Cramahe council denies proposed Muslim cemetery

A notice on the Lake Road explains the plan for the Muslim cemetery. The request was rejected by Cramahe Township council last week. Photo by Thomas Goyer, QNet News

By Thomas Goyer 

BELLEVILLE – Cramahe Township council has rejected a proposal to have a Muslim cemetery on a 17-hectare plot of land just north of Highway 401.

Ummati Cemetery, a Muslim organization in Bowmanville, purchased the property at 360 Lake Rd. last winter in hopes of having a burial ground on the site.

The location was chosen because of lack of available space close to the Toronto area, according to Noor-ud-din Ghauri, president and owner of Ummati. Currently there are no Muslim cemeteries between Ajax and Ottawa.

At a council meeting last week, the proposal was rejected.

Cramahe Mayor Mandy Martin said the decision comes down to protecting farmland.

“We in the township are working very hard to retain the prime agricultural land that we have,” Martin told QNet News this week.

New provincial laws on what agricultural land can be used for prevent the development of the Muslim cemetery, she said.

“They are very strict. There is no development allowed on agricultural property.”

Martin related the cemetery debate to the larger issue of developers coming from the GTA looking for space to build.

“This is not a unique challenge for rural municipalities. Many people come into a rural area and see space and think, ‘We can just fill it up,’ ” she said.

Rural communities are in a position to set the tone for protecting valuable land, Martin said: “Agricultural land is a breadbox. It is what sustains our communities.”

Ghauri told he QNet he was disappointed with council’s decision.

“I felt that they obviously weren’t fair, and I felt that they weren’t educated in certain matters,” he said.

He sent the township a letter before be bought the property to make sure it was acceptable to build a cemetery there, and received a response confirming that it was, he said.

But now, less a year later, the proposal has been denied by council, he said.

Martin acknowledged that Ghauri had been given several notices by the municipality that he could go ahead: “They spent a lot of time on the proposal and the township gave them approvals.

“But that was before the provincial laws changed.”

Ghauri said his frustration is not just with the decision but with the reasoning given to justify it.

“Agricultural zoning does not mean that only farming is on that land,” he said.

He contended that municipal zoning laws that would allow the cemetery to be built trump new provincial legislation.

Martin conceded that Ghauri may be correct on that, but said she stands by the council’s decision.

“We plan to follow the current laws of the province,” she said.

Both Martin and Ghauri said they are willing to continue working to find a location for the cemetery.

Ghauri said the cemetery would be a non-profit burial space. Not having to pay to bury loved ones would take a significant burden off families, he said.