Nader Abdelmajed, Operations Manager at London Mosque, “In Islam we have an inherent principle that your value as a human being is determined by how much you do for others”

Following the 1989 Sudanese military coup Nader Abdelmajed, a highly qualified engineer with a bright future, no longer felt safe in his beloved country and he fled to New York as a refugee. However, his stay there lasted less than a day, as the unsettling sounds of gun shots and police sirens made him anxious and scared. Encouraged by fellow refugees who had made their way to Toronto, he boarded a bus and headed for the Canadian border. It was 1990, and for the first time in nearly two years Nader felt a deep sense of being home and safe. As he walked across the Niagara border into Canada, he passed the famous Niagara waterfall. “It was so uplifting,” says Nader, “I could hardly believe that I was seeing something I only read about in school.” 

“It’s so much easier if you have family and friends when you first arrive in Canada,” says Nader, “my friends helped me ease into my new life. I started on the right foot and the rest is history.”  He moved to London within the year and found valuable support from the London United Way Orientation Program for New Immigrants. Through the program he did a work placement at a police station, brushed up on his education and learned to navigate in Canada. He has found overall that people are generous, welcoming, and accepting of diversity.

Nader says of being a Muslim person of colour in London, “There have been very few ignorant experiences and thankfully none of those define my experience in making Canada home.”  He says it is heartwarming to see so many young Muslim role models carving out careers in television, sports, and entertainment. “In Canada, our kids can have different aspirations. My father told me I was going to be an engineer and I became an engineer!”  It has been challenging he says, to raise his kids in the same way that he was raised in Sudan. In the end, you educate your children, and they decide for themselves. In fact, this is a key principle in Islam. You teach and trust that your kids do what they think is right.

Nader spent his early childhood years in Saudi Arabia, and he recalls the example his father set for him when they returned to Sudan in 1971. It was a new experience settling down into a new place, but his father showed them how to adjust. His family had the only TV in the village, and the neighbours came to their garden to watch special programs. “What you have you share with others” he says, “and when you come to a new place and you decide it is going to be home, you must be patient and go through the phases to settle in with an open mind. If you don’t make the effort to fit in it will be hard.”  Being aware of the dominant cultural differences and knowing that there is room for different ethnicities, cultures and religions is vital. Nader notes that the fabric of the London community is changing, it is much more diverse now than when Nader came here 30 years ago.

As a Muslim, Nader respects the freedom of others, and in return he too enjoys the same freedom. He says, “this is a privilege that we have today in Canada, and I want it to be the norm for future generations. I would love for the freedom we have now to continue, to practice faith without fear or persecution.” 

Nader works at the London Muslim Mosque as an Operations Manager, where he is involved with programs that collaborate with mainstream organizations such as churches, universities and the public system, providing help where it is needed. “These community support programs are constantly adapting to peoples’ needs. We help whoever knocks at our door – not just Muslims,” he says.

Nader believes in living the principles that Islam teaches. “In Islam we have an inherent principle that your value as a human being is determined by how much you do for others. From that perspective the job I hold at the mosque has enabled me to help my own community, while also to helping others outside my community.” 
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Nader believes that his greatest contribution to the London community is changing the perception of Islam by being a living example of the qualities embodied by The Prophet Mohammed, which are consistently to be loving, generous and kind.
 

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