Leamington Ontario is a city in the most southern part of Canada, known for being a farming community. Thus, it traditionally had no formal Muslim presence for years. However, for the past several years, this story started to change as more Muslim physicians started to work at the local hospital in Leamington and as Indonesian farm workers were brought on regular basis to work on the town’s farms (most of whom were unable to make the 45KM trip to Windsor’s nearest mosque due to strict employment conditions). This situation has necessitated the organization of Friday prayers in the town; which was taken care of by a few local physicians (namely Drs. Basel Eltawil and Ijaz Guman) who rented an old store in the middle of the town for the purposes of Friday prayers only. Three years ago however, the situation became more pressing with the arrival of a significant number of Syrian refugees to the town. Not only the existing rented place became too small, it was also inappropriate given that it was in the middle of downtown and adjacent to a nightclub. Families of these refugees felt unsafe bringing their families and children to the existing prayer place. Thus, we had to look for an alternative solution that will help these families perform their religious duties and provide their children and families with the proper Islamic Education and socialization. As an interim solution, we looked for an alternative rental until we are able to build/purchase a suitable place that will serve as the foundation for the inauguration of a Muslim community in Leamington.  Due to the difficulty in securing such a place, we rented a prayer space at the town’s local angelical in the beginning of past Ramadan (2017) after they have reached out to us when they knew that we were looking for a suitable place for our congregation. The church has been very supportive of our needs whereby they didn’t allow us to only perform our Friday prayers, but also gave us the space to organize Ramadan Iftars and start a Sunday Islamic school for the children of the Syrian newcomers.

Although we appreciate the generosity of the church in opening its door to our congregation, we are looking for a permanent solution that will lay the foundation for the inauguration of a Muslim Community Centre in Leamington. Such centre will not only serve the long-term interests of the current Muslims in Leamington, but will also attract more to settle in the town and will serve many small communities in the surrounding areas (Kingsville, Harrow, whitley); who otherwise have no access to a mosque. Thus, we have reached to the Windsor Islamic Association (the main mosque in Windsor) who graciously adopted this cause and took it on themselves to help us build a Muslim community centre in Leamington. So far, we have put an offer on a very promising real estate that is located in the middle of the town and the town has showed support of our cause. We have raised about $270K from the congregation in Windsor, but we still need all the support that we can get from our brothers across Ontario so we may build a new Muslim community in a town that needs it so badly. Your support and generosity will be very instrumental in helping us realize this dream

LOCAL ANGLICAN CHURCH OPENS THEIR DOORS FOR MUSLIM PRAYERS

When we needed a place to gather for Friday prayers, the local Anglican Church offered their space. Click on the pictures below for details. 

Here is a report from the Anglican Journal

http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1011294275736/