11 Mar 2024
Ramadan is a time of self-reflection, family and joy for more than 1.8 billion Muslims around the world犀利士 .
But with Israel’s war on Gaza dragging on, killing more than 31,000 Palestinians and plunging the tiny coastal enclave deeper into a humanitarian crisis, this year’s Islamic holy month – which began on Sunday night – has a different feeling
In Canada, the Muslim community’s pain over the situation in Gaza – and a widely held belief that Canadian politicians are not doing enough to stem the crisis – has spurred an unprecedented campaign this Ramadan.
“We’re seeing our brothers and sisters in Palestine die every single day. We’re seeing a number of horrific images flooding in,” said Fatema Abdalla, advocacy officer with the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM)
NCCM is among more than 300 Muslim groups in the North American country that delivered an ultimatum to Canadian politicians: Act to end the war and defend Palestinian rights, or you will not get to speak to congregants during community gatherings this month.
The organisations, which include advocacy groups as well as mosques and cultural centres, demanded five things from lawmakers, from condemning Israeli war crimes to opposing Canada’s arms transfers to Israel and supporting an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
If MPs cannot publicly commit to all of these asks, then we can unfortunately not provide them a platform to address our congregations,” Abdalla said
Growing political power
Political analysts said the community’s letter reflects its growing political power.
According to the 2021 census, nearly 1.8 million people identified themselves as Muslim. The percentage of Muslims in the Canadian population more than doubled from 2001 to 2021 from 2 percent to 4.9 percent.
Muslims have been in Canada since the mid-1800s, but Naved Bakali, an assistant professor of anti-racism education at the University of Windsor in Ontario, explained that “the bulk of the immigration to Canada from Muslim-majority nations came in the ’60s and ’70s.”
Against that backdrop, Bakali told Al Jazeera that the Ramadan letter is a signal that “if the [Muslim] community doesn’t feel that it’s seen by a political party, I don’t think that that political party can rely on that unconditional support.”
He added: “There’s a lack of trust … and they don’t want to be used as a political piece in all of this. They want to feel that they’re heard and that they are being respected as a community.”
Showing humanity’
That was echoed by Tahir. “There has been a political awakening in the Muslim community” in Canada as a result of the Gaza war, he said, “and I think that that is leading towards stronger engagement in politics by Muslims.”
Tahir explained that while some Canadian lawmakers immediately asked to sign on to the demands put forward in the Ramadan letter, others are taking time to consider the situation. But he said he believes MPs are taking note of the community’s positio
