News

Sometimes a slow start leads up to a surprising finish. Look to the west of Ottawa, to the site of the Jami Omar Mosque, where after years of what looked like little or no progress, there now stands an almost fully completed mosque.

In truth, major construction on the Jami Omar Mosque had been completed much earlier, but as with the other mosque projects, most of it occurred underground, noticeable only to careful observers. Now, that the basic structure of the mosque is complete, it is easier more those of us driving by the site to connect it with the beautiful artists' rendition of the finished building found on the Jami Omar fundraising webpage.

On 21 October 2010, the government introduced Bill C-49 titled “Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act”. Despite its name, the bill has attracted strong criticism from human rights groups who say that most of its provisions appear to target refugees, not smugglers. This is what a few lawyers and refugee rights activists have had to say:    

“Measures keeping some refugees longer in detention, denying them family reunification and restricting their freedom of movement are likely in violation of the Canadian Charter and of international human rights obligations. People who are forced to flee for their lives need to be offered asylum and a warm welcome, not punished.”                  

- Wanda Yamamoto, President, Canadian Council for Refugees   

For 57 years, Capital Memorial Gardens has been a fixture of Ottawa life. Tens of thousands of people from all faiths and backgrounds have found their final resting place there. You may have driven by the property at 3700 Prince of Wales Dr. (near Woodroffe Ave. in Barrhaven) and not even realized it to be a cemetery. With its 90-acres of rolling grass, water features and stately trees, it looks more like a golf course or botanical garden.

Capital Memorial has just opened the Garden of Paradise, a new section of their cemetery set aside specifically for the Muslim community. James Gregory, the Family Counsellor responsible, answers questions about this new service.

The mood was sombre inside the University of Ottawa's Marion Auditorium on Nov. 7 as speakers frequently tossed about words such as “fear”, “blame”, “solution” and “involvement”.

The hall held Muslims and non-Muslims who had gathered to hear the opinions of a panel of community members at the event entitled: "The Rise of Islamophobia: A Rational Approach to Irrational Fears".

The world's third most northerly mosque has found its home in Inuvik at the end of its three-week journey from Winnipeg. The unassuming prefab structure arrived by barge from Hay River just before 5 p.m. on Sept. 22.

Facing an early snow, a crowd of about 40 Muslims greeted their long-awaited mosque at the Inuvik shipyard. There were prayers, group photos, hugs and applause.

"It was joyful," Abdalla Mohamed, who owns a business in the town in the Mackenzie Delta, said. "Some people were crying. But it was a feeling of achievement. We have something we were looking for all our lives."

Two Ottawa-area residents, Shaykh Muhammad AlShareef and Imam Dr. Zijad Delic, are included in this year's listing of the world's 500 most influential Muslims.

Imam Zijad, 45, executive director of the Canadian Islamic Congress, appears for the second year in a row in the 500 Most Influential Muslims study published by the independent Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre of Amman, Jordan.

Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit Christian housing organisation, recently welcomed members of other faiths to join together in the construction of a home for a low income family.

As MuslimFest, Canada's largest Muslim summer festival, gets ready to kick off on July 31st at the Mississauga Living Arts Centre, the Muslim Link sat down with Taha Ghayyur, one of the founders and organizers of the two-day art and cultural festival, to get his thoughts on the need for such event and his hopes for the future of Muslim artistes in North America.

If you happen to be visit Scarborough this summer, you may want to check out Major Abbas Ali Park. The McLevin Community Park in Scarborough was recently renamed as a tribute to a man who reflected Islamic values throughout his life, earning him the respect of many Canadians.

The late Muhammad Abbas Ali, a British Indian Army veteran of the Second World War and who served in the Pakistan army, spent almost three decades working tirelessly for the community around McLevin Avenue where he had founded the Muslim Welfare Centre of Toronto.

Over 500 young Canadian Muslims are expected to compete in this year's Muslim Interscholastic Tournament (MIST) between 21st and 24th May at University of Toronto.

MIST is a fun, educational, interactive program of competitions and workshops that brings together high school students from the Golden Horseshoe Area of Ontario.

It is no secret that the city of Ottawa possesses some of the most talented Muslim youth aspiring to bring positive change in the world. Marya Jaleel is one of them.

Marya is preparing to embark on a journey that will change the lives of a significant number of children in a country far away from her hometown of Ottawa. She is one of a number of ambitious young people who will be spending their summer in the heart of India --a rural community outside Udaipur to be precise ”“ building a school and volunteering at an orphanage.

For the last seven months, the students in Mr. Mascoe's grade six class at Charles H. Hulse Public School have been exchanging letters with grade six students at Hillel Academy.

What's the big deal, you ask?

Well there are two things that make this event special: for one, we, the students at Charles H. Hulse are predominantly Muslim and the students at Hillel Academy are almost all Jewish.Secondly, this cultural exchange program has been going on at our school for six years.

For Sisters by Sisters will be holding their second annual Islamic Fashion Show on 12th June, and this time the event will focus on designers who work and sell from home.

The themes for this year are hijab (Islamic head dress), modest dress, and sisterhood.  This year, we will not be working with the bigger shops in Ottawa.  We are working with Muslimah designers and seamstresses who operate from inside their homes.

A sign on the land of the future site of a mosque in the Barrhaven area was vandalized with racist graffiti on April 30.

The South Nepean Muslim Community in the Ottawa area is planning to build a mosque on the 1.3 hectares of land at 3020 Woodroffe Ave.

A charity is planning to build a mosque in Inuvik so that Muslim children living in this remote region no longer have to travel long distances to get an Islamic education or attend the mosque.