When Farooq Maseehuddin enters the room, his friend Bev Sesink immediately greets him with a hug.
The Muslim spiritual leader and the Christian spiritual leader are launching a discussion about the power of forgiveness.
“She said, ‘God, please give to me the forgiveness that I need to give to him,'” Sesink says, recanting a piece of a sermon that captures the resiliency of the Jewish faith during the Holocaust. “I know your word says, ‘If I do not forgive, neither will I be forgiven.'”
It’s Sunday morning and the two men are standing in the foyer of the Boyle Street Community League building, where people have started arriving for Tarjuma, a Muslim community gathering.
Sesink has a congregation of his own at Calvary Community Church in Mill Woods, but he articulates a need to be with his friend, whose community is showing tremendous strength in the face of a trying test.
The associate pastor left his service early.
‘We do have a lot in common.’ – Bev Sesink
“Where there’s a choice to work together, there’s an opportunity to learn and serve together and realize we do have a lot in common in spite of the differences we do have,” Sesink says.
Two women greet each other with a hug at Tarjuma. (Roberta Bell/CBC)
Given the political climate in the United States, where U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban on citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries has been stayed, and the fallout from a fatal shooting at Quebec City mosque, Sesink’s gesture means a lot to Maseehuddin.
“I think it speaks to the strength of our friendship. It also speaks to the importance of building connections and building relationships when you’re not at the crucible of a geopolitical or national crisis,” Maseehuddin says.
‘I just began by saying hello’
The two men first connected five years ago. They worked together to build an Islamic version of a Christian program to support young married couples.
“It means a lot to have a friend like Bev, but it also means a lot for a leader within a local church to extend his hand through the various resources that he has to not just myself and my family, but also our entire community,” Maseehuddin says.
Sesink had been reading a book titled Muslims, Christians and Jesus by Carl Medearis when it dawned on him how little effort he had made to connect with people of different faiths in his diverse Mill Woods neighbourhood.
He contacted the Imam, the person who leads prayer, of the local mosque and began volunteering at nearby school. Slowly, he made his way into the community, unsure he could be a part of it.
Bev Sesink takes a cookie as he chats with young Muslim greeters at Tarjuma. (Roberta Bell/CBC)
“I just began by saying hello and noticed people were surprised,” says Sesink, who has learned greetings in five different languages.
‘I refuse to be the silent majority.’ – Bev Sesink
“People, they warm up, like they’re going, ‘Maybe I might be accepted.’ So I’ve made a point to do that,” he says. “I refuse to be the silent majority that isn’t affirming of those who are moving into our community or have been here for some time but still don’t feel accepted.”
Maseehuddin says for some Muslims, that is an unfortunate reality.
“One thing that Muslims often say is that we just want people to know is that we are just people like everyone else,” he says.
“Sometimes because we wear our faith on our sleeves, in some ways very visibly, it can be intimidating to get to know one another.”
As Sesink and Maseehuddin have gotten to know one another, they’ve realized they are very similar. They’re both husbands and fathers who want the best for the communities they serve.
“I think interfaith connection has to be personal if it’s going to be real,” Maseehuddin says.
“I think it extends beyond the shells of our faith or our identities as members of a particular faith tradition. It’s getting to know one another as people.”
‘What people all across Canada want to see’
Sesink helps himself to a cup of coffee and a cookie as he converses with the Muslim teens manning the reception table. He walks toward the Willow Room, where Mustafa Ghani will deliver a message about spiritual growth. He sits in the second row, listening intently.
Mustafa Ghani delivers a message from a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad. (Roberta Bell/CBC)
“You have this idea that it does actually make sense to plant this seedling,” Ghani tells 50 or so people packed into the small space as they contemplate the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad from different perspectives. “That may grow into fruition. That little plant may grow into a beautiful plant that gives people shade and gives people fruit. And the person has to have hope.”
The relationship between Sesink and Maseehuddin gives hope to many of the young Muslims who know them, including Umaimah Usmani.
“I think that’s what people all across Canada want to see. It’s just the message of inclusiveness and peace and love and harmony,” she says.
“I think it holds onto the Canadian values that this is a country where diversity is accepted and flourishes and where everybody should be able to practice what they believe in.”
Umaimah Usmani says the relationship between Bev Sesink and Farooq Maseehuddin embodies Canadian values. (Roberta Bell/CBC)
Usmani, a dentist by trade who now has her hands full driving her three children to hockey, soccer and swimming lessons, makes time to come to Tarjuma every week.
“I think that’s the message that the space gives out to people, that it’s a wonderful space to connect, to grow spiritually, for your families to connect and it’s a wonderful space for me to bring non-Muslim friends just to get a sense of what Muslim spaces look like.”
Maseehuddin says now more than ever before, that curiosity is there.
‘This is a time of a lot of loneliness.’ – Farooq Maseehuddin
“Muslims are like anyone else. This is a time of a lot of loneliness,” he says. “All of us, whether you’re Muslim or not, are looking for a sense of belonging, a place to connect.
“That’s what Tarjuma is, it’s a place for us to connect on a weekly basis with people that we know, but also to kind of open our arms to anyone who wants to show up and hang out and learn from the ancient traditions of Islam.”