Shia Islam in Canada
Shia Islam in Canada is a part of the global Shia community that continues to bond with Shias elsewhere. Shia Muslims have been a featuring segment of the Canadian Muslim society that became more conspicuous from the 1970s and onwards.[1]
Community
The Shia community manifests itself in two main forms in Canada. One is through the Twelver rite and the other is through the Ismaili rite. However, due to the lack of census questions that go into specific details in Canada, it remains unknown which community is larger between the two.[2] However, both have established both community centers, spiritually attached leisure centers, as well as mosques in the country. The two most prominent Ismaili center is the Ismaili Centre, Toronto at the Charbagh Gardens and Ismaili Centre, Burnaby, while the most prominent Ithna Ashari center is the Jaffari Community Center in Vaughan, Ontario.[3]
Adherents
Reza Hosseini Nassab is a Canadian Grand Ayatollah of the Twelver rite. Anisa Mehdi, a film director and journalist, who although a Shia, reports on her faith from a Pan-Islamic viewpoint.[4]
Notable Canadian Shia Muslims
- Amir Attaran - lawyer, immunologist and law professor
- Maziar Bahari - journalist, filmmaker and human rights activist
- Farid Haerinejad - documentary maker and blogger
- Salma Lakhani - Lieutenant Governor of Alberta
- Mobina Jaffer - lawyer, British Columbia senator
- Rahim Jaffer - former Alberta Member of Parliament
- Nazem Kadri - NHL hockey player, currently playing for the Colorado Avalanche
- Amir Khadir - National Assembly member and former Québec Solidaire co-spokesperson
- Hassan Khosrowshahi - founder of electronics retailer Future Shop
- Rizwan Manji - television and film actor
- Anisa Mehdi - Emmy Award winning film director and journalist
- Reza Hosseini Nassab - Grand Ayatollah
- Naheed Nenshi - non-profit sector consultant, mayor of Calgary
- Yasmin Ratansi - accountant, MP; first Muslim woman elected to the House of Commons of Canada
- Omar Sachedina - television journalist and newsreader
- Aliza Vellani - television actress (Little Mosque on the Prairie)
- Ali Velshi - television journalist now working in the US
- Alykhan Velshi - lawyer and former political advisor to Stephen Harper
- Murad Velshi - former member of the Ontario Legislative Assembly, father of Ali Velshi
- Sayid Naqawe - President and Founder of the Al-Fatema Islamic Center of Ontario.
See also
References
- Religion and Ethnicity in Canada - Page 136, David Seljak - 2009
- Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples - Page 785, Paul R. Magocsi - 1999
- Historical Dictionary of the Ismailis - Page 22, Farhad Daftary - 2012
- The Oxford Handbook of American Islam - Page 469, Jane I. Smith - 2014