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| Idris Elbakri |
“As Canadian as a hockey rink.”
That’s the way Idris Elbakri, President of the Manitoba Islamic
Association, hopes people in Manitoba will one day view mosques in this province.
Elbakri, 41, is in the last year of his term as President of the
Association. Following Ramadan, he posted his hopes and dreams for the Muslim
community in Manitoba.
“To many of us the mosques are like a second home, and like our
homes, in the mosques we seek to preserve the cultures and practices of our
countries of origin,” he wrote.
“While this may give us some emotional comfort, it is
counterproductive and it contributes to the alienation of many. The mosque must
feel as Canadian as the hockey rink. If our faith is not rooted in its local
culture and history, it will not survive past the waves of immigration.”
In an interview, Elbakri, a medical physicist at Cancer Care and
father of four, elaborated further on his goals of seeing Manitoba Muslims reach
out to others, serve the wider community, be inclusive and show kindness to all.
“I’m looking
forward to a day when non-Muslims in need of peace, quiet, reflection and
prayer feel just as comfortable going into a mosque as they do going into a
church, that it won’t feel foreign or awkward,” he said.
One way local
Muslims are doing that is by holding open houses at mosques, inviting people in
to visit, learn more about Islam and about Muslims, he added. But more needs to
be done, he said.
The challenge
is that there are so many newcomers—over 1,000 people from Syria in the last 12
months alone. For these many new Canadians, adjusting to a new country is hard;
the mosque is the one place where things feel familiar, just like back home.
As an immigrant himself, Elbakri understands the desire to have
something familiar when people go to worship. The problem is that while the mosque feels
like home for Muslims, it and the faith it represents can feel very foreign to
other Canadians.
If that happens, he said, Islam will always “be an alien implant and
we will have failed our most precious mission and role in life, which is to
share the beauty of Islam with
everyone around us. We need
to help a Canadian Muslim culture take root . . . we need to see a Canadian
Muslim culture emerge.”
And how will
they do that? For Elbakri, it means Manitoba Muslims need to “figure out what
our core values are, versus those that are more cultural.”
With as many
as 80 different nationalities represented in the community, and with so many
newcomers arriving each year, this is a big task.
Two areas
where this can happen is in the role of women, and the use of English or French
for sermons.
When it comes
to women, “there is a lot of cultural baggage,” he said, noting that the
Prophet “was always giving women space” and that the Association has two women
on its board.
As for the
language issue, “what good is it [a sermon] if it can’t be understood by
everyone?” he said.
The language
of prayer won’t change, though, he stated—prayers will always be in Arabic.
“It [Arabic]
is the universal language of prayer for Muslims,” he said. “It means I can go
to a mosque in any country and the prayers will be the same. It creates a
global sense of unity.”
What about
terrorism—how will the community deal with that?
“Most of the
Muslim world is peaceful,” he said with a sigh. “It only makes the news when
violence happens. That is unfortunate.”
His desire is
that the Muslim community won’t be defined by terrorism, or feel it constantly has
to respond to terrorist acts.
“When
something bad happens, we condemn it, again and again and again,” he said. “I
don’t want condemning violence to become a way of life for us, to define us as
a community. We don’t want to be solely defined by terrorism.”
Instead, he
said, “want to focus on the positive aspects of our community, worship, faith
community, by our efforts to serve anyone in need . . . God has blessed our
community and we want to address the needs of those who are less fortunate.”
From the Aug. 27, 2016 Free Press. Photo by John Woods, Winnipeg Free Press.
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