The Canadian Coptic Centre's Imposing Warning Sign

The Canadian Coptic Centre, in Mississauga, Ontario

While driving through Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto, I saw the most formidable church I have ever seen. Not even the Cathedral of St. James, in Toronto, comes close, at least in size and prominence.

The Canadian Coptic Centre is a colossal building with some eight or nine cupolas. Its church was consecrated as the Church of Virgin Mary and St. Athanasius in 1989.

A few miles down the same road is the Al-Farooq Mosque, an unassuming building for now, but with plans for a $6 million expansion.

Copts in Egypt have suffered constant persecution from their Muslim conquerors, and in fact, the antagonism and violence against them in Egypt seems to be growing. Many Copts here in Canada know of this experience first hand. What a shock it must have been for them that just down the road is a mosque, relatively small and innocuous for now, but with the promise of huge expansions.

Al-Farooq Mosque was established in 1987, as the first mosque in Mississauga. The Canadian Coptic Centre's Church of Virgin Mary and St. Athanasius was consecrated just two years after, although its property had been bought in 1982, when construction continued for another eight years.

Now, this is speculation on my part, but it looks like the mosque came later (established 1987, says its web site, whereas the Coptic church started construction in 1982 which was completed in 1989). So, surely the Copts, in retaliation to what looks like the antagonistic presence of their age-old enemies, continued to expand this cupola-rich church to ward off, and to warn against, their new Muslim neighbors?

What more can they do? If they talk too negatively, they will be harming the “freedom of religion” mandate of Canadian society. And Muslims will never let them get away with it. To me, the best they could come up was to build their imposing building, both to protect themselves (spiritually), and to warn their Canadian host country of the dangers they had to flee, literally in life and death situations. And that the same could happen to them again, and in fact to anyone in the path of the single-minded Muslims.

I hope people are listening.

Little Mosque in the Basement

No more basement mosque at Regent Park

The Globe and Mail has a timely article on a makeshift mosque in a Toronto neighborhood. The article talks about a basement mosque in a building in Regent Park, a social housing conglomerate. Regent Park is now being revitalized, with old buildings being torn down, and new ones (mostly high rises) coming up. This mosque will have to go with the building.

The mosque members are at a loss. Their basement place of worship was free of charge. They didn't have to pay any rent. With the new buildings coming up, they will have to either pay rent for any new space, or outright buy the property to house their mosque.

But, they are already coming up with excuses. "People living in this [area] are low-income and can't afford to buy space," says [mosque] member Shahan Ahia.

So how did these Muslims manage to have the space rent-free in the first place?

Here is part of the answer. According to The Globe and Mail article;

Members of the Khadem centre [KPA: Notice that the space is called both a mosque and a centre] remain skeptical that they will get help from TCHC [Toronto Community Housing Corp.]. For them, the five-year-old centre is not simply a place to pray. On weekends, more than 60 children come to the centre to learn English, Arabic, math and computer skills or to be mentored by university-aged Muslims about being a good Muslim and getting a good education.

This "centre", which functions as an all-purpose Islamic centre, most likely gets its funding from various levels of the government. It likely gets it rent money as well as funding for the several activities described above. To get its government funding, its sales pitch is probably:

- It teaches ESL [English as a Second Language] (good for assimilation)
- It teaches special skills like computers (good for assimilation via getting youth career and job ready)
- It maintains a heritage language component by teaching Arabic to children (good for multiculturalism)
- It keeps the young well-monitored by having adults supervise ethnic-centered activities (good for multiculturalism)

All these are 100% guarantees that it will get government funding. That is how many other cultural centers acquire their monies. Scroll down at Canadian Immigration Reform Blog's list of agencies which receive money from the government. For example in 2008, the Muslim Community Services received $4,115,064.00, and the Afghan Women’s Counselling and Integration Community Support got $512,006.00 (Canadian dollars).

With the right project and the right proposal (easy to do with many helping hands out there), there is no reason for the Khadm Mosque/Centre to worry about closing down.

But, of course the problem is bigger than receiving government money. The problem is that this center has already declared, openly in this Globe and Mail article, that it is a Islam-centric center. So, the government is funding young Muslims to get a Muslim education, through language and religious training.

I wonder how many more "basement" mosques there are, how many of them are fully funded by government monies? And how many such stories it will take before Canadians realize who and what they are funding?

Mosques: From Nondescript To Full-Fledged Traditional

Madina Masjid: From a nondescript building to a full-fledged traditional mosque

I had previously blogged about a new, non-camouflaged mosque soon to be completed in the downtown Toronto skyline.

Zak Ghanim, the architect, who is fittingly an Egyptian immigrant, is disclosing some design and architectural plans he has for this new mosque. He has been asked by the President of Madina Mosque (as this mosque is called) to emphasize the traditional elements in order for it to have " a 'real' mosque look" which incorporates "classical minaret, domes, geometric detailing and elaborate columns."

This is a far cry from corner "Islamic centers" (euphemisms for mosques) and mosques attached to strip-malls , when it seemed that the Muslim community wanted to hide its presence from the city's inhabitants. The same was true of the original Madina Mosque, which was really a nondescript building in an unattractive part of the Danforth.

Even Ghanim makes this observation by saying, "The first mosques in the city were not very elaborate, so we could build each part quickly. Now, it seems, each mosque is fancier than the next."

Now that Muslims have acquired a new-found confidence, they are not afraid to publicize their presence at all, as is evident by their new plans for the Madina Mosque, which has all the traditional paraphernalia of minarets and domes. The only things that appear to be missing from the Madina Mosque are the loudspeakers and recording devices for the multiple calls to prayer. But, we have to wait and see for that one.

Ghanim is already making plans for another city's mosque. This time, he would like to put more modern and avant-garde elements into it. He says that his modern vision for the mosque in Kitchener, Ontario, would be,"an original Canadian contribution to Islamic architecture."

This is how far we have come in Canadian architecture. Islamic architects can now talk about their "contributions". Unlike the exotic architecture of Moorish influences and revivals of past centuries, we are not talking about short, concentrated architectural influences which didn't change the cultures of the countries where they were erected. In fact, these buildings blended into the prevailing architecture, for all their foreignness.

What we're seeing, when Ghanim says "an original Canadian contribution to Islamic architecture", is buildings that are distinguishable and foreign from distances away. More importantly, the purpose of these buildings is not as attractive, even beautiful, exotica, but as functioning buildings that cater to cultures and religions which have no bearing on the predominant and historical culture of the cities and towns in which they are built.

In short, their purpose is to allow Muslim populations to unabashedly follow their own cultural and religious traditions in buildings that resemble - from function to design - those (traditional ones) that they left behind in their Muslim lands.

Thus, we have come from hidden Islamic "centers" to unequivocally traditional mosques, within a matter of a few years.

Muslims in Canada are no longer afraid to build fancy, traditional mosques. Which also means that they will not be afraid to publicly use them either.

Churches into Mosques - And Downtown Toronto's First Minaret

Proposed mosque and minaret in downtown Toronto,
to be completed in the fall of 2009

The December 1, 2008 article from Christian Week says: "The downtown Toronto skyline is about to be punctuated by its first minaret."

I have previously written about minarets in the Toronto suburban skyline, but this article indicates that mosques, which have been camouflaging their presence in the downtown area behind nondescript corner buildings, are now getting more bold. This is just as I predicted.

But,there is something more insidious going on. From the same article in Christian Week, it appears that the mosque is being constructed on a the site of a former church.

Joe Boot, pastor of the nearby Westminster Chapel says:

If you look around the city of Toronto you see churches that have become mosques, Hare Krishna centres, condominiums and restaurants. This is simply another indicator of the de-Christianization of Canada.

This is fast becoming a reality throughout the Western world. In Belgium, for example, Antwerp's deputy mayor, who has also observed this trend, actually encourages it. He says:

Churches were built as places of worship and they should not be used as shopping malls. We've had a positive response from members of the Muslim community, which is open to the idea of converting them.

The spiritual laxness of Westerners has become the perfect entry point for a religion that will not only usurp Christianity, but will also make sure that everyone else, including those atheists and agnostics who abandoned their churches, will be under the thumb of Islam.

Such generous Westerners, such as the mayor of Antwerp, will be in for a shocking surprise when they are not given any leeway at the time of Muslim takeover. Their generosity will not be considered at all, and they will be expected to toe the Muslim line, like any other non-Muslim.

This generally involves dhimmitude, if not harsher measures.

"Islamic centers" as fronts for mosques

Toronto has a nostalgic view of itself as the city with a church in every corner.

Well, "a mosque in every corner" doesn't sit so well, does it? And that is just what's happening. But, once again to avoid the shock and antagonism that could occur if this infiltration into our street corners were unveiled, these mosques are being called "Islamic centers." And, some are braving the unresponsive (for now) Canadian psyche by using masjid, the Islamic name for mosque.

The above photo shows the corner Masjid Toronto - which has been "loosely" translated as "Islamic Center of Downtown Toronto." The building was originally a bank

Masjid Toronto's new engravings on its windows

Right: Masjid Toronto sign in downtown Toronto; Left: Arabic engraving on window

More engravings on entrance doorways, and on side windows

Older photograph from internet, showing doorways and windows
without decorative engravings

It is hard to keep up with the upgrades of the various Islamic buildings around Toronto.

Masjid Toronto, or as it is also euphemistically calls itself "Islamic Information Centre of Downtown Toronto", has embellished its windows with engravings of a mosque, some Islamic mosaic-style decoration, and script in Arabic. Although I don't know what this script means, I guessed it to be Allah. And sure enough a quick internet search produced these variations - scroll down to calligraphy #6 in the link.

This little corner mosque seems innocuous enough, except it is close to several very important landmarks, including:
- The Toronto General Hospital
- The University of Toronto
- City Hall
- The U.S. Consulate
- The Eaton Centre

Map of Masjid Toronto, with surrounding important Toronto landmarks

A: Masjid Toronto, B: The U.S. Consulate; C: City Hall; D: Toronto General Hospital
E: University of Toronto; F: Queen's Park; G: Eaton Centre; H: Ryerson University