REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, OTTAWA – A former church in south Ottawa, Canada, will soon change its function as a mosque.
As reported Radio-Canada News Sunday (8/1/2023) after being empty or unused for three years, the former St Margaret Mary’s Church will be used by the Islamic community as a mosque.
In November last year, Imam Syed Soharwardy announced that the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada would purchase the South Ottawa church. The Islamic Supreme Council of Canada has 32 mosques across the country, two of which are former churches.
Soharwardy said residents of southern Ottawa can expect even more from a mosque, as most of the property will be used for a multi-faith community center.
“I (want to show) respect because this has been a church for over a century and people are emotionally and spiritually connected to this church,” he said.
Over the past month, Calgary-based Soharwardy has reached out to members of the Muslim community to gather ideas on updating the property.
Soharwardy said the center will host senior groups, music and arts groups and a Montessori school for children, among other programs.
He hopes it can serve as an example of how different religious groups can live in harmony.
“I’m 100% confident that when this (sale) closes in March, it will be a great model for the rest of Canadians and maybe the world,” Soharwardy said.
“It’s amazing to me that it continues to be a place of worship as it has been for the past century. But it also continues to be a place of service to others. We keep the past, but we look to the future,” said Fraser, a longtime parishioner of St Margaret Mary’s until it closed in 2019 due to a lack of funds.
Soharwardy garnered a lot of public support as he had no intention of demolishing the church and pledged to limit renovations inside.
The site’s property listing describes it as ideal for residential development and highlights its potential for a five-storey, 40-unit building.
Also read: Al-Fatihah leads atheist Stijn Ledegen to convert to Islam: Islam is the pure religion
“Community spaces, we can’t recreate them when we lose them. And they are priceless treasures,” said Fraser, whose father was an altar boy at St Margaret Mary’s in the 1940s.
Soharwardy said his group purchased the property for $2.5 million. Imam hopes to see the sale close in March, just in time to welcome Muslim worshipers to the Muslim month of Ramadan.
“I’ve tried pretty hard over the past few years to find property in Ottawa. And finally I can,” he says.
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