Who is Hussain? Winter 2013

Last year the campaign consisted of city-wide ads and a day long event where volunteers handed out gift bags in downtown Ottawa.

The ad campaign was the real hallmark of the initiative, with Who is Hussain ads on more than fifty OC Transpo buses, two bus shelters, and in the weekend edition of the Metro newspaper. This year, expect to see Who is Hussain ads on 200 OC Transpo buses and on a giant billboard in the city.

The team will host an awareness day in December where hot chocolate will be handed to the public and the message of Hussain (pbuh) and what he stood for will be shared. Last year, the hot chocolate initiative was met with great success in cities like Toronto and Oslo, Norway.

Organizer Abul Qasim Jaffri says that given the particularly cold winters here, Who is Hussain Ottawa is especially excited. “There's nothing better on a cold winter day than a mug of hot chocolate,” he said, “Hopefully through this creative initiative we will be able to teach the public more about Imam Hussain (pbuh) and while doing that, give them something memorable this winter.”

In addition to the ad campaign and awareness day, the team will also spend a day at the Ottawa Mission in November, helping the homeless and educating them about Hussain (pbuh).

An integral message of the campaign is that the values that Hussain (pbuh) stood for were universal, and not just for a certain group of people. Based on that, Zainab Merhi, a commerce student at the University of Ottawa, says that you don't have to be Shi'a to get involved in the campaign.

“Labels don't matter,” she said. “What we're looking for in terms of organizers and volunteers are people who understand the importance of the message of Imam Hussain (pbuh) and why he rose against the tyrant of his time.”

Mehri says that so far the preparations for the events are on track, and the team is hard at work ensuring everything goes to plan. {sidebar id=32}

“I'm very grateful to be part of such a hard-working team, especially since there's so much that we can do and so much potential with this campaign,” she said.

“It takes a lot of time and effort and as students sometimes you're limited in how much you can contribute, but there is a lot of motivation from many different people and we know it's a worthy cause.”

For more information on the Who is Hussain campaign, visit www.whoishussain.org. You can also reach the Who is Hussain Ottawa team by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Mohamed Suleman is an organiser of the Who is Hussain campaign.