Choose Nearest City

  • Calgary
  • Ottawa
  • Edmonton
  • Regina
  • Halifax
  • Saskatoon
  • Hamilton
  • Toronto GTA
  • Kingston
  • Vancouver
  • Kitchener
  • Waterloo
  • London
  • Windsor
  • Montreal
  • Winnipeg
  • Outside of Canada

Choose your city (or nearest city)

  • Calgary
  • Montreal
  • Edmonton
  • Ottawa
  • Regina
  • Saskatoon
  • Halifax
  • Toronto GTA
  • Hamilton
  • Vancouver
  • Kingston
  • Waterloo
  • Kitchener
  • Windsor
  • London
  • Winnipeg
  • Outside of Canada
  • Events
  • Directory
  • PatronsPatrons

Enter your login credentials

Forgot username?

Forgot password?

Remember Me
Register
Facebook Login Google Login
loading
Please wait, logging in...

Register Details

[Form copy_BFRegistration not found!]
Have an account? Login

Forgot Username

[Form forgot_username not found!]

Forgot Password

[Form forgot_password not found!]

How would you like to proceed?

LOG IN / SIGN UP allows you to:
  • Have a record of all events you've been to.
  • Request cancellation if you cannot make it to an event.
  • Post an event of your own.
  • Add your business/organization listing to the online directory.
  • Add an opportunity (job, volunteer, petition, survey, etc.).

Please login to continue

LOG IN / SIGN UP allows you to:
  • Have a record of all events you've been to.
  • Request cancellation if you cannot make it to an event.
  • Post an event of your own.
  • Add your business/organization listing to the online directory.
  • Add an opportunity (job, volunteer, petition, survey, etc.).
Muslim Link is Ottawa Muslims' Online Community Newspaper. The site includes an up-to-date Events Listing and Business and Community Directory for Ottawa Muslims.
.
ML Directory
ML Directory
  • Home
  • Events
    • Ottawa
    • Montreal
    • Toronto GTA
    • Edmonton
    • Calgary
    • Vancouver
    • London
    • Windsor
    • Hamilton
    • Halifax
    • Winnipeg
    • Kingston
    • Kitchener/Waterloo
    • Regina/Saskatoon
    • Event Table
  • Directory
    • Ottawa
    • Montreal
    • Toronto GTA
    • Edmonton
    • Calgary
    • Vancouver
    • London
    • Windsor
    • Hamilton
    • Halifax
    • Winnipeg
    • Kingston
    • Kitchener/Waterloo
    • Regina/Saskatoon
  • News
  • Stories
  • Islamic Finance
  • Classifieds
    • Opportunities
      • Volunteer Opportunities
      • Job Opportunities
      • Crowdfunding
      • Bazaar Vendors Wanted
      • Call for Donations
      • ​​Scholarships / Bursaries
      • ​​Petitions
      • Nominations
      • ​​Call for Participants
      • ​​Call for Submissions
      • Call for Abstracts
      • Grants
      • ​​Surveys
      • ​​Invitation to Dialogue
      • Sponsorships
      • Contests
    • Locations
      • Jumaa Locations
      • Full-Time Islamic Schools
      • Part-Time Islamic Schools
      • Hifz Programs
      • Iftar Locations
      • Taraweeh Prayers
      • I'tikaf Locations
      • Eid Prayers
      • Eid Festival Locations
      • Camps Locations
    • Rentals
      • Add Rental
    • Find a Place
    • Find a Tenant
  • Opportunities
  • Locations
  • Rentals
  • Blog
  • Action Alerts
  • Home
  • Stories
  • Dalia Mogahed: Lessons for Canadian Muslims
Dalia Mogahed reading a copy of Muslim Link at the National Council of Canadian Muslims fundraising dinner in Ottawa. Dalia Mogahed reading a copy of Muslim Link at the National Council of Canadian Muslims fundraising dinner in Ottawa. Muslim Link
17
Nov
2014

Dalia Mogahed: Lessons for Canadian Muslims

Written by  Chelby Daigle
Published in Stories
  • Add to Facebook
  • Like this? Tweet it to your followers!

Muslim Link interviewed Egyptian American Dalia Mogahed when she was in Ottawa speaking at the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM)’s fundraising dinner.

Mogahed is former Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, a non-partisan research center that provided data and analysis to reflect the views of Muslims globally. She was selected as an advisor by U.S. President Barack Obama on the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She and John Esposito co-authored the book Who Speaks For Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think, based on over 50,000 interviews with Muslims from around the world. This poll is considered the largest, most comprehensive study of its kind.

The focus of this interview was what lessons she felt would be beneficial for Canadian Muslims to take from the American Muslim experience.

.

From your experience visiting and studying Muslims in Canada, do you feel that in some ways Canadian Muslims are a more visible part of the Canadian landscape than their American counterparts?

In some ways, Muslims in Canada have succeeded to be much more culturally mainstream. For example, having a television program like Little Mosque on the Prairie. In those ways, Canadian Muslims have been able to widen the Canadian landscape to just accept them as they are more so than we have here in the United States. But at the same time, there are certain arguments and elements within the Canadian landscape, like the proposed bans on hijab, which so far we haven’t seen in the United States.

 

Do you feel that that might have something to do with the fundamental differences between Canadian and American culture?

I do think that that is a very important part of it. Even polling data shows that the American public is just much more tolerant of visible religious symbols than people in both Europe and Canada. It is just part of our culture and part of our laws that telling someone that they can’t display or express a religious identity would be very un-American.

 

.

Have you reflected on the fact that in some ways religious identity is just more openly articulated in America than in Canada?

I have, I think that is a major difference. In the US there is the possibility of connecting with people around religious identity or spiritual ambitions. There is just an easy conversation with people who are usually at bare minimum believers in God. It is interesting that in the US it used to be the only other group more negatively viewed than Muslims were atheists. Of course that would not be the case in Europe at all where atheists are very positively viewed. It is just a fundamental difference of culture; Americans tend to be more religious. So in the US our religiosity is just one less thing Muslims have to explain about themselves. It does help create greater common ground.

 

There are significant demographic differences between Canadian and American Muslims, in particular the presence of the African American Muslim population. How does their presence affect how American Muslims are perceived by the mainstream?

The Muslim African American population does give the Muslim American community a special characteristic of being able to be seen as more mainstream. But the US also has the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement and a lot of those ideas are ones that Muslims and other marginalized communities can tap into and harken back to in order to help America grow. Whereas this legacy doesn’t exist in a place like France or a lot of European countries where the narrative is much more about former colonies getting their independence and that was really the relationship of greater rights as opposed to a native rights movement for marginalized groups, which the country has embraced as a sign of progress. Without the Civil Rights Movement, there would be just a lot less of a vocabulary and of a psychological space for people to understand the concept of inclusivity as a means to strengthen a country.

.

 

American Muslim organizations seem to be prioritizing building bridges between diverse Muslim communities. We have seen this particularly with the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) which has been working to address issues between Sunni and Twelver Shia Muslims and even invited an Ahmaddiyya Muslim writer to speak about the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) at their recent convention. Do you feel Canadian Muslim organizations could benefit from taking a less sectarian approach to community organizing?

Absolutely. We can’t ignore the intra-Muslim dialogue that needs to happen. It can be a lot more threatening to do that kind of dialogue than it is to do interfaith dialogue, but it can be the most important and the most strengthening for the community. So I do think those are great lessons to take from the United States.

Another important lesson and example is when Ingrid Mattson became president of ISNA; that really wasn’t controversial for us at all in the US. And yet when I talked to people from the UK or other Muslims in Western countries they regard it as astounding or extraordinary to have a major Muslim organization headed by a woman and a White convert on top of that.

I just think moving in that direction will be helpful for other Muslim communities in the Western World. What does Muslim religious leadership look like? That is something we need to reconsider.

.

 

One thing that I think is significantly different in Canada than in the States is the discussion around indigenous communities. For example, Ottawa is actually considered unceded Algonquin territory and we have a relatively high urban Aboriginal population. We have much more direct interaction with the indigenous inhabitants of this country and there is more discussion around acting in solidarity with their struggles for basic human rights. Are Muslim Americans beginning to engage in similar dialogues with the indigenous communities of their country around human rights and land rights?

No, not at all. I think this is really a blind spot for us.

 

Perhaps that’s a lesson you can take back to the American Muslim community from us. Any final thoughts?

.

I think the final thought I want to share with the Ottawa Muslim community, and the wider Canadian Muslim community, is that you need to see yourselves as an important part of the Canadian landscape; something that strengthens the country. When I hear people say that they don’t feel welcomed I challenge that, because the idea that we need to feel welcomed means that we are guests and we’re not. Canada is your country. The United States is our country. And if anyone doesn’t like that we are here, they are free to leave. This is my country and I’m not waiting for them to make me feel welcome.

This article was produced exclusively for Muslim Link and should not be copied without prior permission from the site. For permission, please write to info@muslimlink.ca.

Read 8316 times Last modified on Sat, 21 Jan 2017 06:45
Rate this item
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
(0 votes)
Tagged under
  • Dalia Mogahed
  • American Muslims
  • Muslim Women
Chelby Daigle

Chelby Daigle

Chelby Marie Daigle is Muslim Link’s Editor in Chief and Coordinator. Under her direction, Muslim Link adopted its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy so that the website strives to reflect the complexity of Muslim communities in Canada. She knows that she fails to do justice to this complexity every day but she will continue to try to improve as she recognizes the frustration of being both marginalized in the mainstream and also marginalized in Muslim communities. As Coordinator, she works to build relationships with Muslim and mainstream organizations and manages the website's social media, event listings, and directories. She organizes regular Muslim Link gatherings. She also works closely with the Publisher to find ways to keep Muslim Link sustainable. Find her on Twitter @ChelbyDaigle

Latest from Chelby Daigle

  • Yousra’s Story: “I Need Canadians Help to Save My Mother” Yousra’s Story: “I Need Canadians Help to Save My Mother”
  • Islamic History Month and Islamic Heritage Month 2024 Events Across Canada Islamic History Month and Islamic Heritage Month 2024 Events Across Canada
  • Sudanese and Palestinian Canadians Unite at Demonstration Against War in Sudan Sudanese and Palestinian Canadians Unite at Demonstration Against War in Sudan

Related items

  • Maliha Jabeen Khan What do you assume about the hijab? at TEDxRegina 2024 Maliha Jabeen Khan What do you assume about the hijab? at TEDxRegina 2024
  • Muslim Women Receive Canada’s Most Powerful Women Top 100 Award Muslim Women Receive Canada’s Most Powerful Women Top 100 Award
  • 2022 Richmond Hill Women of Inspiration and Leadership Award Winner: Fatima Sumar-Molu 2022 Richmond Hill Women of Inspiration and Leadership Award Winner: Fatima Sumar-Molu
back to top
.
.
.
.
.

Subscribe to Mailing List

Sign up for our free Muslim Link Snapshot and get our events listing and latest articles sent to your inbox weekly.

Please enter a name
Please enter a valid email address
Please enter a city

Ottawa Events
View More Events
Al-Ihsan Jiu-Jitsu: Raising Rijal Program Featured
Tue, Jul 01, 2025 06:00pm EST/EDT
Sports/Fitness
Summer Programs @ Izzah Learning Center Featured
Wed, Jul 02, 2025 all day
Educational
Ottawa Eagles Wrestling SUMMER Program - 16+ Grappling Program
Thu, Jun 26, 2025 all day
Courses
A Musical Evening in Support of Children in Palestine and Lebanon
Sat, Jun 28, 2025 all day
Concerts
Documentary Screening: The Encampments
Sun, Jun 29, 2025 all day
Film Screenings

Featured Articles

  • Yousra’s Story: “I Need Canadians Help to Save My Mother” Yousra’s Story: “I Need Canadians Help to Save My Mother”
  • Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians (APAC) 9th Annual Palestine Day on the Hill: Watch Video Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians (APAC) 9th Annual Palestine Day on the Hill: Watch Video
  • Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW) Statement on the Passing of Alia Hogben Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW) Statement on the Passing of Alia Hogben

About us

  • About Muslim Link
    Our Team
    About Eye Media
    Contact Us
    Diversity & Inclusion Policy
  • Events & Directory Disclaimer
  • Project: A Muslim History of Ottawa

How To

  • How to Advertise on Muslim Link?
    How to View / Edit Your Advertisement Campaign?
    How to Add a Directory Listing on the Directory?
    How to Claim a Directory Listing?
    How to Add an Event?
    How to Add an Opportunity?
    How to Add a Rental Listing?

Event Listings

  •  - Ottawa
  •  - Toronto GTA
  •  - Montreal
  •  - Edmonton
  •  - Calgary
  •  - Vancouver
  •  - London
  •  - Windsor
  •  - Hamilton
  •  - Kitchener/Waterloo
  •  - Halifax
  •  - Winnipeg
  •  - Kingston
  •  - Regina/Saskatoon

Business & Community Directory

  •  - Ottawa
  •  - Toronto GTA
  •  - Montreal
  •  - Edmonton
  •  - Calgary
  •  - Vancouver
  •  - London
  •  - Windsor
  •  - Hamilton
  •  - Kitchener/Waterloo
  •  - Halifax
  •  - Winnipeg
  •  - Kingston
  •  - Regina/Saskatoon

Advertisers

  • Advertise Online
  • Become a Patron
  • Sponsorships
  • Join Snapshot e-Newsletter
  • Snapshot Publishing Dates

ML Team

  • Writers Workshops
  • Content Policy
  • Staff Payment System
  • Join the team

Social Media

Follow us on our pages!

Facebook Twitter Youtube LinkedIn Pinterest

Copyright © 2025 Muslim Link. All Rights Reserved. All articles, photos, graphics and images on this site remain the copyright of Muslim Link, unless otherwise noted, and should not be copied without prior permission. Designed by Eye Media Solutions
Top
Copyright © Muslim Link. All articles, photos, graphics and images on this site remain the copyright of Muslim Link, unless otherwise noted, and should not be copied without prior permission. 2025 All rights reserved. Custom Design by Youjoomla.com