The Canadian Islamic Congress has been successful in having cities across the country declare October as Islamic History Month.  Crowning the effort was a similar declaration by the House of Commons.  Some 80 events in celebration have been held across Canada. In one event in Ottawa, Dr. Zijad Delic showed a film about the history of Islamic art in Cairo.  Just as in the West, he pointed out, this art is built on what came before.  Under the Fatimids, whose rule began there in the tenth century, art and science flourished, particularly mathematics and hydraulics, essential because of reliance on the Nile for water. 

The art of Cairo was so important that, even after the Fatimids lost control of Sicily to the Normans, Muslim architects were hired to build Christian churches.  According to Imam Delic, Islamic culture began to decline when its scholars, artists, and scientists became marginalized and persecuted. One contentious issue in Islamic art is the depiction of human and animal figures.  This issue dates back to Mohammed’s prohibition of statues, according to Delic, as these were used in pagan worship.  Wahhabi Islam still frowns upon such depiction, but Delic says that the prohibition needs to be re-read in terms of how things are in the contemporary world.  The issue of idolatry is no longer pertinent, and even in earlier times there was some artistic depiction of human and animal figures.