Gatineau city councillor Nathalie Lemieux has issued an apology for comments she made about Muslims and quit her job as the city’s deputy mayor. Her apology for “offending or hurting anyone” didn’t stop there. She punished herself before the anti-Islamophobia brigade could attack her for offending Muslims and Islam.

There has been a brouhaha in Quebec over the idea of implementing a national “Islamophobia Day” in response to a mosque shooting rampage in Quebec in January 2017. Alexandre Bissonnette pleaded guilty to six counts of first-degree murder. The murders were found not to be terrorism, because no doctrine or ideology was underlying the attack. Bissonnette’s hatred was the underlying factor. The Premier of Quebec, Francois Legault, in response to the idea of declaring a national “Islamophobia Day” stated that there would not be a day against Islamophobia in Quebec because it wasn’t an issue.

Enter councillor Nathalie Lemieux.

“’This word doesn’t even exist for me’, Lemieux said of the term Islamophobia. ‘Quebecers aren’t as racist as people would have you believe. When a group of people wants to integrate, they do. And this group doesn’t. These people do a lot of bad things, with their trucks and things. It’s normal to be scared of them.’”

There is a bigger problem here than Lemieux offending Muslims. The question is why has legitimate public concern about jihad terror not been adequately addressed by mainstream Muslim groups such as the National Council of Canadian Muslims (formerly CAIR-CAN), which has been pushing for the national “Islamophobia Day” and which also defined “Islamophobia” as “fear, prejudice, hatred or dislike directed against Islam or Muslims, or towards Islamic politics or culture.”

Note how many variables are jumbled together in this definition. It is wrong to hate Muslims simply because they are Muslims, but it is not wrong to dislike the aspects of Islamic theology and law that mandate that apostates must be killed, women are inferiors, women must be fully covered (Quran 24:31) or face abuse (Quran 33:59), and that fear must be struck into the hearts of disbelievers and to “strike upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip” (Quran 8:12), etc.

The more these issues are covered up, the more fear will spread, in accordance with the Quranic command to strike fear into the hearts of disbelievers. After fear has been struck into hearts of disbelievers, Islamic supremacists call those disbelievers “Islamophobic” and shut them up in accordance with Islamic blasphemy laws.

Instead of quitting, Natalie Lemieux should have stood for truth and offered a more detailed and comprehensive explanation. She also should have been given a full chance to explain why she said what she did, and her opponents should also be given the chance to refute her. Her opponents, as is so often the case, would be stumped if they tried to refute her statement on factual grounds. But such dialogue and discussion has been all but removed from the public square out of fear of Muslims, the fear to offend them.

“Gatineau councillor apologizes for saying ‘it’s normal to be scared’ of Muslims,” by Taylor Blewett, Montreal Gazette, February 5, 2019: