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QUEBEC — A tax accountant’s proposal to build up to 80 houses for Muslim families on 100 hectares of land near Brossard isn’t going over well with provincial politicians.

Nabil Warda, 68, said he will submit Friday to the Islamic Community Centre of South Shore—Brossard a real-estate development plan to build a community for about 100 Muslim families.

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“It’s called a ghetto,” Coalition Avenir Québec MNA Éric Caire said Monday. “It’s not acceptable for our society to build a place reserved to religious people. Just think if we built a place reserved for white people, would that be acceptable? The answer is no.”

Added Parti Québécois MNA Agnès Maltais: “It will never be a good idea to select people based on a religion, it’s unlawful. It’s forbidden by the charter of human rights and freedoms.”

The very same message later came from Immigration, Diversity and Inclusiveness Minister Kathleen Weil. “A project whose vision is implicitly discriminatory toward a portion of the population could never be deemed acceptable,” Weil said. “In this sense, neither ethnic origin nor religious belief should ever be considered as criteria for the creation of a housing project. Living well together depends largely on individuals’ ability to interact and develop positive relationships.”