Islam Care Centre
The Islam Care Centre is planning a redevelopment of its Lisgar Street property. The Islam Care Centre, a downtown resource centre and prayer space for Ottawa Muslims, invited input from the community in an open consultation last Saturday as ICC officials plan an ambitious redevelopment of their Lisgar Street property to create space for up to 600 worshippers.
The Oct. 3 consultation was a chance for those who will use the facility to provide their opinions on various design options. Though this largely means the Centretown Muslim community, organizers say members of other social and community organizations also attended.
“We decided to have a charette, the idea being that we want to hear from people specifically what they want,” says Omar Mahfoudhi, executive director of the ICC. “We wanted to formalize things and have it in a proper session… people can provide their input.”
He adds: “One thing I’ve always found very praiseworthy about this organization is it never turns down good ideas.”
The current ICC building, Mahfoudhi says, is plainly inadequate for its inhabitants. The small brick house is flanked by condominiums to the east and planned condominiums to the west. Its white paint is chipping, and its shingled roof is covered in blue tarps. Inside, the various functions and departments of the organization overflow into one another’s physical space.
After speaking with Mahfoudhi in his crowded basement office, this reporter bumped his head on the ceiling.
“Are you ok?” Mahfouhi asked. “See, there’s another reason,” he laughed.
The general framework of the planned new building has already been mapped by an architect: six storeys tall, more meeting and counselling rooms, and a larger prayer area.
Ashraf Hendy, the architect designing the new facility, says that it combines some modern styles with those of classical Islamic architecture.
The consultation was centred around suggestions and questions from the community about how to use the designed space: whether they could build classrooms or a gymnasium, for example, or whether some sort of retirement home or social housing could be established on the upper floors.
One potential change Mahfoudhi wanted to see discussed was whether to limit the barriers between men’s and women’s prayer sections.
Most mosques in Ottawa have a large separation between the places where men and women pray, such as a physical divider or even placing the women on a balcony above the main prayer area. Mahfoudhi says these barriers can make some interactions difficult.
Viewpoints for and against intermingled prayer spaces were heard on Saturday. While a resolution hasn’t yet emerged, Mahfoudhi says it was important to hear about the issue from women’s point of view.
“For this question, really I prefer to hear from the ladies. We could say all we think — ‘Oh, that’s a great idea, I’m sure they’d like that’ — but we’re still doing what they call ‘mansplaining’. We’re assuming what they would like,” Mahfoudhi says.
“It’s best to hear from them to find what they’d appreciate.”
Linda Koosees, a Cree woman who converted to Islam in 2007 and now serves as the ICC’s outreach coordinator, says she prefers a separation between the men and women in prayer.
“It’s more about privacy for us,” she says. “In privacy we can do more what we want to do, in conversation, or sharing, or comforting one another.”
The ICC began its campaign for a new building in earnest in 2011 by hiring consultants, applying to the city, and holding fundraisers.
Mahfoudhi explains that while they have the necessary early permits from the city and approval of Hendy’s design, they are waiting until they can generate more funds to move forward.
The fundraising process is slower than usual for the organization because of a Muslim belief in not taking out “interest-bearing loans” to pay for a place of worship, he says. So far, Mahfoudhi says they have raised approximately $1 million of about $5.1 million in projected total costs.
What started more than two decades ago as a small walk-in centre for resources and information about Islam has evolved into an important community centre for Muslims who work downtown.
As the centre grew in its user base, it also expanded its services to things like family counselling, outreach to the downtown’s homeless population, and sending chaplains to inmates in prisons across the province.