LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

LTR IX (Academic Year 1996-97) 42-49
MUSLIMS IN CANADA
Gerhard A. Wilch
Until a decade or two ago, few people in the West had any contact with
Muslims and most had little knowledge of Islam, the religion of Muslims.
That has changed. Islam is now the second-largest major religion in Canada
and Islamic awareness is disseminated at universities and through the media.
A visible expression of the inroads Islam has made is the construction of
many new mosques, Muslim centres of worship, in many Canadian cities.
Today most Christians living in urban areas have had at least some contact
with Muslims, simply because of their large numbers.
The growth is primarily due to Muslims who come as immigrants in
response to Canada’s need for young, skilled workers, and secondarily a
result of conversions to Islam and high birth rates among many Muslims.
The 1981 Canadian census reported 98 000 Muslims. 1 Ten years later the
figure stood at 253 000. 2 Today Muslims are estimated to number about half
a million, 3 which means that they have surpassed the Jews as Canada’s
second-largest religion. It will be interesting to see the figures of the next
census in 2001 when Muslims might be expected to have reached the
700 000 mark, which is the number of Canadians who claim to be Lutheran. 4
Muslims have had a presence in Canada for more than a century. The
first significant number of Muslims were of Lebanese and Syrian origin,
arriving at the end of the 19 th century. Initially they settled in the Edmonton
area. In 1938 they built their first mosque there. In 1956 a mosque was built
in Toronto, in 1963 mosques were erected in Vancouver and Calgary, and
two more followed in London (1968) and Winnipeg (1976). 5 Since then the
construction of Islamic centres of worship has mushroomed to over 100 in
Canada. 6 A vast diversity of Muslims have come to live in Canada,
representing many nations, languages, cultures, and religious traditions of
the Muslim world.
1 Statistics Canada, “Religions in Canada”, in 1981 Census of Canada (Ottawa:
Industry, Science and Technology Canada, 1983).
2 Statistics Canada, “Religions in Canada”, in 1991 Census of Canada, Catalogue Number
93-319 (Ottawa: Industry, Science and Technology Canada, 1993) Table 1, pp. 8 ff.
3 Personal communication with the director of the Muslim World League, 191 The
West Mall, Toronto, Ontario. Hereafter cited as Personal Comm. Muslim.
4 Personal comm. Muslim.
5 Daood Hassan Hamdani, “Muslims and Christian Life in Canada”, in Islam in North
America: A Sourcebook, ed. M. A. Koszegi and J.G. Melton (New York: Garland Publishers,
1992) 254.
6 Personal comm. Muslim.