For those of you who were not able to pick up the March 2008 issue of Vancouver Magazine, we have included a couple images taken from the magazine featuring Imam Fode along with the full article:
Here is the writeup (taken from Vancouver Magazine website):
Over honey-sweetened tea and a tray of pistachios, cake, and mandarin oranges, Imam Fode Drame explains the name of his congregation. “Zawiyah in Arabic means corner — where two lines meet. This is what we want to create. A place of connection between Earth and heaven, and a place where East meets West.” Descended from a line of Senegalese Muslim clerics, Drame moved to Vancouver in 1999. Until 2005 he was head of a mosque in East Vancouver; during his tenure it was the only B.C. mosque to allow women to attend and study the Koran.* It was also one of the few to invite other religious leaders to talk about their traditions. This made him controversial. The B.C. Muslim Association locked him out, and Drame moved on to establish Zawiyah. On Fridays the foundation attracts hundreds of Shia, Sunni, and Ismaili Muslims, and a smattering of curious non-Muslims. The congregation is young and progressive, drawn to the imam’s egalitarian teachings and emphasis on tasawwuf — Islamic spiritual disciplines by which “the individual discovers his own soul, his own realities, and who the Creator of his soul is.” He believes that “enrichment comes through dialogue. From past history, both Muslims and Jews engaged in dialogue in Andalusia to the great benefit of both traditions on one hand, and Islam and Christianity on the other. Vancouver presents the opportunity of another Spain.”
*We would like to clarify this statement. According to our knowledge, these Quran classes were the only classes being offered in the Muslim community at that time that allowed men and women to sit and study Quran together in the same space.
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