“We were very afraid of expressing our faith. We weren’t able to go to mosques. Here, we were able to go to mosques. We were able to practise our faith.”
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| Noeman Mirza, wife Syed Laiba Gardazi, son Zartasht Mirza. Photo Dave Eagles/KTW |
Source/Credit: Kamloops This Week
By By: Jessica Wallace | December 18, 2015
Noeman Mirza moved to Canada to practise his faith.
He was about eight years old and, along with his family, faced religious persecution as a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Pakistan.
“They were declared as non-Muslims in the ‘70s and, since then, people just went around the country killing Ahmadiyya Muslim people,” Mirza told KTW.
“Since then, persecution has always remained.”
Ahmadis, who have been targets of Islamic extremists, follow the prophet Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and consider themselves Muslims, but are forbidden in Pakistan under a Sunni majority, which worships the prophet Muhammad.
Last year, Canadian doctor Mehdi Ali Quamar was gunned down in Pakistan in front of his wife and two-year-old son, a highly publicized slaying linked to his Ahmadiyya faith.
As a boy, Mirza was forced to hide his beliefs and fled his home in Rabwah, Pakistan, to a larger city until the early 1990s, when he, his brother and his mother were sponsored by Mirza’s father to move to Toronto.
“We were very afraid of expressing our faith. We weren’t able to go to mosques,” Mirza said. “Here, we were able to go to mosques. We were able to practise our faith.”
Decades later, he is one of about 20,000 Ahmadis in Canada and has since become a nurse.
Mirza completed his doctorate and moved to Kamloops to work as a professor at Thompson Rivers University.
He arrived in August, about the same time his wife and son emigrated from Pakistan — a three-year process for their family to reunite, Mirza said.
“It’s very hard for me to wait for a long time, but I came here and I’m happy,” Laiba Gardazi, Mirza’s wife, told KTW.
Mirza called the immigration process awkward, one further complicated by the birth of their son and security rules surrounding airlines.
He blamed Stephen Harper’s Conservative government for issues.
“You fill in everything, send it to them and then you don’t hear from them for about a year,” Mirza said.
“I often had to go to my MP and the MP would call into the immigration office and find out every four months or so to see what was happening with my file . . .
“I did make visits to go back and visit my wife, but I was really hoping they would process it quicker.”
The couple and nearly one-year-old son Zartasht live across from campus in Upper College Heights.
“The people, culture, everything [is] different from Pakistan,” Gardazi said.
She is grateful to wear her hijab in Kamloops without facing intolerance, ignorance or violence.
As part of about 200 Ahmadis in the area, Gardazi and Mirza said they feel welcomed.
“Especially because they have a big aboriginal population and, seeing how they are integrated into the university and into the community, I felt that, as someone from a different faith, I would also have that same opportunity,” Mirza said.
“Since then, I have had that opportunity.”
The couple plans to stay in Kamloops long-term and raise their son, as long as they can continue practising their faith.
“We are really faith-driven,” Mirza said.
“Wherever we are able to practise our faith, have our families — we are going there.”
After the attacks
While Mirza and Gardazi feel welcomed in Canada, they know recent terror attacks in Paris and California have led to attacks on Muslims around the world.
Since last month’s Paris attacks, there been a number of reported incidents against Muslims in Ontario, including a mosque being set ablaze and a woman being robbed and beaten.
It’s why Mirza and Gardazi are hoping to drum up support for an online campaign launched on social media in support of Canadian Muslim women.
“I think it’s terrible that they have to go through that experience,” Mirza said.
“However, it sure makes me proud that people are still sticking with their faith and taking that abuse that comes with it.”
Ahmadiyya Muslim Jam’at Canada started the campaign, #JeSuisHijabi, emphasizing Canada’s multiculturalism and inviting Canadians to attend, with Muslim women, public workshops, events and programs throughout the country geared at fostering a better understanding of Islamic faith.
While there are no events locally, Mirza and Gardazi hope to start a discussion.
“Society just needs some awareness,” Mirza said.
For more information on Ahmadiyya Muslim Jam’at Canada, go online to ahmadiyya.ca.
Read original post here: Canada: After the attacks, advocating understanding
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