Hawzah News Agency - (Quebec - Canada) - Hundreds of anti-Muslim messages appeared on the Facebook page of Quebec Premier François Legault after he attended an official ceremony last month to mark the third anniversary of the Quebec City mosque massacre. On January 29, 2017, a right-wing extremist assaulted the mosque, killing six worshipers and wounding many others.

Notwithstanding Legault’s pathetic efforts to dismiss their significance, the deluge of hate messages underscores the profound connection between the establishment’s chauvinist debate over “state secularism” and the “unreasonable accommodation” of minorities and the rise of reactionary and outright fascist forces.

On his Facebook page, Legault, who heads the province’s right-wing “Quebec First” CAQ (Coalition Avenir Québec) government, shed crocodile tears over an “event that we didn’t think was possible in Quebec.” “We have gathered tonight,” he continued, “to remind ourselves that our people are not immune from this hatred. But this hatred is not Quebec’s hatred.”

Legault’s professions of sympathy for the victims of the Quebec City mosque attack enraged the far-right elements that have been feeding for more than a decade off the anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies promoted by the entire Quebec political and media establishment. Muslims, and above all Muslim women, have been the principal targets of this vile campaign.