Welcome to Abdus Salam Street, Canada

Ahmadiyya housing development set to expand

VAUGHAN, Canada (AFP)

The homes come with separate living rooms for men and women. Streets are named Bashir, Zafrulla Khan, and Abdus Salam. And every house has a view of the mosque, visible from miles around.

This is Peace Village, a residential housing development in the Toronto suburb of Vaughn that caters to Ahmadiyyas -- but is open to anyone.

It grew around a small mosque that sprouted in the early 1990s in a corn field along a desolate highway in this nondescript suburb of Toronto, Canada's largest metropolis with five million residents, where one in two people are immigrants.

Built by a handful of devout Ahmadiyyas -- a sect founded at the end of the 19th century in what is now Pakistan, but considered heretics by most mainstream Muslims -- the mosque is today the centerpiece of this emerging neighborhood.

Initially, "the main motivation was to bring worshippers close to the mosque," developer Naseer Ahmad told AFP. Born in Pakistan, the 54-year-old immigrated to Canada in 1976.

Officially started in 1998, the village is now home to more than 260 upper-middle class families.

The area streets borrow names from Pakistan's official language, Urdu, or honor famous Pakistani nationals such as 1979 Nobel laureate Abdus Salam.

Homes are designed with two living rooms -- one for men, and another for women. And every kitchen is equipped with an extra powerful ventilation system to help clear the air when preparing spicy or smoky ethnic dishes.

"My children are growing up here. It is really positive for them," said Adil Malik, a businessman who has lived with his wife in Peace Village since 2001.

"I have seen other kids (grow up here). Now they are teenagers and they are very productive members of society ... going to university," he said. "We look at it in the point of view that it is a community that supports each other."

A house here costs about 500,000 dollars (345,000 euros) and strong demand has forced developers to add a second phase, now under construction.

"It has given true meaning to (Canada's) multiculturalism concept," said the developer Ahmad, photographs of himself with leading Canadian politicians littering his office.

Patricia Wood, an associate professor at York University who has researched multiculturalism and immigration, said the creation of an ethnic or religious-based neighborhood not new in North America.

"There are very few immigrant groups that did not create their own neighborhoods within larger cities, and historically it has been good for them and society at large," Wood said.

Whether it be the Ahmadiyya Peace Village, or Vancouver's century-old Chinatown, "there is so much mutual support in these communities that would not necessarily be available in Canadian society," she said.