Canada: Ahmadi Muslim youth group making stop at Collingwood library

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The group will be visiting Collingwood on Sunday Jan. 24 from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. at the Collingwood Public Library.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The Enterprise-Bulletin
By By JT McVeigh | January 20, 2016

When Ghalib Baten was a boy, he remembers what it was like to leave his country and find himself in a strange land.

Born in Nigeria with parents from Bangladesh, Baten was transplanted to a small town in Alberta.

His family fled the violence and arrived here with $10 in their pocket and they were met with a community of kindness.

That was in 1992, and although Baten was one of the few Muslims in that city at that time, he never thought he was different.

The public's reaction to the 9/11 attacks in New York changed all that.

Now, more than 20 years later, Baten feels the tension.

"When I moved into this building in Milton, there were a lot of seniors, and when I moved into the apartment I could feel the hostility from everyone," said Baten. "But now, except when I leave my clothes in the laundry, they have all warmed up."

That kind of feeling is what Baten and others want to share as members from Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association are spreading out to visit small towns and cities throughout Canada on their mission to Demystify Islam through open houses to answer questions and maybe quell some fears.

The group will be visiting Collingwood on Sunday Jan. 24 from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. at the Collingwood Public Library.

"Usually we fear the unknown and what we don't understand, and that is the reason that we are reaching out to smaller centres," said Baten.

"So that they can see that we are as normal as they are, we all have kids, they go to school and they work."

"We want to educate people and we want to desensitize them to us."

Terrorists are not Muslims, they are just terrorists says Baten, in fact most of the fatalities inflicted by these groups are on Muslims and they just use Islam to rally people. The human gesture in reaction to the Syrian crisis is just a person helping another in need.

"I haven't met anyone who has come to Canada as a refugee that doesn't love Canada, wants to give back and wants to help," said Baten. "At the end of the day we all the same, we have the same values, we are all in this together."

jtmcveigh@sunmedia.ca


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