The building of a community
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In the previous weeks, we have seen that with Prime Minister Trudeau in the 1970s the aspiration of a multicultural Canada, ‘’the Canadian mosaic’’ influenced the immigration policies. When we use terminologies like multiculturalism and the Canadian mosaic it implies that when people came to Canada from other regions of the world, they had the freedom to express their culture and live by their principles. In chapter 9 of Minarets on the Horizon Minarets on the Horizon: Muslim Pioneers in Canada, Murray Hogben presents a beautiful example of how some individuals who came from other countries, and that had Islam in common, were able to initiate the building of a community in Hamilton and Toronto also. In the chapter, we learn about Mohamed Afsar, amongst others, who came to Canada in 1964 (Hogben, 143). When he came, he already had a degree in civil engineering and he wanted to pursue higher education, which he did in Hamilton (Hogben, 143). In addition to his educational pursuits, he was also actively implicated in the building of a Muslim community. He was part of a group of individuals who, around the end of the 1960s, purchased buildings for the community to eventually have a mosque (Hogben, 143).
Afsar explained that when he was at university there were a few Muslim students, still they were able to have spaces for religious and cultural activities and they had a place for congregational prayers also (Hogben, 144). This part made me think of how the presence of McGill’s MSA (and other MSA’s across the cegep and universities) is important for many Muslim students. I believe that many of us can relate (at a certain point) to the experience Muhammad Afsar had because through the MSA we are able to have spaces for cultural and religious activities. The MSA organizes halaqat, Qur’an reciting circles, game nights, iftars and there is a musalat that makes it easier for us to pray during our time at university. Initially, the MSA is a ‘’service’’ for Muslim students, but anyone interested in the activities can attend. Many of the active members of the MSA are foreign students so I think that even for them, their implication creates a sense of community and belonging. The MSA is like a miniature community because throughout the semester we see the same people in the musalat and at the events. Another example of how the MSA is able to improve the students experience of many of us is that for the upcoming finals, they negotiated accommodations with the administration for students who have exams at the time of asr. Basically, the ones who have this issue can fill up a form and they will be able to have a 15min permission to pray asr before starting the exam.
Another thing I have noticed from the chapter is that the migrants presented in the chapter must have been considered ‘’model immigrants’’. Indeed, they were all individuals who had high education: Muhammad Asfar had a degree in civil engineering (Hogben,143), his wife Zia pursued a master’s in nuclear physics (144), Mohamed Bhabha was a teacher when he came in 1965 (145), Qasem Mahmoud was an electrical engineer in Palestine (153) etc. It's impressive to see that even if all of them had careers, they invested their time, money and energy to create spaces for the community and those few individuals took upon them the responsibility to make sure that Muslims had places to gather. Some of the gatherings were about discussing the needs of the ummah ‘’ the topics at social gatherings included the politics of Pakistan, the lack of halal meat locally and the difficulty of securing loans and mortgages so that Muslim families could move out of their rental properties into their own homes.’’ (Hogben, 153)