Hundreds gather in Regent Park for halal Thanksgiving meal

Rasa - Offering the poor a chance to celebrate Thanksgiving holiday, a Toronto-based Muslim organization has offered hundreds of halal meals to Regent Park residents as part of its weekly charitable activities.

News ID: 1390

Date: 14 October 2014 - 17:29

RNA - “We serve everyone in the community irrespective of their class, creed, nationality, religion. We’re all family,” the Star quoted Muhammad Iqbal Ali, the son of Muslim Welfare Centre founder as saying.

Hundreds of people came together at the Christian Resource Centre in the early afternoon Sunday for the first free halal luncheon put on by the Muslim Welfare Centre, a charitable organization launched in Toronto more than two decades ago.

Meals of chicken, rice, buns and salad were served to people "from all faiths and all walks of life — Muslims, Christians, Regent Park residents, homeless people, and others".

Welcoming the guests, volunteers talked to diners and joked with them while serving food.

Iqbal Ali’s father, Muhammad Abbas Ali, and his wife, Sarwar Jahan Begum, founded the Muslim Welfare Centre in Toronto over 20 years ago.

At the entrance of the center, the proud son welcomed guests with a smile.

“He used to say that anyone can be of help to the larger community if that person has the will and the persistence to do it," Iqbal Ali said about his father, who was known to friends and family as "Major” Abbas, a reference to his time served in Pakistan’s army.

"He was poor, he was a retired army major, he didn’t own anything.”

Thanksgiving is a celebration observed on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and the second Monday of October in Canada.

The celebration is about giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year.

Though it started as a Christian tradition, the current form of celebration is a culture holiday observed by all people of all faiths.

The celebration is marked by family gatherings, cooking food, being thankful, watching football matches, staying home from work, and all the malls offer discounts on that occasion.

Decades of Charity.

Known for his love to serve other, Iqbal Ali’s father used to make "long charity walks, from Toronto to Ottawa, to London, just to collect funds for charities,” according to Ali.

“From day one, our slogan has been, ‘Service to humanity is service to Allah,’” his son said.

Launching its first halal food bank in 1993, the Muslim Welfare Centre "runs two food banks, one in Mississauga, one in Whitby ,that serve almost 9,000 families in the Greater Toronto Area".

A shelter and emergency motel in Whitby can house about 24 needy women and children besides offering a place for dozens of families to "to go when in need".

The Muslim Welfare has been serving free meals every Sunday for homeless since 14 years in the area that has a Muslim population of 60%.

“We bring out lunch bags here to downtown Toronto. Three or four different spots here in the downtown area and people are already lined up,” Ali said.

"At 12:30 they know that the Muslim Welfare van is going to come.

“Each and every Saturday, whatever the weather, the circumstances. Winter what we do is we bring them warm clothes as well.”

Muslims make around 2.8 percent of Canada's 32.8 million population, and Islam is the number one non-Christian faith in the country.

A recent survey showed that the overwhelming majority of Muslims are proud to be Canadian, and that they are more educated than the general population.

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