L'ASSOCIATION DES MUSULMANS PROGRESSITES DU CANADA

ASSOCIATION OF PROGRESSIVE MUSLIMS OF CANADA

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SPECIAL NEWS IN 2021

On June 12,2021, Trent University, Durham, conferred an Honorary Doctorate of the Laws on President Mobeenuddin Khaja in recognition of his community activism and leadership. It was announced in 2020 but the ceremony could not be held due to the pandemic.  It was decided to hold a virtual ceremony in 2021.

The following link will take you to the profile posted for Mobeen Khaja by Trent University: https://www.trentu.ca/news/story/26609 (You will have to copy and paste this link in your browser.)

Mr. Mobeen Khaja is devoted to building bridges of understanding between people from all faiths, backgrounds and cultures.  An accomplished leader and activist, Mr. Khaja and his family became Canadian citizens soon after moving to Canada in 1974.  Since then he has worked tirelessly to encourage respect and mutual understanding among all Canadians through his outreach work via religious groups, police, government, communities, education and even tourism.

In 1998 Mr. Khaja founded the Association of Progressive Muslims of Ontario (APMO) and the Association of Progressive Muslims of Canada (APMC) in 2002. Both are government incorporated, non-profit organizations.  While projecting core Islamic values of peace, justice, respect, understanding and equality, their mandate is to foster understanding between communities and faith groups and serve the needs of the Muslim community.

Under Mr. Khaja’s leadership, APMC and APMO organized the first celebrations of Eid on Parliament Hill and at Queen's Park and the Toronto City Hall.  In honour of Ramadan, they organized Iftar dinners at the Ottawa City Hall, uniting faiths, cultures, parliamentarians and diplomats.  Annual APMC Canada Day celebrations have been organized since 1999 in Toronto and Canadian Citizenship ceremonies have been added to these since 2016. 

Mr. Khaja also organized an International Visitor Leadership program for Muslim university students in July 2012 in partnership with the Embassy of the United States. He recently led a delegation of APMC members and youth to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis and leaders from the Pontifical Council of Interreligious Dialogue and the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies to establish connections for further inter-faith dialogue.  In partnership with the Federation of Chinese Canadians in Markham, Mr. Khaja is also the Co-chair of the Taste of Asia Festival, the largest Asian festival in Canada.

In 2019, Mr. Khaja sponsored a merit-based scholarship at Trent University open to undergraduate students of all faiths whose efforts reflect the importance of promoting peace, justice, respect, understanding and equality.

Mr. Khaja is also one of the founders of New Canada Movement, an organization that focuses on social justice, fairness and equity in the areas of immigration, employment, education, human rights, environment, seniors and youth.

Mr. Khaja is a long-time resident of Durham Region. As Vice-president of the Multicultural Council of Oshawa-Durham and President of the Muslim Educational and Cultural Association for several years, he organized educational and social activities to enhance race relations.

Mr. Khaja was the recipient of the Order of Ontario in January 2011 for his contributions to promoting peace and cross-cultural understanding between Muslims and other religious and ethnic groups.  He was named by Peace Quest, a non-profit, non-denominational, non-partisan organization that supports and facilitates peace-building initiatives across Canada, as one of the 150+ Canadians Who Contributed to Peace.  Mr. Khaja was awarded the Senate’s 150th Anniversary Medal and also the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

In acknowledgment of the recognition from Trent University, Mr. Khaja states, “I am deeply touched and moved to receive the honorary degree from Trent University.  In the past, I have received the Order of Ontario, Peace Quest Award as one of the 150+ Canadians who contributed to peace, Senate’s 150th Anniversary Medal and Queen Elizabeth 11 Diamond Jubilee Medal.  However it is indeed an incredible honour to receive this honorary degree in the presence of so many scholars, professors, teachers and graduating young people who are ready to contribute and serve our country.”

FIRST SCHOLARSHIP GRANTED TO AMY STROTHARD IN 2021

In August 2021, Professor Stoyles announced  that Amy Strothard was chosen as the first recipient of the APMC scholarship. A thank you letter from Amy is attached.  

In his words: “Amy is an ideal first recipient.  She has proven to be one of the stars of our program in recent years and it is great to be able to recognize some of her success with this award. As you know, the award is designed to recognize excellent academic standing by requiring the recipient to have a minimum average of 80%.  Amy has exceeded this standard by an impressive margin.”

The award is also to recognize the best essay or project submission reflecting the importance of promoting peace, justice, understanding, or equality. Amy’s paper, “Decriminalizing Prostitution: A Liberal Feminist Approach”, was selected as the best submission by our prize committee.

Letter from Amy Strothard:

Association of Progressive Muslims of Canada Scholarship Fund

Dear Donors, 

Thank you so much for your donation! I greatly appreciate the recognition and financial aid you’ve provided. I’ve just completed my honours undergraduate degree in Psychology and Philosophy at Trent. I’m now taking a year off school to work and study for the LSAT, and to hopefully attend law school in fall 2022. This scholarship will help tremendously with the fees associated with the application process (which are steeper and more numerous than I had anticipated!). Thank you again for your generosity!

Best 

Amy Strothard

For more information about the scholarship, please click here

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Events held in 2022

The 9th annual Iftar Dinner was held at the Ottawa City Hall on April 7, 2022.

For story and photos, please click here.

The 25th annual Eid-ul-Fitr dinner was held at Parliament Hill on May 5, 2022.

For story and photos, please click here.

The 22nd Canada Day Celebrations were held on June 30. 2022 in Toronto.  Please click here for the story and photos

Events in 2020 and 2021

ALL EVENTS FOR 2020 AND 2021 HAD TO BE CANCELLED BECAUSE OF COVID 19

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Events held in 2019

The 8th annual Iftar dinner at the Ottawa City Hall was held on May 16, 2019.  For story and photos, please click here.

APMC held the 23rd annual lunch reception for MPPs at Queen's Park on June 6, 2019.

The 24th annual Eid-ul-Fitr dinner was held on June 13, 2019 at Parliament Hill.  The Prime Minister of New Zealand was honoured for her "REMARKABLE AND COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP IN THE WAKE OF THE TERROR ATTACKS IN THE CITY OF CHRISTCHURCH"  AND HER "EFFORTS TO STOP AND PREVENT VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM ONLINE."

For story and photos, please click here.

The 21st Annual Canada Day Celebrations and the 4th Citizenship Ceremony were held on June 28, 2019.  For story and photos, please click here.

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Events held in 2018

The Association held the 22nd Annual Lunch reception for MPPs at Queen's Park on March 22nd, 2018.

 For story and photos, please click here.

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The 7th annual Iftar Dinner was held at the Ottawa City Hall on May 23, 2018.  H. E. Sabine Sparwasser, Ambassador for the Federal Republic of Germany was the Keynote Speaker

For story, please click here.  For speech, please click here.

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The 23rd Annual Parliament Hill  Eid dinner was held on June 19, 2018 at Sir John Mcdonald Building.  Mr. Akaash Maharaj, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC).of was the Keynote speaker and Award Recipient.  For story and photos, please click here.  For speech, please click here.

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The 20th Annual Canada Day celebrations and the 3rd Citizenship Ceremony were held in Toronto on June 29, 2018.  H.E. Tariq Azim Khan was the Keynote Speaker and Award Recipient for this year.  For story and photos, please click here.

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Dr. Dilkhush Panjwani received the Order of Ontario in 2018.  Congratulations to him for this honour.

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APMC DELEGATION MEETS POPE FRANCIS ON OCTOBER 24, 2018

For story and photos, please click here.

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For information about our events and the Association, please contact us at:  info@progressivemuslims.ca 

Our Headquarters are located in Ottawa.  Our business telephone number is 613-255-1786. 

To join the organization and get information and applications, please contact us at members@progressivemuslims.ca  or info@progressivemuslims.ca 

To get some background information about past events, please click here.