Summary The Mosque officials and Mayor link the incidents to the recent announcement of the opening of city'
(Web Desk) – In what is being termed a hate crime against Muslims in the French part of Canada, a car of the head of the city mosque was deliberately set on fire, according to officials.
According to Al Jazeera, the incident was made public after two weeks since it occurred in order to allow the police to investigate.
“Another hateful act" targeted the mosque and its head, Mohamed Labidi, in addition to "a long series" of other incidents, the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec said in a statement.
Quebec City Mosque that was targeted this year by a lone gunman who killed 6 people and injuring several people. Photo: CBC
Quebec city Mayor Regis Labeaume in a statement to the media stressed that the recent incidents against Muslims have taken time to come to the public’s attention for a very simple reason.
“Silence was the best thing to move the investigation forward,” he said to the media, insisting that what happened disgusted him to the highest degree.
He said that when he was informed of the news, he was “shocked” and “deeply disappointed,” but said the timing was probably not a coincidence.
The fire incident was linked to the announcement of the upcoming opening of the city’s first Muslim cemetery, stated by the Mosque officials and the mayor.
Mohamed Labidi s car was set a blaze, he stated it “another hateful act”. Photo: CBC
"It would be a strange coincidence" if the two were not somehow related, said Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume.
Police spokesman Jean-Francois Vezina stated that setting the car on fire is criminal but said that authorities have not yet determined whether it was a hate crime.
“Nothing is being ruled out,” he said. “It could be a gesture that isn’t at all connected to the Muslim community as much as it could be an event of a hateful nature.”
Labeaume had defended the new Muslim cemetery as a sign of support for Quebec City’s small Muslim community.
The "increase in hateful gestures" towards the Muslim community in Quebec City is "worrying," Labeaume commented.
The incidents are linked to the nationalist or right-wing “extremists” in Canadian province, who have become more vocal against immigration and “radical Islam”.
In June, a group left a pig’s severed head at the entrance of the mosque which was previously targeted by the lone gunman who killed half a dozen people.
Police are currently investigating these incidents.
