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Copyright © 2002 by Raheel Raza. Web design  balikhanca@yahoo.ca
Revised: 05 Jun 2007 08:10:31 -0400 

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Unique service honours our troops

By Rob Faulkner
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jan 2, 2007)

The sacrifice of Canadian soldiers mixed with an Islamic festival of sacrifice this past weekend in what's likely Canada's first Muslim remembrance service for this country's troops killed in Afghanistan.

About 50 people, Muslim and Christian, secular and not, were "Muslim for a day" at a service held Sunday morning in the liberal Eternal Spring United Church on Rymal Road East.

Keynote speaker retired Major- General Lewis MacKenzie said ignorance has eased since he served in Gaza with the United Nations force in 1963.

Back then, he says, ignorant soldiers laughed about Muslims praying for Allah to fix a flat tire, when they were actually observing the tenets of their faith at the roadside.

"That's opposed to what we see here," said MacKenzie, who drove from Ottawa for the event.

While he thinks Canada is doing the right thing in Afghanistan, the Muslim Canadian Congress has urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to bring his troops home in light of casualties.

A total of 44 Canadian soldiers and a Canadian diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002. Among them, former track star Private Mark Graham, 33, of Hamilton, killed in so-called friendly fire.

Raheel Raza, interfaith affairs director of the Muslim Canadian Congress, organized the non-political service.

It was held amid the Muslim celebration of Eid ul-Adha so the theme of Abraham's sacrifice could be tied to the sacrifice of fallen soldiers, she said.

"This is being done on a humanitarian perspective, a spiritual perspective," Raza said. "The soldiers who have died are our sons and daughters, and we are Canadian and we feel that solidarity."

Raza said this type of service has not been held by a Muslim group in Canada before because mosques prefer to avoid the politics involved.

The multi-faith talk fits in with Rev. David Galston's approach at Eternal Spring. Galston focuses on compassion in all world religions, and says being "Muslim for a day" was a perfect fit for his open-minded, 120-member church. "We are not so concerned about being right or wrong, we are concerned about sharing life," he said.

Church member Ken Watson said "What really attracted me here is it's expected that you will question. If you want to belong to this community, bring an inquiring mind. I find that so refreshing."

Also at the service was a friend of the Raza family, Private David Hannan, 21, who served with the Canadian infantry for six months this year in Afghanistan.

"I think it's really important to show that Muslims have that other side, that they also care about Canadian soldiers, as well as other coalition nations," said Hannan, serving with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in Edmonton.

rfaulkner@thespec.com

Copyright © 2002 by Raheel Raza. Web design  balikhanca@yahoo.ca
Revised: 05 Jun 2007 08:10:31 -0400 

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