Haneen Alhassoun recently won second place this month at the Ottawa Youth Poetry Slam. At 16, the Brookfield High School student is both humbled and excited about her win as she has been working towards it for the past two and a half years.

The fifth annual Expressions of Muslim Women (EMW) took place on Saturday, November 17 at the Centrepointe Studio Theatre. The sold-out event raised funds for local charities like Sadaqa Food Bank and Nelson House, a shelter for women and children fleeing abuse.

The title of this year's event was “Strength in Sisterhood”, a theme which ran through several of the performances that evening. The theme was also embodied by the commitment of the event organizers, a group of women who have volunteered to make EMW an artistic celebration for women to look forward to each year.

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. As the Children's Aid Society (CAS) works to build bridges with Muslims in Ontario, the issue of adoption has turned out to be an unexpected stumbling block. Islamic jurisprudence does not allow Muslims to practice adoption in many circumstances, particularly closed adoption, when a child does not have access to knowledge of their birth parents. Islamic jurisprudence emphasizes the importance of lineage so any practice that would deny a child their right to know their identity is not permitted.

Farhat came to Canada in 1969 to marry and raise a family. Like other immigrants of her age and background she had many aspirations and hopes for her bright children. But in February 2001, her dreams were shattered when her son, gripped by paranoid delusions due to an undiagnosed mental illness, stabbed his friend and mentor of many years who succumbed to his injuries. What began was a nightmare as Farhat struggled with guilt over her son's crime, heartache over the deterioration of her son's mental health, fear for her son's safety in the Ottawa Carleton Regional Detention Centre (RDC), and frustration with a corrections system she discovered to be seriously flawed. But in the process, Farhat became an advocate for the rights' of prisoners and their families and reached out to the support networks that she could find in Ottawa.

For me, Black History Month is not only about celebrating the contributions of my fellow Black Canadians, it is about remembering the impact that the enslavement of Black peoples has had on Africa and the world. It's about building on the strengths of the Black community in Ottawa by working across the socio-economic, religious, ethno-cultural, and linguistic differences of the diversity of individuals who make up our community. It's about examining how anti-Black racism still exists within Canadian society and recommitting myself to challenging it by trying to understand why it persists and how it affects my life and the lives of my fellow Black Canadians.

Black History Month is celebrated annually in February in the United States and Canada. Its origins go back as far as 1926 with the establishment of “Negro History Week” in the United States during the second week of February. This week was chosen because both President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) and former slave-turned-human rights activist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) were born during this week.

The first celebration of Black History Month occurred in 1970 at Kent State University and in 1976, under the presidency of Republican Gerald Ford, the Unites States government officially recognized February as Black History Month. In Canada, in 1995, Black Liberal MP Jean Augustine, who was the first Black woman to become a member of a federal cabinet, brought a motion forward to the House of Commons for the month’s recognition, and in 2008, Black Conservative Senator Donald Oliver, who was the first Black man appointed to the Senate, moved for the Senate to do the same; both motions were unanimously approved.

In honour of Black History Month, the Muslim Link’s Chelby Marie Daigle asked local Muslims -- both those who are Black and those who are not -- what Black History Month means to them.

This Halloween, Nagat Bahumaid was surprised to find herself on the front page of Imgur, a popular photo sharing site. A friend had casually posted a photo Nagat had taken of herself at work dressed as Princess Leia from the film Star Wars, using her hijab to make those classic Princess Leia braids. Within a few hours the photo went viral, getting over 100,000 views and shared on blogs around the world.

“I HATED English, which makes the whole poetry thing a surprise even for myself,” shared Ali Awada about his unlikely success as a rising star in Ottawa's Spoken Word scene. Ali, 23, grew up in Detroit, the son of Lebanese parents who decided to move to Canada when he was 10.  Ali broke onto the scene at Capital Slam in December 2012. He placed second in his first ever competition, and then won first place the next week. Ali took the stage name ”˜Ali Islam' and “the rest is history.” He has performed at Muslim community events from high school Eid Dinners to the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) Eid Festival, and recently opened for YouTube sensation FouseyTube in Montreal during his Canadian tour. You will find Ali performing solo or in the hip hop group House of Halaal with Jae “Deen” Asare.

Egyptian singer Hamza Namira, who is considered to be the unofficial Artist of the Egyptian Revolution during which he was a fixture in Tahrir Square, performed in Ottawa on Sunday, October 27th to a packed audience. Namira was in Ottawa as part of his first-ever Canadian tour, which is a fundraiser for Islamic Relief Canada's projects in Egypt. PeaceMidan, a non-profit organization which aims to build on the momentum of the Arab Spring in order to foster civic engagement and social entrepreneurship in Arab countries, organized Namira's visit. “Hamza Namira is the voice of hope, not only in Egypt but in the Middle East region,” explained Mohamed Abouelsaoud, co-founder and vice-president of PeaceMidan.

Prominent religious leaders from North American Sunni and Shi'a Muslim communities have developed an agreement meant to stem violence and tension between their respective communities.

The Washington Declaration For the Protection of Nations and Societies from the Menace of Sectarian Violence aims to facilitate mutual respect and unity between Muslim communities in North America and address the rise in sectarian violence in countries such as Pakistan, Iraq, and Syria.