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Green Party candidate forced to resign after Islamophobic posts

8-21-2019

thestar.com first reported the resignation of Luc Saint-Hilaire, the Green candidate for the Quebec riding of Lévis-Lotbinière after he was forced to drop out of the upcoming election campaign.

In a post by blogging philosophy professor, Xavier Camus. Dated Aug. 13, it shows an image of Boufeldja Benabdallah, co-founder of the Centre culturel islamique de Québec, and reads in French: “It would be a good moment for the president of ‘the Islamic Association’ to condemn the repugnant actions of this ‘Mohamed’ who made his wife a human torch in front of her kids... but no! It’s silence...”

On Thursday, Saint-Hilaire announced on Facebook that he had withdrawn from the upcoming race and apologized “to anyone who could have been offended.”

The blogger who revealed his post this week also highlighted comments Saint-Hilaire made on Facebook questioning the media focus on the mosque attack in Quebec City.

“I am absolutely not racist. I am also not an Islamophobe. I even have friends that are practising Muslims who have come to my defence, because they know me,” Saint-Hilaire said in French, adding that he believes the Green Party rushed to judgement out of outsized concerns over political correctness.

“I find that to be a shame,” he said.

In a statement on Facebook, the leader of the Green Party of Quebec, Alex Tyrrell, condemned Saint-Hilaire’s comments as “totally unacceptable within the Green movement.

“On behalf of the Green Party of Quebec, I would like to offer my sincere apologies to all those who were hurt by the remarks of the candidate in question. Let us continue the fight for inclusion and against Islamophobia in all spheres of our society,” Tyrrell wrote.

NCCM in a statement said, “What happened at the Quebec City Mosque on January 29, 2017 was horrible.

The massacre of our brethern as they prayed left a terrible mark on our collective conscience.

That's what makes what Luc Saint-Hilaire (former Green Party of Canada candidate) did all the more despicable. Saint-Hilaire's Islamophobic posts on social media demanded that the leader of the Quebec City Mosque condemn an instance of domestic violence that had nothing to do with him or the mosque.

This is the crudest form of Islamophobia. Holding someone responsible for speaking to the actions of another because they happen to be from the same religion is downright ignorant.

But asking the leader of a mosque that has faced indescribable violence to answer for an instance of domestic violence that has nothing to do with him isn't just ignorant - it's repugnant.

While we are happy that the Green Party forced Mr. Saint-Hillare to resign, we are calling on Elizabeth May, as well as all political party leaders, to commit this federal election to ensure that Islamophobia has no place in Canadian politics.”

Footnotes: Footnotes: https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2019/08/16/green-candidate-forced-to-resign-after-criticizing-mosque-leader.html, https://www.facebook.com/CandidatVert/photos/a.293615728196154/352586782299048/?type=3&theater

Article Source: ALAMEENPOST.COM