JEDDAH, 7 September 2003 — Although there are more Muslims and mosques in the United States than in Canada, the first mosque in North America was built in Canada. The Al-Rashid Mosque opened its doors in the city of Edmonton, capital of the province of Alberta in western Canada, on Dec. 12, 1938. The small Muslim community of Edmonton celebrated the official opening of the mosque with the city’s mayor, a group of Christian Arabs and some non-Muslims who had helped financially with the mosque’s construction. The mosque became the spiritual center of Edmonton’s Muslim community and its modest size — 30 feet by 50 feet — and its two minarets became a landmark tourist attraction.
The mosque was relocated twice. The first time was in 1946 when the city requested the site for an expansion of a school and a new site was provided for the mosque to move to. The mosque continued to serve Edmonton’s Muslims until 1980. By that time the Muslim community had become very large and so a new mosque and Islamic center was begun.
“In 1938 there were about 30 Muslim families in Edmonton,” Khalid Tarrabain, the current president of Al-Rashid Islamic Center, told Arab News. “Now there are about 30,000 Muslims in Edmonton.”
The first Al-Rashid Mosque stood vacant for years and was threatened with demolition a number of times. But because of the efforts of the Arabian Muslim Association, the Canadian Council of Muslim Women and many other Muslims, the mosque was saved and relocated a second time to a historic park where it now serves as a museum of Islamic artifacts.
The number of Muslims in Canada has drastically increased over the past 40 years. In 1981, the Canadian census put the number of Muslims at slightly over 98,000 and now there are more than 300,000. With such an increase, naturally the number of mosques and Muslim community centers and organizations has also increased. From the east coast of Canada to the west, every major city, and even in many small towns where Muslims are found, there is a mosque and community center for Muslims to practice their religion and hold on to its teachings.
Islam is the fastest growing religion in Canada, and Muslims make up the largest non-Christian community in ten out of the 25 metropolitan cities and in the province of Alberta. The Muslim community centers found in every major city in Canada offer more than just a place to pray. Most of them have Islamic libraries and schools, operate a zakat fund for needy Muslims, provide settlement services and support groups for women and young people as well as English and Arabic language classes and computer training courses. Some of the larger ones act as resources on Islam for government agencies and the media. These educational centers offer free dawah material and meetings to the Canadian public, counsel and assist inmates, and provide support to new Muslims. At the Al-Rashid Islamic Center in Edmonton, for example, they not only provide the traditional Islamic funeral and marriage services but also trips to mosques, a full-time Islamic school, youth activities and every service needed by the Muslim community in Edmonton, said Tarrabain.
For the older generation of Muslims who first came to Canada, it was very important for them to put down Islamic roots in their new homes. For the new generation of Muslims who have been born in Canada, it is even more important to plant the seeds of Islam in them as early as possible.
“We are concentrating on the youth for our future plans,” says Tarrabain. “Our major project now is to build an Islamic school from kindergarten to 12th grade.”
The center also has a youth club which organizes sports and other activities for young Muslims and also a two-year educational program called “Generation of Change” which teaches Islamic values, principles and leadership.
“We are forming a base for the new generation, producing well-adjusted Muslim youth,” says Tarrabain.
The center’s other focus is on women and having them participate more in their community and for them the Association for Muslim Women has been established.
