For Muslim poor, a shameful admission
Apr 12, 2008 04:30 AM
Noor Javed
Staff Reporter
On the corner of Dundas and Chestnut Sts., Ahmed dumps a handful of pennies and quarters on the sidewalk, and begins counting his day's earnings.
"Asalamu alakum, can you spare some change?" he shyly asks two men as they rush past him and into Masjid Toronto, a downtown mosque.
A former teacher, Ahmed left war-torn Iraq five years ago for Canada. "I came here but couldn't find a job, couldn't make money," he said. "Now I am homeless. I live in a shelter."
The exact number of Muslims in Toronto who live below Statistics Canada's low-income cut-off, the country's unofficial poverty line, is difficult to determine, as socio-economic data is rarely gathered through the lens of religion.
But among those on the front lines in the Muslim community, those who work in mosques, community centres and the few charitable organizations, there is growing concern about the magnitude of poverty in the community, the lack of resources available to deal with the problem, and the reluctance – among all social classes – to admit the problem even exists.
For the Muslim poor, an admission of poverty is shameful. To the rich, the problem is invisible, or at least not so obvious when compared to the stark conditions of poverty they have seen back home.
"It is a cause for concern," said Uzma Shakir, former executive director of the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario, and member of the Colour of Poverty campaign. "The repercussions of poverty and systemic poverty are not just economic but have serious social impacts as well," she said.
"Already we can see the formation of ghettos in some parts of the city," said Shakir, referring to neighbourhoods where overt race-based poverty is glaringly obvious, and where halal meat stores are in abundance.
The scant data available paints a troubling picture of a growing community of nearly 300,000 Muslims, which includes a mix of refugees, recent immigrants, and those who settled in Canada decades ago.
The four poorest of all ethno-racial groups, with more than 50 per cent of their members living below Statistics Canada's low-income cut-off, were Somalis, Afghans, Ethiopians and Bangladeshi populations – all from predominately Muslim countries. At least 30 per cent of Pakistanis and West Asians also qualified as poor, according to a study done by the Institute for Social Research at York University in 2006, which looked at the demographic and social profiles of ethno-racial groups in the city.
According to the low-income cut-offs, a family of four in Toronto with an annual income of $33,221 after taxes would be considered poor. Bangladeshi women earned the lowest median income of any group at just more than $15,000.
In 13 neighbourhoods deemed "at-risk" in Toronto by United Way, more than half have significant Muslim populations, including Flemingdon Park, Regent Park, Etobicoke North and Jane-Finch."Every year, we see more and more poor people coming to the mosque for help," said Omar Farouk, president of the International Muslims Organization, based in Etobicoke, which has opened a food bank and distributes food to shelters once a month. More than 200 people regularly access the food bank.
"People will work two or three jobs, and still not have enough money to make ends meet at the end of the month," said Atulya Sharman, a community legal worker with the South Asian legal clinic. "But nobody wants to admit they are poor, partly because of the stigma, and because they think it's just part of the settlement process."
That is where they are mistaken, said Mohamed Boudjenane, director of the Canadian Arab Federation, which is part of the Colour of Poverty campaign.
"The Muslim community is faced with tremendous barriers, like the issue of foreign credential recognition, and the issue of racism and stigmatization of simply being Muslim post 9-11," he said.
"It's not about settlement; it's about systemic barriers in the system. We are receiving well-educated people. They are ... engineers and doctors, but they are still doing dishes, or driving cabs."
But many don't even get those menial jobs. In a 2005 Canadian Labour Congress study on Racial Status and Employment Incomes, Arab and West-Asian visible minorities had the highest overall unemployment rate at 14 per cent.There are internal barriers within the community too. There is an obvious divide between the haves and have-nots, the second-generation Muslims and the new arrivals who have little interaction with each other outside of "Friday prayers at the mosque."
While charity is a fundamental part of the Islamic faith, many established Muslims in the GTA are ignorant of the growing need within their own communities and instead see poverty in their countries of origin as a more worthy cause.
"The image that comes to mind when you think poverty is that beggar on the street in Pakistan. You don't think of a family in Scarborough," said Sadaf Parvaiz, a chartered accountant and second-generation Pakistani-Canadian.
Attitudes are slowly changing among some second-generation Muslims, who feel little connection to their parents' homeland. Parvaiz is organizing a walk for poverty in the summer with proceeds going to a local food bank.
The Muslim Welfare Centre, one of the few organizations addressing poverty, runs a halal food bank and emergency women's shelter, funded by donations from the community, said CEO Qaiser Naqvi.
In most neighbourhoods, mosques have become places of service as well as worship.
It is a concept that Waris Malik put to use three years ago, when he launched a weekly Hot Soup Day at the Islamic Foundation of Toronto, a mosque in Scarborough – the first to launch a project of this kind in the city. The initiative now serves and distributes 750 meals each week. Masjid Toronto will be starting a similar soup kitchen at downtown's Scadding Court at the end of this month.
"The mosque can't play all roles," said Boudjenane, of the Canadian Arab Federation, who believes Muslims need to shift their focus from building mosques to creating civic structures and social agencies.
"We have the foundations, what we need now is to start building the community."
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/413881
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