CAMPING IN QUEBEC

A couple of weeks ago I attended a camp that featured  Hajj Hassanain Rajabali.

Despite the pesky presence of black flies and mosquitoes (who seemed to have quite the appetite for human flesh), I had a super time at the camp with an awesome group of people, and benefited greatly from the sessions with Hajj Hassanain. 

Here and below is an article I wrote on the camp for Ottawa's monthly Muslim newspaper, Muslim Link.

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Photo courtesy of Emma Photography

The Ahlul Bayt Student Association (ABSA) at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa held their fourth annual spring camp over the Victoria Day long weekend.

Featuring world renowned English lecturer Hassanain Rajabali, the camp took place at CampAwacamenj Mino (around 70 km from Ottawa) and attracted more than 100 participants, mostly students, from Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal.

Campers were treated to three days of canoeing, zip-lining, and rock-climbing and took part in interactive sessions with Professor Rajabali. Each night also featured a large bonfire, giving attendees a chance to unwind and spend time with the professor.

Currently living in Dearborn, Michigan, Prof. Rajabali is an internet sensation of sorts for his logical approach to debating with atheists. He has delivered lectures all over the world, and is the founder and director of Camp Taha, a 105-acre campsite that is the first ever Muslim-owned camp in North America.

“Camps are a beautiful place because it brings you down to nature,” he said. “As long as you resonate with good messages, the youth love you.”

He said he decided to invest his time and money into a camp instead of a community centre or a mosque because he feels there are already enough centres, and that each has its own ‘battle-zones’ between them.

“The best thing to do is to help them improve their unity and make them better,” Prof. Rajabali said. “They (mosques and centres) are essential, but the community needs more programs that are enhancing to the social status of the community.”

According to Hussein Beydoun, the president of ABSA at University of Ottawa, the presence of Prof. Rajabali had made this year’s camp extra special. He said that the goal of this particular camp was to give students a chance to learn more about Islam, and have fun at the same time.

“We wanted to do something completely different where they (participants) can socialize with each other, and at the end of the day take something home about the message of Islam and the message of Ahlul Bayt,” he said. “We gave people the perfect mix of both.”

For 18-year-old camper Adam Bawab, the camp was a chance to meet new people and benefit from a speaker he had previously only seen on YouTube.

“The best thing I like about him (Hassanain Rajabali) is that he connects with us as youths,” Bawab said. “He speaks with us and he doesn’t think of himself as higher than us – he’s very down to earth.”

Bawab said that a key point he took away from the sessions with Prof. Rajabali was the importance of balance.

“The biggest thing I’ll take back from the lectures and the time we spent with Hassanain Rajabali is the importance of balance in our lives,” he said. “When we talked about how everything needs balance, and after that particular speech, you can start realizing that everything really does need balance.”          

Another one of the messages that Prof. Rajabali conveyed over his lectures and Q&A sessions at the camp was that while external social pressures are a challenge that face youths today, problems also rise from within religious circles themselves.

“I think religious institutions and religious leaders do not represent religion properly, or they misarticulate the message,” he said. “When you do that what it does is it creates confusion in the hearts of people which leads them to become agnostics if not atheists – that’s a big challenge.”

Prof. Rajabali said that the enthusiasm displayed by the participants was refreshing, and a sign of good things to come.

“I see that they are very motivated, they really want to do something good, they’re very hungry,” he said.