News

Shocking details of the US Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) secret detention, rendition, and interrogation program, following September 11, 2001, has been revealed in a new publication. The 214 page report, published in February, shows evidence that 54 countries cooperated in the kidnapping, torture, and detention program of hundreds of terrorist suspects that commenced under the President George W Bush Administration.

After Muslim Link's 10 anniversary celebration, I made a decision; I was going to have a spoken word event. At the mosque.

Yes, you heard me right. I asked Sarah Musa, a fellow spoken word artist, to embark on this task with me. I then wrote an event proposal and emailed to a contact from the mosque. Within a few days, I had the approval.

The Multifaith Housing Initiative's Annual Tulipathon raised $32,000 to support the building of more affordable housing in Ottawa. Several Muslim organizations participated in the fundraiser including the Ottawa Muslim Women's Organization (OMWO), the South Nepean Muslim Community (SNMC), Masjid Bilal, Cordova Academy, and the Ottawa Muslim Association (OMA).

Residents of a West-end neighbourhood gathered in late May to discuss the impact of the recent murder of 24-year-old Malik Adjokatcher, an alleged gang member, in the Britannia Woods neighbourhood.

The community forum was held at the Michele Heights Community Centre on May 27 and hosted by Bay Ward City Councillor Mark Taylor who moderated a panel consisting of representatives from the Ottawa Police Service, Crime Prevention Ottawa, Ottawa Community Housing (OCH), Pinecrest-Queensway Community Health Centre, and a tenant of the Michele Heights neighbourhood.

On Friday, May 10th, members of the Carleton University  Afghan Students' Association (ASA) organized a Mother's Day celebration to recognize the efforts of Afghan Canadian female educators who are actively involved within Ottawa's schools, from language school teachers to daycare workers. They also raised over $1000 in proceeds for Mirman Baheer, an Afghan organization that supports women writers and poets.

Over 200 participants turned up for the 36th Montreal Muslim Ball Hockey (MMBH) tournament on May 11 at John Abbott College campus in Montreal.  For the first time since it was founded 21 years ago, the bi-annual tournament featured two tiers, with five elite teams playing in Tier I and the remaining thirteen teams competing in Tier II.

Tier I finals featured perennial favourites Green Army, who were an all-Montreal team save for Ottawa star goaltender Aneel Anwar Nauth, emerging victorious over a team consisting of mainly Toronto-area players.  The first period had Green Army with a slight 2-1 advantage, which they later opened up further and routed their opponents by a score of 7-1.  Green Army captain Sophian Mian, well established as one of the top players in Montreal, incurred an injury during the finals but returned to score a goal in leading his team to their sixth ever championship. 

“Does anyone know why the eagle is so important in Aboriginal culture?” Jason Mullins, dressed in full Cherokee regalia, asked a riveted audience of mostly Muslim community members at Knox Presbyterian Church on April 13.

Mullins, an American-born First Nations cultural interpreter who works with the Ottawa organization Aboriginal Experiences, was one of many Aboriginal artists to offer his time and talent to support the Islam Care Centre's fundraising efforts.

It was an evening of firsts as the Ottawa Main Mosque welcomed US Ambassador David Jacobson on his first official visit on April 8.

Almost 100 people attended the event titled “Strengthening Bridges & Working Together for a Better Future”.  Security was discreet and the question period was uncensored which was unusual for a high-profile guest like the ambassador. But a unique set of circumstances had created the space for this gathering.  As Ambassador Jacobson explained at the beginning of his speech:

Over a hundred spiritual health care workers gathered in an Ottawa hotel last month to explore their role in creating ”˜sacred' and responsive spaces.

Far removed from sterile hospital corridors, bustling with professionals going about methodically with their day to day tasks, members of the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care (CASC) attended workshops and speeches about their special roles in environments often fixated solely on physical pain and physical healing.

In what some critics called an opportunistic move, the Harper government swiftly scheduled debate on, and passed, new anti-terrorism provisions (Bill S-7) in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing and the subsequent Canadian arrests of two men alleged to be involved in a plot against VIA Rail.

The most controversial of the provisions – involving preventive arrests (detention without charge for up to three days, followed by release under draconian bail conditions) and secretive investigative hearings, both part of the original Anti-Terrorism Act in 2001 – expired after five years due to a sunset clause. The federal Liberals, who joined with other opposition parties to reject an attempt to revive the provisions in 2007, voted in favour of S-7 under leader Justin Trudeau.

Maghrib (sunset) prayer has just concluded, yet well over 40 youth, mostly high schoolers, remain seated as they listen to an elderly gentlemen get up and deliver an Islamic sermon relevant to them. They are not seated on the carpets of a masjid (mosque) floor or the seats of a university lecture hall. Instead, they are in the most unlikely of places; a basketball gym. This has been the regular routine on Sunday nights at the Muslim Basketball League

Over forty people attended the Muslim Link's 10th anniversary celebration held at Saint Paul University on March 31.

While the crowd was small, the sentiments of support were strong from contributors and readers alike. After a short slide show chronicling the paper's evolution from a simple two-page newsletter to the 12-16 page newspaper it is today, a broad panel of contributors and observers discussed the paper's importance as it enters a second decade.

Good news for residents of rental housing in Ottawa. Under a new programme by the City, negligent landlords could receive fines of up to $100,000 for failing to ensure the safety and well-being of their tenants.

The project launched on March 1, with the City of Ottawa making multi-residential inspections in the buildings themselves, and in parking lots and grounds. At a March 5 meeting of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), Derek Petch, a City of Ottawa by-law officer said he and his team had begun inspecting more than 55 buildings in the Herongate area and would be visit other wards; noting all repair issues whether reported or not by the tenants, and issuing work orders for the landlords of those respective buildings.

In the dark days that followed September 11, 2001, as the precarious relationship between Islam and the West rapidly deteriorated, a diverse group of Muslim women from the Ottawa area gathered to confront the new reality of greater suspicion, mistrust, and scrutiny.

Confronted by openly hostile chatter in the media and on the street, this disparate  collection of women united both by their faith and a fierce pride in their shared identity as Canadians, contemplated their options and deliberately declined to accept defeat by shuffling off, heads bowed, into the shadowy realm of the lost.

The recent I.LEAD Conference held on March 16 was a great success!  It was a very social way to end the March Break with youth from all over the Ottawa-Gatineau region coming together to make a difference. For a first-time event, I think everyone was amazed by the turnout, with more than 2,500 people attending!  We heard speeches by well known scholars and Imams, including Sheikh Yassir Fazaga, Imam Tahir Anwar and Sheikh Navaid Aziz.

Abraar School has been ranked the best performing elementary school in the city.

The private Islamic school in Ottawa's west side was rated the best performing school for reading, writing and math scores by the Fraser Institute, a public policy think-tank. Abraar scored 9.4 points out 10, putting it in the top 50 schools among over 2,700 schools in Ontario. The provincial average was 6.0.

Great food and good cheer were on offer at an inter-faith potluck held in Kanata on February 26.

Well-attended by over 25 members of the Kanata Muslim Association (KMA) and a comparable number from the St. John's Anglican Church, the first-time event was a huge success.

Members of the KMA had been renting the St. John's church hall for several years for Friday and Ramadan prayers. But when the numbers got too big, the KMA had to move their prayers to the Kanata Recreation Centre.  The potluck was a way for the KMA and the church members to foster and grow the relationship that had already started to blossom from that earlier relationship, explained Amira Elghawaby, a member of the Kanata Sisters women's group who coordinated the event on behalf of the KMA.

As the new coordinator of the Muslim Link, one of the tasks I assigned myself was figuring out the history of the paper that has become an important institution in Ottawa's Muslim community.

Muslim Link was founded in 2002 by Ali Bokhari and his wife Tahira Ismail.  Ali was inspired to create the paper after seeing the success of The Muslim Link in the US. Founded in 1998, the American paper connects Muslims across the Virginia, Maryland, and Metropolitan Washington D.C area.

Ali's other motivation came from the fallout of 9/11 when stereotypes and misinformation about Muslims in Canada became rampant and it was clear that a forum was needed for Muslim Canadians to connect, share information, discuss their common concerns, and see their lives reflected in a positive light.

A Montreal-based Muslim organisation is hoping to inspire a “new definition of manhood” by encouraging men to be more demonstrative of their love for the women in their lives.

In keeping with this year's International Women's Day theme of“Working Together: Engaging Men to End Violence against Women”, Amal Centre, a counselling and referral organisation for Muslim women affected by abuse, is asking men to wear their hearts on their sleeve, and miniature purple bow ties on their lapels in honour of their wives, mothers and sisters.

Ahmad Abdorahman Awatt, faces serious threats to his health because of his immigration status. Awatt, a Kurd originally from Iraq, came to Canada in 1999. Although he lost his refugee case, he cannot be deported because his country of origin is on a moratorium list of unsafe countries that prevents Canada from returning him there.