For the love of hockey: Montreal Muslim Ball Hockey celebrates 20 years

On some occasions, participants have come from as far as the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates. It remains the oldest and longest-running Muslim ball hockey tournament not only in Canada, but the world.

The MMBH Tournament attracts visitors to Montreal and, in so doing, contributes to the local economy. It serves to highlight the beautiful city of Montreal in its rightful place as the Mecca of hockey, no pun intended. Additionally, it is an effective mechanism to showcase the successful integration of Canadian Muslims, a large, vibrant and diverse community whose contributions to Canadian society date back to before Confederation.

The MMBH Tournament also allows new Muslim immigrants to partake in a variation of Canada's national sport. Participants interact with other Canadian Muslims and learn to enjoy and become passionate about hockey in a safe, positive, affordable and healthy environment.

While the tournament is typical in many ways to any other in Canada in terms of intensity, competitiveness and quality of play, what sets it apart is its atmosphere of sportsmanship. There is zero tolerance for overly aggressive behavior, and in addition to standard hockey rules, swearing and vulgar talk is not allowed (violating this rule can incur a hefty penalty). Also, there are universal breaks that allow participants to perform prayers in congregation, and guest speakers are often invited to motivate participants to exemplify the Islamic faith by helping their fellow citizens, engaging in charitable work and contributing to the community and Canada as a whole.

As much as it is a community sporting event, the MMBH Tournament is also a platform for social and business interaction with Muslim participants coming from diverse backgrounds: Anglophones, Francophones and Allophones;  from first and second generation Canadians from over two dozen countries around the world, to those whose ancestors have been in Canada since the earliest European settlers.

Participants are equally diverse in their professional and social backgrounds, ranging from doctors and bankers, to imams and entrepreneurs, to bureaucrats and students. It is not uncommon to see friendships develop and business relationships establish and thrive through exchanges at the tournament. As well, affordable corporate sponsorship packages provide an excellent forum for business visibility and marketing opportunities to a niche market. Sponsors tend to be as diverse as the participants, from eateries such as Metro Pizza to lost and found experts, ReturnMoi.

The MMBH Tournament also serves as a tool for charitable work, both locally and abroad, and presents the combined generous nature of Canada and the Islamic faith. Funds raised at the event are used to engage in international development work in the fields of health, hygiene and education for the betterment of needy populations abroad.

As a local example, this past 35th edition of the tournament collected and delivered close to 350 non-perishable food items to Sun Youth experiencing a widely-reported food shortage. In the past three years alone, the MMBH Tournament has provided approximately 2,215 non-perishable food items to various local charitable initiatives, including Sun Youth, NDG Food Depot, Old Brewery Mission, Ottawa Sadaqa Food Bank, AMAL Women Centre and other women's shelters.

{sidebar id=10} Like its predecessors, the 35th MMBH Tournament featured exciting and surprising moments, notably the shocking elimination of the top team, Slap you in the Face(off), by the underdog Black Reapers in the quarterfinals, as well as the Stallions winning the championship over the defending champions, Wipers, by a score of 3-2, the winning goal scored by defenceman Ammar Zaheer with 3 seconds left in the game.

"The feeling is indescribable, knowing you just scored the tournament winner," said Zaheer,."Our guys worked so hard all day, they deserved a championship and I felt on cloud nine because I was able to get it for them."

Teammate Sheryar Qadoos was as enthusiastic about winning his first championship: "I've been playing in these amazing tournaments for quite a while now and I never thought I would be able to win a championship because of the strong competition Muslims all over Quebec, Ontario and elsewhere bring to this excellent event. It feels incredible to win and be crowned champion of this amazing charity tournament!"

Another participant, Ijaz Mohmand of Cornwall, ON, said "I really enjoy the tournament because it's so well organized, great hockey, and most importantly it's for such a good cause."

Australia-born Montreal Canadiens fan Imran Lakhani, who now calls Ottawa home, echoed similar thoughts: "It's pretty amazing to see that the tournaments have been successful through all these years. For me, the best thing about it all is that everyone can get together to play the sport they love and yet benefit those in need at the same time."

Arssal Shahabuddin, a long time participant who ranks third in tournament history with 9 championships, focused more on the intangibles, saying "The tournament is fun but aside from the entertainment and athletic aspects, I consider it a stepping stone to bring people together for the truly important community work. Events like these serve as platforms to engender affection between each other so when we gather together to serve our community, and by extension our Creator, we will able to do so without problems."

Riaz Lasania, when asked about his role as one of the directors of the tournament, stated "I help organize these tournaments to get people together, come out and have fun in an Islamic environment and for a good cause. It's great to see the competition and sportsmanship and also parity, especially in the last few tournaments, and seeing supposedly weaker teams upset higher ranked teams always makes the tournament exciting."

Award winners from the 35th edition include Ali Noroozi (Tournament MVP and Best Forward); Zubair Wahid (Best Defenceman); Shoaib Hasan Shaikh (Best Goaltender); Yousuf Rashid (Playoff MVP); Umair Qadir and Fahd Hussain (Sportsmanship); Khurrum Ullah (Unsung Hero).

For all its efforts over the past two decades, the MMBH Tournament has received congratulations and recognition from multiple members of parliament and community leaders. Hope remains that future editions of the event will successfully uphold the legacy of bringing people together on three core aspects of their identity: Canadian, Muslim and insatiable love for hockey.

Shujaat Wasty is the Chief Organizer and Commissioner of the MMBH Tournament. For more information, please refer to the website: http://mmbh.ca. For sponsorship opportunities, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Twitter at MMBHTourney