Toronto-based Somali Canadian visual artist Riya Jama shares a story from her childhood whose moral reminds us to "Be kind – for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about."

My name is Ryan Slobojan, and I live in Pickering, Ontario. When I first heard about the attack on the mosque in Quebec City on January 29th 2017, I was devastated.

“The feeling of unity and brotherhood was undeniable,” said Amani Ali, president of the Ahlul Bayt Student Association (ABSA).

Over the weekend students from the University of Ottawa, Carleton University and Algonquin College, joined together to volunteer at the “In from the cold” event held at Parkdale United Church. The event is held every Saturday through the winter months, to not only feed the hungry and the homeless but also in hopes of “bringing a smile to their face” and “making them feel less alone” according to Gary Crocker, church coordinator.

Muslim Food Bank & Community Services (MFB) is a charity based in Surrey, British Columbia that provides a diversity of services to Muslims and refugees in the Greater Vancovuer area.

Muslim Link has been given permission to publish the true story of how one Baha'i refugee family was supported through MFB's Aspire Program which pairs volunteer caseworkers with families in need in order to help them navigate social services in BC.

Some Christians are in a state of denial, but the fact is, Jesus (pbuh)* was a refugee. He also wasn’t blonde and blue eyed, but that’s a battle for another time. 

According to the Biblical account, shortly after his birth, Mary and Joseph sought safety in Egypt. They’d been targeted by the insecure King Herod who had it out to kill anyone who could potentially thwart his power. They needed sanctuary. They were fleeing persecution. 

The Christian faith revolves around a young, Middle Eastern asylum-seeker who faced rejection and displacement from His earliest days. The face of Christianity’s central figure looks not unlike those that some in the faith would close their doors to today.

Enter Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ).

Next Monday, Pakistani Canadian Aatif Baskanderi will be starting a trip across Newfoundland sharing his personal story as a Muslim growing up in the province. Aatif will be travelling over 2000km across Newfoundland visit 7 towns over 11 days. Many of these communities have sponsored Syrian refugees. He will be speaking at high schools, libraries and the provincial university. He is currently crowdfunding on LaunchGood to cover the cost of making the documentary “Salaam B'y - A Story of a Muslim Newfoundlander”,  based on this trip in collaboration with award-winning filmmaker Amar Wala, best known for his work The Secret Trial 5 (2014).

Pakistani Canadian Abubakar Khan, who has gained national recognition in Canada’s Muslim communities for his interfaith initiative to open up a Vancouver mosque as an emergency homeless shelter last winter, runs his own podcast called The Chosen Khan.

Like all of the victims of the Quebec mosque shooting, Mamadou Barry's death not only impacted his family, it crushed the dream of access to clean drinking water for his village in the West African country of Guinea. Barry was raising funds to install a 100-meter-deep well in his village, located outside of Labe, Guinea's second-largest city.

Have you ever noticed how acts of hate can spur acts of love? With the establishment of the Toronto chapter of the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom, thirty-four Muslim and Jewish women have come together to support each other against hostile acts directed toward both groups. One of the Sisterhood’s largest chapters and the first chapter in Canada, the Toronto group meets regularly to talk, share rituals, and to build relationships across religious lines.

Balwant (Bill) Bhaneja is author of six books on arts, politics and science. He is a former Canadian diplomat who studied International Relations at Carleton University and holds a PhD from the University of Manchester.  .

In 1947, the countries of India and Pakistan were born out of the partition of British India. Millions of people scrambled between the countries, fleeing ethnic and religious violence. Many Muslims fled to Pakistan, while Hindus and Sikhs fled to India. Referred to as Partition, to date, it is the largest migration of humans.