Feb. 5, 2019
François Legault
Premiere of Quebec
Édifice Honoré-Mercier, 3e étage
835, boul. René-Lévesque Est
Québec (Québec) G1A 1B4
Fax: (418)643-3924
Dear Premiere Legault,
Following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon when it was revealed that these attacks were carried out by Islamic jihadists, I developed an obsessive fear of Muslims. I could barely go out of my house. So great was this fear that my wife left me and my children became estranged.
I engaged in intensive psychotherapy but I never recovered my equilibrium. It was not until your government announced that it would like to have an annual anti-Islamophobia Day, was the weight of my burden lifted.
What the Quebec government helped me to understand was that my fear was not real. There are no Islamic Jihadists out to run me down with a rented truck, none planning to mow me down while attending a concert, none wanting to shoot me at my favorite kosher supermarket, and none at all planning to fly a plane in to a building where I might be visiting or working.
Your position that that fear of Islam is an irrational form of racism has made it possible for me to come to my senses.
Thank you for freeing my from fears and helping my family reunite.
Sincerely yours,
Lawrence C. Shapiro,
Formerly a Calgarian now living in California U.S.A.