{"id":107122,"date":"2025-09-11T19:33:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T23:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/editionap.ca\/?p=107122"},"modified":"2026-02-17T21:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:52:16","slug":"faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith and friendship at Islamic Cultural Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Hawkesbury\u2019s Islamic Cultural Centre is a place where faith, family, and community fellowship join hands.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are here to serve the community,\u201d said Zakaria Benhar, the centre\u2019s administrator, during an interview at the community group\u2019s information kiosk set up during Fun Day\/Journ\u00e9e des loisirs at Parc Cadieux.<\/p>\n<p>The centre was founded in October 2024 to help welcome newcomers, both Muslim and non-Muslim, to the Hawkesbury community and help them with information on local services and programs.<\/p>\n<p>Located on Main Street, the centre provides a place of worship for the Hawkesbury area\u2019s Muslim community, which numbers about 100 families, and also offers lessons in the Quran, the Muslim holy book, for children and adults, both Muslim and non-Muslim.<\/p>\n<p>But, Benhar noted, the centre is not just focused on worship and the teachings of Islam. Like many of Hawkesbury\u2019s community service groups, the centre also occupies itself with providing a variety of community service programs, ranging from indoor soccer sessions year-round for both children and adults, to hosting social events like potluck suppers and also iftar, a community meal when Muslims break their fast during Ramadan.<\/p>\n<p>The centre also works hard at organizing fundraiser drives to collect food and cash donation to help support Hawkesbury\u2019s food bank. Centre staff also help advise people about available rental accommodations and also who to contact at the town office for help through various municipal service programs. There are also lessons provided in learning and speaking Arabic, and also for those who need help improving their English and French.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe serve the whole community,\u201d said Benhar. \u201cThe centre is open for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More information, including contact details, for the centre is available at https:\/\/hicc-ccih.org\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hawkesbury\u2019s Islamic Cultural Centre is a place where faith, family, and community fellowship join hands. \u201cWe are here to serve the community,\u201d said Zakaria Benhar, the centre\u2019s administrator, during an interview at the community group\u2019s information kiosk set up during Fun Day\/Journ\u00e9e des loisirs at Parc Cadieux. The centre was founded in October 2024 to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":107123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-justice-faits-divers"],"acf":[],"featured_media_global":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Faith and friendship at Islamic Cultural Centre - Tribune-Express<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faith and friendship at Islamic Cultural Centre - Tribune-Express\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hawkesbury\u2019s Islamic Cultural Centre is a place where faith, family, and community fellowship join hands. \u201cWe are here to serve the community,\u201d said Zakaria Benhar, the centre\u2019s administrator, during an interview at the community group\u2019s information kiosk set up during Fun Day\/Journ\u00e9e des loisirs at Parc Cadieux. The centre was founded in October 2024 to [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tribune-Express\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-11T23:33:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-17T20:52:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.editionap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/COLGC-Islamic_cultural_centre-PHOTO-4.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anil Jhalli\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anil Jhalli\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Anil Jhalli\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/a09095fdf65e09e747105760fe90175c\"},\"headline\":\"Faith and friendship at Islamic Cultural Centre\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-11T23:33:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-17T20:52:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/\"},\"wordCount\":293,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.editionap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/COLGC-Islamic_cultural_centre-PHOTO-4.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\",\"Faits divers\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/\",\"name\":\"Faith and friendship at Islamic Cultural Centre - Tribune-Express\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.editionap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/COLGC-Islamic_cultural_centre-PHOTO-4.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-11T23:33:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-17T20:52:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/a09095fdf65e09e747105760fe90175c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cdn.editionap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/COLGC-Islamic_cultural_centre-PHOTO-4.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.editionap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/COLGC-Islamic_cultural_centre-PHOTO-4.jpg\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":1200,\"caption\":\"Helping support the local food is just one of the community service programs available from the Hawkesbury Islamic Cultural Centre.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Accueil\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Faith and friendship at Islamic Cultural Centre\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Tribune-Express\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/a09095fdf65e09e747105760fe90175c\",\"name\":\"Anil Jhalli\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63becc64fff8877a05400459aa003b94a1fdc8d3954acacc688ee6a2bc39fef8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63becc64fff8877a05400459aa003b94a1fdc8d3954acacc688ee6a2bc39fef8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Anil Jhalli\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Faith and friendship at Islamic Cultural Centre - Tribune-Express","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Faith and friendship at Islamic Cultural Centre - Tribune-Express","og_description":"Hawkesbury\u2019s Islamic Cultural Centre is a place where faith, family, and community fellowship join hands. \u201cWe are here to serve the community,\u201d said Zakaria Benhar, the centre\u2019s administrator, during an interview at the community group\u2019s information kiosk set up during Fun Day\/Journ\u00e9e des loisirs at Parc Cadieux. The centre was founded in October 2024 to [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/","og_site_name":"Tribune-Express","article_published_time":"2025-09-11T23:33:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-02-17T20:52:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":1200,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.editionap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/COLGC-Islamic_cultural_centre-PHOTO-4.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anil Jhalli","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anil Jhalli","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/"},"author":{"name":"Anil Jhalli","@id":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/a09095fdf65e09e747105760fe90175c"},"headline":"Faith and friendship at Islamic Cultural Centre","datePublished":"2025-09-11T23:33:23+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-17T20:52:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/"},"wordCount":293,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.editionap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/COLGC-Islamic_cultural_centre-PHOTO-4.jpg","articleSection":["Culture","Faits divers"],"inLanguage":"en-CA"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/","url":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/","name":"Faith and friendship at Islamic Cultural Centre - Tribune-Express","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.editionap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/COLGC-Islamic_cultural_centre-PHOTO-4.jpg","datePublished":"2025-09-11T23:33:23+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-17T20:52:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/a09095fdf65e09e747105760fe90175c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-CA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cdn.editionap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/COLGC-Islamic_cultural_centre-PHOTO-4.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.editionap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/COLGC-Islamic_cultural_centre-PHOTO-4.jpg","width":1600,"height":1200,"caption":"Helping support the local food is just one of the community service programs available from the Hawkesbury Islamic Cultural Centre."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/justice-faits-divers\/faith-and-friendship-at-islamic-cultural-centre\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Accueil","item":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Faith and friendship at Islamic Cultural Centre"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/","name":"Tribune-Express","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-CA"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/a09095fdf65e09e747105760fe90175c","name":"Anil Jhalli","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63becc64fff8877a05400459aa003b94a1fdc8d3954acacc688ee6a2bc39fef8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63becc64fff8877a05400459aa003b94a1fdc8d3954acacc688ee6a2bc39fef8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Anil Jhalli"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131400,"href":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107122\/revisions\/131400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}