PREPARED BY

Moska Rokay, MI

ARCHIVES OF MUSLIMS IN CANADA:Environmental Scan

Institute of Islamic Studies Occasional Paper SeriesSeptember 2019

AcknowledgementsThis environmental scan would not have been possible without the support andencouragement of Professor Anver Emon – thank you for placing your faith and trust in me. I would like to thank Loryl MacDonald for her mentorship and experience in the Canadianarchival world. Her guidance throughout my journey as a student of archival studies andnow as a professional has been invaluable. I am also thankful for Linda Wicks for taking meunder her wing and introducing me to the �ield of Canadian religious archives. Thank youto Rebecka She��ield, Rodney Carter, and Sonia Nicholson for your insight and knowledgeon community and religious archives in Canada. I am grateful for the expertise and advice of Muhamed Amin, Marcel Barriault, and KathrynLagrandeur at Library and Archives Canada. Thank you for consulting with me andsupporting my work with the IIS archival initiative. I am especially thankful for Muhamed’ssuggestions and comments on this environmental scan. Thank you to Hassam Munir and Faisal Bhabha for their illuminating conversations onprimary source materials in Canada on/about Canadian Muslims. Both discussions werebene�icial in guiding the aim and focus of this paper. I would like to thank Fatima Sajan of NCCM and Dr Hasnain Walji at the Mulla AsgharMemorial Library and Resource Centre (MARC) for talking to me about their currentwork. I am particularly thankful for Fatima’s in�inite networks, experience in the CanadianMuslim community, and enthusiasm to help whenever she can. I would like to thank Daood Hamdani, a pioneer of Canadian Muslim scholarship andhistory, for his priceless advice especially regarding primary and secondary sources onCanadian Muslim history.  This work would not have been possible without the encouragement and energy of myfellow Fellow at the Institute, Sarah Shah. I also thank and appreciate Sanna Wani for hertremendous patience, superb graphic design skills, and time when editing this paper.   The views re�lected in this paper are mine and do not necessarily re�lect the sentiments ofthe Institute of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto. 

Moska RokayDigital Humanities Research Fellow

Institute of Islamic StudiesUniversity of Toronto

Table of ContentsI. IntroductionII. The Archival PracticeIII. MethodologyIV. Canadian Archival Environmental Scan

A. University Archives in CanadaB. Library and Archives Canada (LAC)C. Provincial and Territorial ArchivesD. Religious Archives in CanadaE. Other Possible Archival Sources

V. Comparative Analyses: American ArchivesVI. Situating the SIMiC Digital Archives

Footnotes

I. Introduction

The Institute of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto sponsors a research partnership withuniversities and community organizations to examine the history of Islam and Muslims in Canada.The project is called The Study of Islam and Muslims in Canada (SIMiC), and includes within itsranks scholars from universities across Canada and leaders from national organizations thatrepresent Canadian Muslims and their interests. To leverage the research excellence of a universitycommunity to contribute to the public telling and retelling of the Canadian Muslim experience,SIMiC is undertaking a participatory, identity-based archival project to document the CanadianMuslim experience. Working with scholars and community partners, the SIMiC archival initiativeaims to create a digital archives that will capture the Canadian Muslim experience and supportadvanced research around the world on the study of Islam and Muslims in Canada.

Before any such archives can be created, it is critical to conduct an environmental scan of existingarchival collections, initiatives and/or ac�uisition policies that prioritize materials on or about theCanadian Muslim experience. As this scan will show, there is a dearth of archival commitment topreserving and showcasing the contributions of Canadian Muslims. Moreover, the digitalarchitecture of Canada’s archival landscape suffers from considerable religious illiteracy, from theconstruction of archive search engines to the intricate metadata that makes effective arrangementand description and user-friendly access possible. To emphasize the signi�icance of this lacuna inCanada’s archival landscape, the environmental scan brie�ly examines existing Muslim archives in theUnited States as a comparator. The report will conclude by explaining the need for the SIMiCarchive. If archives do not ade�uately document marginalized communities, that community’srepository of materials are not available to future researchers. Essentially, that community’sexperiences are erased from the historical record. As the mainstream media bombards Westernviewers with stories of war, violence and extremism in Muslim-majority countries, and as institutionsmaintain archival descriptions rooted in Protestant and/or 19th century characterizations of Islamwhen describing these respective communities— essentially describing these communities tothemselves— it is exceedingly imperative for Muslims in Canada to speak for themselves and to begiven spaces to represent themselves the way they want.

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II. The Archival PracticeArchives have tremendous power to shape narratives, in�luence popular history, and, at the same time, silencestories. Traditionally, archives have been repositories for a speci�ic institution’s records, designed with theexpress aim to document the organization’s activities in accordance with institutional and archival mandates.In Canada, archives are most often found at large institutions: federal, provincial, and municipal levels ofgovernment; educational institutions such as colleges and universities; large corporate organizations such asbanks; some libraries or galleries; and a number of signi�icant Jewish and Christian archives.

Archival practices re�lect early 20th century principles of record-keeping that originated from WesternEuropean and North American governments and institutions. Those principles continue to inform archivalpractices today, such as those relating to the provenance and original order of records, and their evidentiaryvalue.

Provenance and an Archives' Intended Audience When applied to the arrangement and description of archival materials, the principle of provenanceemphasizes that all records tracing their origin to a speci�ic creator—whether an individual, organization ordepartment/unit—must be kept together. Archivists use the French term fonds to re�lect this macro-level ofdocument organization. As the largest organizational unit, a fonds can contain hundreds if not thousands ofindividual records across a range of themes, subjects and issues. In the most basic terms, a fonds is a collectionof documents. To give greater detail to a collection of documents, we use other terms to indicate smallergroupings of records. For instance, a series is a smaller grouping of records within a fonds, and containsrecords that concern, for example, a broad functional activity within an organization (such as humanresources, �inance, administration or publications). Even smaller than a series is the �ile unit. Files are agrouping of documents that pertain to a more speci�ic topic within a series. We use the term �iles because theindividual records are often stored in an actual �ile folder. For example, a �ile titled “Outgoing” under theseries “Correspondence” would refer to records of outgoing correspondence only. Lastly, in archival practice,the term item is the smallest archival unit. An item usually refers to an individual document but can alsoindicate a record made up of several pieces such as a photograph album or a single photograph. The unitsfonds, series, �ile, and item are speci�ic terms that imply varying levels of archival arrangement and descriptionwithin a speci�ic collection of materials. However, a fonds does not necessarily need to have every hierarchicallevel of groupings (i.e. series, �iles, and items). Ultimately, the level of descriptive detail depends largely on thearchival materials ac�uired but also the priorities and aims of the archive, the archivist’s time, and even itsintended audience. Whatever level of description is utilized, an archivist will publish with the fonds a �indingaid. A �inding aid is similar to the catalogue record of a library book because it gives the user informationabout the respective book, such as the author, the number of pages in the book, a brief plot description, and soon. Finding aids are written documents that broadly describe the content of the fonds in order to assist usersto understand in broad terms the scope and contents of the collection of documents in front of them. The organization and structure of an archive often depends on the intended audience. For instance, archivesstand in stark contrast to libraries, which are generally more familiar to the general public. Categorized bysubject headings, the principles, traditions, and structures of a library differ greatly from archives. A memberof the general public normally possesses the information-seeking knowledge, capacity, and behavioursnecessary to navigate research in a library - relying on subject categories, for example - but is not usually ableto do the same at an archive because archives are generally structured for an audience of academics.

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Archival materials are often arranged by provenance (creator or origin of the records) rather than by subjectsor other categories for two inter-related reasons relating to audience. Most archives assume an audience ofacademic researchers and genealogists. Moreover, archivists assume that academic researchers or genealogistsusing an archive are already familiar with what and/or who they are looking for, thereby making provenanceof paramount importance. In other words, an academic researcher would know to look at Professor John Doe’sfonds to learn more about his research on Muslims in Canada because the researcher has ample experience andexpertise on the topic. Of course, not all users of an archive are academic researchers. As the intendedaudience shifts, archivists will need to reconsider whether provenance is the best and most effective way toorganize an archive. For instance, a member of the general public typically has little experience in an archive;it is reasonable to assume that they would not be well-versed enough in a subject area to also engagetraditional archival practices in order to �ind any information on Canadian Muslims or Islam in Canada. Amember of the general public without academic research expertise might be more interested in approachingan archive by subject matter or theme (at the series or �ile level), rather than by provenance at the fonds level.

Evidential Value, Original Order, and Archival Authenticity

The 20th century pioneers of English-speaking archival theory, Sir Hilary Jenkinson and TheodoreSchellenberg, stressed that records held authority and authenticity when accumulated during the course ofactivities and, thus, “should be kept in their entirety without mutilation.” They also recognized that anarchive’s organic nature—growing with the activities of its parent organization—attested to the authenticity ofthe records that were archived. As organizations grow and develop, archives not only preserve their historybut also signal the organization’s salience, signi�icance and importance to society. Moreover, to appreciate thathistory of ongoing activity, an organization’s archives must arrange and describe items, �iles, series, and fondsin their original order. The evidential value of a record and its authority as part of an organic growing anddeveloping archive, therefore, are lost if the archive abandons the principle of original order. But the concept of evidentiary value and the principle of original order presume an audience of academicresearchers, genealogists or staff members of the archive’s parent organization. For instance, genealogists valueoriginal order and the organic nature of archives because they tend to work with families to uncover lostfamily members, family histories, and family trees, which re�uire chronological ordering of items over a longperiod of time. Staff members of a given organization may consult the organization’s archive to explore oldmeeting minutes of a committee in their department to learn more about a policy or decision that was made inthe past—organizing these minutes by reference to original order would enable the staff member to �uicklyaccess the re�uisite material. Finally, researchers—e.g. historians—use archival documents as primary sourcesfor academic articles, publications, and books that eventually in�luence the history one learns in the classroom.The traditional archival principles are fundamentally designed to enhance and facilitate the historian’sresearch.

For the purpose of this environmental scan, these principles pose an important �uestion that must beaddressed prior to any ac�uisition of archival material—who is the audience? Addressing that �uestion willinform not only how the SIMiC archive is organized, but also the varying arrangement and descriptiontechni�ues that can be employed to serve the interests of a wide range of users, not all of whom areresearchers. For that reason, among the proposals this scan offers is the implementation of more than onearrangement and description standard, as discussed in the conclusion.

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III. Methodology

This brief archival scan began by contacting and/or searching online archival �inding aids ordescriptive databases of major Canadian archival institutions, including but not limited to thefollowing:

Library and Archives CanadaUniversity archives at major Canadian universitiesProvincial and Territorial archives in each of Canada’s Provinces and Territories

The aim of the in�uiry was to determine whether their holdings contained any materials related tothe Canadian Muslim experience, or if their mandates and ac�uisition policies prioritized Muslims inCanada. My objective throughout this entire environmental scan was to analyze Canadian archivesthrough the lens of a member of the general public, who presumably would have only a generalinterest in the topic, but not an academic or archivist with specialized training in record-keeping. I began by visiting the websites of each major Canadian archival institution listed above betweenMay and August 2019. It is common practice for archival institutions to clearly state their ac�uisitionpriorities and policies, especially on their websites. I examined their ac�uisition/collection policies,mandates, and visions to determine if they had any explicit priorities to collect archival materials ofmarginalized communities, speci�ically the Muslim- Canadian community. Secondly, I also used their �inding aids and online search tools to attempt to �ind materials onCanadian Muslims. I used keyword search terms such as “muslim” or “islam” and also browsed forthese terms by subject if the institution’s website allowed browsing by subject. As will becomeevident below, many of these attempts proved futile. In the case of Library and Archives Canada, Ialso met with their archivists in person to discuss their archival priorities and the scope of theircollections on Muslims in Canada, on the off chance that they had materials that were simply notdescribed or available online. It is important to note that a majority of the listed archives do not haveall their �inding aids online. Moreover, most did not employ a total digitization process, and thus notall of their collections were digitally accessible through online vehicles.  Additionally, I consulted with key archivists and members of the Association of Canadian Archivists(ACA). The ACA is a non-pro�it organization “that represents the needs and interests of archivesand records professionals throughout Canada.” I speci�ically consulted archivists who were aware ofthe state of religious archives in Canada. These exchanges were conducted through email. Finally, Iengaged Canadian researchers, scholars, and faculty who study Islam and Muslims to obtain valuableinsight regarding their individual experiences with archival research on Islam and CanadianMuslims.

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IV. Canadian Archival Environmental Scan

For the most part, the environmental scan demonstrates that the Canadian Muslim experience isinade�uately and insu��iciently represented in Canadian archival collections.

A. University Archives in Canada

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Although a small number of university archives have conducted community archival initiatives, thisenvironmental scan could not identify any university archive that has organized and housed an archivalinitiative on the Canadian Muslim experience or the Islamic faith in Canada. University archives acrossCanada are not ade�uately positioned to capture the Canadian Muslim experience or the study of Islam inCanada and, considering their mandates, nor are they meant to do so. This is not surprising consideringuniversity archives generally implement traditional archival structures, described above, which do notfacilitate the discovery of materials based on topic, category or subject.

Most university archives in Canada have mandates that focus on ac�uisition, preservation and providingaccess to archival materials relating to university business: the records of various departments at theuniversity as well as the papers of the university’s staff, faculty, and notable alumni. A part of majoracademic institutions, and therefore funded by them, university archives often do not prioritize private orcommunity archival materials documenting activities outside of the university’s realm of in�luence. To theextent university archives hold “private” records—which pertain generally to the materials of individuals—they include principally the private papers of notable university staff, faculty or alumni.

Some university archives may have secondary or additional mandates to document non- universityactivities, individuals and/or organizations that support the research foci of the university. In other words,if one of the university’s research strengths include Islamic Studies, the university’s archives may prioritizeresearch on the study of Islam or Muslims in Canada. In Canada, McGill University is known to have astrong Institute of Islamic Studies degree granting program, with an associated library. When consulted,librarians at the Islamic Studies Library revealed that their scope focused on literary and classicalmaterials spanning multiple historical periods and language families. McGill’s Institute of Islamic Studies,therefore, is structured around the scholarly research of faculty and others at the Institute itself in theliterary history of the Islamic tradition. It does not hold records or maintain an active archival ac�uisitionpolicy on contemporary Muslim Canada. The McGill University Archives, which documents the activitiesof the Institute of Islamic Studies as well as the rest of the university, has a �ile-level list (�inding aid) of thematerials collected from the Institute. This �inding aid lists materials related to the academicadministration of the Institutes programming and instruction since its founding in 1952. To the extent theInstitute does not create programming on the history of Muslims in Canada, the McGill UniversityArchives unsurprisingly would not also contain archival materials on Muslims in Canada. Despite itsprestige and strength in Canada on the study of the historical and literary traditions of Islam, McGill’sInstitute of Islamic Studies has no initiative to document the history of Muslim Canada.

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is both the records repository of the Canadian federalgovernment—with its various agencies and departments—and the archive of Canadian society atlarge. This archival scan will focus on how LAC approaches its latter priority. As the federalinstitution charged with the task of ac�uiring, preserving, and making accessible Canada’sdocumentary heritage and memory, LAC follows a “total archives” concept which concentrates oncapturing all aspects of Canadian society, not just the activities of the Canadian government or elitemembers of society. As outlined in the Preamble to the Library and Archives of Canada Act, LAC’smandate is as follows:

to preserve the documentary heritage of Canada for the bene�it of present and futuregenerations;to be a source of enduring knowledge accessible to all, contributing to the cultural, social andeconomic advancement of Canada as a free and democratic society;to facilitate in Canada co-operation among communities involved in the ac�uisition,preservation and diffusion of knowledge;to serve as the continuing memory of the Government of Canada and its institutions. 9

Additionally, some university archives may also include a commitment to documenting community-based history/archival initiatives as a secondary mandate. For example, the University of TorontoScarborough Library hosts an archives with a mandate to capture the experiences of theScarborough, Ontario community. Similarly, York University’s Clara Thomas Archives and SpecialCollections (CTASC) in Toronto includes in their ac�uisition policy that they collect records ofindividuals and organizations not associated with York but whose archival records are ac�uired tosupport the research and teaching programmes offered at York in selected subject areas. Areas ofstrength include Canadian writers (notably Don Coles, Margaret Laurence, Bruce Powe, Susan Swan,Joyce Wieland, Adele Wiseman), individuals and organizations associated with the arts in Canada(particularly dance and theatre) and with urban reform movements in Ontario. For example, CTASC is the home to the Greek Canadian History Project which is a communityarchival initiative dedicated to the history of Canadians of Greek descent. Despite these encouragingmandates and initiatives, as already mentioned, no university archive has built a community archivalinitiative to document the Canadian Muslim experience.

In general, university archives across Canada do not contain archival materials relating to theCanadian Muslim experience. At most, they contain the papers of their own scholars, departments,and alumni, some of which might relate to the Canadian Muslim experience. But even if that werethe case, the archival material would be widely dispersed across the country, across different archivalplatforms, and manifold arrangement regimes. Even if one were interested in such material, currentarchival practices in Canada impede meaningful access and use except to the trained archivist,research scholar or genealogist. In effect, they are inaccessible to the general public interested in thehistory and contribution of Muslims who have called Canada home.

B. Library and Archives Canada (LAC)

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1. LAC Website and General Public

The LAC has an online searchable database for descriptions of all their collections, includingarchival, library, special collections, and so on. Obviously, their expansive archival materialshave not been digitized. But more troublingly, their materials are not subject to thicksearchable descriptions. Given these systemic limitations, it is hardly surprising that it isdi��icult to access the LAC archive to promote storytelling about the Canadian Muslimexperience. To inform this environmental scan, attempts were made to use the search tool as amember of the general public might use it, i.e. someone who has little experience on the topicof Muslims and/or Islam in Canada.

As seen in Figure 1 below, the Archives search tool allows the user to search by keyword, typeof material, hierarchical level (i.e. fonds, collection, series, �ile, item, and so on), and its onlineavailability.

Figure 1: the LAC's Archives search tool

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Because LAC collects both “public” and “private” archives, it follows a “total archives” concept.The documents of the federal government are generally referred to the “public” archives of LACwhile archival materials from individuals and organizations outside of the government areconsidered “private” archives. The “total archives” concept constitutes a pledge to ensure that theentire mosaic of Canadian society is represented in Canada’s documentary heritage.

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Figure 2: The results of keyword search “islam.” Notice on the right sidebar that most results are at �ile and item-levels.

Figure 3: The results of keyword search “muslim.” As isevident above, again, most results are at �ile and item-levels.

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When one enters the keywords “islam” and “muslim”—including a few variations of this— theresults vary widely. See Figure 2 for a sample of the results for the keyword “islam” and Figure3 for the keyword “muslim”. When searching “islam”, there is only one fonds-level result   thatappears and only 2 series-level results.  The rest of the results are at �ile and item-level whichcan be seen on the right sidebar in Figures 2 and 3. This suggests that materials relating to“islam” are most likely scattered among different and distinct fonds that may have nointellectual connection to the search term “islam” or “muslim”, let alone any connection toeach other. This examination indicates that material on Islam or Muslims in Canada held bythe LAC is generally hard to locate, if not entirely inaccessible to a member of the generalpublic

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2. LAC Consul�ation

To better understand LAC’s mandate and collections policy, an in-personal consultation withLAC representatives took place on August 1, 2019. Speci�ically, I met two LAC archivists ofthe Social and Indigenous Life section of the Archives Branch. The aim of the consultationwas principally to identify the LAC’s collections on the history of Muslims and Islam inCanada, and the steps being taken to represent under-represented communities acrossCanada. This consultation began with an email exchange between myself and an LACarchivist. I was informed that LAC’s strengths do not lie in the history of Muslims in Canada.Most of the materials relating to Canadian Muslims and/or Islam in Canada are currently atthe �ile- level which, as mentioned previously, means that they are part of larger fonds orcollections that may have nothing to do with Islam or Muslims in Canada. For example, aphotograph of a mos�ue (item-level) could be part of a grouping of building photographs (�ile-level) which, in turn, could be a part of a fonds of a �uebecois architectural �irm that neverhad anything to do with Islam in Canada, except through a contract to design a mos�ue. Thisvital photograph would be lost at the �ile or item-level is effectively inaccessible to thosestudying Muslims and Canada unless they independently know about the architectural �irmand its design of the mos�ue, or have the time and resources to individually examine each itemincluded in the fonds. Locating �ile-level or item-level archival materials that are relevant to aspeci�ic topic—in this case, Muslims in Canada—is laborious, time-consuming, andinconvenient through digital open access platforms.

Although Canadian archival arrangement guidelines generally do not instruct archives toarrange archival materials by subject, topic or theme—provenance is the accepted practice—LAC’s website has convenient subject guides. LAC’s “Browse by topic” section lists 24subjects in alphabetical order and the “Browse A�Z” section has even more. Religiousidentity is not a topic in either section. The consultation revealed that LAC has notprioritized religious archives in the past because religious groups have historically chosen topreserve their own archival materials. Christian and Jewish communities across the countryhave established archives to document their community’s respective experiences in Canada.The early 20th century saw LAC certainly taking into account migration �lows, resulting insubstantial Eastern European collections. Nevertheless, this explanation re�lects a certainhistory of Canada that largely does not include the implication of immigration �lows anddemographic growth statistics since the 1970s on Canada’s religious landscape. This effectiveerasure is corroborated by the fact that, despite Jewish-Canadians having their own archivesacross Canada, the LAC still holds an archival presence for the Jewish Canadian community.It may be true that Muslims have not contributed to or participated in the Canadian archivalcommunity but that gives LAC even more reason to create a legible space for CanadianMuslims, given its ‘total archive’ policy. The LAC’s past practices against thematicorganization around religious identity is arguably based on a particular Judeo-Christianarchival lens and the existence of privately organized, independent archives. On this account,minority faith groups—which, considering their lack of representation, pose the greatest need

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for an LAC intervention—remain neglected and insu��iciently documented. As demonstratedabove, the absence of any robust religious search category makes religious groups particularlyinvisible as part of the Canadian fabric. Moreover, this absence is highly problematic at a timewhen certain religious groups, such as Muslims, are targeted precisely because of theirreligious identity.Curiously, the “Browse by topic” webpage has a broad topic titled “Ethno-cultural Groups.” Given Canada’s commitment to multiculturalism, this is not surprising. Thewebpage on Ethno-Cultural groups lists a number of immigrant groups in Canada, most ofwhich are of European descent, suggesting that LAC’s conception of multiculturalism haspredominantly (though not exclusively) re�lected a certain politics of whiteness. Each ethno-cultural group has an embedded link that leads to webpages presenting useful resources fromLAC collections that pertain to that group, including speci�ic archival materials and their callnumbers for easy retrieval. Two of the listed immigrant groups, Jews and Mennonites, are notentirely ethno- cultural but ethno-religious. It is clear that substantial research into LAC’scollections was conducted for each listed group on the Ethno-cultural group page. Thatresearch provides helpful and easily accessible resource guides for a novice wishing to conductsome research into that group. According to these �indings, LAC currently lacks similar guideson/about racialized immigrant groups and the Muslim community.During the consultationitself, we discussed a range of steps that can be taken to capture under-representedcommunities in archives. LAC archivists noted the LAC’s lacuna on the history of Muslims inCanada, though have expressed renewed and committed efforts to change that situation. Theyexplained that their current aim is to support the representation of under- represented groupsin archives, whether that means through the LAC’s own efforts or LAC support forcommunity archival initiatives already in existence. They were receptive and committed to aworking relationship with the SIMiC archive project in order to meet their goal ofdocumenting under-represented communities—in this case Muslim Canada—in Canadianarchives. The meeting was the beginning of a working relationship between the Institute ofIslamic Studies and LAC, and further discussions/meetings would need to be held in order todetermine future, concrete steps.

C. Provincial and Territorial Archives

Similar to LAC, each province and territory of Canada has a provincial/territorial archive that collectsboth “public” records of the provincial/territorial government, and “private” records of individuals andorganizations that have provincial/territorial signi�icance. Because provincial and territorial archivesfollow the same structures and standards as LAC, I did not expect these archives to contain signi�icantmaterials on the history of Muslims in Canada. A �uick search on each of their online descriptivedatabases for the same terms - “muslim” and “islam” - proved to be largely unsuccessful. However, theArchives of Ontario has one signi�icant series pertaining to Canadian Muslims: the “Islamic Canadianphotographs” series in the Multicultural History of Ontario (MHSO) fonds. The MHSO and the “IslamicCanadian photographs” will be discussed in greater detail below.

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This limited scope of membership in the ACA implies that the professional archival community isprincipally aware of archives associated with these three faith groups, whose members therebyinform and shape discussions within the professional archival community on religious archivaldocumentation. Under the ACA, the professional community of archivist come together to establishstandards of excellence in archival practice. To the extent a community does not participate in theseprofessional contexts, the archival challenges of that community do not feature as part of theprofessional discourse on archival inclusion and best practices. My contact suggested two possiblereasons Muslims and other minority faith groups do not participate in the professional archivalcontext: (a) they do not have formal archives in their organizational structure and, thus, have no needto be a part of the ACA or; 2) they have archives but are unaware of ACA’s existence, or cannotafford ACA institutional membership fees (see Table 1 for membership fees).

Table 1: ACA Membership Fees. The fee is based on the number of staff employed by the institution.15

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D. Religious Archives in Canada

Because religious communities have created their own archives, they fall outside the scope ofgovernment-based archival initiatives. To better gauge the landscape of private, religiouscommunity-based archives, I contacted the Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) to ascertainwhether it has institutional knowledge of Muslim archives in Canada. The ACA has a special divisioncalled the “Special Interest Section on Archives of Religious Organizations,” which focuses on allmatters related to religious archives in Canada. An email conversation with a former chair of theSpecial Interest Section revealed that the principal faith groups that have institutional membershipin the ACA are Roman Catholic, Protestant Christian, and Jewish. At this time, Muslim archiveshave no presence in Canada’s professional archival community. Archives of Christian denominationspredominantly saturate the landscape of known religious archives in Canada.

Participation in the ACA is crucial for faithgroups to have their archives incorporated intothe broader work of Canada’s professionalarchival community. Active participation in theACA increases visibility and access to bestarchival practices and resources. Institutionalmembers of the ACA can promote new anddiverse archives through the published ACAMembership Directory, thereby publicizingthese archives and bringing a professionalcommunity’s collective attention and expertiseto the project.

Muslims in Canada are here by virtue of immigration, whether recent or in the distant past. Aportion of the museum’s descriptions and collections are on its website. Through an onlinedatabase, this study found an archival structure that lacks religious literacy and thereby createsfew opportunities to identify materials on Muslims in Canada. The museum’s online searchfunctions are even more limited than LAC’s: one can only search by keywords, collection type (i.e.oral history, image, story, and so on), accession number, arrival ship, arrival from/to, andlanguage. There are no subject or topic features, and the languages in the drop-down menuinclude only English, French, German, Italian, Tibetan, and None. Similar to LAC, the keywords“muslim” and “islam” provide minimal results, most of which are oral histories. The results of asearch for “muslim” includes a short list of item-level materials in their collections that are eachfurther categorized and tagged with a “culture”. The existence of this “culture” category suggeststhat archival materials in this repository are also categorized by ethno-cultural group. Not all ofthe archival materials on the museum’s website are tagged with “culture” metadata but those thatare can bene�it from visibility and easy access when a user searches for a speci�ic ethno-culturalgroup. There does not seem to exist a similar religious category. In other words, the chosenmetadata categories re�lect a certain religious illiteracy. Moreover, even if one considers ‘Muslim’a cultural designation, there is no search interface that allows the user to search for Muslims ascultural category. Other religions that are tagged as culture can be identi�ied on the platform,such as Sikhs, Mennonites, and Jews. In general, not only does the archive feature very little onMuslims, its data architecture casts them in cultural and not religious terms, which would notnecessarily occur to a member of the general public seeking to tell stories about Muslim-Canadian experiences.

Multicultural History Society of Ontario (MHSO)

The MHSO is a non-pro�it educational organization and archives founded in 1976. As is evidentfrom its name, this archive’s focus is the documentation of the ethnic diversity and immigranthistory of Canada. Most of their materials are not digitized but they have some of theirdescriptions and �inding aids online. One of their strongest collections is an oral historycollection and, judging from their inventory list online, they categorized the oral histories byethnic group. The religious a��iliations of the individuals interviewed are not speci�ied and noteasily discernible from the records.

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E. Other Possible Archives Sources

This section brie�ly discusses 3 memory institutions in Canada that currently contain or haveintentions to collect some archival materials on Muslims in Canada. Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 

Dedicated to the history of immigration in Canada, especially through - but not limited to - Pier21 in Nova Scotia, this museum ought to be a home for Canadian Muslim stories, given that many,

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Alternatively, the MHSO also has some of its archival materials collected (until 1987) in theArchives of Ontario (AO), which created a detailed description of the MHSO fonds on the AOdescription database. The �inding aid for the MHSO fonds is divided into multiple series (53photograph series and 41 series of textual records) and each series is arranged by ethnic group.One such “ethnic” photo series is curiously titled “Islamic Canadian photographs.” The phrasingis awkward and arguably re�lects a Christian world view on religious identity. Certainly followersof Christianity take their name from the religion itself—Christians. But followers of Islam do not.Islam is an Arabic term that denotes the religion and is only awkwardly translated into English assurrender, submission, or peace. One who follows Islam is a “Muslim”. In Arabic grammar,“Muslim” is an active participle denoting ‘one who submits’. While this archive may have hadChristianized-end users in mind, this does not re�lect the multicultural landscape of Canada, notto mention its Canadian Muslim minority who would not normally identify themselves as“Islamic Canadian”. Although this series has 172 photographs of Canadian Muslims and CanadianMuslim organizations in Ontario, dated from 1921-1978, the archive’s online arrangement anddescription practices make them di��icult and inconvenient to access, aside from being framedcontrary to the very identity and purpose of the archive. Putting aside this awkward phrasing, thearchive categorizes these “Islamic Canadian” materials in ethno-cultural terms, and not religiousterms, putting them alongside Chinese Canadians, Greek Canadians and Lebanese Canadians.

Mulla Asghar Memorial Library and Islamic Resource Centre (MARC)

During my research for this environmental scan, I came across the MARC, an institution createdand run by the Khoja Shia Ithna-Ashari Muslim community, and located in Thornhill, Ontario.As a library and Islamic “resource centre” there was potential that this institution containedarchival materials on the history of Muslims in Canada. On July 2, 2019, I visited the MARC andmet Fatima Sajan, an executive member of MARC, who gave me a tour of the center. During thatmeeting, we had a phone call discussion with the institution’s current president and boardmember, Dr Husnain Walji. While MARC’s purpose is to be a center for Islamic research and afacilitator of interfaith dialogue, Dr Walji explained that MARC documents the history of theKhoja community around the world, including the Khoja Muslim community in Canada, throughits Khoja Heritage Project. The initiative focuses on, among many things, collecting anddigitizing books relating to Khoja history and culture, a Khoja oral history project, creating aKhoja family tree, and so on. As the only institution in Canada strictly dedicated to the history ofa particular, ethnically-identi�ied, Muslim community in Canada, the scope of the MARC isnarrow as compared to the proposed SIMiC archive on the history of Muslims and Islam inCanada. Nevertheless, the MARC is open to collaboration and consultation with the SIMiCarchive initiative.

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V. Comparative Analyses: American Archives

This section highlights certain Muslim American archival initiatives to provide comparison andcontrast to the Canadian archival landscape. The United States features a large number of archivalinitiatives dedicated to the history of Muslims in America. The following are just a few of them:

Archive of Muslim American History and Life: A project of Indiana University and PurdueUniversity, this digital archive documents American Muslim life with a regional focus onIndiana. This archive also collects the ISNA USA magazine.

Portland Muslim History Project: This initiative began as a community archive to document thelives of Muslims living in Oregon and Southwestern Washington. In 2018, it was transferred tothe Reed College Special Collections and Archives. The project is funded by the HarvardPluralism Project and by the O��ice of the President of Reed College.

“Muslim Lives” Project at the Islamic Studies Center at Duke University: The Islamic StudiesCenter at Duke University has launched an oral history project to record the stories ofAmerican Muslims. Through oral histories, this project aims to illustrate both the challengesand successes in Muslim-American lives. According to their website, they will featureinterviews with Dr Ingrid Mattson, calligrapher Mohamed Zakariya, and Suzanne Barakat, arelative of the Muslim students murdered by a gunman in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Thisround of interviews will be followed by oral histories with leaders of the American Muslimcommunity, starting with the African-American Muslim community.

Collections & Stories of American Muslims, Inc. (CSAM): A community archival/historicalinitiative, this non-pro�it organization, founded in 1996, is dedicated to the history of Muslimsin America. It features “an Islamic museum, traveling exhibition, and archives” and hasexhibited its archival materials in multiple cultural institutions across the United States sinceits founding. The Islamic Heritage Museum & Cultural Center, a physical center located inDC, is a division of CSAM and houses the artifacts and archival materials that CSAM collects.This organization depends heavily on public donations; any alternative funding sources areunknown.

With the exception of CSAM, the American initiatives listed above are a��iliated with USuniversities, and have scopes limited by region, state, or city. From these disparate initiatives, we candiscern an attempt at the local level to tell the stories of Muslims in America to different audiences.We were not able to identify any national-level attempt to collect, curate, or otherwise support thetelling of Muslim stories in the United States.

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VI. Situating the SIMiC Digital Archives

As is evident from this environmental scan, the history of Muslims in Canada is largely absent inCanada’s archival landscape, and there is an urgent need for the SIMiC archive to �ill a gap in theCanadian historical narrative.

As an entity within the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Arts & Science, the Institute of IslamicStudies’ SIMiC archive would bene�it from the wealth of resources and support available at theUniversity. Although some archival materials relating to Muslims in Canada exist in piecemeal,however awkwardly catalogued, at different Canadian archives, it is clear that a single platform isneeded to e��iciently and meaningfully make accessible the history of Muslims in Canada to a diverseaudience. Current Canadian archives generally do not categorize Muslims or Islam by religion, butrather use ethnic groupings as a base reference category. At best, the ‘Muslim’ experience can only beinferred. At worst, this erases minority religious groups from Canada’s archival holdings at a timewhen religious identity has become a very public and political touchstone in recent elections. From�uebec’s attack on the headscarf to right wing extremism that resulted in the terrorist attack at a�uebec City mos�ue, being ‘Muslim’ is often associated with a national security and threat narrativethat dehumanizes a portion of Canada’s citizenry. A digital archive provides Muslims in Canada auni�ied platform to present their contributions to Canadian history and, at the same time, resist thisdehumanization. Moreover, prevailing practices of archival arrangement and description virtuallyerase religion by “ethnicizing” it, thereby impeding searches for Muslim- Canadian content that mighttraverse ethnic and racial categories. This report concludes that Canada’s archival practices do notaccommodate the ‘Muslim’ through traditional and digital arrangement and description practices thatpreserve an ahistorical image of Canada’s demographic landscape. At the time this environmental scanwas completed, other Canadian archives did not have a collecting priority or mandate to documentMuslim Canada speci�ically. The SIMiC archive has the potential to �ill in a large gap in the history ofCanada while simultaneously making visible and accessible the voice of Muslim Canada. To do so willre�uire any such archival project to consider the following goals and aspirations:

collaborate with the Muslim communities themselves to better understand how that communitysees itself, understands itself, and recognizes itself.coordinate a national campaign of archival ac�uisition to create a central hub of archivalresearch, while coordinating with stakeholder parties and institutions across levels ofgovernment and regions of Canada.coordinate effective knowledge transfer of archival best practices to communities new to thepractice of archivingengage the archival professional community to both learn from and contribute to thedevelopment of best archival practicesparticipate with government archives projects in order to enhance digital and archival metadatapractices to render ‘Muslim’ and ‘Islam’ visible and legible employ more than one archival practice of arrangement and description that speaks to distinctaudiences, rather than privileging the scholarly or the archival communities, as is dominant inarchival practice.

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Footnotes For more on the power of archives over history and archival silences, see: Carter, Rodney. "Of ThingsSaid and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence." Archivaria 61 (2006): 215-233.Carter explains how state power and the elite can perform “archival violence” against marginalized orminority groups, silencing their memory. Ultimately, what is chosen to be a part of a state archive ormajor archival institution is based on the state’s or parent organization’s agenda. What is notincluded is an act of silencing, whether intentional or not.See Cook, Terry. “Archival science and postmodernism: new formulations for old concepts.” ArchivalScience 1 (2001): 3-24 and Stoler, Ann Laura. “Colonial Archives and the Arts of Governance.”Archival Science 2 (2002): 87-109. Both Terry Cook and Ann Laura Stoler provide exceptionalexplanations and histories of how archives were created, by whom, and their purpose throughouttime. Cook explains that archives “traditionally were founded by the state, to serve the state, as partof the state's hierarchical structure and organizational culture” (p. 18) and Stoler emphasizes thecolonial past of archives.Tschan, Reto. "A comparison of Jenkinson and Schellenberg on appraisal." The American Archivist65, no. 2 (2002): 179. Tschan, “A comparison of Jenkinson and Schellenberg on appraisal,” 177 & 179. “ACA Governance," Association of Canadian Archivists, n.d., https://archivists.ca/Governance “Ac�uisitions,” York University Libraries, n.d.,https://www.library.yorku.ca/web/archives/ac�uisitions/ “Our Mandate,” Library and Archives Canada, May 5, 2017, http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/about-us/Pages/our-mandate.aspx “Enhanced Archives Search – Basic,” Library and Archives Canada, September 4, 2019,http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/lac-bac/search/arch “Mohammad S. �aadri fonds,” Library and Archives Canadahttp://collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_tim=2019-10-21T15%3A12%3A04Z&url_ctx_fmt=info%3Ao�i%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=102773&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fcollectionscanada.gc.ca%3Apam&lang=engFoot“Browse by Topic,” Library and Archives Canada, http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/Pages/discover.aspx  “A�Z Index,” Library and Archives Canada, http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/Pages/A�Z-Index.aspx  Yasmeen Abu-Laban and Christina Gabriel, Selling Diversity: Immigration, Multiculturalism,Employment and Globalization (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002). Recent conversations with LAC suggest that these spaces for under-represented communities arenow being prioritized under an upcoming, reoriented mandate. For more on the multicultural mandate at LAC see the following very informative article: Vernon,Karina. “Invisibility exhibit: The limits of library and archives Canada's "multicultural mandate",” inBasements and Attics Closets and Cyberspace: Explorations in Canadian Women's Archives, ed.Linda M. Morra, and Jessica Schagerl (Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2012), 193-204.Vernon explains how the multicultural mandate at LAC came about and speci�ically points outLAC’s weaknesses when documenting under-represented ethnic groups.

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15. “Membership Categories,” Association of Canadian Archivists, https://archivists.ca/Membership- Categories16. More on MHSO and its beginnings here: http://mhso.ca/wp/who-we-are/17. AO online description of the MHSO fonds:

 http://ao.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/PROV/PROV/REFD+F+1405?SESSIONSEARCH18. “Islamic Canadian photographs” series: to: 

http://ao.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/ARCH_DESCRIPTIVE/DESCRIPTION_DET_REP/SISN%2018435?SESSIONSEARCH

19. More on “Muslim Lives” Project: https://islamicstudies.duke.edu/muslim-lives20. More on CSAM: http://www.muslimsinamerica.org/about.html21. The cover image of this report is of the Al-Rashid Mos�ue at its opening in 1938, ac�uired from:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Al-Rashid_Mos�ue.�PG

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