The Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City (, CCIQ; ) is an organization dedicated to meeting the spiritual, social and economic needs of the

Muslim community ' (; ) is an Arabic word meaning Muslim identity, nation, religious community, or the concept of a Commonwealth of the Muslim Believers ( '). It is a synonym for ' (, lit. 'the Islamic nation'); it is commonly used to mean the collective comm ...

residing in

Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Its main place of worship is the Great Mosque of Quebec City ().

History

The Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City was founded in 1985 at

Université Laval (; English: ''Laval University)'' is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university traces its roots to the Séminaire de Québec, founded by François de Montmorency-Laval in 1663, making it the oldest institutio ...

. Its stated mission is "to work proactively to help the Muslim community grow and flourish spiritually, socially, and economically as well as to provide services that properly consider the specific Muslim identity of its members and promote their integration into Quebec society."

Activities

The centre offers various services and activities: *

Integration Integration may refer to: Biology *Multisensory integration *Path integration * Pre-integration complex, viral genetic material used to insert a viral genome into a host genome *DNA integration, by means of site-specific recombinase technology, ...

conferences. *

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

ic school and

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

classes. * Celebration of births and marriages. * Funeral services Many

fundraising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

s and

donation A donation is a gift for Charity (practice), charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, Service (economics), services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donati ...

s are organized to help anyone in need and especially the Canadian society: *The fundraising on 12 of May 2017 to support the flood victims of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. *Yearly blood donation organized by

Héma-Québec Héma-Québec is a non-profit organization that supplies blood and other biological products of human origin to hospitals for the Canadian province of Quebec. The organization's headquarters is located in the Montreal borough of Saint-Laurent, Qu ...

. The centre is also actively engaged in many humanitarian causes. Each year, the centre opens its doors to everyone, people from different cultures and religions meet and talk to better know each other and to help promote integration.

Great Mosque of Quebec City

Completed in 2009, the mosque is located in the Sainte-Foy neighbourhood of

2017 attack

On January 29, 2017, the mosque was the target of a terrorist attack. The perpetrator Alexandre Bissonnette opened fire on the crowd, killing six people in the mosque and injuring nineteen others. The attack was denounced by the politicians throughout Quebec and Canada and attracted a wave of sympathy all over the world. In 2023, six years following the attack, a ceremony took place to honour of those who were lost in the shooting. This was the first time the event was held in the same room where many of the victims were killed.

Political positions

The centre has regularly adopted a stand in the political debate in Quebec. Representatives testified before both the

Bélanger-Campeau Commission {{Short description, Quebec commission The Commission on the Political and Constitutional Future of Quebec, also known as the Bélanger-Campeau Commission, was established by the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, at the initiative of Premier Robert Bou ...

and the

Bouchard-Taylor Commission The Bouchard-Taylor commission (named for its two co-chairmen), officially the Quebec Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences, was created on 8 February 2007 by Quebec premier Jean Charest. Its mandate was ...

. In 2011, it also testified in a parliamentary committee in the

National Assembly of Quebec The National Assembly of Quebec (, ) is the Legislature, legislative body of the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs (Members of the National Assembly; ). The lieutenant governor of Que ...

against certain aspects of Bill 94 brought forward by the Charest government which governed the requirements to offer public services with uncovered faces. In 2013, the Centre strongly denounced the draft

Quebec Charter of Values The ''Charter of Quebec Value''s ( or ) was Bill 60 in the Canadian province of Quebec, introduced by the governing Parti Québécois in 2013 under Premier Pauline Marois, trying to legislate the Quebec controversy on reasonable accommodat ...

introduced by the then governing

Parti Québécois The Parti Québécois (PQ; , ) is a sovereignist and social democratic provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. The PQ advocates national sovereignty for Quebec involving independence of the province of Quebec from Canada and establishi ...

in 2013, under Premier

Pauline Marois Pauline Marois (; born March 29, 1949) is a retired Canadian politician, who served as the 30th premier of Quebec from 2012 to 2014. Marois had been a Member of the National Assembly (Quebec), member of the National Assembly in various ridings ...

. Due to some Islamophobic events, the centre increased its security, such as installing many security cameras, increasing cooperation with the local police, etc.

References

External links

* {{coord, 46.777907, -71.305364, display=title 1985 establishments in Quebec 21st-century attacks on mosques Islamic organizations based in Canada Islamic organizations established in 1985 Organizations based in Quebec City Religion in Quebec City