Black Panther has taken the world by storm, experiencing box office success across North America, Europe, Africa and, to many in Hollywood’s surprise given a long history of rejecting films with Black leads, Asia.
Furthermore, a Blockbuster Hollywood film that centralizes Black characters and their narratives in authentic ways both in front of and behind the camera, and that also weaves in discussions about colonialism and slavery, is groundbreaking within the current socio-political context; it’s also deeply needed.
Despite this, online comments about Black Panther have been accusing it of Islamophobia, with some even going as far as to tell Muslims to boycott the film.
Being ME Toronto is an annual conference for Muslim women. This year the conference takes place on Saturday, March 31st. Being ME Toronto is trying to gather Muslim women from across Southern Ontario by organizing buses to the conference in several cities.
Muslim Link interviewed the team behind Being ME Toronto about this year's conference.
Mahdi Tirkawi is the imam at Mosquée Al Rawdah in Montreal.
Muslim Link interviewed him about being a young imam in Montreal, Quebec.
Muslim Link interviewed him about the theme of this year’s conference and the lessons he has learned from working closely with the Muslim community of Quebec City after the tragic mosque shooting that left six men dead, and several injured.
Razia Sultan Hamidi is a Muslim community organizer in Montreal. She has focused on creating spiritual programming that is welcoming and relevant to women and youth.
Muslim Link interviewed Razia about her work in Montreal and what civic engagement means to her.
Pakistani Canadian Daood Hamdani is a pioneer in the study of Muslims in Canada. A retired statistician, his most recent publication, "Canadian Muslims: A Statistical Review", has been used to highlight key statistics about Muslim demographics in Canada, including the ridings with the largest Muslim populations in the lead up to the 2015 Federal Election.
In 1999, United Nations proclaimed February 21st as International Mother Language Day as a way to promote linguistic and cultural diversity. This date was chosen in recognition of the 1952 Bengali Language Movement in what is now Bangladesh.
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I grew up between the contrasting worlds of South Asian and Arab culture. Born to Algerian and Bengali parents, I could identify with a realm of backgrounds and the experiences that came with them. A valuable part of this experience was community and people.
Somali Canadian Iman Abdullahi is the marketing coordinator for Rasmi Natural Skincare, a family business based on the natural skincare products made by Iman's mother.
Muslim Link interviewed this Vancouver-based entrepreneur about why she wanted to bring a halal certified skincare produced, made with ingredients sourced from East Africa, to the Canadian market.
After the gruesome death of Abdirahman Abdi, our community could not stand idle. In August 2016, the Justice for Abdirahman Coalition was born. With the support of so many local and national organizations and grass roots love, our Coalition has been able to achieve so much. See our work here.
Sudanese Canadian Mohamed Salih was recently named Best Local Politician by The London Free Press's Best of London 2018 survey. He was elected to the city council of London, Ontario in 2014.
Muslim Link interviewed Mohamed about his experiences being a city councillor.