The New Canadian Sufi Cultural Centre
SUPPORTING THE CSCC
We have finally completed the purchase of the building which will serve as the the Canadian Sufi Cultural Centre in Toronto, the first-of-its-kind in Canada. But we still need your generous support to help pay off the remaining $300,000. Please download (right) and fill out our donation form and return by fax or mail, enclosing any post-dated cheques payable to the Jerrahi Sufi Order of Canada. You may also donate online! All donations are tax deductible. Tax receipts will be issued upon request.
The main objectives of the new Centre include:
Religio-Spiritual Work
Due to the tremendous challenges and hardships endured by youth and their families in today’s context, the Canadian Sufi Cultural Centre seeks to reach out to young people who feel alienated and ostracized from their families and their religion. Overall, it aims to:
- Offer a dynamic, inclusive and inviting atmosphere for anyone interested in learning about Islamic and Sufi traditions.
- Expand existing religious and spiritual instructional programs by offering more frequent sessions for adults, as well as specialized classes for youth.
- Offer spiritual counseling and continue to share core teachings and wisdom from sacred Sufi texts through our weekly program.
Interfaith Dialogue
Weekly Jerrahi gatherings have, for many years, attracted men, women and youth from a wide spectrum of beliefs and religious/spiritual traditions. The new Centre aims to:
- Continue to promote dialogue and understanding across the diversity of belief and faith traditions in Canadian society.
- Continue to actively engage and invite members of the wider community to facilitate mutual learning, understanding, and most importantly, build solidarity and friendship.
- Build on its existing participation in interfaith forums by hosting multi-faith forums at the new Centre, and strengthening its existing network of speakers.
Community Outreach
The new Centre also aims to:
- In the legacy of recognition and practice of the sacred arts, uniquely offer classes to share and practice Sufi love of sacred music, literature and poetry
- Expand the community work by having a youth outreach program that create spaces for extra-curricular activities to be organized by and for youth, such as sports competitions
- Create a space for families to meet and socialize through community dinners and other family-oriented social events
Charitable Work
In Canada, as elsewhere around the world, we are a charitable organization that is dedicated to providing humanitarian and social services to marginalized and vulnerable communities locally, nationally as well as internationally. Our local work in aiding marginalized youth and offering assistance at shelters and working with the homeless, is extended internationally, raising considerable funds for victims of war, conflict and natural disasters such as in Bosnia, Pakistan, Turkey and parts of Africa. The new Centre will help to expand these efforts further.
Resource Centre
A critical contribution the Jerrahis would like to extend to members of the Canadian community is a resource centre, open to the public, to access books, CDs and DVDs related to Islam and Sufism, specifically. Currently, there are limited venues locally whereby people can have easy access to these resources; the resource centre, however, is expected to provide a more centralized location from which the Jerrahis can share their own compilation of published literature on Sufism and the esoteric sciences that is circulated around the world. We intend to create an atmosphere conducive for learning and sharing through this resource centre, which the public can access freely within the larger, new Centre.
