The role of Imams in CanadIAN communities

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By: Ismael Mukhtar.
The term Imam is becoming increasingly familiar and common within the Western media at large. Over the last couple of years, recurring controversies and some highly publicized events kept the term flashing in media outlets in greater frequency. Included in these recent events are the controversies surrounding Amina Wadud’s leading of a Friday (Jumma) prayer, controversial comments made by an Australian Imam, Sheikh Taj Al-Din Al-Hilali: the ongoing discussions in countries such as Germany and the Netherlands on the roles of Imams, plus the CBC’s airing of  the “Little Mosque on the Prairie” whose main character was an Imam. The term Imam is often, conveniently, explained to non- Muslims as the Muslim equivalent of Rabbi or priest. To Muslims, however, this analogy is some what factually incorrect. According to Dr. Qaradawi, a leading contemporary jurist, Islam, unlike Christianity or Judaism, doesn’t have a religious hierarchy or a clergy structure. People who are educated in Islamic sciences are known as scholars and experts in Islamic law and they don’t have any special religious or spiritual powers.

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