The Toronto Chapter has traditionally focused on community outreach and interfaith dialogue. Our members continue to volunteer at community events and report back to the group on their civic engagement on behalf of the Chapter. To this end, the Chapter has been very active.

Our members have been involved in:

NMCLC (National Muslim Christian Liaison Committee)

• Represented by 2 members as well as the co-chair of the committee
• Annual dinner held Oct.1, 2009 following our second symposium

Presentations

• Brock University, April 2009,The Third Annual World Religion Conference on The Problem of Evil and the Mystery of Suffering (Islamic viewpoint and T.V. interview response to conference)
• Unitarian Fellowship of Northwest Toronto – Need for Peace and Working Together as a World Community, May 2009
• Adult Education Event, Grief and Grieving – The Muslim Viewpoint, Fairlawn United Church, May 2009

Community Involvement/Networking

• Part of a panel for the The Morley S. Wolfe Youth Book Competition “Challenging Racism and Celebrating Differences,” 2008, 2009, 2010
• Christian Interfaith Reference Group, Canadian Council of Churches, November 2009
• As community leaders, attendance at a variety of events, including “Awakening The Dreamer Symposium” and “Women's Multifaith Symposium.”
• Kids 4 Peace
• Consulting with a writer for an article on Ramadan and fasting, as well as planning for an upcoming National United Church Conference for June 2010 focusing on Interfaith

WHAT’S NEW?

We’ve made a concerted effort to revitalize the Chapter through re-evaluation of our Chapter mandate and goals. The number of people on our circulation list fluctuates but a group of 30 people receive our emails and, in turn, feedback to the Chapter.

Speaker Series

The Speaker Series is our effort to re-launch the Toronto Chapter. The series was conceived with the twin goals of driving membership and to provide a forum where members could regularly connect, network and benefit from shared experiences. To date, the forum has proved to be effective for discovering topics of mutual interest and is a catalyst from which our future projects could blossom. We believe the Speaker Series aligns closely with CCMW’s mandate and is a practical output encompassing the organization’s objectives at the grassroots.

Goals of the Speaker Series

1. To assemble people from our geographic region who share interests, both for their benefit and ours, and to build professional networks among our neighbours
2. To learn from speakers about how they are thinking on researched topics, for the purpose of deepening our own thinking and to help us develop a shared background of intellectual experiences that we can individually and collectively draw from in the future.
3. To establish and maintain relationships with the speaker and, more generally, to knit ourselves into professional, scholarly, social and community networks in a planned and informed way.
4. To inform a broader range of people, from within and around our geographic region, about our interests, aspirations and goals.
5. To provide opportunities for designated speakers – scholars, students, members – to practice their communication rituals and allow them to practice their research projects to interested friends and strangers.

How Does It Work?

1. Voting members are committed to attending the CCMW–Toronto Speaker Series.
2. Voting members have the following privileges:

-- Give input into the date of each event
-- Make requests and suggestions for relevant speakers
-- Vote for the topic of their choice
-- Make suggestions towards facilitation and administration of the Speaker Series to ensure its continued success.
3. Speakers are selected from the community at large on a broad range of topics of interest to Voting Members.
4. Not all attendees at the Speaker Series events have voting privileges. Some attendees may be invited as special guests or friends of the Toronto Chapter.
5. To become a Voting Member, please fill out a membership form or send an email to Rehana Begg, Speaker Series Coordinator, who will add your name to the CCMW-Toronto Chapter Speaker Series list.

What’s the Cost? The Chapter has covered the costs of the Speaker Series to date, as a way to stimulate interest in the series. Attendees were not expected to contribute financially. Ideally, voting members would be asked to donate a nominal sum towards each forum they attend (covering costs of food, photocopies, speaker’s gift, etc.). The venue would be paid from membership fees and/or fundraising efforts.

We committed to four such Speaker events for 2009, and we hope to continue to fulfill this obligation with our third Speakers event planned for November 2009. Members will also start contributing financially in upcoming events.

The Speakers For our inaugural event on January TK, we invited Nevin Reda, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto, specializing in the Qur'ān. Nevin is an active member of CCMW. The event was an overwhelming success. Nevin is also an active member of CCMW. Her talk on "Women in the Mosque: Historical Perspectives on Segregation" was illuminating and very well received by our members. We were both inspired and impressed with her knowledge and her ability to synthesize complex concepts in an accessible and informative manner.

We were honoured to host Dr. Laury Silvers at our second event, held on June 5. Laury’s scholarship focuses on Islam in the Formative Period in particular Sufism, Sufi Metaphysics, and Gender. Dr. Silvers presented a 20-minute paper, “‘In the Book We have left out nothing’ (Q6:38): The Ethical Problem of the Existence of Verse 4:34 in the Qur'an.” Dr. Silvers gave us an overview of her intentions for the article and outlined her interpretive principles. Dr. Silvers impressed us with her courage and determination to make sense of a very difficult and controversial verse -- one that so many women struggle to come to terms with. Moreover, her candour through telling her personal story was indeed an instructive springboard from which we can all draw strength.

Our heartfelt thanks to Nevin Reda and Dr. Laury Silvers. We look forward to their continued participation in our series.

WE LOOK FORWARD TO

1. Building partnerships and supporting new projects
2. Developing the Speaker Series
3. Growing our members’ list

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Toronto Chapter was a proud participant in the International Women’s Day celebrations held at the Toronto City Hall on March 8 2006.  We were amongst approximately twenty women’s groups to set up display tables (see photo) at the City Hall Rotunda March 6 through March 11 2006.  Our display featured a variety of posters, books, reports, newsletters, booklists and pamphlets.  Our purpose was to introduce ourselves to the public, and to disseminate information about our organization.  This objective was indeed achieved.  More than eighty copies of our pamphlets and handout sheets were distributed.

Annual Report 2003

Our Lila Fahlman Scholarship is in its fifth year now and although we have not done any specific fundraising, our fund continues growing. Presenting the scholarship at an annual event in April, under the umbrella of the CUA (Community Unity Alliance), helps to raise awareness of CCMW as well as, of course, the ability of young Muslim women. This year’s recipient did an amazing amount of work for her community (Bengali) and the entire family attended the event. Along with her cheque she received a computer and by now is pursuing post secondary work at the University of Toronto.

We continue to strive to increase our membership by raising awareness, getting CCMW’s name known and working together with other organizations.

• Interfaith work has been ongoing this year:
• with the Catholic Church (prayer vigil), April 11, Our lady of Lourdes
• with Women’s Interfaith Dialogue
• with the National Christian Liaison Committee ( meets approx.. 4 times a year)
• in May we held our annual dinner with Alia Hogben as our Muslim keynote speaker and Talat Muinuddin accepted a presentation honoring the interfaith work that her husband had done
• plans are also underway for a conference and ongoing work like the United Church document – That We May Know Each Other continues
• one of our members was the Muslim representative who took part in a Service of Dedication and Blessing of Westminster United Church in Whitby, Ontario – previously had participated with this congregation at their old site in an evening interfaith dinner

Presentations continue to happen in a variety of forms such as:

• Part of a panel presenting on Reclaiming Peace -March
• Participant at Counterspin (CBC) re discussion on Canada’s support of the U.S. during the Iraq War.
• With Vision T.V. a discussion among parents and children in a school setting which explored the reaction of young Muslim children about their feelings regarding war and how it affects them living here in Canada
• Presentation on Boxing day to an Islamic school re classroom management with an Islamic composition of students and parents in mind
• Preparing to speak to a group of students at Emmanuel College in a course about Interfaith Dialogue and also to a Women’s Group about Peace

We participated in several events

• Counterspin
• One of our members (Shahira Hafiz)helped organize and prepare the food for the Just Peace Seder, 2003, St. Andrews Presbyterian Church
• Anglican Church Women’s Conference
• The Toronto Children’s Breakfast Club’s Reading Circle ( our chapter also donated several new “inclusive” books and a container to them in order that the Reading Circle’s resources continue to grow

We continue to network with and support other organizations such as APMC (Association of Progressive Muslims of Canada) Canada Day - Service to the Community Awards, TRIP (Toronto Residents in Partnerships) and WIN (Women’s Intercultural Network) and The Afghan Women’s Association.

In partnership with Raheel Raza, our chapter is helping to fund and organize a Milad for the Prophet, (PBUH) on October 12.

Inshallah as the next year unfolds we will continue to strive to follow the guiding principles of CCMW as well as to meet CCMW’s objectives.

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