Media Releases

Canadian Muslim women commemorate International Human Rights Day with conference for Indigenous women

December 9, 2015

Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama‘at collaborates with Indigenous Education Network and the University of Toronto to hold interfaith conference

Toron­to, ON — To com­mem­o­rate Inter­na­tion­al Human Rights Day and raise aware­ness about gen­dered vio­lence against Indige­nous women, as well as against Mus­lim women who wear the Hijab, the Ahmadiyya Mus­lim Jama‘at has part­nered with the Cen­tre for Women’s Stud­ies in Edu­ca­tion and the Indige­nous Edu­ca­tion Net­work at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to to hold a con­fer­ence titled “Indige­nous Spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and Islam: A Dia­logue Between Two Sis­ters.”

This event explores the sim­i­lar­i­ties between the teach­ings of Islam and Indige­nous spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, and how these two faith tra­di­tions inspire heal­ing and uni­ty. It explores how Mus­lims, based on the teach­ings of the Holy Qur’an, can stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Indige­nous peo­ples in their strug­gle for jus­tice, espe­cial­ly per­tain­ing to the case of the Miss­ing and Mur­dered Indige­nous Women (#MMIW) in Cana­da.

As part of the nation­al #JeSu­isHi­jabi cam­paign, this event invites Cana­di­ans to join and hear the voic­es of Indige­nous women and Mus­lim women to under­stand what their nation­al iden­ti­ty means to them.

When: Thurs­day, Decem­ber 10, 2015 at 11:00am
Where: OISE Build­ing – Room OI 2–296 (2nd floor) – 252 Bloor St W, Toron­to, ON M5S 1V6

Media Oppor­tu­ni­ty:
Inter­views with Indige­nous women and Mus­lim women. Exhi­bi­tion of #JeSu­isHi­jabi nation­al cam­paign. Pre­sen­ta­tion by Elder Ojib­we Kokomis Jacqui Laval­ley.

About the Ahmadiyya Mus­lim Jama‘at: The Ahmadiyya Mus­lim Jama‘at is a dynam­ic, fast-grow­ing inter­na­tion­al revival move­ment with­in Islam. Found­ed in 1889, the Ahmadiyya Mus­lim Com­mu­ni­ty spans over 200 coun­tries with mem­ber­ship exceed­ing tens of mil­lions. The Ahmadiyya Mus­lim Jama‘at is the only Islam­ic orga­ni­za­tion to believe that the long-await­ed mes­si­ah has come in the per­son of Mirza Ghu­lam Ahmad (1835–1908) of Qadi­an, India. The Com­mu­ni­ty believes that God sent Ahmad, like Jesus, to end reli­gious wars, con­demn blood­shed and rein­sti­tute moral­i­ty, jus­tice and peace.

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For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact:

Tam­mara Soma (Ph.D Can­di­date), Dept. Geog­ra­phy and Plan­ning
Ahmadiyya Mus­lim Stu­dent Asso­ci­a­tion UofT, Native Desk
Phone: 647–607-5434