says language challenges for Muslim immigrants who don't speak Frenchand Quebec's Bill 21 whichbans some civil servantsfrom wearing religious symbols at workhave driven some Muslims out of the province,but manyin the community consider it home.

"We're here to stay," he said. "The majority of the community, we're well established here. We have work,our children go to school here, and we're working to advance our society."

Sombre anniversary

For Benabdallah, the establishment of the Quebec City cemetery is a sign of progress.

"When someone decides they want to be buried here andputs it in their will, it's a sign of integration," he said."It's a sign to the family, to the children [that]this is somewhere we can live."

As he ponderedthe fifthanniversary of the mosque attack, Benabdallah said he thinksof the lives that were lost, the people who were hurt and the fact he and his friends were targeted because of their religion.

"We have that obligation to commemorate and remember those moments, to remember our brothers and those who were injured," he said.

But while attitudes toward Muslimshave improved, he said, the broader fight against discrimination must continue.

"The cries of hate haven't disappeared. Islamophobia persists but these things, we can change," he said.