Tolerance in 2015. Montreal and the Federal Elections

The last Canadian federal elections (#elxn42) has brought the issue of Canadian multiculturalism to the fore front again. Some parties used negative media to portray a Muslim tiny minority as a threat to the general public. This sign (#Niqab) has been used as a weapon by the Conservative Party of canada (#CPC), and was also used as a mercy pill for #NDP during the elections (#elxn42). The party that was defending the freedoms of all Canadians lost a major electoral share because it preferred to advance the constitutional freedoms above all political agendas. 

Why Tolerance is rare those days?

North American cosmopolitan cities are the melting pot of the world. They attract immigrants from all countries and all cultures. The multiculturalism of this continent comes with struggles for both majority populations as well as visible minorities, especially when not treated with #tolerance and understanding where cultural differences and traditions are concerned. Montreal has been a hot bed for intolerance during the past few years. Although, the city is still one of the best multicultural hubs to live and enjoy life within its folds.

Tolerance is very important in a multicultural society such as ours in Montreal or in North America in general. New immigrants (or older immigrants even the whites who came few centuries earlier) enter this society and have been surprised by the difficulty to integrate in this highly mosaic culture that is so unique and different from any other human culture on earth. This task alone is stressful and leaves immigrants feeling homesick and lost in this foreign panoramic puzzle. I envy the aboriginals for their patience with all those waves of new comers since the 16th century.

What makes it even harder is the negative attitude of some who treat every new comer as an outsider with certain level of disrespect sometimes just because of their cultural differences.

However, the society in general is still tolerant and favor multiculturalism. In that, people do still accept the cultural differences and welcome their integration instead of opposing them. For example, some visible minorities dress differently than the average Montrealer. A tolerant view would help a person to accept these differences and even motivate her/him to learn more about this new other culture. On the other hand, an intolerant view would come from a person who gawked at the differences in clothing, even poking fun or performing an equally humiliating gesture toward the immigrant, new comer, aboriginal person or even another (so called) "de souche". 

By accepting the differences of others, our country thrive and prosper. Canadians punished Harper's game with the Niqab. It truly reflects the entrenched values of Canadians who accept each other and are willing to work together to save the country. The Niqab dillema will not solve an economical crisis. It can hide the impact of bad politics and can advance hatred.

The "so called" land of the free was developed way in the snowy North as an outlet for people to escape when faced with religious or cultural persecution in their native lands. Montrealers, Canadians and North Americans in general, have embraced these differences and built their society on such tolerant values. Without such values, Canada will not be the Canada we know today. Accepting people regardless of their ethnic background is crucial because it is an inalienable right given to each of us as citizens. Each culture gives something to this unique society, which makes it better as it becomes more diverse.

On the other hand, new immigrants and new comers who enjoy the constitutional rights of being free to live the way they like need to do their part as well. The world is moving towards a more conservative point of view in which the terrifying feeling of terrorism is restricting tolerance level. In addition, the harsh economical cycles are pushing people to their nerves. One needs to give, contribute, integrate and support in order to protect the collective well being of the society and to advance the remaining tolerance and acceptance levels within the society.

There is a common cliché that says "variety is the spice of life". We have a spicy city (too spicy in some corners where the Curry did already overcome the smell of Poutine). We are living at the end of the boomers era. All the respect for those who have built this society and brought it to the current level that we enjoy.

We are different but have all the same common goal. Live, enjoy and let others live.

Ramadan 2015 in Canada

The great month is coming quickly. I still remember the first Ramadan I spent in Montreal away of my family in Lebanon. It was so harsh and so tough. Without the company I had during the Concordia MSA 2004 Iftar, it would have been much harder.

http://almadinah-center.org/en/ramadan-2015/

Ten years passed and 11 Ramadan in this country. I still love to get inspired by the pious crowd gathering to break their fast. They come from all four corners of the world to this lovely city called Montreal. They come from all corners of Montreal to the center of the city (where Al-Madinah center is) to share their meals together.

Every day, when I break my bread with someone else, I feel the joy of being able to celebrate the blessings of that day and to know a new Canadian fellow.

Islamic Finance in Canada (or Islamic Mortgages)

A lot of Muslims on the Turtle Island are looking for alternative financing options to acquire their dream houses. A lot of COOP are offering this service in Montreal, Toronto and others. COOP are covering some of the demand and they are doing welll so far. However, the COOP model has its own disadvantages also:

1. High down-payment (25% -30%)
2. Short amortization period (up to 15 years)
3. High rent (7.5% fixed for 15 years). This one looks high but it is about 1.5% above the banks rate in most cases 
4. Low financing capacity. COOP finance small houses up to $250,000 or $300,000 in most cases out of which the tenant will be paying about 30% 
5. Long waiting queue. This is natural because one ouf ot every 5 customers can buy a house at a time. So this means, for every bought house, there are 4 other people waiting in line. Hence, 80% of all COOP members would be waiting in line for the repayment of the 20% who already bought houses. Without external finances, the COOP model can not survive.
6. Rigid regulations and low customer service
7. Low customer satisfaction 
8. Low growth potential. 
9. Low attractiveness for investors. Few people are willing to invest for long term at the rate of 5% under the current scheme. A lot of work is needed on the trust and credibility side. 

However, this option is much better than the TRUST Camouflage model. A lot of companies (or mortgage brokers) are playing on this option to offer a halal service (knowing that it is nothing of halal). Under this scheme, the service provider would clients the following:

1. The client-tenant Establish a trust and grant the broker to be a co-trustee
2. The broker will get a mortgage deal form a bank for the client
3. The client sign the mortgage with the bank (And you say it is Sharia compliant !!!)
4. The client pays rent to the TRUST (himself/herself and the broker)
5. The TRUST will pay this rent as interest to the bank (Awful scenario indeed)
6. The TRUST would charge the trustee to pay a fees (someone paying his own trustee)
7. The TRUST would charge the client for the contract !

One can see directly that this is not really a viable financing opiton and it is not sharia compliant at all. There are serveal companies offering this financial service in Canada: Ijara Canada, Ijara Mortgage Broker, My Ijara Canada ...

In fact, those companies are trying to offer a good service (from their point of view). However, it is not really sharia compliant and it does not offer a good alternative for Islamic mortgage for Canadians. I am afraid that they know the invalidity of this option and still going for it. This would a major mistake towards the Muslim community in Canada as a whole. 

Investissement Halal ou non?

Je n'aime pas participer dans les longues discussions sur la validité des investissent d'un point de vue islamique. Mais de temps en temps, on peut voir des débats qui commencent positivement et virent après (c'etait sur un mailing list pour des musulmans a Montréal).

Pour le sujet d'investissement islamique, il y a certains conditions nécessaires pour pouvoir coincer un terme halal ou haram. Ces conditions sont surtout islamiques avec des autres conditions relies au marche (3orf).

Alors pour Investors Group ou autres, pour etre sur que c'est halal, c'est la responsabilité du fournisseur de donner les preuves. Par exemple, on dit que Tim Hortons a fait 8% du profit dans 2010. N’importe quel person doit être capable de calculer ce profit et s'assurer que Tim Hortons a fait ce profit. Si, Tim Hortons essaye de cacher le vraie profit, chaque investisseur peut calculer ce profit lui même. C'est la beauté de la transparence financière au Amérique du Nord.

Pour les fonds, l'histoire est un peu plus compliqué. Chaque fond mutuel a son rapport financier regulier qui donne tous les détails opérationnels et financières du fond. Par exemple, ce fond Investor Group Real Estate (http://quote.morningstar.ca/quicktakes/fund/f_ca.aspx?t=F0CAN05PAW&region=can&culture=en-CA). Ce page vous donne tous les information qu'un investisseur a besoin pour comprendre ou son argent est investi.

Pour les musulman qui font affaires avec IG, ce fond peut représenter une bonne tranche de leur portfolio avec des autres (pharma, infrastructure globale, énergie ...). Chaque investisseur a le droit de savoir ou est son argent (dans quel fonds et le proportions). Au fin de l'année ou au fin du trimestre, vous avez le droit de recevoir un bilan avec tous ces information, et le profit réalise.

Alors, pour chaque investisseur, c'est votre responsabilité de chercher le halal ou le haram ou c'est la responsabilité de votre consultant financier. S'il y a des problèmes, c'est la responsabilité de l'investisseur seulement parce que de temps en temps on voit des consultant qui font des cache cache.

Très simplement, pour chacun qui demande la preuve, veuillez demander la structure de votre investissement (fonds, pourcentage, et profit total). Vous aves l'option de comparer ces résultats avec les résultats publique des fonds. S'il y a des différences, c'est le travail de votre consultant d'expliquer parce que ces gens vous chargent 2% de votre capital chaque année. Si vous avez les réponses et vous êtes satisfaite, Hamdulilah et bonne chance. Si vous n'avez pas satisfaite, vous avez les régulations Canadiennes pour corriger la situation.

Les meilleurs question qu'on doit demander au consultant:

1. Quelles sont les fonds ou ma capital est investi (dans le cas de IG, c'est toujours un fond mutuel IG)
2. Comment est le profit calculer. C'est le devoir du consultant de lier le profit total au profit partiel de chaque fond.
3. Ou arrive le profit de chaque fond (c'est publique sur Morning star).
4. Qui est en charge de vérifier si l'investissement est toujours accepter islamique-ment et a quel fréquence?
5. Quelles sont les mesures et les garanties que tout le profit de votre capital est paye pour toi (moins les 2%). Quelles sont les mesure de transparence?

Pardon pour un courriel aussi long et j’espère q'Allah nous donne le courage et la patience et la tolérance.

Exemple d'application pratique (Finance Islamique) KingoRoute (Companie aleatoire)

Kingoroute a deux choix pour le levé de fond. D’un cote tous les investisseurs peuvent être des actionnaires. S’il y a des petits investisseurs, ils peuvent acheter des sukuk de murabaha sans être des copropriétaires — avec d'autres actionnaires — de la totalité de cette SPV.

En tous cas, cette opération a besoin de deux entités corporatives pour être halal parce que les ressources doit échanger les mains. En Islam, le transfert de fonds seulement est considéré comme un prêt. Les deux corporations sont :

1. Véhicule à usage spécial (or SPV) : KingFinance
2. La société : Kingoroute

Dans cette proposition, on peut trouver les détails des ces deux opérations.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_kFWLJYXE9_MmRiYWszckRTQTg/view?usp=sharing

This was my first serious community based international relief project but I could not realize it. Now, eight years later, there are many crowdfunding projects (islamic and non islamic). They still suffer the same original issues. However, they are trying to provide a service.  

iAWN (International Assistance and Welfare Network)

iAWN aims to be the first Islamic micro-lending network to empower donors in assisting and financing micro entrepreneurs in developing countries. iAWN would be an online charitable organization dealing mainly with collecting online donations to fund posted projects. It focuses on the following fundamentals:

• Interest free lending 
• Accessibility 
• Security 
• Privacy 
• Fairness 
• Creating value for both the donor and the entrepreneur 

iAWN offers a free, simple, and accessible web portal to link micro-entrepreneurs in sub-developed or developing countries with donors and investors in developed countries for the sake of raising funds for new or proven initiatives in the education, health, youth, woman, and other social sectors. At one end, the iAWN portal would allow people to donate online securely and with full privacy and contribute directly to any posted project. At the other end, project managers with the help of a local field partner would post a project that needs funding.

To read more:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_kFWLJYXE9_Y3c1M3FaUDRnMjA/view?usp=sharing

Montreal Community Entrepreneurship Awareness Group

 

Title: Community Entrepreneurship Awareness Group

Estimated Duration: The project is a long term project that will be established as a community non-profit organization and will be sustained by the community for the community. The actual establishment of this project is expected to take two months for the preparation of the full proposal and to prepare initial advertisement material and presentations before launching the project.

Objectives:  The objective of this project is to promote entrepreneurship in Quebec and to link people with entrepreneurial ideas to the proper resources including funding, mentorship, consulting etc… Even though the mentorship and consulting services will be open for all interested individuals the target audience that will be addressed by our advertisement and promotion will be the Muslim community in Montreal and most importantly Muslim women and mothers.

Introduction:

Entrepreneurship is a vital component in the Canadian and Quebec economy. The importance of small to medium size businesses has been supported by a paper published by Human Resources and Social Development Canada. According to the said government agency small and medium size businesses constitute 43% of the Canadian GDP and they have contributed the most to creating employment opportunities over the past few years; while large companies of over 499 employees shed 184,000 jobs, the small firms of under 100 employees created 661,000 employment opportunities. Many of the employment opportunities created were also self employment.

Furthermore, it has been proven that self employed individuals and employees of small firms enjoy a higher level of job satisfaction than employees of large firms or employees of the public sector.

Due to the reasons mentioned above and others it is important to promote and support entrepreneurship in our Quebec community. Currently there are many organizations in Montreal that work to fulfill that objective through providing support to ambitious individuals with business ideas and other work. However, these organizations do not get much visibility among the Muslim and immigrant community in Montreal. Many of the university and college students are not aware of what organizations are out there to support them to make their business ideas come true.

Therefore the purpose of this project is mainly to reach out to prospective entrepreneurs and business people and show them what resources are available to them.  CEAG would also provide them with basic advisory on how to prepare a business plan, how to pitch your idea, where to go for help etc…

Even though the services of CEAG will be open to all interested individuals the focus in terms of outreach and promotion will be Muslim youth and Muslim women. Our hope is to empower them to voice their ideas and work to make them a reality; a reality that can help them grow financially and professionally while helping stir the Quebec economy and increase the healthy competition the Quebec market.

The advantage our group has in terms of reaching out to Muslim youth and Muslim women is that both Abdullah and Bilal are well connected with various Muslim groups in Montreal, especially the Muslim Student Associations of various universities. As such we would be able to identify the various events at which we can present or do tabling. We can also organize our own presentations and reach out to organizations within our network to help us reach out to housewives and young youth that are still exploring their career opportunities.

We are hoping by these efforts to help stir the economy in Montreal and improve the economic position of the Muslim community and help the Muslim women gain their economic independence.

Project Leadership (We can polish up this section later)

1-      Bilal Abd el-Qader: a successful entrepreneur who has initiated many projects and businesses. He also has an MBA from Concordia University and is currently a PhD candidate at Concordia in Finance.

2-      Abdullah Husen: An active student of accountancy at Concordia University who has occupied many executive positions in student organizations including R4 Concordia, the Muslim Student Association, and Rotaract Concordia.

Collaborating institutions (potential collaborators)

Entrepreneurship club Concordia, MSA, Human Resources Canada, Investissement Quebec, YES.

Methodology

The work of CEAG can be broken down into two components:

a)   Promotional activity

This includes activities to encourage young people and Muslim women to become entrepreneurs or at least consider it as a future career. This will be done mainly through motivational speeches and presentations that will demonstrate to the audience the advantages of self-employment and also prove that it is not an impossible or difficult path, but rather it is doable as long as one seeks the proper support and mentorship.

These presentations will be given at various events that the Muslim community holds. The presentations would also be presented at various CEGEPs and highschools in Montreal to show the young people what opportunities are present for them in entrepreneurship.

b)   Advisory activity

This includes i) connecting the prospective entrepreneurs with various organizations and funding facilities and ii) help them develop a business plan and help them learn how to pitch an idea successfully.

Conclusion

We believe that by reaching out to the young people in Quebec and to Muslim women we would be able to attract some of the most brilliant minds to develop and run successful business ideas that would help the economy at large and the local community through giving these individuals job satisfaction and economic independence.

Ramadan 2008 in Montreal

The MCM moonsighting committee is pleased to announce that the first of Ramadan, 1429, is Monday, September 1st, 2008, according to the agreed upon Moonsighting Criteria, and abased on credible moonsightings in many places around the world.

The Muslim Council of Montreal would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a blessed Ramadan and may Allah grant you the success in this world and the hereafter. Fasting is an act of obedience and submission to Allah the Almighty. In addition, fasting promotes the spirit of unity and belonging within the Muslim Ummah, the spirit of human equality, the spirit of charity and sympathy, and it calls for Islamic Sociability.

Muslims in Montreal are urged to invite others, muslims and non muslims, to break the fast with them at sunset and to gather for Qur'anic study, prayer and visits. This provides a better chance for socialization in a brotherly and spiritual atmosphere. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) indicated on more than one occasion that inviting a fasting person to break his fast (after sunset) is an act which is highly rewarded by Allah the Almighty.

Please do not forget our brothers and sisters in unfortunate areas around the world. They are suffering in Palestine, Iraq, etc.. and they might not find the joy of fasting as we do. May you please ask Allah the Almighty to alleviate their distress and shower them with his blessings.

Muslim Council of Montreal