ABOUT THE MUSLIMS IN CANADA DATA INITIATIVE (MiCDI)
MiCDI examines and develops large-scale data sets, that improve the visibility of Muslims across Canada. With a higher resolution understanding of Canada’s Muslims communities, MiCDI can enable more effective discussions about the policies and decisions that affect Muslims.
The Challenge:
Muslims are a misunderstood community
According to Canadian Muslims –A Statistical Review, commissioned by The Canadian Dawn Foundation, Canada’s Muslim population passed one million in 2015. In spite of the growing population and long history in Canada, Muslims continue to be one of the most misunderstood faith communities in the country. For several years, key individuals, including the late Daood Hamdani, and institutions such as the Environics Institute, have been at the forefront of analyzing datasets of Muslims in Canada. There is an increasing need to provide factual information about this growing community with many purposes in mind, including correcting stereotypes and removing barriers.
Policy makers at all levels of government—municipal, provincial, and federal—are keenly interested in Muslim communities, especially in this time of rising White extremism and its potentially violent effect on Muslims and their institutions. Policy makers rely on numbers and robust datasets to ensure their decisions are representative of their constituencies. Without a concerted effort to make Muslims in Canada legible to policy makers, Muslims will always be ambiguous, blurred, and muted group. Coherent and competent data analysis is essential to making a real impact on the state, needs and desires of Muslims in Canada.
The Solution:
Supporting Muslim communities through better data
Our response to this challenge is to establish the Muslims in Canada Data Initiative (MiCDI), a new and exciting venture by the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) and University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) Sociology Department.
MiCDI comprises leading Canadian scholars and researchers examining large-scale data sets about Muslims in Canada. Led by University of Calgary’s Dr. Abdie Kazemipur, MiCDI is assembling a team of researchers devoted to the development and examination of large-scale data sets that speak across stakeholders to facilitate more effective policy discussions that affect Muslims and other minorities and racialized communities in Canada.
The Team
Please visit our Team page for a listing of the MiCDI Data Team and our International Advisory Board.