Canadians, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, think that the arrival of Muslims to Canada has been a recent phenomenon. In fact, Muslims have been in Canada since confederation. This is a little known part of our history. As Muslims begin to find their Canadian identity in a vibrant and engaged way, the more we are discovering that they have always been a part of Canada's rich and diverse past.

Early Muslim migrants

The first Muslims to have touched Canadian soil are the runaway African slaves from America who made their way to Southern Ontario through what is known as the Underground Railroad. This was a secret network of abolitionists who helped African slaves escape from enslavement in the American South to the free Northern states and to Canada. It brought between 30,000 and 40,000 fugitives to British North America (now Canada).

Amongst these freed slaves were some Muslims. We are told the story of Mahommah Baquaqua, a Muslim man from West Africa, enslaved as a young man in Brazil and shipped to the United States. As a free man, Baquaqua eventually made his way to Chatham, Ontario where in 1854 a local man helped him document his life in a biography. Baquaqua's journeys also saw him move to Haiti and eventually the United Kingdom.

The first British Muslims to arrive in Canada came in 1851 — James and Agnes Love, who converted to Islam in Scotland before emigrating. In 1854 James Love Jr. became the first known Muslim born in Canada. Four years after Canada's founding in 1867, the 1871 Canadian Census revealed 13 European Muslims, referred to as Mohomadens, among the population.

In 1901 there were 47 Muslims in Canada. The first Muslim families from Lebanon to settle in Canada arrived in London in 1901 and in Ottawa in 1903.

During the first two decades of the last century, many migrants came from Ottoman Syria, especially Lebanon, looking for work — many headed west where land was cheaper and labour needed. Lac La Biche, Alberta became a community where Muslims would settle. In Ontario the oldest community was in London.

In 1911, British Columbia had the largest population of Muslims in Canada — about 500, mostly from Turkey and Bulgaria. An economic recession and rising racism led to discriminatory laws and pressure on non-European immigrants. By 1921, there were only 82 Muslims left in the province. There are a recorded 22 Muslims who fought for Canada and the British Empire in World War I. During this period many Albanian Muslims migrated to Canada following internal revolutionary upheavals in their home country. By 1931 there were 645 Muslims in all of Canada.

After World War II, the Muslim population grew slowly under Canada's restrictive immigration policy. French-speaking Muslims from North Africa settled in Quebec. A handful of Muslim students and professors were attracted to the newly formed Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill and to the University of Toronto's Department of Middle Eastern Studies. In the 1950s Canada admitted Palestinian Arabs displaced by the 1948 war.

In the 1960s, Canada adopted a points-based immigration policy. The resulting increase in Muslim immigrants from Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean accelerated after the Multiculturalism Policy of 1971 under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. By 1971 the Muslim population grew to 33,000. In 1972, following Idi Amin's expulsion of Ugandan Asians, 7,000 Ismaili Muslims fled and were brought to Canada.

Role of the Mosque

The mosque has always played a key role in the development of Muslim communities — a sacred space for worship, but also central to cultural, educational, humanitarian and political life. In Canada, many mosques play this role, and Muslim communities are becoming more engaged in the social and political fabric of the country.

The first Muslim organization in Canada was registered by immigrants from Lebanon living in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1934.

The first mosque in Canada, the al-Rashid mosque, was built in Edmonton during the Depression in 1938 by a handful of Lebanese families. Hilwie Hamdon was the first woman to approach Edmonton Mayor John Fry about purchasing land for the mosque. She and friends raised funds from Jews, Christians, and Muslims to build it. The famous translator of the Quran, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, inaugurated the masjid during his tour of Canada. Maulana Abdul 'Aleem Siddiqui, known as the "Roving Ambassador of Islam," visited the mosque during his tours of North America.

By the early 1980s the community had grown to over 16,000 Muslims. In August 1982 the new al-Rashid mosque opened to serve over 20,000 Muslims in Edmonton; the original building is now part of the museum at Fort Edmonton Park.

In 1955, Ontario's first mosque, the London Muslim Mosque, was opened by a few Lebanese Muslim families, some of whom had lived in London since 1901.

Islam in Toronto

In the 1930s Toronto had no mosques. The Muslim community, mainly Albanian and Bosnian, practiced Islam at home, holding occasional congregational prayers (jama'ah) and celebrations at Club Kingsway in Swansea under the Muslim Society of Toronto (MST).

The first mosque in Toronto, "The Islamic Centre of Toronto," was purchased in 1961 at 3047 Dundas West. Perhaps the most prominent visitor was the African-American civil rights leader Malcolm X, who visited during his appearance on CBC TV's Front Page Challenge in January 1965 — about a month before his assassination.

As immigration policies liberalized, the community in Toronto grew to 5,000 by 1969. With financial aid from King Faisal of Saudi Arabia — following a personal appeal by MST's president Dr. Mirza Qadeer Baig — the High Park Presbyterian Church on Boustead Avenue was purchased for $125,000 and renamed the Jami Mosque. By 1976 Metro Toronto was home to 50,000 Muslims, giving rise to the construction of many mosques in the suburbs. The Bosnian Mosque lifted the first minar in Ontario in 1973.

Islam in Montreal

In Montreal, the first major influx of Muslims came from the Middle East after World War I. Many spoke French as a second language and settled easily into Quebec, assimilating into the predominantly French-Catholic culture while practicing Islam at home.

In 1952 the renowned Islamic Studies program at McGill University was inaugurated — the first such institute in North America. It attracted Muslim students from many countries. Early Eid gatherings took place at the Institute of Islamic Studies on Redpath Crescent.

Muslim immigration from the sub-continent began in the mid-1950s. Habibullah Khan, a chartered accountant originally from Patna who had migrated to Karachi in 1947, arrived in Montreal in 1955 and was instrumental in organizing the community. This nucleus formed the Islamic Centre of Montreal, incorporated in 1958. Seven years later the Islamic Centre of Québec (ICQ) was established by private bill, becoming the first mosque built in Montreal and the Province of Québec.

Institutions

In 1982 the first madrassah in Canada was established in Cornwall, Ontario, by Mazhar Alam at the instruction of his teacher, the famous scholar Muhammad Zakariyya Khandhelvi. Its most prominent graduate was Sheikh Muhammad Alshareef, who later founded the Al-Maghrib Institute.

In 2014 the Aga Khan Museum of Islamic art was established in Toronto — the first museum in the Western world dedicated to Islamic art, housing more than 1,000 rare objects.

Liberalism and Refugees

Most Canadian Muslims were raised as Muslims. Like immigrants generally, they came for employment, education, security, and family reunification — many fleeing civil wars and persecution. Canada's liberal immigration policy has welcomed Muslims from nearly every country in the world:

• 1950s: Palestinian Arabs displaced by the 1948 war.
• 1971: Bengali Muslims at the outbreak of the Bangladesh Liberation War.
• 1972–73: 7,000 Ugandan Ismaili Muslims following Idi Amin's expulsion.
• 1979: Iranian refugees fleeing the revolution.
• 1992: 5,000 Bosnian Muslims fleeing ethnic cleansing.
• 1999: 5,000 Kosovars airlifted to safety.
• 2016: Over 25,000 Syrian refugees resettled by February.

Ahmed Hussen became Immigration Minister of Canada in 2017, having arrived as a 16-year-old refugee. Most of Canada's 55,000 Somalis arrived between the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Proud Canadians

Muslims stand out as among the most enthusiastic group of Canadian patriots. More than eight in ten are very proud to be Canadian, and this sentiment has strengthened over the past decade. Muslims are as likely as others to say their Canadian identity is very important — and they agree with other Canadians on what makes Canada a great country: freedom, democracy, and multicultural diversity.

Make-up and Belief

Canadian Muslims identify as: 65% Sunni, 8% Shia, 1.5% Ismaili, 19% unspecified, 6.3% other. The overwhelming majority follow one of the four schools of Fiqh (madhab): Hanafi (Albanians, Indians, Pakistanis, Turks, Caribbean), Maliki (North and West Africa), or Shafi (Middle East and East Africa).

Counter Measures

To counter extremist ideas, traditional Sunni organizations came together in the mid-1990s to sponsor International Mawlid-un-Nabi, Khatamun Nubuwwah, and Seerah events in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. These gatherings re-asserted the love and centrality of Prophet Muhammad Salalaahu alahi wa Sallam and warned Canadian Muslims of growing extremism. They laid the foundation for a number of traditional Sunni mosques and study circles (halaqa) across Canada where classical texts by scholars such as Imam Ghazali, Imam Suyuti, Imam Hajar al-Asqalani, and Imam al-Qurtubi are taught.

Canada — Our home

Since the mass migration of the 1970s, a progressive, engaged attitude has emerged among the professional and entrepreneurial members of the community — a trend that continues in 2nd and later generations. Canadian Muslims are increasingly understanding their religion not only through textual teachings but also through their social environment, synthesizing traditional knowledge and values with the realities of the time. Active participation in Canada's progress is the strongest argument against the negative image of Islam, and it builds a foundation for peaceful coexistence in a multicultural society.

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Acknowledgement. With thanks to Al-Haj Malik Rashid Ahmed for encouraging this work on the history of Islam in Canada.

— Munaf Solaiman, August 11, 2020