Human rights activists and family of Huseyin Celil are calling on Ottawa to put more pressure on China to reveal where the 38-year-old Canadian citizen is being imprisoned.

Celil, a Muslim and member of China’s Uighur minority group, was sentenced to life in prison by a Chinese court last April. A year earlier, he had been arrested in Uzbekistan and extradited to his native China to face terrorism charges.

Celil’s whereabouts in the Chinese prison system are unknown to his family and Canadian officials. His southern Ontario-based wife and children have sent a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper urging him to intensify pressure on Beijing to provide more information.

“Prime Minister, we call on you to renew and fortify Canada’s efforts to ensure Mr. Celil’s human rights are protected,” the letter says.

In the message to Harper, the imprisoned man’s family expresses concern that “Canda’s attention to Celil’s fate appears to have waned.”

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There will be a FUNERAL PRAYER TODAY, THURSDAY APRIL 3, IMMEDIATELY AFTER DUHUR PRAYER (1:30 P.M.) AT HAMILTON MOUNTAIN MOSQUE (located at 1545 Stone Church Rd. E. )
It is for one of our brothers in the Kurdish Community, may Allah shower him with his mercy, grant him a place in paradise and give his family, friends, and relatives patience in this difficult time.

A Muslim brother who is new in Hamilton looking for a room to rent.

Contact: Michael (Mustafa) via donjvandemichael@gmail.com

Please take some time and fill out the membership form of the MAH, the membership is due now it can be paid until the end of March, if you wish to participate in the up coming elections at the end of April 2008.

Download the Form

You are Invited to Ismail, Ishaq & Yaqub’s Aqiqa Dinner at Hamilton Downtown Mosque Today!

Plase join us & bring Allah’s Blessings.

Time: After Maghrib Prayer appx 7:50 pm

Ibrahim Aykut, Father

Muslim girl’s teammates at Canadian school don head covering to show unity, support during final competition

Everyone asks Mozynah “Moza” Nofal questions. Why does she wear a scarf on her head? Why does she always dress in long sleeves? What’s it like to be Muslim?

Nofal graduated from Cobleskill High School and is attending Carleton University in Ontario, Canada, where she is a member of the fencing team.

Her teammates asked how it felt to fence with her scarf under her face mask. They also wanted her to know they love and support her. So in the final competition of the year, when other teams dyed their hair the same color to show unity, her teammates donned head scarves, called hejab or hijab.

“We’ve always noticed that she’s the only fencer in Ontario that wears a hijab; it must feel lonely or different,” said Rachael Gardner, a sophomore on the fencing team. “We all really respect the confidence she has in her religion.”

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Due to OPEN HOUSE program There will be no lecture on Saturday and Arabic Class. Arabic Class for Sunday is also canceled due to review settings. This might be a good chance those who want to join to the Intermediate Arabic Class. Next week review of the past units will be focused on. Please call 905.537.8778 to join. Arabic Courses. Also Sister Class for Beginners will be starting on second half of April, insha’Allah.

Yilmaz Alimoglu
Community Editorial Board

The current state of Muslims is downright depressing, conflicted by internal, ideological wars, pagan nationalism and tribalism.

As Muslims, we love to blame the West and Israel for our current terrible state. This is pure denial and a convenient way of not doing much to change our situation because change for the better is difficult to achieve. Real change starts with individuals who make the choice and commitment to change. It also involves a lot of hard work and asking some serious questions.

Relative to the 15 million to 20 million-strong Jewish community worldwide, there are more than 1 billion Muslims living on this planet today; yet the Jewish community has produced many more scientists, writers, poets, musicians and statesmen than Muslims in the last 200 years and generally is a more active, productive and influential player in the global economy. Both communities continue to waste precious time, energy and resources fighting each other – bookends of the same prophetic lineage. We have fallen victim to power struggles; in the process, the weakest members of our societies end up suffering.

Ironically, between the 8th and 14th centuries in Andalusia (southern Spain and Morocco today) it was a different story. During that time, Christians, Muslims and Jews all lived together in a golden age of intellectual creativity, tolerance, respect and harmony.

Andalusia was a shining light for the world, producing great scholars like the philosopher and scientist Ibn Rushd, also known as Averroes, who some credit with being the founding father of secular thought in western Europe, and the great Islamic mystic Ibn al-Arabi. Ibn Haldun laid out the foundation for modern management, psychology and sociology. Abu al-Qasim, known in the West as Abulcasis, is regarded as the father of modern surgery.

Had Nobel Prizes existed during that era, many Muslims would have won them.

The Muslims of Andalusia were as devoted to serving humanity as they were to the study of the sciences and commerce, if not more so. They asked challenging questions and worked hard to find reasonable answers using their intellect.

Media-savvy individuals claim to speak in the name of Islam or on behalf of all Muslims, but they do more harm than good, falling prey to the fame they gain from being controversial over their use of unwise words. They do an injustice to non-Muslims by creating false perceptions of Islam and play a major role in creating a prison of prejudice.

They are not Muslims by choice but by inheritance, like inheriting a piece of property. Accepting and practising Islam is against their way of life but they still claim to be Muslims. If you cannot agree with the texts and principles, then why bother calling yourself a Muslim? Calling some of them nihilists might be more appropriate.

Ultimately, the quest for truth demands rigorous research, clarity of thought, trust, humility, perseverance, consistency and the avoidance of judgment without understanding.

Are Muslims today up to the challenge? Do we have the intellectual capacity to respond? Are we familiar enough with Islamic scripture to have the courage to remain faithful to core principles? Are we ready to invest the time and energy needed to resolve issues and promote understanding based on the original scriptures and message of the Prophet?

Perhaps, if we can first learn from our roots, know where we come from and understand what shapes who we are today. After resolving the identity crises endemic within Muslim societies, we will then be ready to discuss with each other issues facing humanity, based on diversity, equality and common values.

TheStar

Yilmaz Alimoglu, an electrical engineer with a management degree, works as a consultant in the high-tech field.

b.      QSSC (Buy a new Mosque)

TD Canada Trust ac#: 10362 004 0634 0000419

5.            Through your Online Banking account. Go to Interac email transfer and send any amount you would like Insha’Allah. Use admin!qssc.org as the transfer email and specify what is the amount for in the description section (example: Expenses or Buy a new place or Hajj or ….)

6.            You can also email us your contribution cheques to the following address Insha’Allah:

1865B Lawrence Avenue East, Toronto, Ontario M1R2Y3.

Cheques should be addressed to QSSC. Don’t forget to mention the purpose of the contribution (example: Expenses or Buy a new place or Hajj or ….)

Jazakum Allah Khairan

Alex Neve
Chris MacLeod
Lorne Waldman
In three different corners of the world – China, Egypt and Ethiopia – three Canadian citizens languish in prison. Each has very likely been tortured. Each is at very real risk of being tortured again. None faces any prospect of gaining their freedom soon. All seem to have been forgotten. Each deserves more from their government.

Huseyin Celil has been in prison in China since the end of June 2006. His wife and four children in Burlington have endured anxious fear for his safety ever since. Celil is an ethnic Uighur. In the far western reaches of China a decades-old campaign of brutal repression against the Uighur people has intensified in recent years. Torture, unjust imprisonment and other abuses abound. Celil thought he had escaped to safety. But he was surreptitiously arrested and sent back to China while visiting with his wife’s family in nearby Uzbekistan. He has known nothing but injustice ever since. Last year, after a blatantly unfair trial, he was sentenced to a life term in prison. He believes that the Uighur people’s rights should be respected. He has been convicted of being a “splitist”, a Chinese government euphemism for terrorist.

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Read all via www.freecelil.com