Jami Mosque (Toronto)

Jami Mosque (مسجد جامع) is a mosque in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located just east of High Park, it is the oldest Canadian Islamic centre in the city and dubbed "the mother of all the mosques in Toronto".

Built in 1930 as a Presbyterian church, the building was purchased in 1969 by Toronto's small, predominantly Bosniak and Albanians Muslim community and converted into the city's first Islamic worship centre.

History
Jami's congregation was founded in 1961 and first met in a leather shop near Dundas West and Keele. The structure that now houses the mosque was originally built in 1930 by John Francis Brown & Son as the High Park Presbyterian Church. In 1969, the Muslim Society of Toronto managed to secure funds from King Faisal of Saudi Arabia to secure purchase the church building as a home for the pre-existing congregation and as Toronto's first permanent mosque.

While Jami originally held a large number of Tablighi Jamaat followers, the numbers declined after a large influx of Gujarati Muslims immigration led to the leasing of a hall in eastern Toronto; and the eventual 1981 purchase of a building converted to Madina Mosque, which became the spiritual hub of Tablighi Jamaat. Jami then drifted towards finding leadership in the Muslim Students Association.

Controversies
B'nai Brith raised concerns in 2004 when Ibrahim Hussein Malabari, variously described at the time as either the current or former imam at Jami, invited Abdul-Rahman Al-Sudais to an Islamic Society of North America conference. Al-Soudais had previously described Jews as "the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the killers of prophets and the grandsons of monkeys and pigs" sparking condemnation from the Jewish group.

In 2017, Jami was found to be raising money that was indirectly being used to fund the Jamaat-E-Islami and its armed wing Hizbul Mujahideen. The Hizbul Mujahideen is on Canada's list of banned organizations. As a result, ISNA Islamic Services of Canada, the group organizing the drive was ordered to pay a $500,000 fine. According to the Canadian Revenue Agency: "the society’s resources may have, directly or indirectly, been used the support the political efforts of Jamaat-e-Islami and/or its armed wing Hizbul Mujahideen."

Notable Congregants

 * Ahmad Kutty – North American Islamic scholar, former imam at Jami
 * Ahmed Khadr – Father of Omar Khadr
 * Mohammed Abdullah Warsame – Canadian citizen convicted in the United States for providing material support for terrorism
 * Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub – Egyptian citizen arrested in Canada on a security certificate for his alleged membership in the Vanguards of Conquest
 * Hassan Almrei – Syrian citizen arrested in Canada on a security certificate for his alleged membership in al-Qaeda