Islam requires all neighbors to be loving and cooperative with one another, sharing their sorrows and happiness.
It enjoins that they should establish social relations in which one can depend upon the other and regard his life, honor, and property safe among his neighbors.
Fulfilling the right of their neighbors, an Islamic center in Edmonton has been helping people with major struggles while still treating them with compassion and constructive care.
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The Edmonton Islamic Resource Center arose in response to requests from other organizations that work with vulnerable and marginalized populations.
Now, it operates as an interfaith collaboration of Muslim organizations, the Jewish community, the Mustard Seed, the Mennonite Church, and many others.
“We are not a social agency, and the amount of work that we deal with forced us to open up a social agency. We call it the EIRC: the Edmonton Islamic Resource Centre,” Salwa Kadri, the office manager at the Al Rashid Mosque, which operate under EIRC program, told St Albert Today.
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Helping Less Fortunate
Telling a larger story about homelessness and mental health, Kadri wants this emergency shelter to bring more awareness to the right places that deal with vulnerable populations.
“We have come a long way to make people feel comfortable, but social issues like homelessness, the domestic violence … these social issues — that are local — are new to us.
“The amount of cases that are coming in. It’s overwhelming now. We were forced to open up Edmonton Islamic Resource Centre.”
Helping others is beneficial on both sides as one volunteer said on his becoming involved in the EIRC and its work, “I found my thing. I found what I want to do in life. I want to help these people.”
Several mosques and Islamic centers have been catering to the needs of the homeless.
In January 2020, the mosque opened its doors to rough sleepers and homeless people during cold winter weather.
A year earlier in February 2019, the same mosque opened its doors to shelter the needy and homeless of all faiths.
The post This Edmonton Islamic Center Is Doing Amazing Social Services appeared first on About Islam.
source https://aboutislam.net/muslim-issues/n-america/this-edmonton-islamic-center-is-doing-amazing-social-services/
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