From the Archives: Representing Muslims

How have Muslims in Canada used print to foster connectivity and claim authorship of their narratives? This week, MiCA highlights newspapers & newsletters a part of our archival collection. Sifting through the Muslims in Canada Archives, you will come across newsletters and magazines published by masjids and Muslim organizations across the country. Interweaving everything from world politics to poetry, the publications are a glimpse into the stories and activities of Muslim communities — in their own words. More than just news, these publications follow a long tradition of ‘diaspora newspapers’ using print as a tool to build community.

While some had limited resources, others like the MacMinaret (published by McMaster University’s Muslims Students’ Association) were circulating 5000 copies on campus and across Southern Ontario throughout the 1980s. Similarly, The Message circulated 20,000 copies across North America in the mid-1990s and its Canadian edition was distributed in Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver as well as remote communities where Muslims were living. This far reach points to the value of print as a medium to foster storytelling, exchange and connectivity among Muslims.

Through snippets of MiCA’s archive, we invite you to consider how these printed materials organically carved space for multi-layered Muslim experiences to be mapped, documented, and remembered. Against the backdrop of ‘the War on Terror’ and the colonial public policy that preceded it, we also encourage you to explore the tools Muslim communities used to counter racist media coverage and re-write representation.

****Blurring the local and global
In popular publications like Islam Canada (a publication by the Council of Muslim Communities of Canada) and The Muslim Tribune, each edition included a section dedicated to world news. For many, this was an opportunity to engage with politics of the ‘homeland’. More broadly, these sections offered Muslims in Canada the opportunity to strengthen their connections to the Ummah; the worldwide community of Muslims. Highlighting the stories and struggles of Muslims across the globe, the world news section covered conflict, oppression, and calls for justice.Re-writing Muslim representation
In stark contrast to the self-published Muslim newsletters and magazines, MiCA’s collection of clippings from mainstream newspapers put into clear focus the ways that ‘threat’, ‘terror’, surveillance, and policing marked the public narratives and experiences of Muslims in Canada. Collected by Muslim people, the newspaper clippings of racist caricatures and warmongering editorials also reflect how Muslim individuals were attuned to their (mis)representation in mainstream media.

In August 1985, the Canadian Society of Muslims published Eclipse of the Sun: Bigotry Obscures Objectivity, a bulletin tracing the Toronto Sun’s patterns of prejudice against Muslims. The publication directly responded to five Toronto Sun articles that were illustrative of general trends of hate literature. For the Canadian Society of Muslims, this publication was a means of addressing the media’s “concerted efforts to stir up public sentiments against Muslims and Islam” including calls for Muslim immigrants to be barred from entering Canada. Other excerpts from the archive highlight the focus of Muslim publications placed on keeping the community safe in the face of anti-Muslim hate crimes and heightened racial profiling by policing organizations like CSIS and the RCMP.Beyond print
While print was an important medium, ads and articles in the archive suggest Muslims in Canada were also tapping into TV and radio to connect with one another. The use of multiple channels and platforms points to all the creative ways Muslims shared updates, took authorship of their own narratives, and nurtured community.Images courtesy of Naseer (Irfan) Syed fonds.