Muslim association in Canada needs a full-time imam

Muslim association in Canada needs a full imam

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID,MONCTON – Moncton Muslim Association Canada looking for someone for the first time I have full time to be employed. This followed the growth of the local Muslim community, so it needed a dedicated religious leader to lead daily prayers, get married, and provide religious advice on various issues.

Moncton has over 2,000 people who identify as Muslims. Members of the association say they are proud to be inclusive. Founded in 2000, the association opened its first independent mosque in 2007.

So far, the association’s volunteers have played the role, but Abdal Khan, the association’s president, said a dedicated imam is needed. “The community has grown a lot and we need someone of good quality who can spend more time because a volunteer can only give a certain amount of time,” said Khan. Radio-Canada, Tuesday (7/9).

Over the past decade, the association has not had a permanent or full-time priest. One of the biggest hurdles is that Moncton is a small city, so not many people want to move to a smaller city.

“Most of the candidates we are looking for are most likely graduates of Islamic schools in the big cities, whether in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver, these are big centers where I think there are big Islamic schools. where people graduate with an appropriate title to become an imam, ”Khan said.

There are various qualifications that associations look for in an imam, including being a hafiz (memorizing the Quran). Among these is the ability to tell non-Muslims about Islam and the ability to communicate with everyone.

It takes an average of three to six months to find a priest. But the association received far fewer applications than expected, at around 40 applications. Another problem is the fact that many of these applicants are not in Canada.

“I think we got three (applications) from Canada and the problem we had was that we weren’t able to hire someone from outside of Canada because you needed a sponsor to bring them in. . People were looking for a priest for a long time and that’s what happened. ” the need is great here, ”Khan said.