Supporters of a Muslim family in the Niagara region are demonstrating outside Thorold City Hall on Tuesday night.
They’re protesting after the family was denied burial for their daughter in a city-run cemetery.
Demonstrators went inside City Hall shortly after 6 p.m. ahead of the city council meeting.
The protest or vigil had been growing steadily ahead of the meeting, with close to a hundred people arriving within an hour.
The Muslim protestors say their goal is simple. They want Thorold to allow Muslims to be buried in an area of the city’s Lakeview Cemetery instead of having to go out of town for funerals.
“We hope that they fulfill our needs. We hope that they come out and tell us yes they made a mistake. It is our basic right to have a cemetery, or a section within the cemetery for Muslims,” says one person at the vigil.
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“They should come out and tell us that we are welcome in their cemetery.”
“It is a very shameful act that the city has done,” says another protestor.
The protest followed the death of 18-year-old Alina Masud last week in an accident on the 406.
She was going to be buried in the cemetery on Saturday until the city withdrew permission.
Under its cemetery management plan, the city says it was a mistake when the burial was approved.
It apologized to the family and said it offered another burial space that faced Mecca, according to Muslim belief, but the family rejected that and went out of town for the burial.
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The Muslim community says it’s pushing for an area for Muslims, like it says the cemetery does for Catholics, but says they were told the city doesn’t want a segregated cemetery.
The city hasn’t been available for an interview to explain further.
But there’s a widespread reaction to this situation.
The Bereavement Authority of Ontario, that overseas death care, says it is “currently looking into this.”
It says its “mandate is to act in the public interest for grieving families.”
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“This tragedy has demonstrated the need to better consider loved ones of the Muslim community. Currently in Thorold, Muslims must seek burial sites outside their own community which is very upsetting,” says Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch in a statement.
“I sincerely hope Thorold Council can work closely and compassionately with the Muslim Community so that families like the Masud’s can be shown respect.”
The father of Alina Masud is at the vigil and has spoken out about her death and funeral.
“I never thought that this was going to happen at all. Obviously I hoped an older person like myself would go first but [death] can come anytime and take anyone. It is really painful but the support from the community is showing me that I am not alone.”
The father also says he hopes the vigil and protest helps other families in the future who may have to go through the kind of grief his family is facing.
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