Sultan Somjee, Ethnographer and author of Bead Bai, shares an insightful summary of his visit to Khoja Ithna’shari Community Centre of Toronto.
Visit to the Jafferi Centre in Summer of 2014
At 9000 Bathrust Avenue in Toronto’s plush suburb is the Jafferi Centre. It’s markedly different Islamic architecture stands out from the surrounding neighbourhood. As we turned into the Centre’s grounds, not far away at the end of the road, I saw yet another religious architectural style, a Jewish Centre. Here, I thought, is a fine example of Canadian pluralism.
The Jafferi Centre speaks of the presence of the Khoja Ithna Asheri jamat in Canada.
There are between 13,000 to 15,000 Khoja Ithna Asheris in Canada and around 5,000 live in Anuali Bhai Moledina, the Communications Co-ordinator, one of the 300 volunteers at the Centre from the office bearers to cleaning and maintenance staff, met us at As Sadiq Gate with warm words of welcome. I was visiting with my brother-in-law. There are several gates to enter this beautiful building, each gate named after the progeny of Fatima az Zahra. The gates open into wide corridors and spacious rooms for social functions, reading and studying, physical exercises and contemplation. At the entrances of rooms are names of the donors who have contributed to the building, clearly a statement on what the joint effort of the jamat has achieved. At the same time the names proclaim efforts of a civil society for the posterity to remember, honour and emulate. I could not wait for the tour to start. As a Khoja Ismaili, I was curious to see for myself how my cousin community, the Khoja Ithna Asheris, work as a jamat and present themselves today. That’s more than a century of separation from the main Satpanth Khoja body that has evolved as the Shia Imami branch of the Nizari Ismailis who follow the Aga Khan as their imam. I was standing there on ‘their’ ground.
Click here to read: Visit to the Jafferi Centre Summer 2014
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