The carcass of a wild animal was deposited on Saturday morning in front of the new Islamic Cultural Center of Vaudreuil-Soulanges, in Montérégie. The establishment has been at the heart of social tensions since its inauguration last year. A 33-year-old man was arrested in the case, confirms the Sûreté du Québec, and charges of criminal harassment and incitement to hatred could be filed against him.
“Vaudreuil-Dorion is a very safe, very inclusive city, it is a multicultural city. It is perhaps an isolated case, someone not very well in his head ”, estimates an active member of the Muslim community who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
Since its inauguration in October 2020, the center has undermined relations between the local Muslim community and the building’s neighbors.
Officially, this former restaurant-bar has been converted into a “community center”, explains the mayor of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Guy Pilon. “He cannot have religious acts. There can only be community activities, receiving the community for homework, meals, community activities. “
However, according to one of the neighbors of this building located on the outskirts of the city, on the Saint-Antoine range, the influx of faithful for prayer has already started. “Hearing cars, slamming doors, next to your house, in the middle of the night, we don’t want to experience that,” says Jean-François Nantel. “It bothers me more or less, but in three or four years it’s going to get big, because the Muslim population is increasing year by year. “
There is no prayer that is held there “yet”, qualifies the member of the Muslim community. The transformation of this community center into a mosque for the entire Vaudreuil-Soulanges region has been put on hold due to the pandemic, he explains to the Duty. “We do all our community activities there, sociocultural, while waiting to regularize the status of place of worship. “
He affirms that the deposit of this hare carcass constitutes the first gesture which resembles a threat towards the Moslem community and that “there is no panic” around this “isolated event”.
“We are waiting for the end of the investigation by the Sûreté du Québec. We currently have no details on the gesture of that person, his intention. We are in a bit of nothing. “
A contested project
Dissociating himself from Saturday’s gesture, Jean-François Nantel explains having tried “democratically” to block this project by holding a referendum on the zoning change which was to authorize the creation of a place of worship.
Vain struggle, because no zoning change was ultimately necessary for the sale of the building; use as a community center was already permitted. “We contested a project and received a letter of formal notice,” he laments, insisting on the lack of transparency in the process. “It’s playing on words constantly. […] I take that as an insult, and a lot of people take it as an insult. There was a democratic process that was not respected. “
“Shocked” and “disturbed” by the turn of events, the mayor defends the occupants of the cultural center. “These are people who have been in Vaudreuil-Dorion for 20 years in a building, and no one knew they were there. We never had a complaint, because no one knew they were there. All the more so, he said, since their religious activities on Friday – a holy day for Muslims – take place in another building, zoned as a place of worship.
The representative of the community indicates instead that the building located on rang Saint-Antoine “is fully occupied”: “We even have activities on weekends, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, such as taekwondo, chess competitions, lessons. Arabic, Koran, activities like that. “
“The center has never had any problems,” he assures us.
According to him, the Muslim community of Vaudreuil-Soulanges “easily exceeds 3000 families”.