The genesis of the Mulla Asghar Memorial Library and Islamic Resource Centre (MARC) was an aspiration by the then WF President Dr. Hasnain Walji to initiate centres or libraries in the Memory of Mulla Asgharali M. M. Jaffer in all major Khoja Jamaats in the world.
At the time, London, Dar es Salaam, Karachi, Bhavnagar, Toronto and Mombasa were all considered as potential venues. The first such project that came to fruition was the Mulla Asgher Memorial Hall in Mombasa in 2002. MARC is the second such memorial project to be established. It was made possible in 2009 when the work at Bathurst was re-initiated after a pause.
The first phase was finished and an opening ceremony was held on Saturday, October 24th, 2009. The facility was finally complete in April 2011 and this was inaugurated with the Quran exhibition which was open for 16 months. Through the good offices of the World Federation of KSI Muslim Communities, the total cost of establishment was donated by the Hiridjee Family Foundation. We gratefully acknowledge their renowned philanthropic services and thank them for the continued support in maintaining the Centre. We also thank Al Hajj Raza Alybhai Hiridjee for his guidance and assistance in the establishment of this Center. We also gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Alhajj Razzaq Damani the then President of ISIJ Toronto and Al Hajj Arif Asaria, the then General Secretary, for their assistance in the planning and construction of the ultra modern facility.
MARC strives to foster community cultural life by hosting exhibits, housing historic, fine arts, and literary collections, and providing spaces that attract scholars, students and the general public to read, study, and browse.
MARC continues to expand its a multi-lingual Reference Library, manuscripts on Islamic literature, bibliographical information for research purposes, digital access to ahadith and tafseer literature, multimedia resources from around the world, Khoja community archives, permanent exhibitions on Islam and works of Muslim scientists, scholars and artists. It has been developing media facilities, under the name MARC MEDIA to offer a rich multimedia experience during exhibitions.
Khoja History Project
Over 80 manuscripts on the Khoja History permanent display
An entire wings has displays on the History of the Khojas
Book published – The Endangered Species – A journey of faith
Khoja Journey of Faith Documentary
PR and Media facilities – Media Resource Room
Video Production – Broadcast on TV – Islam in Focus
Digitizing Quran Exhibition to offer as a Mobile Exhibition to other museums/centers
Lectures and Workshops: Marc is now a popular venue for short course, workshops and seminars on a regular basis.
We are proud that within its short operational history, MARC has already started to make a major impact.
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