Stories

Founder ofDeservia Realty, Inc. and Deservia Financial Corporation, Farhana Kabir started her Real Estate career in 2003 and by applying her expertise and marketing knowledge to real estate, she rose to become one of the top salesperson in her company by 2006. An entrepreneur at heart who has owned and operated several businesses from a payday-loan company to two successful real estate franchises, Farhana continues to build an extremely successful career with her relationship-oriented approach to her clients.

Adil Dhalla is the Director of Centre for Social Innovation (CSI) – a rapidly growing hub for more than 1000 social entrepreneurs and organizations. As one of the first coworking spaces in the world, CSI has been a pioneer in its work around re-envisioning the future of work, which includes the creation of the Director of Culture role (one of the first of its kind globally). Along with his team, Adil has been learning, playing and experimenting with stewarding CSI’s culture through its stories, events, policies, products, systems and people management – all with an eye towards fostering belonging, happiness and greater impact. In addition to his work at CSI, Adil has been a serial social entrepreneur, Co-Founded the mobile video pioneer My City Lives, volunteered for the Obama campaign and has created several successful community interventions, including Project Ukulele Gangsterism, Part E-Day and the Regent Park Community Potluck. He is currently the Chair of the Board for the Stop Gap Foundation, an inspiring organization creating accessible cities and a Co-Founder of Camp Reset, the acclaimed summer camp for adults.

Currently working as the Global Director of Digital Experience for McDonald’s Corporation, MQ loves to write, cook, travel, take pictures and mostly enjoy life. If you’d like to join him on any of these journeys, take a look at his upcoming blog here. It’s still in beta, so be gentle.

Shahed Amanullah is co-founder of Affinis Labs, a Northern Virginia startup incubator that focuses on businesses with positive social impacts in global Muslim communities. Through Affinis Labs, he helps to organize global hackathons to create social impact businesses as well as craft social media strategies for NGOs and governments that combat extremist narratives. As co-founder and director of the lab, Shahed Amanullah helps manage the development and launch of incubated initiatives and mentors portfolio companies to help them accelerate and grow.

Kashif Zubair brings to Adroit over 18 years of experience and skills as a business strategist, accountant, and auditor. Kashif has worked at Ernst & Young, Arthur Anderson, Capital Health System, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Kashif’s passion is in making every small-mid size business successful to bring wealth and joy back to the middle class families. Through various avenues within Adroit and his dedication as a Rotarian, Kashif is constantly bringing change to the companies that he works with.

Known as the founder of “Allah Made Me Funny”- The Official Muslim Comedy Tour and as the “poor righteous teacher” from his days as a young performer coming up in the industry, a writer for Hollywood heavyweights like Damon Wayans, George Lopez, and Darrell Hammond on Saturday Night Live, Preacher Moss has proven his value across many levels of stand-up, activism, and community empowerment. His “End of Racism” Comedy and Lecture tour has been voted “Best Diversity Act” on college campuses for 2008 and 2009.

His material has been described as “smooth, intelligent, and thought provoking”, as his comedy simultaneously occupies two spaces, at the same time. Moss makes you laugh and think. He is a master craftsman. His experiences as a comedian, writer, lecturer, Muslim, African-American, and poor righteous teacher are the sum of all his parts. He is The Mighty Preacher Moss. Follow him on twitter at @PreacherMOSS.

Wajahat Ali is the writer ofThe Domestic Crusaders, a two-act play that is being hailed as “one of the first major Muslim American plays.” We asked him what brought him to his current job at Al Jazeera’s The Stream, his ups and downs along the way, and what inspired him to become a playwright.

For many people, the first thought that comes to mind about Palestine is tragic conflict not intricate embroidery. It is an unfortunate reality, but one budding Canadian business is slowly changing that.

Motarrazat is an Ottawa based clothing company started by Palestinian Canadian Manal Abusheikha. Having immigrated to Canada from Jordan with her husband and children in 2001, she left behind most of her extended family and friends. In the beginning, the couple started a small business and sought to finish school. Manal’s husband, Waleed, soon graduated in project management and she enjoyed looking through his textbooks which prompted her to also get her masters in the same field. Her interest in business led her to open her own day care and later on, her very own clothing company.

Surprisingly, circumcision is not a procedure routinely offered in all Ontario hospitals. Reddoch Clinics, located in Cornwall and Ottawa (Southbank Medical Centre), are one of the few clinics in Eastern Ontario focused on circumcision. Providing services for infant, baby, and child circumcision, they have developed specialized systems and processes and have served thousands of babies and families.

If you could sum up Hoda Elatawi in one word, it would most likely be ‘storyteller.’ From a young age, Elatawi loved the art of storytelling, and would turn many of her school assignments into plays, fashion shows, or some other form of artwork.

November is Adoption Awareness Month.  Throughout the month, Children's Aid Societies across Ontario spread the message that every child deserves to have a forever family' in the hopes of encouraging more families to open their homes to children in care.

Mode-ste, Canada’s largest and fastest growing Modest Fashion brand. started a few years ago, when Aicha Chtourou and her mother Hong, a master seamstress, started a small women’s clothier out of their basement in Montreal.

Pakistani Canadian Azfar Rizvi reflects on the impact of the late Abdul Sattar Edhi, the beloved Pakistani philanthropist who passed away on July 8, 2016. This piece was original published on Medium.

While learning about indigenous peoples in my Grade 7 History Class at Al Furqan School, we sought to bring some authentic voices to our classroom. Kiera Brant, an indigenous woman and a graduate student at the University of Ottawa, gave a speech to our class on the difficulty of being an indigenous person in our day and age in Canada. She also spoke about the discrimination and past struggles faced by indigenous peoples.

Muslim Link received a message from a Bosnian Canadian reminding us that July 11 marks the 21st anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, when over 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, mostly men and boys, were killed in and around the town of Srebrenica during the Bosnian War. In 2004, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia determined that the massacre was a genocide, a ruling that was upheld by the International Court of Justice in 2007.

In the Ottawa community, it's a challenge to meet someone who does not know Khadija Haffajee. She is seen as a pioneering figure in the nation’s capital, as well as on a global scale as a lecturer, educator, mentor and social activist. But not everyone knows the unique backstory on how a South African woman ended up holding such a public role in Canada.

Coach Hadi, the owner of Fitness 313 in Toronto, offers advice to Muslims on how to keep fit while fasting this Ramadan.

Ramadan, the time of year when we fast all through the day and then treat ourselves with traditional favourites that are often fried, high in calories, and laden with sugar and fat. It can be a challenge to eat healthy when confronted with a plate of crispy fried samosas, oh-so-sweet halwa, or flaky qatayaf at iftar (meal to break the fast).

Rawan Suleiman, a registered dietitian shares strategies on how we can eat healthy in Ramadan.

Syrian Hadi Wess currently studies psychology at the University of Ottawa, where he is also the Vice-President-Social for the university’s Student Federation (SFUO).

He helped to organize a vigil on June 13th honouring the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. SFUO condemned homophobia, transphobia but also Islamophobia at the vigil, where the tragedy was framed as a hate crime against the LGBTQ community as opposed to a terrorist attack.

Bad breath—an embarrassing experience that most of us have encountered at one time or another. Unable to drink anything or brush our teeth during the day in the month of Ramadan, bad breath can be an ever-present possibility. Ottawa dentist, Dr. Ghada Al-Sabawi, shares advice on what might be triggering bad breath and offers strategies on how to reduce the risk of having bad breath during Ramadan throughout the year.