Toronto conference to educate youth against Islamophobia

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Thursday 24 Dec 2015 - 12:22 Makkah mean time-13-3-1437 Toronto, (IINA) - Toronto will host this week a major Islamic convention, which aims at making aware of young Muslims against Islamophobia and ‘throw a counterpunch’ against those who advocate for extremism, The Star reported. Around 20,000 people are expected to attend the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The event runs from December 25 to 27, and will feature speakers that include scholars, imams, and authors. “They have genuine leaders who are informed, who understand the modern world, who understand Islam and try to educate the youth about . . . what Islam stands for”, said lawyer Faisal Kutty, who teaches at Osgoode Hall and Valparaiso University. “It’s an extremely important event”. Kutty predicted the event would draw criticism, noting the unfair assumption that “Muslims have to answer for the actions of the extremists”. The theme of the 2015 event is “Alliance of Virtue”. Organizer of the event Summayah Poonah​ ​said that the theme speaks to a need to “[form] cross-cultural alliances in order to aid and facilitate social justice”. “We need to be able to diversify our portfolio as a community and contribute in a significant way to other social platforms, like the issue of race or income inequality”, said Poonah. Poonah said that she is looking forward to hearing Linda Sarsour, the executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. The New York Times credited Sarsour with “[helping] to partly dismantle the New York Police Department’s program of spying on the city’s Muslims”. The event also features a “grand bazaar,” and the convention’s website promotes a popular “matrimonial program”, which provides attendees a chance to meet possible future spouses. An interfaith dialogue is also planned for Saturday, and the speakers include a cardinal, imam and pastor. AG/IINA