How – and where – Yellowknife is celebrating Ramadan this year

Yellowknife’s Islamic community has been organizing special prayers at the city’s multiplex each weekend throughout the month of March.

This year, Ramadan began on February 28 and concludes with Eid al-Fitr on March 29. The holy month is observed as a time for fasting, prayer and reflection among practising Muslims around the world.

Shaykh Habib Hasan, an Imam at Yellowknife’s mosque, said that after the previous Old Town mosque was torn down in 2019, residents had no place to worship.

After the pandemic, a unit located at the Monkey Tree plaza became a temporary musalla – or prayer room – for the community.

“We are renting this place until the main mosque is ready and then we’ll move down there,” Hasan told Cabin Radio.

“That’s why we started praying here. This is like a mosque. We are performing all five prayers here, Friday prayers here. We have the teachings for young kids. All of that happens here.”

When larger gatherings are expected, the multiplex gym is called into service. More recently, evening prayers have been held at the gym, too.

According to Hasan, a lack of funding has led to a further delay in the completion of the city’s new Islamic Centre, as the CBC first reported. The mosque had initially been expected to open this month.

The Islamic Society of North America or ISNA Canada, which is responsible for managing the project, was offered federal funding for it in 2022. Hasan said ISNA still requires close to $1.5 million to wrap up construction, for which the community has been raising funds.

“We have done a couple of fundraisers. One was done last year and the other [this year] but we have not been so successful to get enough funds to finish the project,” Hasan said.

“It’s a centre which is going to bring us together. For every community, you have to have a centre for prayers, education and bringing people together. All the things will be in the centre … We’ll have a bigger place to pray and we can bring people together by creating different activities.

“We’ll have many programs for education, we’ll have space for education. In Islam, women and men, they don’t mix. We’ll have separate education for women, we’ll have separate education for men. We’ll have family activities, youth activities, so it’s very important to have the centre.”

Another fundraiser planned for March 26 was postponed until after Ramadan. Hasan said they’re looking for raise at least $600,000 for the mosque.

Said Salhi, who moved to Yellowknife from Saudi Arabia in 2019, said he is excited for the new mosque to open.

“Ramadan is a very important month in our religion because [for the whole year] we’re just waiting for this month. We celebrate it with family and friends. We share the food,” Salhi said.

Salhi has noticed more and more Muslims move to Yellowknife in recent years and believes having a mosque in place will unify the community.

He said the centre will be welcoming of non-Muslims too, who may wish to learn more about Islam and its teachings.

Salhi has been visiting the temporary musalla regularly since it first opened.

“Our Muslim prayers here are five times every day. From mornings to afternoons, evenings and at night – most times I am here,” he said.

“We are actually lucky because we got this small place. Everybody comes here to pray. It’s better if you don’t have another place to pray outside.”

Aisha Mahamed said she and her friends have been taking classes to learn more about the religion. Mahamed said she had been waiting for months to celebrate Ramadan.

“We take food and give it to some people who don’t have food. Our families can bring it here in the masjid and people can come and eat it. If you don’t have any food, we can bring you here and you can eat with us,” she said.

“If you don’t have any home, you can come and sleep here and eat until you’ve found a home.”