Born and raised in British Columbia, Islamic Studies teacher Hafsa Dean Thompson will be participating in this year’s I.LEAD Conference. She will be leading a women’s only session addressing the challenges Muslim women face in finding balance in their daily lives.

Muslim Link had the chance to interview her about her pursuit of Islamic scholarship, her community work with Muslim women in crisis and in prison, and why she prefers to focus her educational efforts on women only.

Currently, Dr. Scott Flower from the University of Melbourne in Australia is looking for Canadian converts to Islam to particpate in his study of the Canadian Muslim Convert experience. His Canadian-based research collaborator Megan Ryder Burbidge contacted Muslim Link so we could promote the study within our networks. We wanted to know more about the study's objectives and funding first. Here is what we learned.

"Since you’ve become Muslim, what do you enjoy most about Islam?"

“I enjoy being around family and the community. And when you see any Muslim, you can say ‘salam’, which means ‘peace’ and you can strike a conversation with people you don’t even know. I love that."

"What has been the most difficult time in your life as a Muslim?"

“Losing my father was one of the saddest things I’ve experienced. He wasn’t Muslim, but he had a need to know what happens after death and I didn’t have the opportunity to talk to him about it from my perspective. He was looking for someone to talk about it, but I was too afraid and whenever it came up, I kept changing the subject. Death scared me and I still think about that."

~ Nicole

Toronto’s Muslim fashionistas will be converging on the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre on August 23d and 24th to take part in the city’s first International Muslim Fashion and Design Festival (IMFDF).

Although the event will bring together some of the world’s Muslim fashion royalty with an array of leading designers, models, bloggers and YouTube hijab tutorial celebrities, time is also being prioritized to provide educational opportunities on issues like fair trade and ethical consumerism.

In this installment of the Journey to the Light, we hear the brothers’ side of the Ottawa convert story. A local entertainer, Joshua Asare, aka Jae Deen, agreed to speak to Muslim Link's Sakina bint Erik about his journey.

In this installment of my column, I interview just one local convert about her experiences raising her children as Muslim while having non-Muslim parents. Dr. Aisha Sherazi was born and raised in the UK, and migrated to Canada in 2000. She hails from a Hindu family, and is of Indian origin. She writes freelance editorials in various newspapers and resides in Ottawa, Canada. She now works as a spiritual counsellor for teenagers and teachers at Merivale High School, and conducts workshops across the city on the dangers of stereotyping. She helps represent the Muslim Community of Ottawa on COMPAC for the Ottawa Police Service and sits on the board of the Islamic Social Services Association of Canada. Happily married with two busy children, she also writes poetry and fiction in her spare time