Why Scarborough’s ‘We Belong’ Campaign Demands Our Solidarity

By Muneeb Nasir

(Presentation given on Sunday, May 24, 2026, at DEEN Support Services High Tea event)

We have become exceptionally skilled at building the infrastructure of ritual.

Across the Greater Toronto Area, and particularly in Scarborough, our landscapes are adorned with mosques and vibrant Islamic schools. 

These institutions stand as testaments to decades of grit, sacrifice, and the profound generosity of a diaspora that found its first footing on Canadian soil right here in the East End of Toronto.

Yet, as we enter the most sacred days of the Islamic calendar—the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah—we are compelled to look beyond brick, mortar, and ritual. 

We are called to reflect on the true meaning of sacrifice: the giving of our resources, our time, and our hearts to those who feel forgotten by their own community.

It is during this blessed season that we must confront a glaring, uncomfortable truth. 

While we readily spend millions on expanding our mosques and community centres, we have systematically neglected the infrastructure of compassion. 

Right now, in the City of Toronto, there remain critical, heartbreaking gaps: one such gap is the lack of a faith-centered sanctuary for Muslims living with disabilities.

The launch of DEEN Support Services’ “We Belong” Scarborough campaign is a direct challenge to this collective oversight. 

The initiative seeks to purchase and retrofit a property in Scarborough to serve as an active sanctuary—a place to provide life-changing respite care and day programs for exhausted parents and caregivers.

A Legacy Left Unfinished

To understand the weight of this campaign, one must understand the legacy of the late Sister Rafia Haniff-Cleofas. 

A beloved Scarborough resident who contracted polio as a child in Guyana, Sister Rafia famously refused to let her diagnosis define her. Instead, she turned her wheelchair into a throne of advocacy.

From the 1980s onward, she was the heartbeat of our Muslim community. She was a fixture in study circles at the Jami Mosque and the Islamic Foundation in the 1980s and 1990s and later as a leader of programs at the Islamic Institute of Toronto (IIT). 

Her activism extended globally through relief work and locally as a founding force behind organizations like the Ethno-Racial People with Disabilities Coalition of Ontario (ERDCO) and Canadian Association of Muslims with Disabilities (CAMD).

Sister Rafia’s life was guided by a profound principle: a community is ultimately judged by how it treats its most vulnerable members. 

Before her passing, her final, most transformative dream was to establish a permanent home in Scarborough where families navigating the lifelong responsibilities of disability care could find dignity, faith-centered support, and peace.

Today, that dream remains an unfinished chapter. The pen has been passed to us to write the conclusion.

Moving Beyond "Performed" Charity

Let us be entirely blunt: it is a collective shame that an organization founded by Muslim women with disabilities, serving Muslims with disabilities, must constantly plead for our support. 

Representatives from DEEN should not have to beg for a few minutes with mosque Boards to ask for the resources required to survive. 

Accessibility and dignity are not optional line items or afterthought projects. 

If our faith does not manifest as a protective safety net for those who need it most, we are missing the core message of Islam.

The Scarborough Health Network’s famous "Love Scarborough" campaign reminded the wider city that "Toronto is nothing without Scarborough," highlighting a persistent deficit in provincial and municipal funding for the region. 

But we cannot simply point fingers at external systemic neglect when we are guilty of the same internal shortfall within our own community funding structures.

DEEN Support Services is an organization truly "doing" charity rather than just performing it. Because its programs are designed by individuals with lived experience, it offers genuine self-determination and dignity to its participants.

The Call to Action

True giving is never transactional; it is an act of love. 

As Eid Al-Adha approaches this week, we have a unique opportunity to turn our sympathy into solidarity.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) reminded us that no good deeds are better than those done in these first ten days of Dhul Hijjah. 

We must honour Sister Rafia’s legacy by ensuring the "We Belong" campaign achieves its financial goals.

We urge every community member to take three concrete steps:

1. Make a direct financial commitment to help purchase and retrofit a Scarborough property: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/deen/p2p/scarborough-home/
2. Use the upcoming Eid gatherings to advocate and raise funds among family and friends.
3. Request that your local mosque, especially those that Sr Rafi Haniff was an active member of, formally and financially partner with DEEN Support Services to complete the purchase of a property.

Let us establish a permanent infrastructure of compassion in the soil of Scarborough. 

As we step forward to build this sanctuary, we echo the timeless prayer of Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) for acceptance of this project:

Rabbana taqabbal minna, innaka Antas-Sami'ul-'Alim. "Our Lord, accept [this] from us. Indeed, You are the Hearing, the Knowing."

For more information: https://www.deensupportservices.ca/