It is said that problems and challenges often bring new opportunities. In December 2008 and January 2009, a war broke out in Palestine between Gaza and Israel. At the time, HCI was organizing a fundraising dinner in Ottawa for Palestine, and on the same day, Masjid Bilal was organizing a separate fundraising dinner for the completion of their masjid.
As we were familiar with both groups, we stepped in and resolved the matter amicably.
This incident made us realize there was an opportunity to unite all the masjids in Ottawa-Gatineau around a few common goals. We were aware that previous efforts by some brothers to do so had not succeeded.
We began with four trusted friends from four masjids:
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Br. Fariz AlChama (Ottawa Main Masjid, Nortel colleague)
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Dr. Abdullah Sebber (Gatineau Masjid)
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Br. Ihsan Sandhu (Jami Omar)
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Dr. Emdad Khan (SNMC)
We all agreed the idea was worth pursuing—but would the other masjids agree? Anticipating obstacles, a few of us took the responsibility of reaching out to other masjid leadership.
We outlined a few simple guiding principles for the initial meeting:
a) Avoid scheduling major events on the same day
b) Two representatives from each masjid
c) Meetings to be hosted in rotation by masjids with their own facilities and registered charity status
d) Hosting masjid chairs the meeting
Each masjid would remain fully independent—there would be no centralized control or umbrella organization. All masjids would be equal.
Around April or May 2009, the first meeting was held on a Wednesday at Ottawa Main Masjid. We called it Group X, as we were unsure how many organizations would join.
As expected, there were initial challenges, but we moved forward. A new idea emerged: to host a rotating conference every 2–3 months on common topics with invited speakers. Each masjid would take turns organizing the event.
Alhamdulillah, within 2–3 years, the initiative stabilized. After many discussions, we agreed on a name:
United Muslim Organizations of Ottawa-Gatineau (UMO-OG)
Eventually, most masjids joined, and by 2023, the group had 13 member organizations. UMO-OG organized joint initiatives, including:
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COVID-19 awareness and relief programs
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Food distribution during Ottawa storms
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Fundraising for CHEO
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Donations for BC wildfires and Alberta floods via Red Cross
The platform has become vibrant and continues to grow.
Ottawa Hilal Committee
Using the UMO-OG platform, we launched the Ottawa Hilal Committee in 2009, led by Imam Khaled of Ottawa Masjid and joined by 8–10 other masjids.
It took 2–3 years to stabilize the effort, as we had to bring together communities from different madhabs and cultural backgrounds—some aligned with Toronto and others with Montreal.
Alhamdulillah, today the committee is over 10 years old. Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha are now celebrated on the same day across the Ottawa-Gatineau region.
In the beginning, there was debate over local vs. global moon sighting, but we eventually agreed on global moon sighting, resolving years of disunity.
Next, we will talk about SNMC Imam hiring, which took place while SNMC was still under full construction mode.
