Plans for Muslim housing on hold
Outcry follows proposal for Montreal project
• The promoter of a controversial suburban Montreal housing development for Muslims is putting his plan on hold after it was denounced as discriminatory this week.
Nabil Warda told the National Post he has cancelled an information meeting planned for Friday evening, saying he wants to “let the dust settle” and clarify his project before going any further.
The mosque where he planned to meet potential buyers told him he is no longer welcome to hold his meeting there after it was flooded with abusive messages from opponents.
“We never supported the project. No project was presented to us,” said Mohamed Yacoub, co-chairman of the management committee at Islamic Community Centre of South Shore in Brossard.
“Since it’s causing so much controversy, there’s no reason to put more oil on the fire. We told him, ‘We don’t want any presentation. You can do it somewhere else.’ ”
Warda said Thursday he does not expect an information meeting will be held before the new year. “Right now we’re putting everything on hold,” he said.
His initial email last month inviting members of the Brossard mosque to consider the project said the community would follow “the precepts of Islam.” His aim is to offer a financial arrangement so Muslims who consider it a sin to pay interest can buy in his development of pre-fabricated homes. He has not yet acquired the land, but he said it would be within 30 kilometres of Brossard.
The email described a spirit of communal living, with common areas for cooking, gardening and prayer, and resident tradespeople doing odd jobs for their neighbours.
Warda said in an interview that non-Muslims would not be excluded, but residents would be expected to share common values.
For example, drinking alcohol would only be allowed inside homes and women would not be allowed to walk around “half naked.” Thursday he reiterated his insistence on “modesty” of dress for women living in the proposed community, saying anything sexually provocative would be banned.
“If somebody wants to come and live in the community and provoke some reactions that maybe she did not expect, she will have to adjust,” he said.
Yacoub said the mosque has been receiving hate message on its website “non-stop” since Radio-Canada broke the news of the proposed development Monday. There was also concern the meeting would draw protesters.
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard said the project discriminated against non-Muslims, and the National Assembly passed a unanimous motion Tuesday declaring real estate projects cannot be based on “religious or ethnic segregation.”