Rafiqul Islam (16 July 1950 – 20 November 2013) was a Canadian language activist of Bangladeshi origin. He was instrumental in the recognition of 21 February as International Mother Language Day, which was declared by the UNESCO General Assembly in November 1999. He was posthumously awarded the Independence Day Award by the Government of Bangladesh in 2016. He was a member of the Vancouver. based organization The Mother Language Lovers Of The World which was awarded Ekushey Padak in 2001 for the same reason

Death 

Islam had lived in Canada for 18 years until he died of leukaemia on 20 November 2013 in Vancouver General Hospital in Canada.