Stories

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.

When I tell my friends that I volunteer with the Ottawa Police Service they think it's awesome. Although many times I receive questions like, “Oh, you want to be a police officer?” or a “Do you get to use a gun?”

Here is what I actually do: I volunteer with the Ottawa Police Service's Youth Advisory Committee (YAC).  YAC hopes to become the liaison between the youth and the police, in the hope that this relationship will make Ottawa a safer place. YAC works to address the issues that youth are facing and to meet their needs. 

Farhia Ahmed is a mother of four who runs her own career consulting business. But on and off since 2005, she has been the team lead for Reviving the Islamic Spirit's Media Team. Muslim Link had a chance to interview Farhia about her journey with RIS and the role the Media Team plays in trying to improve the image of Muslims in mainstream media.

I am a product of youth programs. Since high school, I've been attracted to being involved in anything that would give me an opportunity to network, learn, and grow. It is where I spent many hours during lunch and many more after school. Now I have the privilege of working with a youth program that mirrors the experiences I had in high school.

Since the winter of 2012, I have worked for Youth Futures: a 7-month long bilingual program that provides advanced leadership training, volunteer opportunities, a variety of employment positions, and a post-secondary experience. The goal of the program is to provide skills, information, and support for success in post-secondary education and the work place for high school students from low-income families and communities.

We at Muslim Link strive to make it a non-partisan publication that respects that Ottawa's Muslims support a variety of political parties. However, when we were invited to spend a day with Yasir Naqvi, the Ontario Minister of Labour with the Liberal Party, we jumped on the opportunity to see just what a politician does with his or her time. Our goal is to demystify the work of politicians and encourage citizens to take more of an interest in politicians' work throughout their time in office, not just during elections. This is important in order to keep politicians accountable to their constituents. Along with Muslim Link reporters, 16 year-old Adilah Makrup, a Lisgar High School student and photographer living in Yasir's riding, was invited to join Muslim Link on November 15th for the chance to connect with the man who represents her and her family provincially. We hope that this will become a regular series as more politicians invite us to spend the day with them.

On November 4th, Mohamed Islam, 31, was awarded with Crime Prevention Ottawa's 2013 Youth Worker Award in a ceremony at City Hall. Crime Prevention Ottawa (CPO) is an organization which aims to reduce crime and enhance community safety through collaborative evidence-based crime prevention strategies. Mohamed Islam is a Youth Worker with the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa and is the coordinator of the Somali Youth Support Project, a program run out of the Pinecrest-Queensway Community Health Centre.

“It takes a village to raise a child.” – Old African Proverb

Had a rough time last night because your baby wasn’t sleeping? No problem! Just give him to your well rested mother in the morning while you catch up. Not able to eat because your baby is being too clingy? No problem! Toss him over to your niece while you eat breakfast. Can’t go take a shower in peace because your baby won’t stop crying? No problem! Call your brother over to entertain him for a few minutes.

How amazing would that be, right?

Would you apply for a job that asked for the following qualifications?

Young people are often regarded as irresponsible, immature agents of chaos. Full of passion and wild ideas, people in their late teens or early twenties are often seen by society as a group of people who are generally unequipped to make any big life decisions.

As young adults, we feel like we have the green light to behave this way as it is what society seems to expect from us. Growing up in the West, we are taught that it’s okay to delay any major life decision and to “have fun while we still can.”

This is why it comes as quite a shock when I tell people that I was married at 18 and had my first child at 20. At first, some people tend to assume that I am the victim of the “oppressed Muslim woman forced into marriage young” stereotype.

We live in a society that holds negative views regarding labour and birth. Through mass media, we are taught that it is a process filled with a sense of urgency, fear and pain. But it really doesn't have to be that way.

Before I became a mother, the word “labour” gave me so many mixed feelings. Anticipation, curiosity, fear and nervousness were all things I experienced in the months leading up to the big day.

One thing that reassured me was remembering that giving birth is something all women were built to do, by God's design. Yes, labor is painful but it's amazing how a positive outlook can truly help us manage.

When first finding out that they are pregnant, most expectant mothers head straight for their family doctor who then refers them to an obstetrician without a second thought, but did you know that there is another type of caregiver?

Midwives have been around pretty much ever since women have been going into labour.

Modern midwives are certified professionals who have at least a bachelor’s degree, completed nursing and midwifery training and who have also passed exams in order to obtain a license to practice.

As a Muslim woman, I found that there were several benefits to having a midwife:

Becoming a parent is one of those things that you just don't know until you know. We all grow up hearing how challenging parenthood really is, but we just don't realize it until it actually happens to us.

No amount of reading or pep talks can really prepare you for the challenge that is life with a baby, but that doesn't mean you can't try. At 20 years old, one thing that comforted me the most when I learned I was going to be a mother was the fact that my older sister also had her first child at that age.

On Monday, March 25th, a group of people gathered around a muddy road, making their way to an Algonquin heritage site called Victoria Island, in Ottawa. The smell of tobacco and smoke filled the air, and loud drumming and chanting could be heard from a distance. There was excitement in the air.

Berak Hussain discovered her passion for counselling back when she was a student at Gloucester High School.

The Ottawa Muslim Community agrees fully with Prime Minister Stephen Harper that there should be only one law for all Canadians. We have chosen Canada as our homeland and as good Muslims it is our duty to abide by the laws of this beautiful, peaceful country.

**SPOILER ALERT**

When a gunman opened fire at the victory celebration for Quebec's PQ Leader Pauline Marois, there was no reference to his religion or birth country, and certainly no grand statement about whether or not his actions reflect “our values.” Amidst the tragedy, one can only assume that such omissions from the public record mean the man was not a Muslim and was born on this continent.

Those rooting for “reasonable accommodation” and “secularization” were no doubt disappointed that this was not another hook on which to hang their Islamophobic hat. Indeed, any misstep by any Muslim fuels the political and media obsession with an ancient, tribalistic notion that “our” society is being taken over by “their” values; a fear-based campaign that drives much of the hatred directed against Islam.

As Parliament passes sweeping, repressive immigration legislation, Toronto filmmaker Ali Kazimi's timely book, Undesirables: White Canada and the Komagata Maru, an Illustrated History, is a welcome and necessary contribution that should be required reading not only for Jason Kenney and his cohorts, but also those good-hearted folks who claim the new law violates Canada's mythic “humanitarian traditions.”

If timing is everything, can it also be ironic?

Just as author and academic Janice Williamson launches an anthology of essays detailing Canada's failure to uphold the rights of one of its citizens, another “Oh Canada” is quickly garnering much attention.

Canadian media have already publicized the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art's new exhibition which aims to portray Canada's artistic landscape, as seen through the eyes of its contemporary artists, authors, and cultural purveyors.

I met Fred Reed at a CAIR-CAN fundraising in Montreal few years ago. I didn't know at that time that he would one day be one of the translators of my memoir Hope and Despair. Later on, I read one of his numerous books on the Middle-East and I discovered with delight and curiosity a glimpse of the man who stood behind this tall and shy personality. An American War Resister? International journalist? A translator who chose Canada, and more particularly Quebec, as a land of adoption?

Then, I read his latest book Then We Were One, a memoir he wrote that was published by Talonbooks in November 2011. After I finished reading this book I realized how little I knew about the life of this fascinating Canadian author.