British Columbia's Muslim community is heading into the October 17 municipal elections with its strongest slate of candidates in memory. Across the province, four Muslim candidates are running for mayor, 26 for city and town council seats, ten for school board trustee positions, and three for regional director and parks board roles — a sign of a community moving from the sidelines of civic life to the centre of it.
But buried inside those numbers is a story of its own: in Vancouver, both Muslim candidates seeking the mayor's chair aren't just running for a party — they built one.
TWO MAYORS, TWO NEW PARTIES
Muhammad Ahmad and Kareem Allam are both vying to lead Canada's third-largest city, and both are doing it at the helm of political movements they stood up themselves rather than joining an established machine. It's a rare split: two Muslim candidates for the same office, backing two competing visions, each staking a claim on what a "fresh start" for Vancouver should look like.
Ahmad leads Bright Future Vancouver (BFV), a party built around what it calls "The Blueprint" — a five-pillar platform aimed squarely at renters, tradespeople, and working families. The plan promises to divert 20% of monthly rent into a protected "Roots Equity Trust" that belongs to tenants, a first-term target of 2,000 below-market housing units, free transit for Vancouver residents, permits automatically granted within 21 days, and a 2% "fair share" surcharge on luxury properties over $5 million. The pitch, in BFV's own words: "134 years of history is about to break. Vancouver is no longer for sale. It's for us."
Beyond housing, BFV's platform rests on four other pillars: transit ("The Pulse"), promising fare relief, safer stations and a faster path toward extending SkyTrain to UBC; care ("Universal Care"), covering night-shift childcare and treatment-first crisis response; the local economy ("The Aurora Engine"), focused on faster permitting and worker training; and fiscal fairness ("Pure Vancouver"), which pairs infrastructure fixes like lead-free schools with a tax structure the party says will "fund the future."
Ahmad's own path to the mayor's race began far from City Hall. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, and raised in a working-class family, he learned early that "talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not" — a line that has stuck with him since high school, where he served as student president and sports captain. At Forman Christian College University he threw himself into human rights, environmental and youth advocacy work with organizations including Seeds of Peace, SOS Children's Villages, WWF Pakistan and AIESEC. After moving to Canada, he continued that advocacy at the College of the Rockies in Cranbrook, where he was elected Director-at-Large for the student union — a post he later resigned from in protest over issues he felt could not be ignored — while also taking on a Muslim community leadership role focused on dignity and inclusion for Muslim residents.
Today Ahmad is a husband, father of three, and communications professional who chairs the Strategic Advisory Board at Alpharay Consulting and serves as Vice President of the Board at Dunbar Memorial Preschool. He says he's running because he sees Vancouver families "stretched thin by the rising cost of living" and young people "losing faith that home ownership or long-term stability are still possible." His campaign, he says, isn't about politics as usual — it's about "restoring faith that Vancouver's best days are still ahead."
Running alongside Ahmad on the BFV ticket are three council nominees:
Ibrahima Cisse, an East Vancouver entrepreneur and founder of Community Growth Media, brings 15-plus years of grassroots organizing through the African Fair Trade Society along with campaign management experience at the provincial level.
Mohadeseh GP Arasi, who immigrated to Canada with her family, blends a background in health sciences, finance and entrepreneurship with volunteer work across daycares, hospitals and senior homes — experience she says taught her that "good policy starts with understanding the root of a problem."
Bilal Khan, born and raised in Metro Vancouver, attended Point Grey Secondary and grew up working on local farms before experiencing homelessness firsthand — an experience that, he says, shaped his understanding of the cracks in the city's housing system and drives his faith-rooted commitment to service.
On the other side of the mayoral race is Kareem Allam, running under the banner of the Vancouver Liberals. Allam's own political motivation is deeply personal: his mother was a refugee, and his father was a Colonel held as a prisoner of war for 11 months. That history, he says, shaped his belief that "peace and prosperity come from bringing people together from all sides" — and that once achieved, it must be protected. A lifelong Vancouverite with more than 25 years in municipal, provincial and federal governance, Allam is currently a partner at Richardson Strategy Group, a former Director of Public Policy at the Vancouver Board of Trade, and a past member of the Fraser Health Board of Directors. His campaign centres on what he calls the erosion of Canada's "two social contracts" — that a strong economy should fund world-class social programs, and that each generation owes the next a fair shot — an erosion he blames for pushing young families and working people out of Vancouver.
BEYOND VANCOUVER: SURREY AND RICHMOND LEAD THE SLATE
While Vancouver's mayoral race carries the headline, the largest concentration of Muslim candidates this election is in Surrey, which is fielding 11 council candidates and two school board trustee hopefuls — the biggest slate of any municipality in the province. Richmond follows with five council candidates and one trustee candidate.
Among Surrey's contenders is Bilal Cheema, a familiar name in the region's political circles. Cheema holds a business administration degree from Simon Fraser University and has spent nearly 20 years in government at both the political and public service level, later founding his own government relations and business development firm. A former treaty negotiator, he also served as Senior BC Advisor to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, chairs the South Asian Community Hub, has sat on the board of the Surrey Hospice Society, and served on the Surrey Police Board until December 2025 — work that earned him the King Charles III Coronation Medal for community service in 2025. Cheema and his family have called Surrey home for nearly 40 years, and this run marks his second attempt at civic office. "Surrey is one of the fastest growing cities in Canada," his campaign says. "We are heading to one million people. Our challenges are real. But so is our potential."
Among other notable numbers of Muslim candidates are Ashiana Khan, Yousuf Barakat, Afzalur Rahman, Intikhab Ahmed are also on the ballot in Burnaby, Chilliwack, Coquitlam, Kelowna, Kootenay, New Westminster, North Vancouver, Revelstoke and Wells — evidence that this year's wave of civic engagement extends well beyond the province's largest cities.
WHY IT MATTERS
Whether at the provincial or municipal level, community organizers say the message is the same: representation starts with participation. "Every vote counts, every vote matters," organizers behind this year's civic engagement push are reminding voters, urging community members not only to cast their own ballots on October 17 but to bring family and friends along with them.
With two self-made parties competing for Vancouver's top job and dozens of Muslim candidates on ballots from Surrey to Revelstoke, this election marks what may be the most consequential moment yet for Muslim civic participation in British Columbia's local politics.
Muslim Candidates — 2026 BC Municipal Elections
A community reference list of 41 identified Muslim candidates running in this year’s British Columbia municipal, school board, and regional district elections.
Mayor
Chilliwack
Farooque Syed — Independent
Revelstoke
Taha Attiah — Independent
Vancouver
Kareem Allam — Vancouver Liberals
Muhammad Ahmad — Bright Future Vancouver (BFV)
Councillor
Burnaby
Akmal Bazarov — Independent
Chilliwack
Ghazaleh Nozamani — Independent
Zeeshan Khan — Independent
Coquitlam
Ali Cina — Independent
Behzad Abdi — Independent
Habib Jamshidian — Independent
Shereen Samimi — Independent
Kelowna
Hamid Khajavi — Independent
Kimberley
Khadija Flynn — Independent
Langley, Township of
Shumail Javed — Langley Strong
Lions Bay
Ehsan Monfared — Independent
New Westminster
Dalia Al-Hussaini — Community First
Peachland
Ali Bani-Sadr — Independent
Prince Rupert
Ejaz Chaudhry — Independent
Richmond
Adil Awan — Independent
Surrey
Ashiyana Hanif — Imagine Surrey
Bilal Cheema — Surrey First
Intikhab Ahmed — Independent
Mehnaz Javed — Conservative
Salman Zafar — Independent
Yousef Aldabainah-Barakat — Imagine Surrey
Youssef Khattab — Independent
Tofino
Ali Sawyer — Independent
Vancouver
Bilal Khan — Bright Future Vancouver (BFV)
Ibrahima Cisse — Bright Future Vancouver (BFV)
Mohadeseh Gharib Arasi — Bright Future Vancouver (BFV)
Board of Education Trustee
Cowichan Valley School District
Faizal Charania — Independent
Kamloops/Thompson School District
Shahriar Behmanesh — Independent
Kootenay Columbia School District
Kristin Ali — Independent
North Vancouver School District
Manoochehr Azizi — Independent
Raheela Khan — Independent
Surrey School District
Afzalur Rahman — Independent
Ghulam Mujtaba — Independent
Vancouver School District
Noosha Mehdian — Vancouver Liberals
Other
Comox Valley Regional District
Arzeena Hamir — Electoral Area Director — Independent
Conseil Scolaire Francophone School District
Abdelhadi Tahir — Regional Trustee — Independent
Vancouver
Amir Bajehkian — Park Board Commissioner — Vancouver Liberals