Fighting "othering" on all fronts
In the government's official statement commemorating Islamic History Month Canada 2021, October was cited as a time for Canadians to learn more about the history of Islam and recognise the many achievements of Muslim Canadians, while acknowledging the ongoing challenges and barriers they face.
It also briefly alluded to the targeting of Muslim Canadians across Canada in the past twelve months. A difficult year for the community has seen members exposed to racism and hatred. The government concluded its message by appealing to Canadians to work together to combat all kinds of discrimination, Islamophobia, and any hate-fuelled violence directed at the Muslim community.
This past year has indeed seen an uptick in Islamophobic attacks. These culminated with the horrific targeting of a London Ontario family, who were deliberately run down by a white supremacist, resulting in the death of four of the five family members. Incidents like these and worse – the shootings at Quebec's City Mosque in 2017 – has prompted the National Council of Canadian Muslims to issue a list of 61 policy recommendations aimed at fighting racism and Islamophobia across the country.
This is the backdrop against which IHMC events are being staged this year in cities like Kingston Ontario. A small city with a population of just over 100,000, Kingston is also home to one of Canada's largest universities, Queen's.
While the university campus has always been a hub of diversity in the city, attracting students from all over the world, the past decade has also seen an increase in the presence of visible minorities beyond the student population.
Education is key
As a result, it is vital that people have the opportunity to find out about Islam and what it means to be a Muslim.
"Learning the history of Muslims in Canada, but also the many significant contributions of Muslims down the ages, helps combat the Islamophobia that is rising throughout the world – but particularly in Canada – through the propagation of misinformation and ignorance," explains Dr Mona Rahman, one of the organisers of IHMC in Kingston this year.
"At the same time, it gives Muslim Canadians the sense of their own history in Canada, which helps diminish the feeling of being 'othered' or alienated from the Canadian community."
Those who disseminate misinformation about the Muslim community in Canada like to cultivate the impression that they are all newcomers who must first assimilate.
Yet, as Rahman points out, there is documented evidence of Muslims having arrived in Canada as immigrants as early as the 1850s. "James Love is documented as being the first Muslim Canadian born in these lands to Muslims who immigrated from Scotland. There is also evidence of immigrants from Lebanon/Syria who came in that era. Yet, even this is not the complete history, as we also know that Muslims from Africa were brought over during the slave trade, and may even have come over as explorers, possibly as early as the 1500s."
Dr Adnan Husain, director of the School of Religion and associate professor at Queen's Department of Mediaeval, Mediterranean and Islamic World History is also involved with IHMC 2021. When asked about the significance of the month in the context of recent events he replied: "The urgency for public educational programmes to counter Islamophobia, based in ignorance or crude stereotypes circulated in so much media and social media representation, has never been so clear."
He then stressed how "public educational programmes that celebrate the intersecting histories of Muslims, Christians and Jews, and the contributions of multi-religious and multi-ethnic societies under Muslim governance to vibrant traditions of and achievements in science, art, literature, philosophy, architecture, and music... (are) absolutely vital to Muslims and to a multicultural Canada itself."
Truth and reconciliation
Recently one of Canada's dirtiest secrets has come to light: the unmarked graves of Indigenous children who died while attending the notorious residential schools. Forcibly removed from their families up until the 1970s these children were abused and suffered horribly at the hands of those running the schools. In the past year over 5,000 of these graves have been discovered.
This year's IHMC has been designated as a month for mutual sharing and healing with indigenous people. Mona Rahman explains it as part of the process of truth and reconciliation. "This month is a means of educating ourselves as Muslims about the indigenous communities, their histories, as well as the many values we share. In doing so, by supporting the indigenous community, I truly feel that we also can learn, combat, and heal from the rise of Islamophobia. The roots of all hate are the same."
Events in Kingston this year have remained virtual due to ongoing restrictions imposed on public gatherings as a result of the pandemic. From 1 October, when IHMC kicked off with Kingston City Hall and the public square adjacent being illuminated with green lights – the colour of Islam, to a variety of open discussions ranging from spirituality ("Locating Sufism in Canada" with Dr Shobhana Xavier) and finding common ground with indigenous peoples ("How faith drives our work: perspectives from indigenous and Muslim women"), the month has served to bring tolerance to the forefront of our collective consciousness.
Obviously one month isn't going to change the world, but these are the types of events that are needed to alleviate what Mona Rahman refers to as "the otherness" of Islam in Western society. It may not seem like much, but Islamic History Month Canada is one step along the road towards creating an inclusive society.
© Qantara.de 2021