News

At the Jami Omar fundraising dinner on January 24th, Muslim leaders focused on the need for youth to have opportunities to get involved at local mosques. About five hundred guests filled the Jami Omar gymnasium at the fundraiser and Anver Malam, imam at the Jami Omar mosque, said the event would not have been possible without the help of youth volunteers.

January 27th marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Each year in Ottawa, local survivors of the Holocaust are honoured. This year, the Turkish Ambassador to Canada, Selcuk Unal, spoke at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremonies at the City of Ottawa along with Mayor Jim Watson, Minister Jason Kenney, and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

In the wake of the shooting at Tanger Outlets on Boxing Day 2014 in Kanata, Imam Sikander Hashmi reached out to Muslim Link for help in organizing an information session about gangs in Ottawa. For many in the Kanata Muslim Association (KMA), this event brought home the reality of gangs in Ottawa for the first time. It also disturbed them because both the perpetrator and the victim were from Muslim backgrounds. However, for Muslims in other parts of Ottawa, in particular Ottawa-West, Ottawa-East, and Ottawa-South, the presence of gangs, and the disproportionate number of young Muslim men involved in them, has been a serious concern for years.

In a joint effort by KMA and Muslim Link, the Stop It: Gangs, Guns, and Drugs Information Session took place on January 16th 2015. Staff Sergeant Andrew Buchan from the Ottawa Police Service's Youth Section and Sharmaarke Abdullahi from Crime Prevention Ottawa (CPO) were invited to speak about their organization's efforts to address Ottawa's gang issue.

Muslims in Ottawa, Kingston, Toronto, and London will be coming together on January 31st to celebrate peace and community spirit.

Organized by a group Calling themselves "Canadian Muslims for Peace", long-time community activists Saleha Khan, in London, Ontario, and Sheema Khan (no relation), in Ottawa, developed the idea of having a peace gathering for Muslims. They felt that it was important for Canadian Muslims to hold an event that would help reclaim the narrative about Islam and Muslims in the wake of the Paris attacks and threats from ISIS. Shahzad Mustafa from Toronto joined in to complete the core coordinating committee.

The Ahlul-Bayt Student Association and the University of Ottawa Thaqalayn Muslim Association spent the past week teaching students about the life of the Muhammed (PBUH), one of Islam's revered prophets.

From January 12th to January 16th, the student groups used a giveaway and information station at the University of Ottawa's central campus to spread knowledge about the prophet. Student volunteers distributed free hot chocolate and held a bake sale to support "Charity: Water," a non-profit organization. Students also distributed information pamphlets about the Prophet and offered passers-by quotes by the Prophet attached to roses.

This year's Awakening: Reviving the Spirit of Somali Youth focused on Education.

Muslim Link is one of several sponsors of the Arabian Canadian Bazaar taking place Sunday, January 18th at St. Elias Banquet Hall. This a charity event organized by the Syrian Association of Ottawa in collaboration with Human Concern International in the hopes of raising over $25,000 for humanitarian aid for Syrians. Other sponsors of the event include Autorebex International, Iraqi Student Association of Carleton University, Muslim Student Association of Carleton University, Bab Elhara Cafe, Youth Gentler and Softer Hearts, H&M Photography, and Sweet Castle.

Following the tragic killing of two Canadian soldiers in late October, flags at the Edmonton Islamic Academy (EIA) were flown at half-mast. Students joined fellow citizens in mourning the loss and the school principal offered special assemblies to discuss the Islamic perspective on such a tragedy.
"We started from the Quranic verse which says that whoever kills one human being, [it is] as if they have killed all of mankind. This was a crime equivalent to the killing of the whole of mankind," recalled Principal Moussa Ouarou, who was formerly the principal at Ottawa's Abraar School.

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.

On December 18th members of Ottawa's Pakistani community gathered in front of City Hall to pay their respects to the victims of the attack on the Army Public School for Boys in Peshawar in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Over 140 lives were lost, most of them children.

In the Name of God, the Most Beneficent and Merciful

Ottawa-Gatineau Imams Reject ISIS Message Advocating Violence

La version française suivra

(December 10, 2014) As Canadian Muslims who have been entrusted with religious leadership in our communities, we the undersigned imams, are deeply troubled by the latest ISIS propaganda video featuring a Muslim from our city, Ottawa.

Condemn video message as "abhorrent and un-Islamic"

(Ottawa – December 8, 2014) Following the release of a video message attributed to ISIS, the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), a prominent Muslim civil liberties & advocacy organization, reiterates that Canadian Muslims categorically condemn the terror group's calls for violence against Canada and other nations.

This fall, Ottawa residents are busy planning their dream weddings and more than 1,500 people experienced the latest South Asian wedding trends at this year's Suhaag show on November 23rd.

The Noor Conference, otherwise known as "Go Halal or Go Home" is back for another year from December 19th to 21st at Masjid Assunnah and the University of Ottawa. It began in 2011 and is an initiative that has been led by Muslim Canadian youth from the beginning.

25 years ago today in Canada, 14 women were murdered for being women. The massacre at l'École Polytechnique in Montreall'École Polytechnique in Montreal by Marc Lepine which took place on December 6th 1989. At the end of November this year, Somali Canadian public health nurse Zahra Abdille and her son Faris, 13, and Zain, 8 were brutally murdered by her husband Yusuf Abdille. The lives of the women who were murdered in the Montreal massacre and of Abdille and her children were recognized on December 5th at the Somalic Women's Circle Network's I Matter, Gender Equity Matters Event which took place at Carleton University in partnership with the university's Institute of African Studies. The event was organized as part of the United Nations 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence which begins on November 25, the UN International Day to End Violence Against Women, and ends on December 10, Human Rights Day.

On November 8th, I was invited to speak at the Muslim Coordinating Council's "Turning the Tides: A Panel Discussion on Young Muslim Radicalization and Crime Prevention".

I was particularly pleased that a Muslim youth, Afnan Khan, was given the lead on organizing the panel and moderating the discussion. Muslim organizations need to give more space to younger Muslims to organize and lead sessions that have to do with issues youth are facing.

Chelby Marie Daigle discusses her experience speaking at the University of Ottawa's Muslim Community Association's Islam & Mental Health Discussion Session on October 31st.

Syrian Canadian Mohammad Dourou, the owner and publisher of Muslim Link, was honoured with a Community Builder Award by the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) on October 26th at their annual fundraising dinner. Other recipients included Somali Canadian Hawa Shafi Mohamed for her work advocating for Muslims in prisons and South African Canadian Khadija Haffajee, an NCCM Board Member. for her life-time of leadership within North America's Muslim communities.

When Toronto-based Indian Canadian film director Amar Wala first learned about the story of Egyptian Mahmoud Jaballah, whose son Ahmad had to interpret for his father while he was interrogated by CSIS agents, he thought it would make a great short film. "I just thought it was a crazy story. An eleven year old boy has to translate for his father while government agents interrogated him in their home and the translator fell asleep. Truth is stranger than fiction; you can't make that stuff up." The short film, The Good Son, was Wala's graduating piece from York University's film program in 2009.

On Wednesday evening, leaders of local mosques and Muslim organizations came together to draft a statement in response to the recent tragic events which took place in Ottawa and St. Jean-sur-Richelieu.