Honouring Islamic Heritage Month

Islamophobia, negative media portrayals and how to develop a Canadian identity. Those are some of the issues facing Muslims in Canada as they mark Islamic Heritage Month.

October was designated Islamic Heritage Month in 2007 by the federal government as a way to recognize and celebrate the contributions of Muslims to Canadian society. It is also a chance for Muslims and other Canadians to reflect on the challenges facing that community.

One person who is helping Canadian Muslims in dealing with those challenges is Imam Sikander Hashmi, the new executive director of the Canadian Council of Imams.

Hashmi, 43, started his new role in January at the council, an independent organization founded in 1990, to help Imams and Islamic religious leaders from across Canada engage governments, the media and Canadian society in general on behalf of Canadian Muslims.

Born in Canada to parents who immigrated to from Pakistan, Hashmi was originally planning to become a journalist.

“I was very much a news junkie,” he said about growing up in Montreal and following the media. “As a kid, I read newspapers and listened to the CBC to learn about Canada and the world. The media played a big role in informing who I am.”

He went to Concordia University to study journalism, interning at the Toronto Star. “I loved it,” he said of his time as a reporter.

But in 2009, he received a call from a mosque in Kingston to become their imam. “I didn’t have a good reason to say no to request for help,” said Hashmi, who studied at an Islamic seminary in Cornwall, Ont. “I never wanted to be an imam. But God is the best planner.”

While in Kingston, Hashmi was thrust into the media spotlight following the so-called honour killings by a Kingston Muslim couple and their son. Called to serve at a mosque in Ottawa in 2014, he once again had to deal with the media following the attack on Parliament Hill by a man who cited his Muslim beliefs as justification for his actions.

“Whenever anything happened involving Islam, I was the guy the media called,” he said. “I learned how to deal with the media.”

While always available to talk to reporters when incidents like that happen, Hashmi also wants to encourage reporters to not only focus on Islam when something negative occurs.

“We usually only make the news when there is something bad like terrorism,” he said. “I want to try to change that narrative.”

For example, Hashmi wants reporters to understand that Muslims in Canada are very diverse — they come from over 70 countries — and the religion is not monolithic.

“Each mosque is independent, and has its own board,” he said, noting there is no central body that sets policies for all Canadian Muslims or that can speak for all of them.

At the same time, he also wants to help Muslim community leaders do a better job of explaining about their religion to reporters.

“They often lack trust in the media because of the way Islam is reported,” he said, adding he wants to use his journalism experience to help them understand how the media works. “They think the media is only about bad news.”

Another thing on his mind is Islamophobia. “It’s still an issue,” he said.

Information from Statistics Canada shows he is right. There was a 94 per cent rise in hate crimes targeting Muslims from 2022 to 2023, with 211 incidents such as harassment, discrimination, threats and vandalism. A 2023 report by the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights said incidents of Islamophobia are a daily reality for many Muslims, and that one in four Canadians do not trust Muslims.

Along with combating Islamophobia, Hashmi wants to help Muslims to answer the question: What does it mean to be a Canadian Muslim?

This question breaks down over generational lines, he explained. Many older Muslims, who came to Canada from other countries, developed their ideas about how to engage society through a religious lens in those places and cultures. But their children are growing up in Canada and only know this country and Canadian culture.

This doesn’t mean younger people don’t respect the heritage and cultures of their parents and grandparents. But they don’t want to be Muslims the same way their parents were back home.

Parents who try to enforce a view of religion and its rules that worked in their former countries “very quickly learn that approach doesn’t work,” said Hashmi, who is the father of two teenagers. “There is a huge disconnect between parents and mosque leaders and children if they push the old ways.”

As a Canadian-born Muslim, Hashmi thinks he is in a unique place to help build that Canadian Muslim identity.

“I understand the culture better than someone from another country. I know how Canadians think, I understand the subtle things about being Canadian. That is an advantage for me,” he said.

As for his message to Canadians, Hashmi wants them to know that Muslims, who make up just under five per cent of the population, are just like others in this country who want to contribute to the betterment of Canada.

“I believe we all need to work together, get to know each other better, to share in the challenges and also the solutions for our country,” he said.

People interested in learning more about Islam during Islamic Heritage Month are invited to a free open house on Oct. 26, 3 p.m. at the Winnipeg Grand Mosque at 2445 Waverley St. Go to https://events.miaonline.org/events/mia/1886335 to register.

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