A chance encounter during his International Visitor Leadership Program, or IVLP exchange, gave Imtiaz Asin a new perspective on life. While traveling in the U.S., Imtiaz experienced tolerance, cultural awareness, and diversity within the melting pot of cultures. When he returned to Canada, Imtiaz brought these lessons back to his community where he is the Vice President of the largest Muslim organization, the B.C. Muslim Association.

In this episode, we hear how Imtiaz is re-energizing old ideologies, how he is empowering women and the next generation of leaders, and why he believes tolerance comes from the heart.

Imtiaz Asin

So, uh, just a little bit blurb on how I actually got involved in this IVLP Program, um, we received an email from the U.S. Consulate office here in Vancouver, um, talking about, “Is anybody in your community interested in taking exchange programs?” and what it entails and what you can benefit out of it. So at that time, I was the Vice President of Youth Development Services and um, our head office brought this email from the Consulate office. So, um, the President of our organization got a hold of it. And I said, "Hey, you know what? Um, I would be interested in it." Then our Executive said, "Hey, listen, you're at the top of the pedestal. You should be giving everyone else a chance before you can go." Right? So I said, "Okay, that's fair."

So we actually ran the ad in all of our Muslim Community newspapers, and uh, we put it through all of our branches and not one person applied, because they did not know it was something that was new and uh, they did not know anything about it. So on the three days before the deadline, the whole association actually agreed to send me. And me not knowing what it entails, what I'm getting myself into, uh, the, the U.S. Consulate office invited me over, um, to, you know, say what type of programs do you want to get interested in?

And at the same time, I did not know that how much of an impact this would have on the future of my life and my dealings with the community. So the, we went and I, I went the first day, uh, when I had hit DC, uh, there was nobody there because I traveled some of the farthest and I had my flight was a day after.

I came, uh, on my own from the airport and everyone was sleeping. Uh, all, all of our, aides and everyone was sleeping. So I was like, am I at the right hotel? So I sat in the lobby for at least a good 45 minutes and there was not even the front desk person there.

I have all my bags there and I'm thinking, okay, this is gonna be, this is gonna be something that I'm gonna have to start to do. So actually an individual came, um, he was a tall individual, um, and he had an accent and he said, "Oh, how are you brother?" And then I assume, because, uh, he presumed that I'm Muslim, he called me brother, that's the greeting that we give, cause in Islam we consider all of everyone our brothers and our sisters. So then right away, I said, "Oh, how are you brother?" He said, "Oh, um, I'm from Sudan." I knew, okay, fine. This is from the same exchange program. And then we just started talking and for like a good 15, 20 minutes, he never asked my name.

So he said he called and somebody, and then the person came down, bought me, checked in, we went in, sso that was a start of my program. It was really, uh, difficult, but then I thought to myself like, look how destiny works. I come from one side of the world, this guy comes from the other side of the world, and we meet in a lobby to help each other. And how did that happen? It happened through IVLP. That was like the number one thing.The smallest things happened with IVLP and the exchanges that we have with individuals, a lot of us take to heart and we keep it, uh, always.

The exchanges, um, were so different for other people, but people thought because I was Canadian and it was all almost the same and we think of ourselves as our nation, as a big diverse and cultural nation, building from newcomers. But I always had that notion that the United States wasn’t like that. And it was something that was, I was naive about. But when I went into the exchange programs and seen some of the programs that are being done in the most rural parts of the United States and how diversity plays and how based on that diversity, we have cultural awareness, I was mind blown.

I was in Pensacola, and as you know, uh, in Canada, we have a large First Nations, um, group here and large First Nations here that we support through government. And right now working with truth and reconciliation. But when I went to, uh, Pensacola, uh, I actually went and we went to one of the - um, uh, re- reserves there and we learned about the Highway of Tears.

And I, I was just mind blown that this is happening here and, uh, what people went through, um, our First Nations there. And that was something that I could connect with, because it's happening at home. So then, that's when I started to realize, hey, you know what, this, this is a big melting pot of cultures.

In his role as VP of the B.C. Muslim Association, Imitiaz engages both Muslim and non-Muslim youth, and has made a platform for women within the community. But it isn’t just equity or acceptance that motivates him.Through his work, Imtiaz tries not only to make his community feel safe but also to answer the question: How can we instill understanding and tolerance in the wider world?

Now that the community is made, those mosques are becoming empty. Why? Because the younger generation is not having a connection between the, between our organization and our elders. So we, me myself thought, how can we change that? How can we do something where children and youth want to do something and be happy of who they are? They don't have to choose one or the other, being global citizens or being Muslims, or being any part of ethnic - they shouldn't have to choose. So we started, uh, sporting programs where we would integrate a little bit of religion and more sports. So whereas we would have, um, one thing is that we had a, what's called a, a, a Young Ummah BCMA, which is the organization that's subsidiary of BCMA.

People, women, young, uh, women as early as 17 or 18 were scared to go on the bus or the sky train because they used to have their hijabs pulled. And you hear this in bigger, bigger parts of, uh, you know, Canada, Eastern part Toronto, Ontario, but not on, around here in these Western parts. And that really startled us as, uh, young leaders. And that really startled us as, um, individuals. So we started to say, "Hey, let's give these attainable goals and to create a basis of understanding between each other." So the first program, some of the programs that we did, because forgive me, we have over 15, 10, about 10 years worth of programming.

But to start off, e thought sisters are the number one, um, targets, uh, as victims of his Islamophobia. Why? Because if you look at me right now, you can't tell I'm a Muslim, but you can tell a woman she's a Muslim by her hijab. 

So this was the number one issue.

We created a self defense class where

we created, um, a self defense program, um, organized and instituted by certified trainers and to... It was over a six week program where we taught them how to feel safe in their surroundings, understand their surroundings at the same time protect themselves. And I thought it was gonna be a big flock. Why? Because we have a lot of, um, families that are from predominantly, uh, uh, Asia, Asia, where Pakistan, India, Arab countries, um, and we thought that because, you know, not trying to take away, buta lot of these families are very conservative when it comes to interaction, uh, between men and women and it's, it's, it's perfectly understandable, but we want it to break that barrier that, "Hey, you know what? Our tolerance comes from here. It doesn't come from our eyes and our head, it comes from our heart."

So I had to pitch this to my executives in my association. And the first time, it got shot down - that, “oh, we're gonna get women jumping around in the mosque, trying to learn how to fight,” but they didn't understand because this is a new concept. They did not know that this is something that's needed, but when we went the second time to preach it to them, they said, okay, let's try it. We tried it. 120 women attended, um, that session over six weeks. And, and it was so, um, so mesmerizing to see 120 women, uh, well, I wasn't allowed to be there because it was all women, but the, the, the gist that I get from it is that all of these women were so empowered, right?

So empowered that a Muslim organization would give them these tools and, uh, to go and to be and feel safe. And that was just the beginning, the rest, it just shot off. We started doing, uh, soccer tournaments where we would invite what we would called guest players, guest players are individual of, um, who are not Muslim.

So the reason why we would invite non Muslim is for propagation. Not to kind of brainwash them where people might think, but it was to give them an understanding of what Islam is, uh, to see how we actually interact. We bleed just like you do. We laugh just like you. We, we eat the same Netflix and chill. We do everything. We wanted to create this understanding to say, "Hey, we're, we're the same people." And it really, really kicked off from there. Some of the programs that we continued to do was something that's called spirit of Islam.

And we would invite all of our interfaith leaders, our priests, uh, from the synagogues, from the, among theirs, from the guars, all of these ethnic groups would come and they would come to understand Islam for what it is.

And we would invite all of our interfaith leaders, our priests, uh, from the synagogues, from the, among theirs, from the guars, all of these ethnic groups would come and they would come to understand Islam for what it is, and this was coming from being a global leader, having those attainable goals. You, when going back to what I was telling you of understanding how tolerance and diversity needs to occur, and that training is what I got from IVLP, that's what I got on how to initiate and how to bring those, those traits out in to individuals.

But now when we create change that the community started to see, these guys actually know what they're talking about and it's, we have it tough, but the women have it tougher.

And they're not given a platform. Once you give an individual a platform to excel, they're them being excelling is what's gonna show that, hey, you know what? This person can do it. And now we started to change that. We started to bring women into the organization, uh, until I think about eight, nine years ago, women weren’t allowed to vote for, as we have a total  different wing of, uh, of, for the women.

So the women were independent, they did everything on their own. They had their own president, they had everything, but the executive officers were men. So we changed that. We had women being able to vote. Now, what we're doing is now we're actually having women to come into the council, to sit shoulder to shoulder with - between men and women, keeping in part of that religious context, but understanding we all are leaders and all of the issues pertain to all of us.

Because like I said, once you give them a platform to excel and it's not, uh, I shouldn't say them, I should say anybody give, uh, give anybody a platform to expel, uh, excel. You are based on your performance. So when they see the sisters excelling to say, “Hey,you know what, we, we didn’t know what we had.” So now our organization is excelling. There's still, like I said, a lot of work in progress, but that was the main component for change.

The community’s mosque is located on what’s known as the “Highway to Heaven” - a one mile road that has 20 places of worship, including a church, a Buddhist monastery, a Hindu temple, a Vedic cultural center, and a Sikh gudwara. But it took a mundane infrastructure change to bring these communities together, and Imtiaz believes there is still work to be done to create tolerance and to fight Islamophobia. 

So I think 50% of combating Islamophobia is our responsibility as Muslims, our responsibility as global leaders, we need to show the beauty and what, what our religion is all about and how it intertwines with the everyday occurrences of everyone else that we have here.

I think that was really a productive session that we had. We've created, uh, a lot of programming where we, um, educate the media about Islamophobia. We educate community leaders, even, uh, police officers on when they attend on call to the mosque on how to deal with, uh, Muslim individuals. And if you recall, we had, uh, the New Zealand shootings that happened a couple years ago, and mind you, us, our family being from Fiji --New Zealand and Fiji are neighbors -- so we actually knew one or two people that perished in that mosque during those shootings from, uh, being priests in the local cities in Fiji.

This is the, this is something that I learned, uh, when dealing in, during my IVLP Program, it's okay to be mad. It's okay to be sad, because having those feelings inside is what's gonna break you, but we need to have interaction. We need to communicate to understand each other's feelings.

10 years ago, uh, I would never see, um, a priest or a rabbi or, um, a guru, or have any, any ethnic background in my mosque.

Um, now, uh, its comes nowadays. It's like, we have a church, a Fijian church, uh, right next to us. And during, on Friday prayers, they give us their full parking. And yeah, we're, we're bad about it. Some people park like they're parking, uh, you know, uh, like on the middle of a dark road, and they're tolerant because they understand.

When we had the, uh, New Zealand Massacre, there were individuals that were coming to our mosque with flowers, me growing up. I never experienced that. I never saw that, that someone would be coming to my mosque with flowers. Um, and, uh, these were the changes that we seen, that the people around us actually understood who we are. And, uh, they tolerated us. They might not agree. We might not agree, but that doesn't mean that we should be able not to coexist.

Ultimately, Imtiaz believes that change has to come from passing the torch to the young. Part of the challenge of that is in old modes of thinking and in opening up mindsets of the older generation to listen to new ideas and to new people, further adding to the rich mosaic that is Canada. Even though Imtiaz continually works to increase tolerance inside and outside the Muslim community, he knows that one day, he too must pass the torch along to the next generation of leaders and that society needs the young to succeed.

We have to be able to integrate the old and the new, right?The old, always things that we're coming with, new vibrant ideas, and they're threatened by these new vibrant ideas that might shape the very existence of what this organization or what the society was built on. But, the only thing it is, is that, to be honest with you, ideas become stale. I-ideology become stale. All we're trying to do is to create those ideologies and re-energize them.

For example, um, we have a lot of young intellectuals in our Muslim community, and it was always older people becoming part of committees, whether it's, uh, a grant committee, whether it's investigation committee. Um, the PAC that we have, like I said, we have two schools and board of education. They would always be predominantly older people. Accounting, the finance department, older people. So we actually sat one day and I said, "Did you guys ever think why nobody ever applies?" They're like, “Why?” and I said, "Because you've created such a big gap between the old and the new that, when they wanted to be heard, you weren't listening. And now when someone else is listening to them, you're asking them, ‘How come they're not talking to us?’" And that's shed - that put a big light bulb into our organization and all organizations in the Muslim community and abroad.

Um, this happens in many uh, organizations where people are very, uh, hesitant about passing on that torch, uh, to the younger generation. And it's still work in progress for us.Um, you know, like I had aspirations to become the president of my association, uh, a couple of years ago. And, uh, the first thing that someone asked me is like, you can't become president ‘cause he's not married. He doesn't know what being, having a family is about. So then I thought for a second, I said, "You know, what, if an organization, uh, dictates my, um, social life compared to my contribution to society, then that, that doesn't, I don't deserve to be part of that organization nor do I want to be part of that organization."

But then I thought to myself, “Hey, it's an ideology, it's not a person that dislikes me. It's not a group of people that hate us, or you actually will use the word hate, understand this.” It's something that's a social norm in society. And, when I say this, particularly speaking in my organization, people got married early. People were developed early. People had a lot more to think about when they were early on how to feed their brother in or how to feed their parents coming from third world countries. So they're trying to put those, instilling those, uh, um, attitudes into us where we are thinking, hey, a part of this Western culture, we should, like I said, we shouldn't have to be able to choose between religion and government or, uh, ourselves and religion. We, we should be able to integrate all of them. And this creates an identity and creates a mosaic.

The next generation of leaders need to succeed. Patience, patience is number one. Um, number two, understanding, and number three, the biggest thing, I think, as being a leader is compassion. Uh, compassion for yourself, compassion for your neighbor, compassion for your friend, compassion for the community. Because one person who, when I started in this organization told me when you're doing community work, you can never do enough. There's always gonna be more that you have to do. And, uh, this is something that I think of every single day when I feel like dropping everything and leaving, because it's so exhausting. Uh, I think of that, that, hey, you know, what, if I'm not gonna be doing it, someone else will be doing it. You know, destiny finds somebody to do the work that we need to do in order for this world to continue.

Some of the strong things I think leaders need to have is patience, understanding, compassion, and, um, love what you do. You know, love what you do.

So having that mindset all the time, knowing that you're held accountable for something, and at the same time that you might not tomorrow be able to do this is something that we should, that should drive us to continue to excel and continue to give those next leaders, uh, the goals and the tools that they need to succeed, because if they don't succeed and if we don't succeed, the society doesn't succeed. And if the society doesn’t succeed, then we’re in trouble.

Now that I advice that I can give somebody who's doing, um, who wants to do, or is doing one, or is planning on doing one, is be prepared for a life changing experience.

I don't think people really know how much of an impact it has on you until you leave the group and your back into your regular, current, your daily, your daily grind on what you're doing and how you're doing it. And you take those lessons that you learn, um, from the visits that we've done to the individuals that are from different countries, uh, from having that cup of coffee and just, you know, on a, on a day that, uh, if you, as you know, being part of the IVLP Programs, they're very excruciating.

So all I can say to the future of individuals that want to be joining IVLP or have, uh, willing to join, uh, be prepared for life changing experiences.