Canada’s first mosque, the Al Rashid Mosque in Edmonton, was built in 1938. In the years since, as Canada’s Muslim population has grown, close to two hundred mosques, Islamic centres and prayer spaces have been built across the country.

 This research explores the mosques of Canada in their diversity, beauty, practicality, and versatility. From east to west and to the north, the author has visited ninety mosques in more than fifty cities, including Canada’s most northern places of worship in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. For nearly a century Muslims have made mosques in a variety of spaces, from converted shops and vacated churches to large, purpose-built complexes. Drawing on site photographs, architectural drawings, and interviews, the author has explored the extraordinary diversity in how these spaces have been designed, built, and used - as places not only of worship, but of community gathering, education, charitable work, and civic engagement. The types of gendered spaces in Canadian mosques are an important focus of the study: how gendered spaces are designed and reinforced, and how these divides shape community experience.

 This paper summarizes the key findings of the first ground-breaking and comprehensive study of mosque history and architecture in Canada. In Canada, the mosque is a dynamic building type that adapts to its context, from its climate and physical environment to the community it serves. Above all, mosque designs depend on the people who gather in them, and what those people strive for their mosques to be.