Islamic Community shares its Culture
Diverse cultures around world linked by faith come together over food and drink
A local street festival provided a growing part of the Saskatoon community with a chance to showcase their diversity.
The first Eid Street Festival in Saskatoon, hosted by the Islamic Association of Saskatchewan, took over a large stretch of Copland Crescent in front of the association’s mosque on Saturday afternoon.
All along the sidewalk, booths from different businesses and cultural backgrounds joined together by their Islamic faith gave out food and drink.
“It’s such a feeling of community,” Abdullah Patel from the Islamic Association said.
“The Islamic community in Saskatoon comprises of over 60 countries ... it’s really a melting pot.”
The street festival, according to Patel, was part of the third and final day of Eid celebrations in the Islamic faith. It marks the end of Eid al-adha, also known as the Festival of Sacrifice.
The different booths, representing just a few of the dozens of countries that are part of the Islamic Association’s population, served a variety of cultural foods, from the spicy chickpea salad chana chaat at the Pakistan booth to tea and savoury pastries at the Somalia booth.
And off to one side of the mosque, a group of volunteers worked to prep thousands of spicy kebabs for the day’s festivities.
Zubair Sheikh with the Pakistan booth said the event is “so much fun” for the entire community.
“If someone is not attending this, they are missing something,” Sheikh said with a chuckle. “This shows that we Muslims are very united ... I want to show my participation and my presence in this unity.”
Some of the tents set up along the street contained more than offers of cultural food. At the Syrian booth, artwork was hung along the front and back of a temporarily erected wall.
Some of the pieces of art showed the Canadian wilderness, and others showed scenes from the city of Homs, which was painter Ahmad Touqani’s home before he moved to Canada less than two years ago.
Touqani said he was an art instructor in Syria before the war forced him to move, but he also saidheseescanadaasa“safe”new beginning.
“I like this day,” he said. “More work with other cultures ... (It) grows a new community here in Canada.”
The street festival caps a busy week for the association, but Patel said these kind of events are the best way to make the public understand a little bit about who their Muslim community is.
“We’ve got the neighbours out; we’ve got the community out. It’s a street party,” Patel said.