Islam

Researchers collect personal stories from coast to coast to illuminate the history of Muslims in Canada

geoff.vendeville — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 19:24:06 +0000

Researchers collect personal stories from coast to coast to illuminate the history of Muslims in Canada

geoff.vendeville Thu, 04/28/2022 - 15:24

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Archivist Moska Rokay helps collect stories, documents and images as part of the Muslims in Canada Archives project, which aims to bring an often-overlooked part of the country's history to life (photo by Emily Moran)

Josslyn Johnstone

Topic

Our Community

Institute of Islamic Studies

Alumni

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Information

Faculty of Law

Islam

As an archivist on the Muslims in Canada Archives (MiCA) project, Moska Rokay doesn't just preserve the past – she unearths it.

Moska Rokay

Rokay, a graduate of the University of Toronto's master of information program in the Faculty of Information, speaks to Canadians across the country to collect stories, documents and images that bring the rich history of Muslims in Canada to life.

“For instance, many people I have spoken to recall attending a co-ed Muslim youth summer camp in the 1980s and 90s, pre 9/11,” she says. “It’s been fascinating to speak to so many different people who each have fond memories of this time, like playing sports, learning how to canoe, doing arts and crafts, and, of course, participating in lectures on Islam.”

Although it's changed names and locations over the years, the camp still exists as Ontario's Camp Deen. Rokay has spoken to many Muslims across Ontario who has attended what's now known as Camp Deen, as first step toward piecing together the camp's history.

That's just one example of the kinds of stories in the MiCA project that illuminates how Muslim Canadians fit within Canada's broader historical narrative, says Institute of Islamic Studies Director Anver Emon.

“Muslims have been in Canada since Confederation, but their stories are not robustly told anywhere,” says Emon, who is also a professor in the Faculty of Law and department of history in the Faculty of Arts & Science, and Canada Research Chair in Islamic Law and History. “Not much is known about the early history of Muslims in Canada, or the current history they make each day alongside other communities.”

The archive is also helping to recalibrate present-day conversations about Islam and Muslims. “Canadian Muslims have too often been subject to stereotypes, prejudice and creeping Islamophobia,” Emon explains. “These biased representations will not go away overnight, which is where MiCA comes in – by speaking back to an Islamophobic narrative, one story at a time.”

Sadia Zaman, CEO of the Inspirit Foundation and one of MiCA’s partners, says that collaborating with organizations from different sectors is important because the dominant narrative in public discourse is very powerful: “It requires us all to work together to create a different one,” she says.

“The participatory nature of this archive is crucial to help tell the complex, multifaceted and nuanced story of Muslim presence in Canada. And its academic rigour is needed to help build the foundation for those stories so that they can be disseminated and made accessible.”

Supported by the Canadian government, the archive plans to expand its scope from Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador to the rest of the country (photo by Emily Moran)

In a 2019 environmental scan of Canadian archives, Rokay found that Muslims were not only underrepresented, they were often categorized using ethnic groupings but not also religion.

In the report, Rokay says: “[A]t best, the ‘Muslim’ experience can only be inferred. At worst, this erases minority religious groups from Canada’s archival holdings at a time when religious identity has become a very public and political touchstone in recent elections.

Anver Emon (photo by Diana Tyszko)

“From Quebec’s attack on the headscarf to right-wing extremism that resulted in the terrorist attack at a Quebec City mosque, being Muslim is often associated with a national security and threat narrative that dehumanizes a portion of Canada’s citizenry.”

Documenting the voices of marginalized communities is key to supporting an inclusive, multicultural Canada, says journalist and editor Haroon Siddiqui, chair of the IIS advisory board and a senior fellow at Massey College, an independent graduate college affiliated with U of T.

"A great achievement of contemporary Canada has been to bestow equality and equal dignity on all demographic groups. Our next challenge is to extend equal dignity of portrayal,” Siddiqui explains. "With a digital archive like MiCA, Muslims across Canada can now follow in the tradition of other Canadian communities who’ve enriched us all with their stories.”

The Canadian government recently pledged $4 million in funding to MiCA and the project members' goal to document the history of Canada's diverse Muslim communities.

Emon says the funding will enable MiCA to expand its scope from eastern and central Canada (Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador) to the rest of the country. It will also support the latest stage of the project: making the vibrant history of Muslims in Canada accessible to the public, using a curated digital storytelling portal.

“When watching the news, it’s hard not to notice that from rural communities to small towns to Canada’s major cities, we are all contending with how an increasingly diverse demographic can share their lives, their stories, and all the while remain in political community,” Emon says.

“To tell stories together – whatever your race, creed, ethnicity or culture – requires the ‘stuff’ with which we tell stories. As grade-school students, we used this ‘stuff’ when we shared with our classmates in show-and-tell. Historians use this ‘stuff’ called primary sources to empirically ground their research. Artists might find inspiration in this ‘stuff’ to write a poem, compose a musical score or paint a canvas.

“As one step in systemic change, MiCA stewards that ‘stuff’ with the conviction that whatever it may be, it is rich with storytelling possibilities – ones that empower Muslims in Canada to speak for themselves.”

U of T conference on Ibadism highlights pluralism within Islamic tradition

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 18:12:58 +0000

U of T conference on Ibadism highlights pluralism within Islamic tradition

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 08/19/2019 - 14:12

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The 10th annual Conference on Ibadi Studies welcomed a diverse range of global scholars to discuss historical and contemporary topics in Ibadism (photo by D. Olms)

Jovana Jankovic

Topic

Global Lens

Faculty of Arts & Science

Ibadism is a theological sect within Islam that stands alongside the more widely practiced Shi’a and Sunni traditions. But it isn’t nearly as well known in North America – a blind spot a recent conference at the University of Toronto sought to rectify.

The conference, titled “Ibadism and the Study of Islam: A View from the Edge,” brought together a diverse range of global scholars to discuss historical and contemporary topics in Ibadism, from the preservation and study of ancient manuscripts to questions of ethics, language, community-building, religious and legal traditions and more.

It was the first time the annual conference has been hosted in Canada.

“Thinking from the edges allowed us to examine the presumptions that animate most studies of Islam and Muslims today,” says Professor Anver Emon, a scholar of Islamic legal history appointed to the Faculty of Law and the department of history who is also the director of the Faculty of Arts & Science’s Institute of Islamic Studies.

“When we think of the term ‘Muslim’ we might think of certain ethnic groups, language groups and so on. We also might think of sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shi’as – the dominant sects within Islam. But Ibadi Muslims offer us a third sectarian group that highlights an oft-ignored pluralism within the Islamic tradition.”

While there are Ibadi Muslims living all over the world, Ibadi communities are largely concentrated in Oman, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, and North Africa.

The institute hosted the 10^th annual Conference on Ibadi Studies this past June with support from the country of Oman’s Ministry of Endowments & Religious Affairs. The conference looked at the movement’s position on the margins of the larger study of Islam, whose adherents make up an estimated 24 per cent of the world’s population.

Speakers at the conference included Ayman Shihadeh, chair of the British Association for Islamic Studies and a historian of Islamic philosophy and theology, and U of T’s Ruba Kana'an, an assistant professor of Islamic art and architecture at U of T Mississauga’s department of visual Studies.

“The conference also offered us an opportunity to get to know Canada’s own Ibadi community,” says Emon, “many of whom joined us from Montreal.”

As the conference’s host, Emon says Canada presented an interesting parallel to the country of Oman, where the majority of the population is Ibadi.

“Both have neighbouring countries that can sometimes be challenging to engage with. Both often play important behind-the-scenes roles in fostering peace and prosperity regionally and internationally.

“To be the first Canadian host of the Ibadi conference illustrated the shared sensibilities regionally and globally that both countries play.”

Fulbright scholar at U of T law school delves into Jewish, Islamic and secular law

ullahnor — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 20:32:03 +0000

Fulbright scholar at U of T law school delves into Jewish, Islamic and secular law

ullahnor Thu, 08/03/2017 - 16:32

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An Arab Jewish centre in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa. A U of T law scholar will be looking at the role of Jewish, Islamic and secular law in real estate transactions (photo by Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images)

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A visiting Fulbright scholar at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law will be working on a comparative law analysis regarding the role of Jewish, Islamic and secular law in the context of real estate transactions.

Fulbright fellow J.R. Rothstein will be working with the Beis Din, Vaad Harabonim of Toronto and the Islamic Medina Seminary of Toronto, both of which will facilitate his research, over the course of the next eight months.

Fulbright awards are funded by the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Rothstein fostered Jewish-Muslim dialogue as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, and later the co-chair of the Jewish-Muslim task force at AJC ACCESS. He says he chose Toronto and U of T over other cities and universities because Toronto is the perfect place "to explore the convergence and divergence between these two faith communities.”

He will be working with the Faculty of Law’s Professor Mohammad Fadel, Canada Research Chair for the Law and Economics of Islamic Law, and Professor David Novak, the J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Chair of Jewish Studies.

“Toronto is a crucible of different communities, cultures, and ideas all coming together. It is the perfect place for intellectual endeavours and to explore the potential of Jewish-Muslim relations,” says Rothstein. “I was attracted to U of T because it has first rate international scholars in Jewish and Islamic legal studies, theory and theology. Where else can you find intellectual giants such as Mohammad Fadel and David Novak at the same institution?”

Quebec mosque shooting, U.S. travel ban bring uncertainty to Canada’s Muslim communities, says U of T expert

Romi Levine — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 11:13:26 +0000

Quebec mosque shooting, U.S. travel ban bring uncertainty to Canada’s Muslim communities, says U of T expert

Romi Levine Tue, 01/31/2017 - 06:13

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From left, Quebec Prime Minister Philippe Couillard, Mohamed Labidi, vice-president of the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec and Regis Labeaume, mayor of Quebec City, at a press conference Jan. 30, 2017 (photo by Alice Chiche/AFP/Getty)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

City & Culture

Islam

Sociology

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Law

As police search for answers after a horrific shooting in a Quebec City mosque that killed six people and left many injured, Canada’s Muslim community grapples with loss and fear of similar attacks.

The site of the shooting, the Centre Culturel Islamique de Quebec, is no stranger to hateful acts. This past summer, the mosque was delivered a pig’s head from an anonymous sender and has been vandalized with hateful graffiti.

These incidents shouldn't be looked at in isolation, says Neda Maghbouleh, an assistant professor of sociology at U of T Mississauga. Her research focuses on race, discrimination and immigration, particularly regarding people of Middle Eastern descent.

“We've had plenty of examples even since the U.S. election of a feedback loop or reverberations that we're even feeling locally in Toronto – whether it's racist signs that are hung up in parks where our children play or leaflets and pamphlets that are being sent to people's private homes or different kinds of expressions be they simply rhetorical or actual forms of violence like women having their hijab pulled off,” says Maghbouleh.

It is too early to know whether the alleged gunman will be charged with a terrorism-related crime, says Kent Roach, professor and Prichard Wilson Chair in Law and Public Policy at U of T’s Faculty of Law.

“I would expect that the suspect would be charged with murder. It is possible that they might be charged with various terrorism crimes though that would generally require proof of some acts of assistance or participation in a terrorist group involving at least more than one person,” he says.

In the hours after the killings, social media saw speculation the suspect would be charged with a hate crime, but Roach points out that Canada does not have hate crimes. Hate against an identifiable group is “a codified aggravating factor at sentence” but not a separate crime.

Across Canada, communities gathered at vigils Monday night to remember those killed with prayers and moments of silence, and to call for peace, inclusion and an end to prejudice. Members of the Ryerson and U of T communities combined their events, gathering at the steps of University College.

Read about the vigil

The shooting added to the uncertainty felt by Canada’s Muslim communities after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

As a permanent resident in Canada and an American citizen whose parents were born in Iran, Maghbouleh is seeing first-hand how Trump’s immigration policies can affect families all over the world.

“My parents live in Portland, Oregon. My daughter's third birthday is in about a month, and we're trying to figure out if they're going to get stopped at the border trying to come to her birthday party in the east end of Toronto because their documents say they were born in Tehran, Iran.”

She likens the travel ban to the Chinese Exclusion Act that prohibited Chinese immigration to the U.S. and Canada over 100 years ago.

“This stuff feels very resonant to me as a professor living in the city and through my friends whose family history is tied to those seven countries that are banned. Not a single family is unaffected by this ban. I've never personally experienced anything like this,” she says.

“I have so many students in my classroom who have come from that region of the world who are Afghan or Iranian or Arab. I've seen the effects of this ban, and the complete chaos it created for Torontonians who have medical conferences to attend in the U.S. or who have family members who are there and we now can't see each other.”

Islam

Researchers collect personal stories from coast to coast to illuminate the history of Muslims in Canada

U of T conference on Ibadism highlights pluralism within Islamic tradition

Fulbright scholar at U of T law school delves into Jewish, Islamic and secular law

Read more about him

Quebec mosque shooting, U.S. travel ban bring uncertainty to Canada’s Muslim communities, says U of T expert

Read about the vigil

Read about the U of T students detained in the U.S. over the weekend