Check out Muslim Canadians Who Won in the 2015 Federal Election.

Muslim Link is quite excited about the number of Muslim Canadians running in this federal election.

So much has been written about the recent Senate Report , particularly the suggestion of “certifying imams”. The “Certifying Imams” controversy comes from Recommendation 9 of the Senate Report which states that “The federal government work with the provinces and the Muslim communities to investigate the options that are available for the training and certification of imams in Canada.”

Australian academic Dr. Scott Flower came to Ottawa on July 25th to discuss his current research on Canadian converts to Islam. He admits that it has been hard to find Canadian converts willing to be interviewed for his current national study of conversion to Islam in Canada, funded through Project Kaniskha, which is managed by Public Safety Canada. And yes, he gets it-“It’s the whole government anti-terrorism connection!”

Letters to Khadijah is the creation of Vancouverites Tahia Ahmed and Romila Barryman. They run sessions for Muslim women to connect while exploring the complexity of their identities in writing.

They recently hosted a virtual hangout with Muslim Canadian Women writers Monia Mazigh, Zarqa Nawaz, Hawa Mire, and Urooba Jamal.

They are coming to Ottawa on July 27th as part of their national tour.

Muslim Link interviewed the duo about creating safe spaces for Muslim women to explore their diverse identities and share with one another despite their differences.

The IMPACT initiative is multi-partisan, grassroots project based in Toronto, whose aim is to educate Canadian Muslim youth in the political process and its vital importance, provide training in how to get involved on-the-ground, and empower them to recruit and lead their own team of volunteers.

The deadline for their fellowship for Canadian Muslim youth between the ages of 16 to 25 who wish to be involved during the Federal Election is Wednesday, July 22nd. You can apply online here.

Muslim Link interviewed the people behind IMPACT to find out more about the fellowship and what they hope to achieve.

After years of working in community development and youth engagement across Ottawa, Hamid Mousa has been working with the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) since 2008. Currently the OPS Community Development Coordinator, Mousa, a Palestinian Canadian, began as a refugee to this country.

Assma Galuta, aka Asoomii Jay, 25, has been an active YouTuber since 2011 when she began doing hijab tutorials. “I saw a lot of my friends removing their hijab and it made me sad,” she explained, “They were just doing it to fit in with their Canadian friends and they would say ‘I don’t look good in a hijab’ or ‘I don’t feel welcome in a hijab’. I started my YouTube Channel because I wanted to show girls that they could still look pretty and feel pretty and be stylish and wear the hijab.” Her channel became popular internationally with thousands of subscribers on YouTube and tens of thousands of Facebook followers.

Muslim Link attended this year’s I.LEAD Conference and asked participants to reflect on what community means to them. Here is a response from Arab Canadian Amr Daouk, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, who recently co-coordinated Islam Awareness Week at Carleton University.

Muslim Link attended this year’s I.LEAD Conference and asked participants to reflect on what community means to them. Here is a response from Somali Canadian Faisa Omar, a graduate student in neuroscience, who regularly does photography and videography for community events and Muslim Link's A Muslim History of Ottawa, volunteers with Ottawa Islamic School, and runs a weekend duqsi (Quran School in Somali) in her home for neighbourhood children.

Muslim Link caught up with the coordinators of this year’s Islam Awareness Week (IAW) at Carleton University. Carleton University Muslim Students' Association (MSA) members, Bangladeshi Canadian journalism student Radiyah Chowdhury and graduate student Arab Canadian Amr Daouk, ran the MSA's annual IAW from March 16th to the 20th in Carleton’s Atrium.