City makes proposal for Muslim cemetery

The lack of a Muslim cemetery in Sherbrooke has once again come under the spotlight following the death of an 8-year old girl of Syrian origin in the Magog River Sunday. Although the girl drowned in Sherbrooke and was living in the city, she had to be buried in Montreal on Monday due to the lack of local Muslim burial ground. Radio-canada, however, is reporting that the City of Sherbrooke has made a proposal to the Association culturelle islamique de l'estrie (ACIE) for a piece of land to resolve the issue.

The land proposed to ACIE is located in the borough of Fleurimont on Desaulniers St. next to the Saint-michel cemetery. It is now up to the Association to approach both levels of government to see if the land meets their standards. If it does, ACIE will be able to buy the land from the City and convert it into a cemetery.

If this proposal bears fruit, this could mean the creation of a second burial place Muslims in Sherbrooke, since the Coopérative funéraire musulmane du sud-est, a completely different entity from the ACIE created in 2017,

says it has made a conditional offer to purchase a local lot from a private landowner for the same purpose.

Sherbrooke's Muslim community has been calling for a cemetery for several years and although there are funeral homes offering multi-denominational religious services, there is no section of the cemetery reserved for a specific religion.

According to the Islamic tradition, it is important that the body of the dead be buried as quickly as possible. So, in addition to having to deal with the pain of losing their daughter on Sunday, the family of the little girl who died the Magog River had to spend an additional $300 to transport her body to Montreal.

ACIE, which is offering emotional and psychological support to the mother since the tragedy, will be organizing a fundraiser during Friday prayers to help absorb costs.