About Muslim Community

There is no official estimate for Muslims in Canada. The unofficial estimate is about 600,000; about 300,000 of whom live in Southwestern Ontario. There are more than 80 mosques in Canada, four of which are located in Ottawa. In addition to mosques there are numerous locations in most major cities where space (known as musallah) is set aside for prayer purposes.

Like other major world religions, Islam has no geographical boundaries. Accordingly, Muslims of many races, colours, nationalities, languages, and cultures have emigrated to North America and Europe. Today in almost every Canadian city one encounters Muslims and Islamic centres, associations, educational institutions, and mosques. In Ottawa, for example, Muslim women dressed in Islamic garb have become extremely visible, particularly since the late 1980's.

The Muslim community in Canada has its foundation in the West, where Al-Rashid, the first mosque in North America was built in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1938. Although the majority of Muslims are among Canada's most recent immigrants, Islam does have a long history in the new world.

The earliest record of Muslim presence in Canada dates back to 1871, when the Canadian census recorded 13 Muslim residents. According to the 1981 census there were 98,165 Muslims, accounting for less than half of one per cent of all Canadians. There are about 600,000 Muslims in Canada, the large majority of whom are immigrants or descendants of immigrants who arrived within the past 35 years.

Muslims have immigrated to Canada from different parts of the Arab world (Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria), and from Iran, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Turkey, Africa (especially Somalia), Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, and South and Central America. As a result, Muslims living in Canada represent not only different ethnic background and races, but different nationalities, languages and cultures as well.

Muslims who immigrate to Canada from Muslim countries often find themselves deprived of a social structure which encouraged the practice of Islam and helped them to maintain their Islamic identity. The preservation of religious belief is central to the maintenance of a Muslim's identity. There are pressures within the Canadian society that are in direct conflict with the religious boundaries that are crucial to a Muslim's identity. Social and economic boundaries require abstention from consuming alcohol and other intoxicants, eating pork and pork products, engaging in economic activities that are usury based such as mortgages, bonds, and interest-based transactions, gambling, and sexual activities outside the bonds of marriage. As a result, Muslim communities focus on the establishment of institutions, the mosque being the first to be established, to help sustain and safeguard their Islamic identity.

The first Muslim who immigrated to Canada came from a village in Lebanon called Kfarmishky.. The Wahab family consisting of two parents and six children settled in Ottawa; the father emigrated to Canada in 1903. Eva Wahab was the first Muslim born in Ottawa in September 1914. In the 1920's about twenty-five Muslims related to the Wahab family was living in Ottawa. Today there are approximately 60,000 Muslims in the Ottawa area, including Aylmer and Hull across the Ottawa river in Quebec. The dramatic increase in the Muslim population in the last 15 years can be accounted for primarily by the influx of Somali refugees. Immigration of Muslims to Canada in the last 20 years relate to economic advantages, educational opportunities, political oppression in their homeland, family sponsorship, and freedom of faith and expression. The Muslim population in Ottawa are on average highly educated and their presence are visible in educational, governmental, and research institutions, the Information Technology (IT) sector, and small businesses.