Twenty-five years ago, Manitoba Muslim families had few places to turn for help with family and mental health issues.
In response, Winnipegger Shahina Siddiqui created the Islamic Social Services Association, with herself as executive director and sole staffer. Her goal was to provide social services, mental health support and counseling for local Muslims in a culturally appropriate and spiritually sensitive manner.
From that one-person organization, the ISSA has grown to five staff and many volunteers serving Muslims locally and across Canada through workshops and training that help teachers, health-care professionals, lawyers, police, social workers and others respond sensitively to the needs of Muslims in their communities.
Shahina Siddiqui
Along the way, ISSA created and spun off two other organizations: the Canadian Muslim Women’s Institute assists refugee and newcomer women and their families, while the Institute for Muslim Mental Health-Canada develops and enhances mental health programs for Muslim clients.
To mark its 25th anniversary, ISSA is holding a gala dinner Thursday night at the Hilton Suites Airport Hotel. Titled “Building bridges, breaking barriers and facilitating access,” the event will honour volunteers and others, including with Haroon Siddiqui, a former Toronto Star columnist and editor.
As Shahina Siddiqui, 70, looks back with satisfaction on 25 years of serving the Manitoba and Canadian Muslim communities, she is also preparing to transition leadership of the organization to a younger generation.
“It’s time for me to mentor younger people to take over,” she said, noting she’s just not up for putting in 12-hour days like she used to. “When I was younger, I could do that. But now my capacity just isn’t the same.”
Her plans after leaving as executive director in two years include writing and training others. “That is my passion,” she said, adding she especially enjoys “training others to be trainers.”
One area she will continue to concentrate on is Islamophobia, which is rising in Canada. “We need to train people how to address it,” she said. “Islamophobia has many layers and it is affecting the whole Muslim community.”
Of her time with ISSA, she said, “I am very grateful to Allah, he gave me an opportunity to do this.”
William Barr was a student at Booth University College 12 years ago when he interned at ISSA. That internship turned into a 10-year job before he left to work with the provincial government. Currently, he is on ISSA’s advisory board.
Barr, who is not Muslim, found ISSA “to be a great working environment and the Muslim community to be very welcoming,” he said. “It was an honour for me to be trusted by them as the only non-Muslim on staff at ISSA.”
The ISSA plays an important role in assisting Muslim newcomers from conflict zones as they adjust to life in this country, Barr said.
“Some come with horrible images and experiences in their memories,” he said of those from places like Afghanistan and Syria, along with Uyghurs from China and the Rohingya from Bangladesh. “ISSA exists to respond to the traumas that affect their mental health.”
ISSA was also a way he could give back. “It gave me so many opportunities to do things for others. I owe a great debt to ISSA and to Shahina,” Barr said.
Terumi Kuwada said she’s amazed by how ISSA has upheld peace, justice and equal rights for all “in spite of the hate, violence and discrimination directed at the Muslim community.”
Kuwada, past president of the National Association of Japanese Canadians and a member of the ISSA advisory board, said Siddiqui always responds “from the heart that is full of love and hope for her community and for all that live in society.” She added in this polarizing world, Siddiqui “speaks about humanity and democracy as being the instruments that will bind us together in a kinder, gentler way.”
For Shawn Feely, vice president of the Canadian Red Cross in Manitoba and Nunavut, ISSA understands the needs of communities. The organization has provided training for the Red Cross, said Feely, who has been on the ISSA advisory board for five years. It has been particularly helpful in assisting groups like his to understand and serve war-affected newcomer youth.
Feely said Siddiqui is someone “who always seeks to understand others, shows respect and promotes peace. She is a guiding light for many.”
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John Longhurst
Faith reporter
John Longhurst has been writing for Winnipeg’s faith pages since 2003. He also writes for Religion News Service in the U.S., and blogs about the media, marketing and communications at Making the News.
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