The Mayor of the Montreal borough of Outremont is defending a decision to cancel an event planned by a Muslim private school at a local community centre.
A notice was posted on the doors of the Intergenerational Community Centre, informing patrons that a graduation ceremony for the school that was supposed to take place on Saturday was cancelled.
Outremont Mayor Marie Cinq-Mars told reporters that initially the borough believed a Muslim school was renting out a space at the centre to hand out diplomas to its students.
But the borough cancelled the booking after a TVA Nouvelles report suggested that two radical imams, Salah Assawy and Omar Shahin, would be speaking at the event hosted by the Academie de la charia nord-americaine (la MISHKA).
The mayor said the borough cancelled the event out of a concern for safety.
"When we heard that there were people here that are controversial, we thought it would be safer to cancel the event," she said.
The borough did not say what steps it took, if any, to verify the claims in the TV report.
Many people from Montreal's Muslim community are rejecting the allegations in the report.
Salam Elmenyawi, head of the Muslim Council of Montreal, said Assawy is a respected scholar, not a radical.
But Cinq-Mars said the community centre should not be used to host political or religious events. She also suggested that it's possible that the group misrepresented itself and its intentions when it booked the space.
The borough said the organization's name "MISHKA" did not appear on the booking.
"Maybe they did not give us the good information," Cinq-Mars said.
But the Quebec Collective Against Islamaphobia said certain media outlets have an agenda, and Muslim groups are now facing unfair scrutiny as a result.
Adil Charkaoui, co-ordinator of the collective, said that a new form of "McCarthyism" has taken root in Quebec, with Muslims being the primary target.
"This is a witch hunt and it has to stop immediately," he told CTV Montreal.
He added that the borough never consulted the Muslim community before cancelling the event, a move he called "unacceptable."
But the mayor said given the context, the borough was simply acting out of concern.
"We have to make everyone safe; we have to take the good decisions," she said.
With a report from CTV Montreal's Maya Johnson
