Abdul Chaudhry, an Ottawa follower of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at faith, hosted a couple from South Ottawa in his Orleans home last Thursday.
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| Photo via Twitter: Faith Outreach @OutreachAMC |
Source/Credit: Metro News
By Joe Lofaro | March 9, 2015
It’s “high time” for Muslims in Canada to invite strangers into their homes to discuss Islam and get to know each other in so-called “Meet a Muslim” hangouts, says a Carleton University professor.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at group started the program earlier this month across Canada and Ottawa families have already opened their doors to dispel the misconceptions about their religion with their neighbours.
Professor Karim H. Karim, director for the Carleton University Centre for the Study of Islam, said the program is long overdue in a time when neighbours don’t talk to each other as much as they used to. In a multicultural society like Canada, it can sometimes mean people know little to nothing at all about the people they share a street with.
“This is a welcome development, especially in light of the events involving Muslims in violence and terrorism and people having suspicions about Muslims at large and don’t know much about Islam; this begins to open the conversation,” said Karim.
“If this initiative of this particular Muslim group can even bring about a greater neighbourliness among people of various backgrounds, I think that’s a huge achievement. I don’t see this as putting Muslims under any kind of pressure, it’s something you do as a family and as a neighbour. It doesn’t even have to be about religion, what you discuss.”
Abdul Chaudhry, an Ottawa follower of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at faith, hosted a couple from South Ottawa in his Orleans home last Thursday. He said the wife, a Roman Catholic, had questions about the hijab and Ramadan and that her parents had a muddled understanding of Muslims from the media.
“She just said that her generation before her was more stricter towards other cultures and other religions. That’s…why she wanted to meet,” he said.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Canada said more than 100 families in Ottawa have signed up for Meet a Muslim.
Both Karim and Imtiaz Ahmed, the imam at the group’s Ottawa mosque, disagree with the suggestion that programs like these might force some Muslims to feel under pressure to convince others they are non-violent.
“I don’t think it will offend anyone,” said Ahmed.
“We want to take proactive measures to show Canadians that Islam is a religion of peace. We are just as much Canadian as anyone else. The same stereotypes that apply to any Canadian apply to us. We love hockey, we love Tim Hortons, we love pancakes and maple syrup.”
Read original post here: ‘Meet a Muslim’ program can lead to to better understanding of Islam: Professor
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