Peter Kuitenbrouwer
National Post


VAUGHAN -Before dawn in this sprawl north of Toronto, McDonald's is locked and Tim Hortons is empty. The fake mountain of Canada's Wonderland, the amusement park, peeks from the gloom. Across the street looms the white minaret of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at mosque.

A speaker in the parking lot crackles and broadcasts the Arabic call to prayer. Suddenly, silent life fills the dark streets. Men dressed in the long white shalwar camise of their native Pakistan and women in head scarfs emerge from their brick homes.

The only sound is the squeak of hundreds of soles on the asphalt. At the mosque, couples separate: women to their basement prayer hall, men headed upstairs. Before sunrise on this day of Ramadan, they are coming to pray.

Welcome to Peace Village, Canada's first Islamic subdivision, where all 260 homes belong to members the Ahmadiyya sect, who flooded to Canada in the 1980s after persecution in Pakistan. It looks ordinary, with basketball nets and minivans in the driveways, until you notice the street signs: Mahmood Crescent, Ahmadiyya Avenue and Noor-Ud-Din Court.

"There is nothing like this in North America," boasts Naseer Ahmad, a real estate agent from Pakistan who dreamed up this community of Islamic dream homes (including oak stairs and central air conditioning) on the edge of Toronto. "You have a mosque, and people are walking to enjoy their faith."

The houses, with some modifications, such as increased ventilation (for spicy food) and separate living rooms for women and men, are so successful that, six years after Peace Village opened, Mr. Ahmad plans to double the mosque's size and is now selling 55 townhomes, 1,700 square feet each, for around $350,000 with a garage and a yard, as "Peace Village Phase II."

Settlers have gathered around churches since Europeans first came to Canada. Newer immigrants took over downtowns vacated by earlier ethnicities, giving Montreal a Chinatown and Toronto a Little Portugal. This is different: it is a new development for one ethnic group.

To the dismay of some locals, a demolition crew last year took down a United Church next to where Peace Village is growing. The changes have inspired Christians to reassert themselves: Across the highway, Italian-Canadians built "Vellore Woods" with a large Catholic church at its centre, mimicking Peace Village.

"The Peace Village is a profitable proposition based on faith, and on profit and loss," Mr. Ahmad says, sitting in his office in his spacious home here. "A lot of people have come to me for advice afterwards, how to put it together." The Ahmadiyya plan a similar faith-based suburb near a mosque they are building in Calgary.

The Ahmadiyya say they don't mean to isolate themselves, and they send their children to public school. Still, the nation's "cultural mosaic" is fairly monochrome in this spot: Teston Road Public School, which opened last month next to the mosque, is about 80% Muslim, and the school provides its gym on Fridays at lunchtime so the kids can kick off their running shoes, bow low toward Mecca and pray.

"Even though they are born in Canada," says Teston Road's principal, David Nimmo, "their first language is Urdu."

Naseer Ahmad came to Canada from Pakistan in 1975 and received a masters' in public administration from Ottawa's Carleton University. He worked years in advertising before helping his community build a mosque on 25 acres of tomato fields the Ahmadiyya bought by the tiny village of Teston. The mosque opened in 1992.

Mr. Ahmad, by then a real estate agent with Royal Le-Page, learned that Italian-Canadian developer Benny Marotta had approval to build homes on about 60 acres adjacent to the new mosque.

Mr. Ahmad, whose mosque was empty -- being too far from the faithful -- suggested a faith-based marketing scheme. "I provided my skills and my knowledge and my contacts."

Although Muslims bought all the houses, he insists he does not sell only to adherents of Islam. "There is no exclusion here," he says. "You come and buy the house, no problem. You want to live beside the mosque, you want to live in a predominantly Muslim community, no problem at all."

In his Toyota Sequoia V8, Mr. Ahmad gives a tour of the place. We take Bashir Street (named for his father) and Abdus Salam Street, named for the first Muslim Nobel laureate, as he speaks of his big plans: an Islamic reference library and doubling the mosque's size, to 40,000 square feet.

"Over here is going to be a TV station," he says. (Already a special cable to each home feeds Muslim television from an audio-visual room at the base of the minaret). "Then over here we're going to have a big huge guest house."

In his office, Mr. Ahmad points to other projects: "This is my Brampton mosque. This is in Cornwall. I have architects and engineers working for me freelance. This is the Calgary mosque."

Peace Village has had one dramatic impact on this area --bringing pedestrian traffic to a place known as a driver's domain. People walk to mosque, and to school. When the final bell rang at Teston Road Public School, a stream, mainly of women, arrived on foot, pushing strollers, and walked their children across the new city park, recently namedAhmadiyya Park, toward the mosque, and home. Some youngsters as young as nine walked with friends, no parents in sight.

"It's back to the way it was when we were kids," says David Nimmo, the principal, who opened this new York District School Board school in September. "Everybody is walking home. Our goal is to make this school part of the centre of the [Muslim] community." (Most kids go home; a daycare on site has just six children.)

The children's lack of English is a hurdle. "Our academic scores are low in these schools," Mr. Nimmo says, leading a tour of his shiny school, filled with children. He is helping to change that.

Two years ago, he called a meeting at the mosque. "I wanted to tell them how poorly their children were doing." When he got there, he found only a handful of parents.

"I was very discouraged, so I asked Naseer Ahmad, he got on the phone and within 20 minutes there were 300 people there. That's how organized they were." Now, he says, "they've rallied around us," and grades are going up.

Accommodating Islam is second nature at the school. Some students are fasting during Ramadan, which ends with the feast of Eid'l Fitr on Oct. 12. "Some try to fast, they get weak and headaches, we let them rest on the health bed," the principal says. "We haven't had meet-the-teacher night and we're not going to have it until after Ramadan, out of respect for the parents."

Near the mosque towers a new Beer Store, its huge facade built to mimic a foaming glass of suds. A worker there said he welcomes the Muslims. "Here it was all Italian, and other people are arriving," says Peter Drago, 22, a smiling man with a mane of hair. He moved here four years ago; since then, out of 20 houses on his block, 12 have changed into Muslim hands.

"You ask, 'Why did you move?' they say, 'I wanted to be near the mosque.' It's good. Multiculturalism is amazing."

Still, all the change in the area has rattled Frank and Rita Alonzi, who for 38 years have lived just up the road. Their farm, where they keep chickens, goats and carrier pigeons, and grow a bountiful garden with gourds, tomatoes and grapes, is now crowded by suburbia. They don't mind that their neighbours are Muslim -- they just miss their peace and quiet. Mrs. Alonzi resents that Canada Post ended delivery to her mailbox. Now she has to walk over a kilometre to pick up her mail at a box in front of the mosque.

The Alonzis also miss Teston United Church, demolished as the region expands a nearby road and developers expand Peace Village. "I was standing there and crying," Mrs. Alonzi says. "I said, 'God, are you not listening?' But nobody listened, and they tore it down." Their son built them a wooden model of the church, to keep the memory alive. She also bought a knotted rag rug from the church at auction, for $75.

The appeal of faith-based suburbs is simple: People feel more comfortable among their own kind. Maqbool Bajwa immigrated to Toronto from Pakistan in 1987 with his four brothers, his mother and father. Immigration Canada let in his father under the business investor category. The family's first home was in Toronto's troubled Jane-Finch area. In 1997, Maqbool Bajwa bought a house in Brampton in Toronto's western suburbs. A year later he sold it and bought in Peace Village. Family bought adjoining houses.

"The mosque was nearby, the street names were all from our community," he says, sitting in an office at MB Computer Depot, a new store his brothers started in an Ahmadiyyaowned plaza near Peace Village. "I love it. When I see Ahmadiyya Avenue, it makes me proud, no question about it. Plus we've got the Vaughan Mills [a new mall], we've got the Wonderland and hopefully the subway coming. I can wear my shalwar camise and walk from home to the mosque without someone looking at me funny for what I'm wearing. It just gives me the absolute comfort of being home."

quote:

It looks ordinary, with basketball nets and minivans in the driveways, until you notice the street signs: Mahmood Crescent, Ahmadiyya Avenue and Noor-Ud-Din Court.

a believe Villo lives on Ahmadiyya Ave :) :)

Good stuff..this is the only sect that has totally done away with the classical definition of jihad.
But Freak..i know you ain't the author of the article..the first Muslim subdivision in TO was by the Twelver Shias..by highway 7..but they chose not to go public for their own reasons.

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Originally posted by DaFreak:

quote:

It looks ordinary, with basketball nets and minivans in the driveways, until you notice the street signs: Mahmood Crescent, Ahmadiyya Avenue and Noor-Ud-Din Court.

a believe Villo lives on Ahmadiyya Ave :) :)

He lucky dem ahmadiyya boys peaceful, udderwise he woulda have some problems with GG.

Miss Reds belong to this Sai Baba style Cult. As soon as she wakeup she go come and cuss me. I also have a few relatives that are cult members. These boys are sworn enemy of the guyanese Ahamdi following. They take a cut from your paycheque every month(chanda) which goes to the Guru to amke dua for the believers. If a Muslim girl should marry one of the cult members, she has to convert before marrying that person.

There is also a Hindu one not too far away that just opened a $40 million temple that is supposed to be the largest in the westen hemisphere. You should have seen the prime minister and premier wid them doti and tikka when the place open.

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They take a cut from your paycheque every month(chanda) which goes to the Guru to amke dua for the believers.

money given to jamaat is better than wasting it on material items and worldly things. when we want to hold functions - they are free and open to the public with plenty of food provided. We want to open a mosque - money is there. not like IMO or shameer masjid or 4040 where them imam have to dash a hollah in the ppl to get a donation out of them, nor passing through with a fish net for ppl drop in donations....dont hate our ways....we just more smart than ayuh:)

we just concluded 2 inter-faith symposiums last night: one that the womens association put on and was very very successful, and the other for both men and women - again another success - where a conglomerate individuals stretching across many religions came to discuss peace amongst all religions. not one of them let there mouth slip to critisize another, but offered to work together in our commmunities to bring the youth back to God (in which ever name you call him/her.

instead of opening you mouth to critisize and commit a sin which you will have to answer for on day of judgement, why dont you sit down and offer DUA for Allah to lead us to the right path in which you are travelling on?

ABU BABU

i still invite you to come and sit with the imams here in Peace Village and enjoy some good pakistani food and battle your opinions with them!..are you afraid you will lose? dont worry...no donation necc.

Excellent vision. SubhaanAllah.

Maybe the community does good work, but I disagree with this concept. It leads to polarization and at some point in the future, the Canadians will question the integrative ability of Muslims.

the place was never intended to be a "muslim" community persay...it just so happened that alot of ppl would rather live close to their mosque than their workplace - a concept to think about. in that same division - are many other races living in Peace Village as well.

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instead of opening you mouth to critisize and commit a sin which you will have to answer for on day of judgement, why dont you sit down and offer DUA for Allah to lead us to the right path in which you are travelling on?

I pray that the Tablighi jamaat will enlighten these misguided folks and take over the day to day runnings of the Masjid.

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Originally posted by Terry Ishmael:
Maybe the community does good work, but I disagree with this concept. It leads to polarization and at some point in the future, the Canadians will question the integrative ability of Muslims.

As soon as the whiteman see two men in kurtha walking in the hood, them put up them house for sale and gane up north. Then the kurtha bais follow them where ever they go-:)

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Originally posted by Abu Jihad:

quote:

instead of opening you mouth to critisize and commit a sin which you will have to answer for on day of judgement, why dont you sit down and offer DUA for Allah to lead us to the right path in which you are travelling on?

I pray that the Tablighi jamaat will enlighten these misguided folks and take over the day to day runnings of the Masjid.

now you can say this ahmadi girl teach you something... :) i dont have the urge to 'cuss' you..cause before i do that i could have said my tasbee 10x done! ma salaam me burddah :)

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Originally posted by Abu Jihad:
I pray that the Tablighi jamaat will enlighten these misguided folks and take over the day to day runnings of the Masjid.

Why. I am sure that there is a reason why these people made their own masjid. There was a time when our masjid was overflowing. Then some Arabs moved in and suddenly, someone said that the masjid was not facing the Kaaba. Then some did not like it that people were not using Arabic enough. Now several years later, the masjid is falling apart. Attendance is down and this year's Ramadhaan was not too exciting. Taking over other's operations does not work.

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Originally posted by ksazma:

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Originally posted by Abu Jihad:
I pray that the Tablighi jamaat will enlighten these misguided folks and take over the day to day runnings of the Masjid.

Why. I am sure that there is a reason why these people made their own masjid. There was a time when our masjid was overflowing. Then some Arabs moved in and suddenly, someone said that the masjid was not facing the Kaaba. Then some did not like it that people were not using Arabic enough. Now several years later, the masjid is falling apart. Attendance is down and this year's Ramadhaan was not too exciting. Taking over other's operations does not work.

Noor-ul-Islam?

The tablighi thing was a joke, they are known for taking over masjids in many places. However, they are a highly motivated and skillful group.

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Originally posted by Abu Jihad:
Noor-ul-Islam?

At the start of Ramadhaan, they say that they expect about 500 people for iftar on Sunday. I went on the first Sunday and it was about 10 minutes before iftar and there were no more than 20 people. So since I had some time, I decided to call my friend to wish him a happy Ramadhaan. He told me that he was over at his daughter and asked me to join him instead. That worked out better than staying at the masjid.

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Originally posted by ksazma:

quote:

Originally posted by Abu Jihad:
Noor-ul-Islam?

At the start of Ramadhaan, they say that they expect about 500 people for iftar on Sunday. I went on the first Sunday and it was about 10 minutes before iftar and there were no more than 20 people. So since I had some time, I decided to call my friend to wish him a happy Ramadhaan. He told me that he was over at his daughter and asked me to join him instead. That worked out better than staying at the masjid.

I think that the management of the masjid has lost focus on what the community wants. I remember going there during the 90's and the place was full with the Moulana giving the kuttbah with his big staff in hand like Moses. Then a few years later when I was there, I found out that the Moulana had branched off and had his own place in Hollywood with half of the family going there and the other half remaining at the Masjid. The last time I was there not too long ago, I found out that nobody was going there because the masjid was perceived to be only for old people. The family was now attending other masjids including the Moulana while the kids still attened school there.

quote:

Originally posted by Abu Jihad:
I think that the management of the masjid has lost focus on what the community wants. I remember going there during the 90's and the place was full with the Moulana giving the kuttbah with his big staff in hand like Moses. Then a few years later when I was there, I found out that the Moulana had branched off and had his own place in Hollywood with half of the family going there and the other half remaining at the Masjid. The last time I was there not too long ago, I found out that nobody was going there because the masjid was perceived to be only for old people. The family was now attending other masjids including the Moulana while the kids still attened school there.

Three times last year, they asked me to be their treasurer and I refused. I prefer to not participate in any political aspect in the masjid. Unfortunately, it gets messy. Maulana's place is warmer because he is inclusive rather than exclusive. Just like the other article that bhaiJan just posted, we are locking ourselves out of society by believing that society is not good. All my life, I hear that society is not good. Then one very smary old woman from Berbice said that "take the good and leave the bad". That is what we have to do. Take the good and leave the bad. Not completely lock ourselves away.

with the Moulana giving the kuttbah with his big staff in hand like Moses. .[/QUOTE]
This is funny. I am not going to get into the reason why the TRAINED imams use a staff (unless he specifically says it is the sunnah,in which case we take it at its word, it is not)--in Damascus, I saw the ritual for the friday khutba. It was something out of alice in wonderland. when you bros feel we got it bad here with our maulanas, check out the ummayad mosque in damascus. Ritual from the middle ages..down to the dress, sword, staff...

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Originally posted by dara shikoh:
with the Moulana giving the kuttbah with his big staff in hand like Moses. .

This is funny. I am not going to get into the reason why the TRAINED imams use a staff (unless he specifically says it is the sunnah,in which case we take it at its word, it is not)--in Damascus, I saw the ritual for the friday khutba. It was something out of alice in wonderland. when you bros feel we got it bad here with our maulanas, check out the ummayad mosque in damascus. Ritual from the middle ages..down to the dress, sword, staff...[/QUOTE]

I remembered the staff well because it was the first time I saw that. I was at the front so I decided to move a few rows back incase the man a share jumbie lash with it.


As Ksa says, the man appeals to the people and I think they reward him immensely for his efforts. He seems to be a cool dude. One small word of caution, is that I find people follow him in a cultlike fashion and I get a little uneasy when I see that (but thats just me).

Now back to the staff, what is the reasoning behind it, I later saw a few other Imamsn using it. I think Slimie at IMO does use it too but not too sure if it was him.

check your pm. I rather not discuss it in public.
As for cult..I saw that in my uncle who is a member of the jamaat, if i remember correctly. Had some real nonsensical ideas.

If i remember correctly, the maulana comes out of the deobandi school. I don't know if they use the staff as sunna or otherwise...and am prepared to assume the maulana is following what he assumes to be the sunna although one does have issues with certain deobandi stances...and he is lucky that he works with interfaith w/o anyone trying to bust his bubble. says something good about him.

It could be because he see Moses using it. He always open all his khutbahs with Moses' prayer on sura 20. I don't see him as cultlike. I don't see him asking anyone to abide by him in any way. But then again, I am not an insider. There is one guy who virtually pay all the bills at Darul Uloom. He must have spent more than a million of his own money on Darul Uloom. The money that comes in through the donations are not relied on. He did study at the darul uloom in India. And has experienced the phenomenon of Jinns. He give us the story once. Actually, his ustad had visited some years back.

He is highly respected in the interfaith community here. One regret I have is back in 2000 when I did not stand up to challenge this guy who turned out to be someone who baited a teenager to make certain statements that ended him up in jail after nine eleven. The guy was not making the normal statements usually made by converts and what he said instead seem inappropriate on a tarawih night. Oh how I wished I had followed my instincts and told him that he was a phony. Alas, we are taught to be nice to converts.

Let's hope its a moses thing. a lot of our boys are good people...adn when they follow Islam simply from their heart and intellectual reasoning, even though some constructs might be deemed wrong, at least they come from a pluralistic society and act out of human goodness.
When they go to some of these kims me arse countries to "learn" they come back with some weird ideas sometines, forgetting the cultural and political differences..and seek to think and act like those people. It creates havoc.