On May 17th, thousands of Muslims attended the second annual I.LEAD Conference. Muslim Link chose to interview a father and daughter to get an intergenerational perspective on the conference whose theme this year was “Muslim Youth Identity”.

There are concerns that younger voters might not be very engaged in this year’s Ontario provincial election. Muslim Link has sought out young Muslims in Ontario who are working, volunteering, or running with each major party in the provincial election to get their opinion about why it is important to be engaged in provincial politics. Our first interview is with Adnan Ali who is volunteering with Progressive Conservative Candidate Jack MacLaren in Carleton-Mississippi Mills in Ottawa.

On March 23rd, the Canada-Pakistan Association (CPA) held their annual Jeeway Pakistan (Long Live Pakistan) Mela in honour of Pakistan Day. Pakistan Day is held on March 23rdto commemorate the Lahore Resolution of 1940 by the All-India Muslim League, whose leader at the time was Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Jinnah is sometimes referred to by Pakistanis' as Quaid-i-Azam (Great Leader). The Resolution established the boundaries of the state which would become Pakistan after British India gained independence from Britain in 1947.

Transplant: Patient and Donors Stories took place on April 1st to mark the beginning of Ontario’s Organ Donation Month. During this month, the Trillium Gift of Life Network, (a non-profit agency of the Government of Ontario) responsible for facilitating organ and tissue donation and transplantation across Ontario, tries to raise public awareness about the urgent need for people to register to be organ donors. The event was spearheaded by Erica Bregman, a volunteer with the Trillium Gift of Life Network and supported by the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), whose VP, Maher Jebara, hosted the event. Several religious leaders such as Reverend Anthony Bailey, Imam Mohamad Jebara, and Rabbi Reuben Bulka, as well as leaders within Ottawa’s Sikh community, spoke out in order to dispel myths that might exist within their respective faith communities that organ donation is not religiously permitted. But those in attendance were most moved by the presentations of organ donors and transplant recipients like Somali-Canadian Hiba Yusuf.

Shahzad Khan was recently named one of 2013's Rising Stars by Invest Ottawa, an organization that aims to support entrepreneurs and local start-ups. Gnowit Inc., an online brand-monitoring company which Shahzad co-founded with Mohammad Al Azzouni, launched this year, gaining international clients and government contracts. Muslim Link met with the Pakistan-born entrepreneur to discuss what it takes to survive as an entrepreneur.

With a background in psychology and a PhD in neuroscience, management didn't initially figure among Nashwa Irfan's career goals.

“I would have never gone into management if it were not for my father's encouragement,” says Dr. Irfan.

Her father the late Dr. Muhammad Irfan, a professor in physics at St. John's University was certainly right about Dr. Irfan's talent as a manager. This year she received not one, but two prestigious awards for her work as Health Canada's Associate Director of its Marketed Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Bureau.

Syed Mumtaz Akhtar has been involved with community and cultural groups for the past four decades. He was the founding member and/or president of several Muslim organizations including: the Ottawa Muslim Association, Sadaqa Food Bank, Human Concern International, Canada Pakistan Association, Federation of Pakistani Canadians, Muslim Community Council of Ottawa-Gatineau and the Jamiatul Muslimeen of Ottawa Carleton. Mr. Akhtar has had roles in the Canadian Muslims National Steering Committee for Bill C-36 and C16 and the Community Policing Action Committee.