Silent adhan : exploring the muslim call to prayer in metro Vancouver
department or school: Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Suleman, Zoolfikar K. B.
issued: 2022-10-24T15:34:11Z
issued: 2022
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: The adhan is the Muslim call to prayer which is recited five times a day to call the faithful to pray. In contrast to many Muslim majority countries in the world where the adhan is audible and a part of the public soundscape, the adhan is not publicly recited regularly in Canada. Due to Covid-19, limited public recitations of the adhan have been allowed since 2020, during the Ramadan period of fasting. In this thesis I explore the absence of the public recitation of the adhan in Metro Vancouver. The adhan and its public recitation has not attracted specific scholarly attention in Canada. It is a lacuna in the scholarship surrounding Islam in Canada. This thesis centers the adhan and its public recitation through an interdisciplinary methodology using research-creation (an original short film – Silent Azaan which forms a part of this thesis) and an analysis of an online archive of documented public adhan recitations in Canada in 2020 hosted at the www.30masjids.ca web platform. During the Ramadan fast in the Spring of 2020, the convergence of Covid-19 and a ban on indoor public gatherings resulted in Muslims seeking approval for limited recitations of the adhan in some cities in Canada. These 2020 recitations across Canada provide some insights into how further inclusion of the adhan into the public soundscape might be received by municipal governments and various publics. I argue that multiculturalism narratives provide an unsatisfactory framework for inclusion of the adhan in the public soundscape. These narratives serve to mask Canada’s roots as a white settler colonial nation, but multiculturalism may persist as a “most acceptable”, “least controversial” paradigm around which Muslims, governments and various publics can coalesce for further future inclusion of the adhan in the Canadian public soundscape. This thesis examines the complexities involved and lays out a foundation for future debates on the topic, something which was lacking when I began.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/82970
note: Silent Adhan: Exploring the Muslim call to prayer in Metro Vancouver by Zoolfikar K. B. Suleman A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Interdisciplinary Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October 2022 © Zoolfikar K B Suleman, 2022 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: Silent Adhan: Exploring the Muslim call to prayer in Metro Vancouver submitted by Zoolfikar K B Suleman in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies Examining Committee: Professor Sunera Thobani, Professor, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia Co-Supervisor Professor Parin Dossa, Professor Emeritus, Sociology and Anthropology, Simon Fraser University iii Abstract The adhan is the Muslim call to prayer which is recited five times a day to call the faithful to pray. In contrast to many Muslim majority countries in the world where the adhan is audible and a part of the public soundscape, the adhan is not publicly recited regularly in Canada. Due to Covid-19, limited public recitations of the adhan have been allowed since 2020, during the Ramadan period of fasting. In this thesis I explore the absence of the public recitation of the adhan in Metro Vancouver. The adhan and its public recitation has not attracted specific scholarly attention in Canada. It is a lacuna in the scholarship surrounding Islam in Canada. This thesis centers the adhan and its public recitation through an interdisciplinary methodology using research-creation (an original short film – Silent Azaan which forms a part of this thesis) and an analysis of an online archive of documented public adhan recitations in Canada in 2020 hosted at the www.30masjids.ca web platform. During the Ramadan fast in the Spring…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2022-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0421418
language: eng
degree discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Thobani, Sunera, 1957-
contributor: Dossa, Parin Aziz, 1945-
type: Text
type: Moving Image
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/82970