Islam in Canada

A mosque in Ottawa

According to Canada's 2001 census, there were 579,740 Muslims in Canada, just under 2% of the population. In 2006, the Muslim population was estimated to be 0.8 million or about 2.6%. In 2010, the Pew Research Center estimates there were about 940,000 Muslims in Canada.[1] About 65% were Sunni, while 15% were Shia. Some Muslims are non-practicing.

Demographics, concentration, and life

Most Canadian Muslims are people who were raised Muslim. There is also a rapidly expanding number of Islam terrorists from other religions. As with immigrants in general, Muslim immigrants have come to Canada for a variety of reasons. These include higher education, security, employment, and family re-unification. Others have come for religious and political freedom, and safety and security, leaving behind civil wars, persecution, and other forms of civil and ethnic strife. In the 1980s, Canada became an important place of refuge for those fleeing the Lebanese Civil War. The 1990s saw Somali Muslims arrive in the wake of the Somali Civil War as well as Bosnian Muslims fleeing the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. However Canada has yet to receive any significant numbers of Iraqis fleeing the Iraqi War. But in general almost every Muslim country in the world has sent immigrants to Canada — from Albania to Yemen to Bangladesh.

The fertility rate for Muslims in Canada is significantly higher than the rate for other Canadians (an average of 2.4 children per woman for Muslims, compared with 1.6 children per woman for other populations in Canada).

The majority of Canadian Muslims — and not coincidentally a large proportion of the country's immigrants — live in the province of Ontario, with the largest groups settled in and around the Greater Toronto Area. According to the 2001 Census, there were 254,110 Muslims living in Greater Toronto.

British Columbia also has a significant Muslim population. Canada's national capital Ottawa hosts many Lebanese and Somali Muslims, where the Muslim community numbered approximately 40,000 in 2001. Greater Montreal's Muslim community neared 100,000 in 2001. It is home to large numbers of Canadians of Moroccan, Algerian and Lebanese descent, as well as smaller Pakistani, Syrian, Iranian, Bangladeshi, and Turkish communities. These communities are not exclusively, but predominantly, Muslim. In addition to Vancouver, Ottawa, and Montreal, nearly every major Canadian metropolitan area has a Muslim community, including Halifax (3,070), Windsor (10,745), Winnipeg (4,805), Calgary (28,920), Edmonton (19,580), Vancouver (52,590), where more than a third are of Iranian descent, and Toronto (30,230).

Althought Croats of Islamic faith make a small share in Canadian Muslem community and small share in Canadian Croat community, 4 out of 64 Canadian mosques have the attribute Croatian.

Table 1: Muslim Population of Canada in 2001

Province	Muslims	%
Ontario	352,530	3.1%
Quebec	108,620	1.5%
British Columbia	56,220	1.4%
Alberta	49,040	1.6%
Manitoba	5,095	0.4%
Nova Scotia	3,545	0.3%
Saskatchewan	2,230	0.2%
New Brunswick	1,275	0.1%
Newfoundland and Labrador	630	0.1%
Prince Edward Island	195	0.1%
Northwest Territories	180	0.4%
Yukon	60	0.2%
Nunavut	30	0.1%
Canada	579,640	2.0%

As the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees freedom of religious expression, Canadian Muslims face no official religious discrimination. Under Section 2(a) of the Charter, the wearing of the hijab is permitted in schools and places of work, although Quebec has ruled that the niqab or a burka are not welcome in schools or medical facilities with other provinces considering a similar ban. Religious holidays and dietary restrictions are also respected, but outside major urban areas it may be difficult to find halal food. It is also often difficult to observe Islamic rules against usury. Muslims in some parts of Canada have asked to have family dispute courts to oversee small family cases but were faced with rigorous opposition from traditional groups and liberal Muslim groups, labelling the request as a move towards imposing a 'Sharia' Law. This proposal was opposed by the Muslim Canadian Congress, the Canadian Council of Muslim Women and non-Muslim women's groups. In light of publicity, Muslims in Canada have elected to put the subject to rest.

In December 2011 Jason Kenney, Canada's Minister of Immigration, Citizenship, and Multiculturalism, announced that women would be required to have their faces uncovered during citizenship ceremonies.

History

The Muslim community in Canada is almost as old as the nation itself. Four years after Canada's founding in 1867, the 1871 Canadian Census found 13 Muslims among the population. A great number of Croatian Muslems (from Bosnia) came to American soil much like their Croatian Christian brethren; some came prior to First World War. The first Canadian mosque was constructed in Edmonton in 1938, when there were approximately 700 Muslims in the country. This building is now part of the museum at Fort Edmonton Park. The years after World War II saw a small increase in the Muslim population. Part of it were Muslims Croats from Bosnia, that were part of Handschar Division and other imprisoned Muslem Croats from Bosnia. However Muslims were still a distinct minority. It was only after the removal of European immigration preferences in the late 1960s that Muslims began to arrive in significant numbers.

Muslem Croats from Bosnia were the initiators and one of the main participants in founding of all first mosques in Toronto. First masjid, out of which the three oldest mosques in Toronto came were founded by Muslem Croats from Bosnia and by Albanians in 1968. The first masjid in Toronto was named Jami Mosque (56 Boustead Ave. Toronto). Later, with the action of Dr Qadeer Baig r.a. (a professor of University of Toronto), it was purchased by Asian Muslems, while Albanians and Musleme Croats later founded their own mosques: Albanian Muslim Society of Toronto on 564 Annette St. and Hrvatska džamija (Croatian mosque) at Croatian Islamic Centre, 75 Birmingham St., Etobicoke. According to the Canadian Census of 1971 there were 33,000 Muslims in Canada. The oldest mosque in Toronto, with the oldest minaret in Ontario, built in Osmanic style is the one in Etobicoke, that is part of the Croatian Islamic Centre, whose readjustment into masjid (originally an old Catholic school building) was over on June 23, 1973. Mosque (an old Catholic school, bought for 75 000 CAD) was readjusted for the Croats of the Islamic faith, with the support of the local Catholic Croat community. One of the co-founders is the world eminent nuclear medicine expert, dr Asaf Durakovic. In the 1970s large-scale non-European immigration to Canada began. This was reflected in the growth of the Muslim community in Canada. In 1981, the Census listed 98,000 Muslims. The 1991 Census indicated 253,265 Muslims. By 2001, the Islamic community in Canada had grown to more than 579,000. Estimates for the Census 2006 pointed to a figure of 800,000.

Compared to Muslims in Europe, Canadian Muslims have not faced the same set of problems. The Muslim community in Canada is just one among many ethnic, religious, racial and cultural communities that together make up Canada. Although Canadian Muslims may be classified as Muslims for official governmental statistical and policy-making purposes, that does not necessarily mean that all who are identified as such are practicing Muslims. In other words, they may be culturally Muslim, while at the same time leading secular lives, as the case with many Anglophone Christians, especially of Protestant heritage who may be identified as such but have never consider themselves as Christians.

Organisations

• the Canadian Islamic Congress
• the Ahlul Bayt Assembly of Canada
• the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) which has its foundation rooted in traditional Islamic ideology with a focus on dynamic application within the current Canadian socio-political context.
• the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), a Muslim civil rights organization, which has become one of the leading advocacy voices for the Muslim community,
• the Muslim Canadian Congress, a secular group founded by Tarek Fatah,
• the Canadian Muslim Union another liberal group which split from the MCC,
• the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Canada
• as well as other large organisations such as
  • Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)
  • and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).

However, the major aspect of the Muslim community in Canada is the widespread of cities associations such as the Muslim Council of Montreal for example, Toronto's Council, that deals mainly with issues pertaining to the community in that city and they support the national associations.

Most of these organisations are not grass root organizations, except MAC, but are umbrellas and coordination bodies between local associations.

These are only some of the key organisations within the Muslim Canadian community. As the community is large and diverse with well over 60 ethno-cultural groups various organisations are continually emerging as they seek to meet the needs of community members.

Student-led initiatives are generally well supported and successful, including annual events such as MuslimFest and the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference, the largest Islamic event in Canada.

Prominent Canadian Muslims

In May, 2010, Canada bestowed honorary Canadian citizenship upon the Aga Khan, a spiritual leader of 20 million Ismaili Muslims worldwide. Aga Khan became the first Muslim and second religious figure after the Dalai Lama to get the country's honorary citizenship.

Media

• Little Mosque on the Prairie is a Canadian sitcom on CBC Television created by Zarqa Nawaz. The series focuses on the Muslim community in the fictional prairie town of Mercy, Saskatchewan (population 14,000).
• Zarqa Nawaz, with the National Film Board, has produced Me and the Mosque (2005) a documentary about the role of women in Islam, both throughout history and in contemporary Canada, told from a personal perspective.

Further reading

Bakht, Natasha, ed. (2008) Belonging and Banishment: Being Muslim in Canada. Toronto: TSAR. ISBN 978-1-89477-48-4.

See also

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• Religion in Canada
• Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations
• Category containing Canadian Muslims
• Canadian Islamic Congress
• Council on American-Islamic Relations
• Islamic Society of North America
• List of Canadian Muslims

External links

• Ahlul Bayt Assembly of Canada
• Canada religious census 2001
• Islamic Association in Canada
• Canadian Council Of Muslim Women