AMUST
AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES
www.amust.com.au ISSUE # 148
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Multicultural News & Views
MARCH 2018; JAMAADIYUL UKHRAA 1439
Islamic Education Forum
COMMUNITY PAGE 8
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PH: 0490 813 359
Islamic Investment In Australia
AUSTRALIA PAGE 15
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E-Newspaper Available
EMAIL: INFO@AMUST.COM.AU
Importance of Cycling Sisterhood LIFESTYLE PAGE 22
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Islam and the Environment EDUCATION PAGE 28
Symposium on Agency of Muslim women: Voices heard in their own words Mobinah Ahmad
From left: Dr Ghena Krayem, Dr Susan Carland and Dr Nada Ibrahim provide their own insights, experiences and research at the two day symposium with many other accomplished speakers.
‘Hell on Earth’ in Ghouta, Syria AMUST Media The ongoing ground attacks and aerial bombardment by Syrian government forces and their Russian allies on rebel held Eastern Ghouta, a suburb 10 km from central Damascus has created “Hell on Earth” for trapped civilians according to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The attacks by the Syrian Baathist regime have continued inspite of a unanimous UN Security Council Resolution on Saturday 24 February resulting in almost a thousand deaths mostly that of civilians. “I remind all parties of their absolute obligation and international humanitarian and human rights law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure at all times,” he said. “Similarly, efforts to combat ‘terrorism’ do not supersede these obligations,” he added. The doctors in the area have accused the Syrian government of launching a chlorine gas attack in the town of Al-Shifaniyah in Eastern Ghouta. Syria’s Civil Defence rescue team, also known as the White Helmets, said on Sunday at least one child died as a result of suffocation. Eastern Ghouta has been under rebel control since 2013 and from time to time the Syrian forces and its allies have tried to dislodge them from the enclave. continued on page 2
“Muslim women don’t all share the same story; our lives are complex and diverse, and our voices reflect this.” These were the words of senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, Dr Ghena Krayem, to a diverse group of over 200 Muslim academics, community leaders and activists gathered at the ‘The Agency of Muslim Women in the Australian Context’ symposium held on Wednesday 21 to Thursday 22 February 2018 at Dockside, Darling Harbour, Sydney. The Symposium was supported by The University of Sydney Law School and the University of Melbourne Law School and included two keynote speakers, Professor Julie McFarlane, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor, Canada and Dr Susan Carland, Monash University, Melbourne. For the first time in Australia, the symposium brought together Muslim women from a number of different professional backgrounds and expertise. The impressive line-up of over 35 speakers conveyed their own insights, experiences and research over the two days. They discussed Muslim women and agency on topics such as leadership, spirituality and scholarship, dealing with challenges and Islamophobia, representation, new spaces, family law and identity. continued on page 2
Mainstream media exposed Islamophobic bias in the Murdoch press
Zia Ahmad OnePath Network has carried out a groundbreaking analysis of coverage of Islam in the Media by tracking 5 of Australia’s biggest newspapers reporting on Islam during the year 2017. They focused on 5 newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch’s company News Ltd, namely The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun, The Courier Mail and The Advertiser. The results have been shocking, evidence of inherent Islamophobic bias in the Murdoch press pushing for a malicious agenda for the consumption of the mainstream Australian population by way of vilification of Islam and demonisation of Muslims. OnePath Network is Australia’s largest Islamic original content video production studio and media outlet with a global reach. Based in Sydney, it was established in February 2014 as a not-for-profit organisation in order to give the Australian Muslim community a voice. The study by OnePath concluded that in the popular Australian media, Muslims have been characterized as non-members of the Australian community, relegating them to the space of the ‘other’, alien, foreign and incompatible with Australian cultural values. The way the media talks about Islam
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in Australia is disproportionate, divisive and dangerous. T h e r e were more than 8 articles a day in the Murdoch press slamming Muslims with 152 front pages over the year that featured Islam in some negative capacity. A lot of the time, these articles and exclusives were the featured item, the most important story for selling the newspaper. In one year these 5 newspapers published almost 3000 articles that referred to Islam or Muslims alongside words like violence, extremism, terrorism or radical. Whilst a general overview clearly shows just how disproportionate the negative coverage of Islam is, it’s only when you zoom in and see the actual issues that
the obsessive and unnecessary nature of the coverage becomes clear. And it wasn’t just about terrorism. Many of the most absurd and overblown examples of coverage come from issues that the Murdoch press highlighted by themselves, dragging the rest of Australia into their worldview. continued on page 23
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