Bedri Bylykbashi escaped from Communist-controlled Albania in 1963. He went first to Yugoslavia, then Italy, and then to Sweden. From Sweden he received his immigration papers to Canada in 1966. Bedri sat on the Board of the Muslim Society of Toronto from 1967. From 1981 until 2004 he was the Society’s President. He has been on the boards of several other Albanian-Canadian Associations. He is married with children.
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Mustafa Djukic escaped from Communist-controlled Bosnia (Old Yugoslavia) and came to Canada from Germany in 1955. He worked odd jobs until becoming a partner in a roofing business. He was a founding member of the Dundas St mosque. Mustafa is now retired. He is married and has two children.
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Alia Hogben is the Executive Director of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW). She also writes a monthly column on Islam and Muslims for the Kingston Whig Standard newspaper. She was born in Burma, lived in India, and later lived in a number of countries as the daughter of an Indian diplomat. Her family was very active in the Dundas St mosque – her mother cooked the Eid dinners single-handedly in the early years.
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Murray Hogben, PhD is a retired journalist and lecturer from Royal Military College in Kingston. He became Muslim after having met his wife-to-be, Alia, while at Carleton University in the 1950s. Murray became the Secretary of the Muslim Society of Toronto from 1961 to 1967. He has two children.
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Talat Muinuddin is currently President of the Women’s Intercultural Network. She came to Canada from India in the sixties after completing a Masters in Science, for which she was a Gold Medalist. She was the Sunday school teacher at the Dundas St mosque in the late -1960s.
She is a retired school teacher. Talat was a founding member of Canadian Council of Muslim Women, and President from 1982 to 1995. She was awarded the YWCA Woman of Distinction for Diversity in 2007.
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Solnaz Sahin left Turkey in 1960, spent a year in England and came to Canada in 1961 with her husband, Dr Fuad Sahin, a medical student at the time. She raised her three daughters, and was an active member at the Dundas St mosque. In 1982 she was a founding member of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women.
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Dr. Fuad Sahin was born in Urfa, Turkey, the town considered to be the birthplace of the Holy Prophet Abraham. In 1958, he came to Ontario and joined as an Internship Resident in Kingston, Ontario. In 1966, he became an Urologist, affiliated with Greater Niagara General Hospital, Niagara Falls, Ontario, where he continued to practice, until retirement.
Dr Sahin was an active member at the Dundas St mosque.
He has been a founder, or co-founder of: Islamic Foundation Inc.; Council of Muslim Communities of Canada (CMCC); International Development and Relief Foundation; Islamic Society of Niagara Peninsula; Islamic West Associates of Canada; Canadian Turkish Muslim Association.
In 2009 Dr Sahin was awarded the Order of Ontario.
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Amjad R. M. Syed has a B.Sc. (Agriculture) and an R.T. (Clinical Chemistry). He migrated to Canada from Bangalore India in 1965. He worked as a Medical Technologist at Sunnybrook Hospital Toronto for 30 years.
After participating at the Dundas St mosque, he was a founding member of the Islamic Foundation. He has pioneered Muslim volunteer work at Toronto’s hospitals, being the Founding Coordinator, Hospital Patients Visiting Service & Chair, Funeral Committee for Islamic Society of North America – Canada. He developed a language program for non-English speaking patients in 26 world languages at Trillium Hospital. He has received numerous awards, including the Community Service Awards from the Islamic Society of North America and the Canadian Islamic Congress; the Hajj trip award by Muslim World League in Canada and the President’s Gold Leaf Award by Trillium Health Centre Mississauga. He is the author of Islamic Perspectives on Prayers and Coping with Sickness, published by ISNA Canada, 2002.
Amjad is married and has three children.