Canadian Living salutes: Raheel Raza

"Humanity is one community." It's a line from the Qur'an that Raheel Raza holds dear. And it's a belief that drives this Muslim woman's mission, which is to start a conversation among people of all faiths so we can understand and respect the beliefs of others. Raheel's day job is at the Ontario Heritage Foundation in Toronto, but she's also a passionate volunteer who calls herself an "interfaith advocate." To get people talking, she writes for newspapers and magazines, and speaks across Ontario.

Facing tough audiences
Raheel has put herself in front of some tough audiences. But an invitation to speak at St. Paul's Catholic High School in Niagara Falls, Ont., was particularly daunting. The gym was full of Grade 9 kids. "I know what a challenging stage this age is, and they were such a large group," she says.
"I was so nervous I took my older son Saif [then 19] for moral support."

Raheel talked about the main beliefs of Islam and some of its similarities to Christianity, then she told the kids they could ask her absolutely anything. After a long silence, she appealed for questions again. Finally a boy at the back raised his hand: "How many wives does your husband have?" he asked.

Dumbfounded, Raheel felt her son bristling at the boy's ignorance and the challenge in the question. Realizing that if she didn't keep her sense of humour, she was finished, she laughed gently and said: "One, as far as I know. But if I hear of any more I'll get back to you." The kids laughed and the teachers' jaws unclenched. In the Qur'an this rare practice of marrying more than one woman, she explained, had been deemed permissible during times of war as a way of protecting the widows and orphans. Comfortable that they really could ask anything, her audience peppered her with more questions.

Building interfaith relations
As a child in Pakistan, Raheel had little notion of other faiths. Then, when she was a young married woman, she and her husband, Sohail, moved to Dubai and got to know people from all over the globe. But it wasn't until the family immigrated to Toronto in 1989, that she discovered people of different faiths working to share ideas and build understanding. Raheel dived right in.

She fired off a piece to the Toronto Star newspaper, in favour of keeping the Lord's Prayer in the local public schools. The city was embroiled in the debate, so the headline above her column -- Muslim in Favour of the Lord's Prayer -- got attention. Soon TV and radio stations were calling, asking Raheel to talk about her beliefs and her views on why all religious expression should be encouraged.

Now the director of interfaith affairs for the Christian organization, SnowStar Institute of Religion, Raheel searches out people from all faiths who will get out there and talk to others, as she does. This kind of discourse is the only path to true peace among nations, peoples and religions, she believes.

"Everybody has a story to tell and I find those stories fascinating," she says.

Raheel's work has taken on more urgency. Five days after the World Trade Center fell, Raheel stood in St. James-Bond United Church in Toronto facing a "very quiet, very reserved" congregation. Her topic: When we come to Canada as immigrants, should we bring our battles with us? She knew the traumatized parishioners wanted to understand what it meant to be Muslim and, as she spoke, her audience thawed and the questions flowed.