The project to create a cemetery for Quebec City Muslims, led by Mohamed Kesri on behalf of the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec, had been defeated by three votes in a referendum.

Reflecting on the result, Bernard Ouellet, Mayor of the town of Saint-Apollinaire, said he had hoped that the opening of the cemetery would become a symbol of acceptance toward the Muslim community, adding that this defeat was mainly because of fear of the people who considered all Muslims to be radicals, The Globe and Mail news reports said.

Kesri said although he was disheartened, he had the perseverance to pursue the fight.

He was quoted in the media as saying: “We will not give up. It’s insane. Three votes. We speak for thousands of Muslims in Quebec City.”

The community said that it would prefer to obtain the cemetery through negotiations, but if that fails, it would be forced to consider a court challenge or human-rights complaint.

The Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec had struck a tentative deal, with a funeral operator to buy a piece of land in an industrial area of Saint-Apollinaire, southwest of Quebec City – which became urgent after the January incident.

In a brief presented to a Quebec parliamentary committee this year, the Union of Quebec Municipalities called the referendum process for land-use issues “dysfunctional” as only voters in the zone adjoining the proposed cemetery site -- an industrial and semi-agricultural area of auto-body shops, horse farms and bungalows, separated from the Saint-Apollinaire town centre by a busy highway -- were eligible to vote.

The referendum approval said Muslim community existed only in Quebec, nowhere else in Canada.

Municipal leaders, who were legitimate to act, were constantly plagued with the threat of referendum and said "the fear of minimal number of signatures on the registry could cancel a municipal project and concluded this system of approval by referendum was dysfunctional.”

Some opponents were concerned that a Muslim-only cemetery would only result in concentration of more Muslims, mosques and would become the biggest threat to Western civilization.

The community expressed their disappointment after yet another futile cemetery debate, which usually ends in a similar fashion every year.

Justifying their demand, the community said that If they could have a Muslim-only cemetery, they could get their dead into the ground before they get cold.

Freezing the dead bodies, said the Muslims, was expensive and that money could be used for the living.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

Image Muslim Cemetry: Twitter