Our History
The dojo was founded by Grandmaster Sensei Muhammad Abuisha in 2009 and classes were and still continue to be held within the Hamilton Mountain Mosque complex.
From its humble beginnings as an old locker room of a vacant squash club on the second floor of the complex, which was used for junk storage, old school desks, the community members got together and did an extreme make over and flipped it, making it a new dojo.
The program grew over time, reached a point of congestion and a bigger space was needed. When the new mosque expansion was completed with a new prayer area for sisters an opportunity opened up for us to move our dojo into the old sisters prayer room area on the second floor. This is the current location of the dojo.
The program primarily consists of mixed martial arts, including Shotokan karate, self defense, workout routines, grappling and sparring, for all ages.
Our Instructors
Grandmaster Sensei Muhammad Abuisha is a first Dan Shotokan karate & kickboxing master. He first studied Taekwondo in Waterdown, Ontario, then trained for 5 years under Sensei Frank Sicilia (4th Degree black belt) at Frank’s Karate & Kickboxing Academy. Sensei Muhammad participated in multiple local, regional & international competitions .
Sensei Muhammad founded MCH martial arts in 2009 at the Hamilton Mountain Mosque complex and served as chief instructor until 2019. As of 2023, he has now resumed teaching the adults advanced class focusing on Shotokan karate, self defense techniques and sparring.
Grandmaster Sensei Khalil Weera began his martial arts studies in the summer of 1994 at the United Family Martial Arts. He was granted his black belt under the supervision of Jim Flood in May, 1997. During his time at the United Family Martial Arts, Master Weera studied various styles, including Shotokan and Goju-Ryu Karate, Taekwondo, Jiu-Jitsu and applications of grappling and wrestling techniques. Thereafter, Master Weera continued as an instructor in the same school from June 1997 to June 2008. Master Weera took a break from teaching martial arts for about four years, until he was invited by Master Muhammad Abuisha (the founder of MCH) to work with him at MCH Martial Arts Center in 2012. In 2016, Master Abuisha asked him to take over and run the MCH Martial Arts center. Since then Master Weera has been teaching and enjoying martial arts with his lovely community. He is a very experienced teacher with a passion for Martial Arts and love for his students and community. Master Weera continues to teach and run the MCH, with all his heart.
Grandmaster Sensei Hamzeh El Qalawi received his 3rd degree (Dan) black belt in Taekwondo in 1994 and began training with the Jordanian national team in 1993. He became the official coach in 1999 and then moved to USA to teach in various schools as grand master until 2004. Following that he established his own school in Jordan and taught there until 2015 when he returned to Canada. Since 2015 Sensei Hamzeh taught at MCH fulltime until 2019. Currently he serves as an esteemed guest instructor for MCH, where he focuses on intense training routines.
Sensei Jas Topalovic’s martial arts journey began in 1995 in Regina, SK, where he started training Kempo Karate with sensei Brian Parks at the Spirit of the Dragon martial arts school. After a couple of years he joined master Ronnie Yee, a martial arts expert in various aspects of Kung Fu and Tai Chi. He spent around three years of intense training with master Yee, learning traditional Kung Fu, as well some practical applications of Tai Chi, particularly for grappling and wrestling. During this time he also worked on two weapons: bo staff and Wushu straight sword. In 2017 he joined the Martial Arts Centre of Hamilton and studied under Sensei Muhammad Abuisha (Karate), sensei Hamza (Taekwondo), and currently under supervision of our grandmaster Khalil Weera and based on our curriculum of mixed martial arts. Sensei Jas achieved his Black Belt in 2023.
Sensei Rubaid Khan began his martial arts studies in Shaolin Kung Fu in 1993 at the Golden Falcon Martial Arts Center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and has been practicing since then. He is also a health and fitness mentor and has been training and teaching at MCH since 2022.