I am worried

[khan pathan]

I came to canada as an immigrant and my two children are born here.My problem is that my husband has moved to Alberta and working at a place where there is no muslim family.I want to raise mt kids as good muslims and I want to stay in touch with muslims . I am so worried how I would live there.Please give me some advice.:tti_sister:

 

[blahman]

salam,
are there any masajid in the area? often times a masjid is the linking point to the muslim families you want to befriend.

try to find out, i dont know of any websites that let you search for mosques but i am sure there is something around.

 

[dawahforever]

Asalaamu Alaikum

There is a sister and a brother on this site who live in Alberta..maybe they can help you. I wonder which city your husband is in. I know that Edmonton, Calgary and Fort McMurray all have mosques and lots of muslims.

Wa Salaamu Alaikum
D4E..your sister in Ontario.

 

[Ahmed ibn Ibrahim]

Asalaamu alaikum, sister,

My wife and I live just outside of Edmonton, Alberta, and there are indeed many thousands of Muslims here - many living within close proximity to Al-Rashid Masjid (which happens to be the very first mosque that was established in north america). Alhamdulilah we have a very good brother for our Sheihk, as well as his assistants. Anyhow, many people move to Alberta to take advantage of our geographical security, booming economy, political stability, as well as the (for the most part) tolerant and open society. The University of Alberta is a good example of some of the fine educational institutions available, being at the fore-front of cancer research breakthroughs.

There are thousands of families here whose fathers and husbands (as well as mothers and wives for that matter) work up North in the oil industry and other related fields. Often, the family will be based out of Edmonton and the workers will be flied up and back down every few weeks; Three weeks on the job, one week off for example. Or they drive the ~5ish hours. Many people chose not to base their families out of Fort McMurrary (the main oil & gas hub) and other "work towns" because the social conditions up there are much less pleasant on the whole.

Calgary is conciderably further South from the source of our boom, much closer to America, and workers from there have a less convienient route to travel - that said, the majority of the corporate-type jobs are based in Calgary, and it is an extremely beautiful city. I was actually born in Calgary, but that's besides the point. ;-)

I would recommend Edmonton and surrounding cities as a fine place to live to nearly everyone. The only real down-side that I've ever come across about this town is that tactically we're a prime target in respect to "enemy attacks" (whoever that may be) for several reasons: We have "West Edmonton Mall" here which is one of the largest malls in the entire world (and therefore an epitomy of Western consumerism/capitalism), the political headquarters and parliament is based in Edmonton (Alberta's capital), the "1st Patricia's Regiment" (who are primarily responsible for the last 5 years of Canadian "contributions" to Afghanistan) as well as the military General in charge of the mission as well as a nuclear silo are all connected to the military base outside of Edmonton, the oil & gas refineries are almost all inside of Edmonton, many of the corporate offices are in Edmonton and for a bunch of other, more minor reasons. InshaAllah nothing bad will happen here, though.

I hope that insight helps. Take care.

WaSalaam,
Br. Ahmed

 

[Ahmed ibn Ibrahim]

I came to canada as an immigrant and my two children are born here.My problem is that my husband has moved to Alberta and working at a place where there is no muslim family.I want to raise mt kids as good muslims and I want to stay in touch with muslims . I am so worried how I would live there.Please give me some advice.:tti_sister:

:salam2:

I was thinking after I posted the above response that I forgot to meantion that another great reason to live in Alberta is the wildlife: We have two, giant national parks along our Western border, along the start of the Rocky Mountain ranges (Jasper park, and Banff). MashaAllah, Jasper is less tourist-packed and such a beautiful place to visit. Alhamdulilah, my wife and I have been able to make it an anual tradition to visit the mountains and spend time in the revitalizing wilderness. Edmonton is a great place to live, but every once in a while it can be really rewarding to leave this concrete jungle and go back to nature. InshaAllah I'll attach a couple pictures that we took from our trips to give you a better idea of what Jasper is all about.

One last thing about Alberta is our population; Even though the economy is booming, we still don't have enough people to fill in all of the opportunities. Edmonton is just over 1million people now, and Calgary has pretty much the same numbers. Across the whole of Alberta we bearly have 3million, and if you consider that Alberta is roughly the same size as the entire UK (holding over 60million now) you can see how much room for opportunity we really have. On the other hand, Provinces like Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia are far worse off economically and yet they have populations into the 10s of millions.

 

[Ahmed ibn Ibrahim]

:salam2:

If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask and I will do what I can to make sure that either I or my wife gets a good answer for you. Take care.

WaSalaam,
Br. Ahmed

 

[khan pathan]

Worried sister

Assalam O alikum
I am moving to a place called wainwright .Its a small city two hours drive from Edminton . I have been told there are no mosques there and only three other muslims and they are not living with their families .I hope I find a muslim family there or atleast some muslim organisation.
33

 

[Ahmed ibn Ibrahim]

WaAlaikum Salaam,

Yeah Wainwright is not an ideal location for Muslims; It's what is often called a "hick town", referring to a conservative and rather ignorant mentality prevalent in some towns. If your husband is unable to relocate or find a job in Edmonton or Calgary, you may have to be patient for a while until he finds work elsewhere. There are plenty of jobs out there, so there's no good reason that he'd absolutely have to stay in Wainwright. You'll find all of the amenities and nessesary services there, but I wouldn't think that you'll find much benefit to you or your family's Islam there. Your family will be in my prayers, inshaAllah.

WaSalaam
Br. Ahmed

 

[khan pathan]

Worried sister

Assalam O Alaikum
My husband works forFederal govt and I dont think he will accept any job unless its govt ,the only option is transfer and he is trying , I dont know how long it will take. so he has to stay there for a while, he left his job in ottawa ,jobs are hard to find these days.

 

[khangul]

:salam2:

i was there in Edmonton for a year and its a great place but sadly i had the same problem.I came to toronto in 2002 and i have so many good friends so when i went to edmonton , i missed all my friends and i came back to toronto.In edmonton there are so many somali and labanese families and very nice people too, tell your hubby to live in edm.

 

[esperanza]

It is quite hard for a Muslim to live in a area with no Masjids and Muslims etc..

here in the north west of England, i live in a town, mostly all churches and alot of non practicing christians and barely any Muslims, 1 mosque but its locked exept for prayers .

id love to get out of this area as soon as i can.

thas really hard to live somewhere like that,,,guess ishould be so thankful to live inslamic country with mosque on every corner and hearing call to prayer from three places at once hamdilla