DETAILS
Al Rashid Mosque: Building Canadian Muslim Communities
By Earle H. Waugh
288 pages
$35
Gutteridge Books, an imprint of the University of Alberta Press
The Al-Rashid Mosque, Canada’s first and one of the earliest in North America, was established in Edmonton against all odds and has become an enduring success story of community, resilience and the constant striving for peace.
A new book by religious scholar Earle Waugh is a wonderful introduction to the house of worship. But it’s more than that. The mosque has played a central role in Edmonton’s growth and in the growth of the Muslim community in general. This book also looks at many of the inspiring people who worked to make it happen.
Amazingly, it was first built during the depth of the Depression of the 1930s and in the period right before the start of the Second World War. That was a historic achievement in its own right and today – Dec. 12, 2018 – marks its 80th anniversary. The occasion makes for an excellent opportunity for more non-Muslims to get to know the place and the pe
ople a lot better, just like the author himself.
“For years and years, I’ve known the community there,” Waugh said, remembering his first encounters with its key players back in the 1980s.
“I’ve often gone there to study certain aspects of Islamic life in Canada. I’ve written a number of articles on them. I worked for a long time with one of the stalwarts of that community, Soraya Hafez, who incidentally has a school named after her now. She was really good at laying the guilt on. One time, she said, ‘You know, this book has to be written and you ought to do it. This is something you have to do to pay the community back for all the articles you’ve written on it.’ No pressure at all,” he laughed. She was a very good friend.”
Waugh himself seems to be a very good friend to the Muslim community in return. This 300-page love letter to the Al-Rashid is a warm and comprehensive look at the building and its compassionate, tireless factotums including Hafez. She has been a strong advocate for Arabic language and culture, education and cross-cultural understanding through organizations like the Edmonton chapter of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women and the Arab Jewish Women’s Peace Coalition.
The author said the Al-Rashid community has always been strongly represented by women leaders.
“This is unusual. It is really off the wall when you get the kind of impression that people have of Islam. Whether they wear the hijab or not is not critical. What is critical there is Muslim women who have been part and parcel of the growth of this community right from the get-go. Without these women, this community never would have gone ahead. They have a very solid place for the role of women in this community. That’s impressive.”
What’s more impressive is that it has always been so. There are figures like Dr. Lila Fahlmann, a longtime teacher with the Edmonton Public School Board, who established the Canadian Muslim Women’s Association, which was one of the earliest organizations that established a national Muslim women’s voice. She was also the first Muslim to receive the Order of Canada.
Going all the way back to the beginning, there was also Hilwie Hamdon, the Lebanese-born immigrant who led the early efforts to build the Al-Rashid.
“She was one of the early founders of the community and she was a dynamo. John Fry, the mayor of Edmonton at the time, said, ‘Look I’ve got a lot here but I’m not going to sell it to you because you don’t have five grand.’ Hilwie said, ‘We’ll get it.’”
And she did, by going door to door and getting the support of Muslims, Christians, Jews, “everybody” in fact. She convinced people of all faiths across Alberta and Saskatchewan to donate to the mosque. In return, the mosque became a hub of activity that hosted community dinners. To Waugh, they exemplify the spirit of multiculturalism and pluralism that this country is known for.
“From an outside perspective, you have to say that something very moving and very important has been going on. I think that kind of cultural focus of being a community organization has really been one of the outstanding things.”
He anticipates the Al-Rashid Mosque to host a gala event in early 2019 to commemorate the occasion.
