Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard added his voice today to a growing chorus of provincial politicians who are speaking out against a proposal to build up to 80 houses for Muslim families on 100 hectares of land in a southern suburb of Montreal.
Radio-Canada reported Monday that Nabil Warda, a 68-year-old tax accountant, plans to submit Friday to the Islamic Community Centre of South Shore—Brossard a real estate development plan to build a low-cost community for about 100 Muslim families.
‘No discrimination’
Speaking to reporters in Marrakesh where he is attending the United Nations conference on climate change, Couillard said the project goes against the values of integration championed by his government.
“There is no way we would allow discrimination,” Couillard said speaking in French. “Discrimination is a two-way street. Inclusion is also a two-way street. We favour mixed habitation for all cultural and religious communities. That’s a fundamental issue for us.”
Quebec’s Minister of Immigration, Diversity and Inclusiveness Minister Kathleen Weil also spoke out against controversial housing plan on Monday.
“A project whose vision is implicitly discriminatory toward a portion of the population could never be deemed acceptable,” Weil said. “In this sense, neither ethnic origin nor religious belief should ever be considered as criteria for the creation of a housing project. Living well together depends largely on individuals’ ability to interact and develop positive relationships.”
Not ‘a ghetto’
But in an interview with Radio-Canada on Monday, Warda defended his project, saying the idea is not to create a Muslim “ghetto” but to offer low-cost housing to vulnerable families that don’t have the financial resources to purchase a house by paying it in full.
Warda explained that Muslim families often struggle to find financing that complies with their faith. Sharia law prohibits usury, which makes many devout Muslims unable to access conventional mortgages offered by banks because they involve paying interest rates.
According to details of the project obtained by Radio-Canada, Warda is proposing that instead of paying a mortgage to a bank, participants in the housing project will instead pay rent ranging between $700 and $900 to Sharia-compliant banks that would own the property as an asset.
The Islamic community centre’s chairman of the board, Mohammed Yacoub, told Radio-Canada the centre will hear Warda out, but rejects the idea of a ghetto.
“We’ve always tried to build bridges with Quebec society,” Yacoub said.
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