Issue 156 November 2018

LIFESTYLE 22 - 24

AMUST

UMMAH 25 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

SOCIAL 30 - 31

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

www.amust.com.au ISSUE # 156

/

Multicultural News & Views

NOVEMBER 2018; SAFAR 1440

Anwar’s landslide victory

NEWS PAGE 4

/

PH: 8006 2063

Unjust treatment of Kamer

BOOMERANG PAGE 6

/

E-Newspaper Available

EMAIL: INFO@AMUST.COM.AU

Australia enriched by Multiculturalism

COMMUNITY PAGE 9

National Mosque Open Day celebrates Australian diversity

/

Trump’s America espouses hate inside out UMMAH PAGE 25

Anne Fairbairn passed away

Dr Anne Fairbairn AM Zia Ahmad

Policewoman tries out hijab at Islamic Arabic Centre & Masjid Al-Khalil mosque open day in South Australia.

Hobart Mosque, TAS.

Young Mosque, NSW. Mohamed Ainullah The National Mosque Open Day was held all across Australia on Saturday 27 October 2018.

It provided an opportunity for Australians from all backgrounds and walks of life and of different faiths and no faith to know about Islam and engage with Muslims in a respectful, family friendly environment.

Various mosques in different states of Australia organised a variety of displays, programs, festivities and feasts in order to welcome fellow Australians in their house of worship and community centres.

Many Australians found the mosques a welcome place and made comments on their most positive experience.

Ella Haddad MP Labor Member for Den-

ison said: “I had a delightful afternoon today at the Hobart Mosque, including a lovely chat with Louise and her family. The Mosque was taking part in the National Mosque Open Day which happens on this day all around Australia, welcoming community into mosques.

Thanks for having me!”

Katrine Hildyard MP Labor Member of Parliament for Reynell said: “Thank you to everyone at the Islamic Arabic Centre and Al Khalil Mosque for welcoming Emily Gore - Labor for Senate, many community members and I during yesterday’s National Mosque Open Day Adelaide and thank you for all that you do build a stronger, kinder, more connected South Australia.

Thank you also to Nasir Hussain and all from PACSA - Pakistani Australian Con-

Proudly Printed in Australia by Spotpress Pty Ltd

nections of South Australia for again looking after us and for your incredibly positive energy and love for our community!

Excellent to see Port Power stars Alipate Carlile and Emmanuel Irra and to see what they are doing to bring our community together through footy.”

The Muslim Women’s Association of SA had the opportunity to be involved with National Mosque Open Day 2018 at Masjid Al Khalil.

Attractions included a children’s jumping castle, face painting and a Henna stall, which added an exciting showground feel.

There was a program of speakers on different topics ranging from Women in Islam and Sharia Law to Islam in Australia. The speakers were available as a panel to answer questions from guests both in the morning and afternoon programs.

Dr Anne Fairbairn AM, the iconic Australian poet, artist, journalist and a long time bridge builder between Australia and the Arab world passed away at the age of 90 last Monday 22 October. She championed the rights of Palestinians and indigenous Australians and was a great supporter of the Muslim community. She was the granddaughter of Australia’s fourth Prime Minister, George Reid.

Her private funeral was held on Tuesday 30 October. She leaves behind two sons, 5 grand-children and one great grandchild.

She was married twice, first to Peter Body and then to Geoffrey Forrester Fairbairn, a Professor in the Department of History at the Australian National University who passed away in 1980.

Anne developed a strong bond of respect and love with Dr Qazi Ashfaq Ahmad and members of his family, meeting them regularly at their residence in Bonnyrigg and attending the annual Multicultural Eid Festival and Fair, MEFF at Fairfield Showground every year where she regularly recited her poetry.

She was an enthusiastic supporter of AMUST, subscriber, regular columnist and published her poetry as well as articles on Palestinian and indigenous affairs most passionately almost in every issue.

Anne was awarded the Banjo Paterson Writing Award for Open Poetry in 1995 followed by the Order of Australia in 1998 for services to literature and international relations between Australia and the Middle East.

Her translation of Arabic poetry Feathers and the Horizon published in 1989 received international acclaim. She is also the author of Shadows of Our Dreaming; a celebration of early Australia published in 1983 with haiku-like poems set beside her evocative black and white drawings, and Djuringa Haiku.

Her own poetry has been translated and published in Arabic, Persian and Turkish.

She has lectured extensively at universities in the Arab world and Asia on Australian poetry and has translated the work of Lebanese-Australian poet Wadih Sa’adeh and others in “A Secret Sky” published in 1997.

In September 2005 Anne Fairbairn received the award, ‘Living for Others – Promoting Peace through Media, Arts and Culture’ from the International and Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace presented in Sydney by Professor Marie Bashir AO, Governor of New South Wales.

Dispose of this paper thoughtfully - PLEASE RECYCLE

AMUST

NEWS

NEWS 1-4

BOOMERANG 5-8

COMMUNITY 9 - 18

AUSTRALIA 19 - 21

Scott Morrison’s pro-Israel posturing exposes all that’s wrong with the Coalition Fahad Ali Prime Minister Scott Morrison signalled a potential shift to a long-standing bipartisan policy, indicating that his government would consider following Donald Trump in recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The announcement came ahead of a hotly-contested by-election in Malcolm Turnbull’s former seat of Wentworth, and Morrison credited the Liberal candidate for Wentworth, and former Ambassador to Israel, Dave Sharma, as instigating the policy change.

A little under two decades ago, Edward Said, reflecting on the predestined failure of a one-sided “peace process”, wrote: “Occupied East Jerusalem was placed out of bounds by a bellicose Israeli campaign to decree the intractably divided city off-limits to West Bank and Gaza Palestinians and to claim it as Israel’s ‘eternal, undivided capital.’”

The “peace process” has remained as lopsided as ever, and has still, after three decades, failed to deliver anything even remotely resembling peace.

Generally, when one approach doesn’t work the first time (or in this case, dozens of times) you change tact. Not so for Scott Morrison. Almost predictably so, he’s dusted off the same old script and tried to present it as radical new thinking. If you take Morrison at face value, however, he agrees with me.

“You don’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results,” he said.

But the Prime Minister is asking the Palestinian people to surrender any claim to Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state as a precondition to negotiation. This is true to form. Only one side of the conflict has ever had such extraordinary demands made of them.

Reports later revealed that ministers were advised that such a policy shift could harm Australian interests. A secret ASIO bulletin advised that “any announcement on the possible relocation of the Australian embassy to Jerusalem or consideration of voting against Palestinians in the United Nations may provoke protest, unrest and possibly some violence in Gaza and the West Bank.”

Evidently, Cabinet was not swayed by this, nor were they swayed by advice from Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

secretary Frances Adamson that a similar move by the United States had made a ‘‘very, very difficult process even harder’’.

This was a transparent vote grab, pitched to an electorate with a large Jewish population. But conservatives aren’t motivated by any sincere care for the Jewish people. They suffer from a kind of paternalistic antisemitism, in which Jews are all agent less drones all committed to a single ideological line.

Palestinian advocates have no such delusions. That is why we aren’t surprised to hear that a Jewish audience was divided at a campaign forum organised by the Jewish Board of Deputies, held in Wentworth on Tuesday night. While the Liberal candidate, Dave Sharma, received applause for his party’s position, so did Kerryn Phelps, an independent, in questioning the move as “politically motivated.”

But it would have come as a shock to the

Prime Minister, who seems to have thought that he could bribe Jewish voters in Wentworth with an ill-conceived policy change that has already damaged our standing in the international community and our relationship with Indonesia, our closest strategic neighbour. The consequences are almost certain to crystallise in the near future.

If there is one silver lining, it is that Scott Morrison has exposed his government for what it really is: desperate, cynical, and absolutely unable to govern.

Fahad Ali is a molecular geneticist and community advocate. He has previously served as the President of Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Sydney and was the founder of Muslims for Marriage Equality.

Muslim Lawn KEMPS CREEK CEMETERY

Kemps Creek Cemetery now has a dedicated Muslim Lawn, offering a peaceful rural cemetery to the Muslim community.

Located only 25 minutes’ drive from Blacktown and 35 minutes from Auburn. › Single and double burial graves available › 3 year interest free payment plans available

Part of the local community For further information please contact:

2

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

Kemps Creek Cemetery on 02 9826 2273 from 8.30am-4pm 230-260 Western Rd, Kemps Creek NSW 2178 www.kempscreekcemetery.com.au

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018

LIFESTYLE 22 - 24

UMMAH 25 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

NOVEMBER 2018 / ISSUE 156

BUSINESS 29

SOCIAL 30 - 31

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

3

AMUST

NEWS

Trump ‘not welcome’ in Pittsburgh after synagogue shooting

Jewish leaders in Pittsburgh, including the former president of the Tree of Life synagogue that was targeted in last Saturday’s deadly shooting, have said US President Donald Trump is not welcome in the city because of his rhetoric against minorities.

“For the past three years your words and your policies have emboldened a growing white nationalist movement,” the letter read, addressing the US leader directly.

A multi-faith ceremony in Pittsburgh drew Christian choirs and Islamic groups, who announced they had raised more than $123,000 in a crowdfunding campaign for survivors and relatives of those who died.

A separate GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $609,000 for those affected.

Khashoggi’s fiancée calls for truth and justice

Hatice Cengiz while in London said “I believe that the Saudi regime knows where his body is: they should answer my demand, for this is not only the demand of a fiancee but a human and Islamic demand.”

“I want justice to be served – not only for those who murdered my beloved Jamal but for those who organised it and gave the order for it. These questions are not just my questions: they are being asked by millions.

“I want the role of the political leadership in this brutal killing to be brought to light.”

She also attacked US President Donald Trump who has limited his criticism of the Saudi leader, a close ally, and stressed the importance to the American economy of arms sales to the country.

“I am deeply grateful for the solidarity of people all over the world,” Cengiz said. “I am, however, disappointed in the actions of the leadership in many countries, particularly in the US. “President Trump should help reveal the truth and ensure justice be served. He should not pave the way for a cover-up of my fiancee’s murder. Let’s not let money taint our conscience and compromise our values.”

4

NEWS 1-4

BOOMERANG 5-8

COMMUNITY 9 - 18

AUSTRALIA 19 - 21

China legalises oppression of Muslims in Xinjiang Zia Ahmad The Chinese government has legalised the internment of up to a million Uyghur Muslims in the province of Xinjiang by revising a law on Tuesday 9 October to “carry out anti-extremist idealogical education and psychological and behavioral correction to promote thought transformation.”

The updated law, Article 133 now acknowledges the existence of mass detentions in re-education camps in Xinjiang, where former detainees accuse the Chinese government of suppressing the practice of Islam and stamping out Uyghur language and culture.

Under the new rules, all officials and police in the region must make a declaration that they are “loyal Communist Party members” and “don’t have any religious belief.”

Their only faith is allowed to be “Marxism and Leninism,” and they must agree to “fight against ‘pan-halalisation’ thoroughly.”

Restrictions have long been placed on Muslims in Xinjiang, increasingly during the last few months for the basic Islamic practices of performing prayers, fasting during Ramadan, consumption of halal food, wearing of headscarves by women and growing of beards by men.

The law is being used to justify not only restrictions on Islam, but the massive securitization of Xinjiang, with armed police manning checkpoints across cities, surveillance cameras everywhere, and citizens unable to leave the region.

During the past year with the expanding

network of “re-education camps,” where Uyghur internees are forced to attend “anti-extremist ideological” classes and their behavior, particularly religious behavior is tightly controlled.

“Detentions are extra-legal, with no legal representation allowed throughout the process of arrest and incarceration,” according to the World Uyghur Congress, a Germany-based umbrella group for the Uyghur diaspora, which recently submitted evidence

to the United Nations about the camps.

The large province of Xinjiang stretches 1.6 million square kilometers from the Tibetan plateau in the southeast to Kazakhstan on its north-western border. It is China’s largest administrative region, but one of its least densely populated.

Around 22 million people, mainly Turkic-speaking Muslims known as Uyghurs reside in this region concentrated around the major cities of Urumqi, Kashgar and Yining.

Anwar’s landslide victory at by-election

Zia Ahmad Anwar Ibrahim has won the parliamentary seat of the multiracial constituency of Port Dickson in a by-election receiving 71% of votes and is set to become the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Anwar campaigned hard preparing for the election promising voters development, clean government and a boost to local tourism.

Malaysia is multicultural country of more than 30 million people, mostly Malay Muslims with substantial number of ethnic Chinese and Indians.

Anwar started as a leader of the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM) dur-

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

ing the 1970’s and then joined PM Mahathir Mohammad during the 1980’s to eventually become Deputy Prime Minister.

There was a fall out between the two in 1998 where Anwar subsequently was imprisoned on multiple politically motivated charges of sodomy to keep him away from politics for almost two decades.

Earlier this year Mahathir, 93 joined politics again in order to oust the corrupt government of PM Najib and formed a coalition with Anwar’s Part to fight elections.

The Malaysian opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) led by Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Dr Wan Azizah, wife of Anwar Ibrahim were voted into power in a surprise election victory on Wednesday 9 May 2018 winning 121 seats

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

out of a total of 222.

Mahathir was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Malaysia and Dr Wan Azizah as the Deputy Prime Minister. As agreed between the two leaders, Dr Mahathir was instrumental in obtaining a swift full pardon for Anwar who was released from Jail mid-May. Dr Mahathir has promised that in accordance with the agreement he will step aside within two years paving for Anwar to take over the Prime Minister’s position.

Mahathir has said he expects to be in office for at least two years and will keep his promise to hand over power to Anwar.

Anwar has said he wants to focus on parliamentary reforms and will not interfere in Mahathir’s governance.

ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018

LIFESTYLE 22 - 24

UMMAH 25 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

BOOMERANG

SOCIAL 30 - 31

The Khashoggi Saga

Gruesome murder, blatant lies and incompetent cover up It has been almost a month since the dis- days, entry to the Saudi consulate by Turkappearance of the Saudi journalist Mr ish authorities.

Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul with mysIt was funny but cruel as to how, all the tery surrounding the case with truth authoritarian Arab regimes together with still to come out. their controlled media outlets, for weeks Initially, the Saudi government claimed parroted the Saudi denial and repeated the that he did enter the Saudi consulate in Is- lies being told by the Saudi regime, in blind tanbul on Tuesday 2 October but left alive support. after getting his paperwork done.

There is reason to believe that MBS conBut after failing to sell this blatant lie sidered Khashoggi’s mildly critical writings and with media leaks by Turkish author- of Saudi regime published in US media, a ities of evidence of murder within the thorn in his self perceived image of “the consulate, the Saudis announced that Mr darling of the West” and decided to neutralKhashoggi was dead, much later admitting ise him. that he was killed by a Saudi hit squad.

Critics of MBS have described him as a The month long saga involving the mur- combination of Saddam Hussain and Coloder of Khashoggi is extremely bizarre nel Ghaddafi for accumulating power and and involves cover-ups not only by Sau- not tolerating any form of dissent inside or di regime but also the Turkish authorities outside of Saudi Arabia. releasing the truth in trickles and the US Lately, the Saudi policies have created government led by Trump giving contra- havoc in the whole of Middle East. dicting statements in spite of privy The peaceful Arab spring in Syria to intelligence in this matter. against the brutal Baathist regime It seems that all the three of Assad was hijacked and actors heavily involved in turned into an armed conflict this saga in different ways by the Saudis supplying namely Crown Prince arms to the Syrian opposiZia Ahmad Mohammad bin Salman tion groups.

(MBS), Turkish PresSaudis sponsored and Assalamu ident Tayyib Erdogan financed the killing of deand US President Donald mocracy in Egypt removAlaikum Trump are still withholding an elected government Greetings ing the truth while safeand installation of a military guarding their own interests. dictatorship who have killed of Peace The Saudis in a most incomthousands and imprisoned tens of petent way first made a wholesale thousands of people during the last five denial of the murder and then restricted years. the investigation of the crime blocking the MBS has developed close relationship enforcement of justice, by delaying for 17 with Israeli leaders and with Trump and his

EDITORIAL

Readers comments

Re: Scott Morrison’s pro-Isra- want to thank the government and people el posturing exposes all that’s of Indonesia for their unswerving support of Palestine which is suffering terribly under wrong with the Coalition Thank you AMUST for your well written and well thought articles. Such a quality of journalism to represent the views of Muslin Australians is long overdue.

Omar Jamal

Most politician will do anything to win an election, never mind National interest. Wentworth election and Jerusalem is a no-brainer. The current right wing government of Israel has no interest to have peace with Palestinians. Our government could learn a thing or two from Israel. It is ok to forge Australia passports again and again to serve their national interest. Likewise it is ok not to copycat America subservience to Israel’s aggressive policy by looking at the bigger picture of International politics.

Mal Then immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, who in 2011 party discussions, urged the shadow cabinet to use the electorate’s growing concerns about “Muslim immigration”, “Muslims in Australia” and the “inability” of Muslim migrants to integrate as part of its election strategy Bilal Cleland

Open letter to Indonesian Ambassador

Dear Ambassador Kristiarto Legowo, Byron Friends of Palestine are shocked by the decision of the Australian government to move the Australian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The Australian government’s intimate relationship with Israel and its chief backer, the United States, profoundly embarrasses and angers our members. We NOVEMBER 2018 / ISSUE 156

Israel’s brutal occupation. We urge the Indonesian government to pressure the International Criminal Court to urgently conclude its investigations into Israel’s crimes against humanity and to speedily proceed to Israel’s indictment.

Gareth William Smith

Pleasure to read AMUST

It is a pleasure receiving AMUST in my mailbox regularly. Articles are very well written and I particularly love that the focus of newsletter is current issues faced by Muslim community in general and not promoting influential individuals.

Thank you Zia Ahmad and team for your efforts for regularly releasing this piece of communication.

Arifa Sarfraz

Support refugees

I would like to encourage AMUST readers to come to our ‘Hostage Happening’, which we have at 5.30pm every Friday at the QV statue in front of the QVB in town. It is to free the hostages on Manus and Nauru, and also to dismantle the whole refugee persecution infrastructure in this country. All are welcome.

I would like to quote someone who I admire, Noam Chomsky, who said these words: “The true measure of the moral level of a society is how it treats the most vulnerable people. Few are as vulnerable as those who have fled to Australia in terror and are locked away without charge, their terrible fate veiled in secrecy. We may not be able to do much, beyond lamenting, about North

AMUST

AMUST ISSUE # 156 FRIDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2018 23 SAFAR 1440 News

1-4

- National Mosque Open Day - Anne Fairbairn passed away - Trump not welcome

Boomerang

5-8

- The Khashoggi Saga - Unjust treatment of Kamer - The Saudi Enigma

Community

9 - 18

- Australia enriched by Multiculturalism - Seminar on paediatric speech - IFEW AGC 2018

Australia

19 - 21

- Prayer for peace - Jewish music festival - Rohingya success through sports

Lifestyle Jamal Khashoggi. cohorts undermining the cause of the Palestinian people.

The brutal war with Yemen has taken a high toll on human misery, in obsession of competing with Iranian influence in the region.

MBS has been instrumental in putting a number of Saudis, royal family members, businessmen, scholars and intellectuals in prison who have tried to raise their voice or are considered his enemies.

MBS has portrayed himself as a young reformer attempting to modernise Saudi Arabia. But modernisation is not only about building cities, tourist resorts, roads, cinema halls and industries, but good governance including freedoms, safeguarding of human rights, sharing of power, rule of law and security of life and property for all Saudis.

Korean prisons. But we can do a great deal about severe human rights violations right within reach.”

With best wishes,.

Stephen Langford

Re: The forgotten Sunnah of Khutbah: the duration Amazing! Its truly amazing post, I have got much clear idea concerning from this piece of writing.

Islamic scholar

Re: Australia emulating moral bankruptcy in US under Trump We are living in a world where power and money usually overwhelms Truth and Justice. This is the default position for both International and National politics. Hopefully the day will come when some of our politicians will champion the contrarian approach with Truth and Justice be the touchstone of all their policies.

Mal

HAVE YOUR SAY

Send us your thoughts about news or current events to be published in the next issue of AMUST

Email us at info@amust.com.au

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

22 - 24

- Triathlon pink attracts Muslims - Pedal power to fight cancer - Islam-inspired design and dolls

Ummah

25 - 26

- Trump’s America espouses hate - Urgent help for tsunami victims - Freedom of expression essential

Education

27 - 28

- Learning Arabic - Public servants and muftis - Radicalisation and Islamophobia

Business

29

- The Royal Commission on Banking - Digital disruption in Halal certification

Social

30 - 31

- Sinead O’Connor converts to Islam - Board game for social issues

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed in articles, and Letters to the Editor, Website Comments are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Australasian Muslim Times.

AMUST Team

Editor-in-Chief: Zia Ahmad Graphic Designer: Rubinah Ahmad Chief Adviser: Dr Qazi Ashfaq Ahmad Multimedia Journalist: Zaynab Gul Multimedia Journalist: Mobinah Ahmad Sub-Editor: Mohammed Sinan Siyech Sub-Editor: Aisha Mohsin Columnist: Dr Abul Jalaluddin (Finance) Columnist: Dr Ameer Ali (WA) Columnist: Bilal Cleland (Victoria) Columnist: Manarul Islam (ACT) Columnist: Dr Daud Batchelor (QLD) Columnist: Simon Harrison (QLD) Columnist: Zahid Jamil (NSW) Columnist: Shahjahan Khan (QLD) Columnist: Prof Irfan Shahid (India) Columnist: Imam Malik Mujahid (USA) Promotion: Dr Wali Bokhari Web Developer: Shadow Approved Multimedia: iMoby Productions Printers: Spotpress Pty Ltd Distributers: Abul Fateh Siddiqui, Shujaat Siddiqui, Usaid Khalil, Aamir Ahmad, Ibrahim Khalil, Usman Siddiqui, Zahid Alam, Shahab Siddiqui, Mahmoud Jaame, Mateen Abbas, Rashid Idris, Sakinah Ahmad, Anjum Rafiqi, Hasan Fazeel, Dr Quasim, Ismail Hossain, Hanif Bismi, Zohair Ahmad, Luqman Landy.

AMUST Contacts PO Box 111, Bonnyrigg (Sydney), NSW 2177 Australia.

Email: info@amust.com.au Ph:(02) 8006 2063

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

5

BOOMERANG

NEWS 1-4

BOOMERANG 5-8

COMMUNITY 9 - 18

AUSTRALIA 19 - 21

Unjust treatment of Kamer AMUST

Statement by students’ organisations Irfan Khan This statement by various university students’ associations states our position regarding recent incidents surrounding Mohamed Kamer Nizamdeen (Kamer).

We strongly condemn the way in which an innocent young man has been dragged through the national mud, only to be found entirely innocent of grave false charges. Having witnessed the way in which law-enforcement authorities and some media agencies have acted, it is our moral imperative to raise our voice on behalf of the Muslim community, which has once again been left traumatised by how its members are treated.

Specifically, we wish to iterate the following points: 1. Kamer has been a well-respected member of Australian society for several years. He was known by all in his community to be a consistent force for good, a hard working student and employee, and a cherished person in the lives of his friends and family.

2. Law-enforcement authorities acted on baseless conjecture and created a hysteria that has irreparably damaged an innocent young man through their irresponsible drip-fed commentary to the media. These authorities, especially the AFP and NSW Police, have demonstrated a distinct lack of judgement. Although whoever forged the notebook acted irresponsibly, nothing

6

can discount the greater irresponsibility shown by law-enforcement agencies who permitted an abject out-of-character set of scribbles to qualify as sufficient “evidence” on the basis of which this frenzy then took place. No weight was given to context, history, background, character or what was known of Kamer. Just scribbled notes by an un-verified author: this is all it takes for a young Muslim to become a national enemy on the front pages of newspapers.

It took over a month of unjust treatment, slander, jail and immense stress and psychological abuse before handwriting experts were engaged, who confirmed exactly what Kamer had said on day 1 of this ordeal.

3. We strongly condemn the media organisations which smeared Kamer’s good name almost irreparably. While Australia’s right wing media vultures barely need an excuse to go after the Muslim community, they published lies to paint Kamer as a terrorist without any evidence whatsoever. We are hopeful that the responsible media – especially News Corp outlets – are taught a lesson in defamation law.

4. Kamer was detained for one month in the notorious Goulburn Supermax prison. He

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

was deprived of access to family, and unable to adequately convey his side of the story from inside this veritable dungeon.

This breathtaking injustice must immediately call into question the way Australia’s anti-terror legislation operates, and the appalling ease with which innocent people can be locked away without adequate legal and familial access.

5. This is not the first time Muslims have been unfairly victimised in Australia, and we know it won’t be the last. We reject claims made by law-enforcement agencies and politicians that Muslims are treated justly in front of the law. We will struggle for justice in this regard and speak loudly to be heard.

We demand: 1.

That Kamer and his family be issued a formal apology as recognition for the irreparable harm caused; 2. That Kamer and his family be granted adequate redress by Australia’s legal system for whatever rights they pursue; 3. That measures must be taken immediately by law-enforcement bodies, universities and relevant organisations to alleviate the distress now felt by Muslim international students at university campuses who realise how helpless they are in front of an unfair legal regime;

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

4. That Australia’s lawmakers use this case as a catalyst to entirely review the current, unjust anti-terror laws; 5. That Muslims stop being made scapegoats and easy targets without adequate access to legal recourse.

The statement released on Friday 26 October 2018 is supported by: University of New South Wales Muslim Students’ Association, UNSW Islamic Society on Campus, Sydney University Muslim Students’ Association, Cumberland Muslim Society, Macquarie University Muslim Students’ Association, Muslim Students’ Association Bankstown, Muslim Society Strathfield, Muslim Students’ Association Liverpool, Muslim Students’ Association Campbelltown, University of Technology Muslim Society, Muslim Students’ Association Parramatta, Monash University Islamic Society, Monash Caulfield Islamic Society, Swinburne Islamic Society, Islamic Society of Victoria University, University of Melbourne Islamic Society, Islamic Society of Deakin University, RMIT Islamic Society, La Trobe University Islamic Society, University of Western Australia, Muslim Students’ Association, UNSW Pak Soc, UNSW Bangladeshi Society, UNSW Indian Society, Disarm UNSW Campaign, UNSW Education Collective, UNSW Students for Palestine, UNSW Socialist Alternative, UNSW Agnostics, Atheists and Humanists.

Irfan Khan is the President of the University of New South Wales Muslim Students’ Association (UNSWMSA) and is based in Sydney, Australia.

ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018

LIFESTYLE 22 - 24

UMMAH 25 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

BOOMERANG

SOCIAL 30 - 31

Australia emulating moral bankruptcy in US under Trump Bilal Cleland It was once widely accepted in Western countries, that the USA was the leading nation of the non-communist world.

Then came the invasion of Iraq in 2003, under the lies of the US intelligence community and Blair and the eventual creation of Daesh.

This American adventurism and disrespect for human rights in the Middle East, has seriously undermined the USA and its claims of “democracy.”

Under Trump, the position worsened.

The US role in Palestine was destroyed by increased partisan support for Netanyahu.

The balloon finally went up with the US declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the UN, who was an outspoken supporter of every act of racism and bigotry by the Trump Administration, stripped support from the USA with every utterance.

Republicans attempting, in several states,

to narrow the voter base through various restrictions, are exposing the tentative relationship of the USA with democracy.

The opening of trade wars with allies and with China, has created a future crisis for the US and possibly the world economy.

The success of the Kavanaugh nomination has, in one swoop, undermined the legitimacy of the Executive, the Legislature, the Judiciary and even the FBI. Ending the legitimacy of the main organs of the state is, historically, a prelude to revolutionary change.

The clear and open support of the oppressive dictatorship of the Saud family, the attempted cover-up of the assassination of Khashoggi, and the terrible slaughter in Yemen, have exposed anew the amorality of American foreign policy.

The palace coup against PM Turnbull and the attempt by Dutton to take the reins, thwarted

by Morrison, seems to have occurred under the auspices of the Murdoch media owners.

The report “Poverty in Australia 2018” revealed three million Australians are living in poverty, so distraction techniques are employed to take attention from this threatening fact.

The commercial media attempt to divert

AMUST

“The October vote

in the Senate on a white supremacist One Nation motion revealed as never before the nature of the Morrison led Coalition.

attention using racism against Sudanese, refugees, Muslims and the indigenous community, has made the role of the ABC extremely important.

The ignoring of the shocking condition of children being imprisoned on our offshore concentration camps, despite the AMA and 6000 doctors calling for their removal, can be attributed to the media distraction campaign around the issue.

The assault upon the independence of the ABC by the Chairman of the Board, the subsequent sacking of the Director and then the

“

The Saudi enigma The regimes behaviour raises great concern for the Ummah Dr Ameer Ali The gruesome murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, details of which yet to be told in full, attempted cover-ups with shocking incompetence by the Saudi regime, and a belated decision to investigate the ‘heinous crime’ internally and that too after several weeks of international pressure, has removed even the little respect that the kingdom had within the civilized world.

Being the world’s largest oil producer, a resource still vital to the survival of our industrial civilization, as an unchallenged Islamic religious leader with petrodollar largesse and as a voracious market for US and Western-made weapons and luxuries, the desert kingdom is strategically placed within the UN family of nations.

While Saudi Arabia is an ‘eternal friend’ of the US and a long-term ally of the West, it is also, by holding control over the two holiest mosques in Islam, the centres of Muslim annual pilgrimage, is a country that cannot be openly antagonised by any Muslim nation.

Yet, the Saudi political structure, its tribal governance, legal system and religious ideology have become a source of embarrassment to its friends, and criticism and condemnation to enemies. In the current World Order, that country is an enigma.

From the point of view of Muslims living outside Saudi Arabia, there are at least three issues that cause great discomfort, embarrassment and at times, even anger.

NOVEMBER 2018 / ISSUE 156

ousting of the Chairman, have shown how threatened are the ruling elite and commercial media interests by independent commentary.

The October vote in the Senate on a white supremacist One Nation motion revealed as never before the nature of the Morrison led Coalition.

The Wentworth byelection motivated declaration, that the LNP would consider shifting the Australian Embassy to Jerusalem, reflects the deterioration of the ruling party.

The Indonesian response has been shattering.

Things indeed are falling apart, but it is in the heartlands of the old imperial systems that this falling apart is occurring.

Something new is emerging but it is not clearly apparent just yet.

Bilal Cleland is a keen reader, a prolific writer and a regular columnist of AMUST based in Melbourne.

Mohammad bin Salman.

The tiny flower hued in shining pink Fazlul Huq

Firstly, a country that arrests, incarcerates and beheads dissenters declares the Holy Quran as its constitution. Everywhere and at all times constitutions are human creations and are subject to amendments, abrogation and arbitration. Can the Quran be subjected to any of these? Why then this country puts Allah on the dock? How can Muslims tolerate this absurdity?

Secondly, the Saudi national flag carries in print Islam’s creedal essence, kalima shahada (la ilaha illallah Muhammad al-rasulullah).

Late in the 1990s, the organizers of the world soccer cup quite innocently decided to print the flags of all participating countries on the leather of the ball. Obviously, a soccer ball is meant to be kicked. What a shock it was when Muslims saw the kalima being kicked around physically.

It was the organised protest from Muslim quarters that made the organizers withdraw the ball. This can happen again during anti-Saudi protests outside the country when protesters burn and vandalise the Saudi flag.

Does the ummah of the Prophet (s) deserve

this?

Thirdly, by holding sovereignty over Mecca and Medina the Saudi regime is able to politically determine who can and cannot perform the Hajj. This is arrogant interference in Allah’s command.

It is appropriate to make the precincts of hajj independent of Saudi sovereignty and transfer the responsibility of managing the hajj to a consortium of Muslim countries. If the OIC can act on this it would be a great service to Islam and Muslims.

There are several other issues regarding the internal politics and governance of Saudi, which are matters entirely for Saudi citizens to settle.

Dr Ameer Ali is a Sri Lankan born Australian citizen. He is a retired academic and research fellow. He was a former president of AFIC and Head of Muslim Advisory Group under Howard Government. Ameer has authored more than fifty journal articles and is a regular contributor to newspapers and periodicals on Muslim affairs.

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

The tiny flower in shining pink would have elongated petals, As the flower would rest on the leave hued in endless green, While the vine resting on the ground would continue to move around the edges of shrubs and flowering plants such as gardenia and Agapanthus, chrysanthemums and may bush, geraniums and azaleas.

Associate Professor Fazlul Huq is based in Sydney and leads the Biomedical Science Cancer Research Group in the School of Medical Sciences, Sydney Medical School.

He is also an accomplished poet with over 12,000 compositions in Bengali and English and has also been involved in various community projects.

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

7

AMUST

8

BOOMERANG

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

NEWS 1-4

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

BOOMERANG 5-8

COMMUNITY 9 - 16 18

AUSTRALIA 19 - 19 17 21

ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018

LIFESTYLE 22 - 24

UMMAH 25 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

COMMUNITY

SOCIAL 30 - 31

AMUST

Australia enriched by Multiculturalism Richard Di Natale talks racism, migration and Australian Multiculturalism Minh Ai Nguyen In a conversation facilitated by Network Ten’s Political Reporter, Catalina Florez on Friday 19 October at Sydney Offices of Affinity, the Greens leader Dr Richard Di Natale discussed issues including the current migration debate, the recent “It’s ok to be white” motion put forward

by Pauline Hanson, and presented his reflections on the past 12 months in politics regarding Multicultural Australia.

“Australia is enriched by the contribution of people who have come from all over the world”: Senator Di Natale talked on racism, migration and Australian Multiculturalism.

Affinity Intercultural Foundation’s Morning Conversation with Richard Di Natale drew a full house, who came to listen to the Australian Greens Leader discuss the challenges of politicising multicultural Australia and how to overcome them.

The Senator began by stating that it was important to realise that multiculturalism being politicised in Australia was not a phenomenon unique to the country, given the rise of right-wing politics and Trump’s election.

He stated that, although the support for multiculturalism in Australia is still strong, it is unquestionable that support has dropped off.

His reasoning for this shift? An increase in structural, systemic and economic inequality.

“People are expressing concern over issues such as having a stable job or keeping a

Greens leader Dr Richard Di Natale.

Catalina Florez.

roof over their heads. When you have rising economic inequality in a society, you see an increase in racism and division,” he said.

In this kind of environment, political leaders are willing to exploit this fear of difference to further their political agenda, rather than fix the real problem.

“There will always be people who fear difference, and people who are willing to inflame that fear,” Richard Di Natale said.

To counteract this, the Senator believes we need to call out acts of racism, address increasing economic inequalities and plan our cities better.

“The reason cities can’t cope with migration is because governments aren’t planning

their cities adequately, not because we accept migrants from all over the world,” he said.

Dr Di Natale further added, “we should not decrease the number of migrants we accept because people in our cities are feeling under pressure. That’s the wrong diagnosis for the problem at hand. We are successful as a country due to migration. Migrants create jobs and a better community for all of us.”

“The soul of our country is enriched by the contribution of people who have come from all over the world. We learn from, and listen to each other. The sum of all that is greater than individual parts,” he said.

On the sudden announcement by Prime Minister Scot Morrison to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel following Presi-

“The soul of

our country is enriched by the contribution of people who have come from all over the world.

dent Trump, Mr Zia Ahmad, Editor-in-Chief of AMUST asked if this was prompted by intense lobbying by supporters of Israel or a ploy to attract Jewish votes in the Wentworth by-election the next day.

Dr Richard Di Natale answered that both reasons were at play for this tactical move in self-interest of the Liberal Party completely disregarding the national interest.

Guests were also treated to a sweet treat in the form of Noah’s puddings, which were served to mark Muharram, the sacred first month of the Islamic calendar.

In his concluding remarks, Ahmet Polat, Executive Director of Affinity drew an apt analogy between the pudding and multiculturalism in Australia.

“An important quality of Noah’s pudding is that even though it contains many ingredients, when it’s cooked, every ingredient keeps its own characteristics,” he said.

“The cooking process does not lead to the individual ingredients losing their identities; rather, the end result is a great dessert that contains the qualities of each of the ingredients.

“Noah’s Pudding has a lot in common with multiculturalism. The sweetest form of multiculturalism is when people from different backgrounds come together to form a harmonious environment and retain their own identity and qualities.”

Minh Ai Nguyen has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and International Comparative Literature from the University of Sydney. She is currently an Executive Assistant at Affinity Intercultural Foundation based in Sydney.

“

FREE & CONFIDENTIAL LEGAL ADVICE

STRATA LIVING FOR OLDER PEOPLE

Thinking of downsizing, or already living in a strata arrangement?

Seniors Rights Service provides free and confidential legal advice on any aspect of strata living.

Speak to a lawyer or book a legal information session on strata living for your community.

or

CALL 1800 424 079 TODAY Legal | Advocacy | Education

AMUST

amust.com.au

Seniors Rights Service ABN 90 052 960 862

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

NOVEMBER 2018 / ISSUE 156

Phone: (02) 9281 3600 or 1800 424 079

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

9

COMMUNITY

Empowerment through faith AMUST

NEWS 1-4

BOOMERANG 5-8

COMMUNITY 9 - 18

AUSTRALIA 19 - 21

Panel on seeking Islamic sacred knowledge

Facilitating discussion with the paneliists.

Dr Zuleyha Keskin

Saja Hamwi Muslim Women Association welcomes its 35thyear of service to the commitment and greater support for the wider community.

In celebrating this great achievement, it is important to reflect on true sincerity and intention and how this allows for the continuous growth for MWA as an organisation and the community for continued support, trust and faith.

Without the greater community, programs such as the Sister-to-Sister drop-in service in Lakemba, the Mothers Inspire Mothers MIM program in Bass Hill Felicity House, or even the Saturday Afternoon Youth Intensive SAYIT program would not be accessible or as successful as they are today.

MWA works hard to ensure inclusivity,

10

respect, empowerment and growth, all of which reflect deeply in the services it provides for all.

MWA also works alongside partnerships for courses such as Computers and Digital Media, Sewing Classes and is now running Mindfulness programs for both English and Bengali speakers.

Servicing the diverse needs of the community plays a vital role in practice, it is important that we are able to encourage skills, knowledge and awareness to the public that will support them in any way of their daily lives.

As well as supporting the community, we work alongside the community through volunteer programs and student placement, if you are interested in participating in a wonderful volunteering opportunity please send an email to info@mwa.org.au or contact us on 9750 6916.

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

On Friday 5 October Islamic Sciences and Research Academy (ISRA) and Islamic Council of Queensland (ICQ) collaboratively organised a discussion panel titled “Seeking Sacred Knowledge in Modern Times”.

The event took place in a Muslim majority suburban area of Sunnybank where over 120 people attended and immersed themselves in the robust discussion.

The engaging and interactive panel was facilitated by Dr Zuleyha Keskin. The Panelists included Associate Professor Mehmet Ozalp, Sheik Haisam Farache, Sheikh Ikram Buksh and Imam Ahmad Abu Ghazaleh. The panel was a fusion of speakers from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne which meant different experiences and perspectives being brought to the table.

The panel addressed the value and importance of pursuing Islamic knowledge in modern times, including the challenges

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

faced, particularly in relation the qualifications that should be sought and what type of knowledge is most needed in today’s day and age.

The night commenced with a heart touching recitation of the Quran by Sheikh Ikram Buksh and was concluded with a beautiful nasheed by Imam Ahmad Abu Ghazaleh.

It was truly beautiful to see individuals from different communities and ethnicities, who came together to further their understanding about how sacred knowledge could be attained in modern times.

Upon observing this event, one lesson that comes to mind is, when Muslim organisations come together, the outcomes are far more successful. Similarly if as Muslims we look towards collaboratively working for a common cause, imagine what could be achieved. Food for thought.

Dr Zuleyha Keskin is Course Director and Senior Lecturer at Islamic Sciences and Research Academy of Australia (ISRA) and Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation (CISAC), Charles Sturt University.

ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018

LIFESTYLE 22 - 24

UMMAH 25 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

COMMUNITY

SOCIAL 30 - 31

Seminar on paediatric speech and language development Dr Habib Bhurawala

AMUST

Ms Georgina Smith, Clinical Manager, Communicate Speech Pathology receiving certificate of appreciation from ICSOA.

Dr Fasihuddin Khan

The Indian Crescent Society of Australia (ICSOA) organised a community health education seminar on speech and language development in children on Saturday 13 October 2018 at Berala Community Centre in Sydney.

The event was attended by around 120 Australians from a diverse background including representatives of various community organisations as well as parents and children.

Ms Georgina Smith, a paediatric speech pathologist was the keynote speaker at this health education seminar and spoke on the topic “Speech and language development in children”.

Ms Smith is an experienced speech pathologist who is a clinical manager for Communicate Speech Pathology, the largest and timely, can result in long-term learning provider of mobile speech therapy service in problems and poor academic outcomes.

Ms Smith encouraged parents to use simSydney. ple strategies such Educating parents as “face to face atand carers with a tention”, joint attenparticular focus on tion, physical play, identifying speech avoiding negative and language decomments and imlays/disorders as proving their vocabsoon as they appear ulary with regular and beginning early reading with them. intervention is parShe cautioned amount to ensure against excessive children’s language present with a screen time for skills are age appropriate before startcommunication disability young children and effect it may have ing formal schoolon their language ing. development and Ms Smith dissocial skills. cussed various Her talk was folpractical strategies have speech delays lowed by an interacparents can use to tive question-answer improve the speech session moderated and language deby Dr Ahad Khan. velopment of their Mr Fasihuddin children.

Khan, Secretary of She advised when have difficulties with ICSOA, was the parents should be MC for this program worried and what language that commenced they should do if with the recitation they are concerned of Quran by Master about speech and Zayn Khan. language developMr Abbas Raza ment in their chilstutter Alvi, President of dren. the Indian Crescent She emphasised Society of Australia, the need for early welcomed everyone detection and interwith a formal acvention for speech people present with a knowledgement of and communicatraditional owners tion problems in hearing impairment of the land and prochildren. Accordvided an update of ing to current reICSOA activities, search, 15-20% of children’ entering Australian school may mission and future goals.

He explained that the objective and purexperience speech and communication difficulties which if not managed appropriately pose of ICSOA is to integrate and have a

DID YOU KNOW? in Australia:

1 in 7 people

collective voice for Muslims of Indian origin in Australia, representing them on various platforms in Australia as well as contribute towards the welfare of Muslims in India.

Dr Habib Bhurawala, ICSOA health co-ordinator briefed the audience on the activities of ICSOA health subcommittee.

He highlighted ICSOA health committee’s initiatives in the last two years such as community education seminars on heart dis-

John McDiarmid & Sons Monument Mason 386,000 children 58 Penfold St Eastern Creek Approved to work in all ceme577,000 children teries including Riverstone, Rookwood Renovation new head326,000and people stones available any design available 2.5 million Phone Direct John 0409754071or jjmcdiarmid.com.au

ease prevention, tackling childhood obesity and blood donation awareness.

Towards the conclusion of the program, Ms Georgina Smith was presented with a certificate of appreciation by ICSOA recognising her contribution towards health care.

Dr Habib Bhurawala, specialist Paedrician is the ICSOA Health Co-ordinator. Mr Fasihuddin Khan is the Secretary of ICSOA.

John McDiarmid & Sons Monument Mason 58 Penfold St, Eastern Creek NSW Approved to work in all cemeteries including Riverstone, Rookwood Renovation and new headstones available.

Any design available.

Call John on 0409 754 071

NOVEMBER 2018 / ISSUE 156

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

Or visit our website jjmcdiarmid.com.au AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

11

AMUST

COMMUNITY

NEWS 1-4

BOOMERANG 5-8

COMMUNITY 9 - 16 18

AUSTRALIA 19 - 19 17 21

Celebrating 20 Years of Community Trust

Who We Are

What We Do

How We Do It

ICFAL is a leading Islamic Finance provider in Australia serving all levels of the community since 1998.

ICFAL provides finance for housing, vehicle and community infrastructures.

ICFAL success strategy rely on building community trust through processes and systems those are Islamic and legal compliant.

ICFAL commits to deliver new products and services to meet community needs.

ICFAL is here for and by the members with 100% member funds.

3005 Members

$35.75m Member Share Fund

20 Years Of sustained steady growth.

Registered In NSW, ACT, VIC, QLD, WA and SA

$4.36

Distributable Net Profit per $100 Share

New Products Coming Soon

Call 13000 ICFAL for more information or email support@icfal.com.au or visit icfal.com.au

Suite 12, (Upper Ground Floor), 55 Phillip Street, Parramatta, NSW 2150 12

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018

LIFESTYLE 22 - 24

UMMAH 25 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

COMMUNITY

SOCIAL 30 - 31

ICFAL celebrates 20 Years of Community Trust at AGM 2018 AMUST

Zia Ahmad The Islamic Co-operative Finance Australia Limited (ICFAL) held its 20th annual general meeting in Sydney on Sunday 14 October 2018 at Bonolota Function Centre, Rockdale.

Raising the slogan “20 Years of Community Trust” ICFAL celebrated two decades of successful operation in Australia after its establishment in 1998 and now currently being registered in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, ACT, South Australia and Western Australia.

The AGM was honoured by the participation of the distinguished invited guests, the chairman, directors and a record number of more than 120 members of the Co-operative.

The Keynote speaker at the event was Mr Chaaban Omran, CEO of Islamic Financial Services Council of Australia (IFSCA), who had been instrumental in forming and re-structuring a number of Islamic Finance organizations in Australia.

A video message by Mr Muhammad Farhan Ul Haq Usmani, Executive Vice President and Head of Sharia’h Audit and Advisory of Meezan Bank Limited highlighted the significance of Islamic Finance and his commitment to continue to work with ICFAL for the development of new sharia’h compliant products.

Mr Shah Mustaque Parvez, Chairman of ICFAL reiterated the importance of Islamic Shah Mustaque Parvez.

finance and its benefits in terms of fairness and transparency as key ingredients of the Islamic financial system. A maximum 10% of pool funds were invested for community infrastructure in NSW and Victoria.

Dr Rafiqul Islam.

Public lecture on destiny and free will Dr Zuleyha Keskin Why are we being tested when Allah already knows the outcome?

It is a fact that destiny has always been one of the most challenging topics for Muslims. We always wonder how free will and destiny work together, or if we can change our destiny.

On Monday 24 September, ISRA Melbourne held a public lecture on destiny where the theologian and lecturer Omer Atilla Ergi explained the understanding of destiny in Islam, answering the challenging questions around this topic matter.

The engagement with the topic was evident as conversations about the content continued well after the lecture ended. There was such a great demand for the lecture from people who could not attend that ISRA offered the lecture as a webinar on Thursday 11 October.

ISRA always aims to have interesting, sometimes perplexing topics for their public lectures, so experts of the topics can NOVEMBER 2018 / ISSUE 156

Mr Chaaban Omran outlined the need for “..renewed focus on fundamentals of sharia’h, rethinking for managing the risk and heavy investment in capital, products, people and corporate culture”. He also mentioned the importance of socially responsible investment path in order to adapt to changing business environment and develop and market products and processes to be relevant to society as a whole including Muslims and non-Muslims.

Dr Rafiqul Islam, ICFAL Secretary, highlighted that the dividend for the year 201718, highest in last two financial years due to remarkable growth and performance of CFAL’s investment portfolio.

Invited guest Mr Kazi Khalequzzaman Ali, Director, Riverstone Cemetery Board explained one of the ICFAL new products Burial Fund and Burial Expense Account.

Shaikh Yusuf Hasan, Imam of Quaker’s Hill Mosque, acted as the Returning Officer for conducting the election at the AGM for office bearers of ICFAL. After a transparent election process, the returning officer declared the re-election of three directors and election of a new director.

In addition to currently sitting Directors, Dr Naim Islam and Mr Mamun Ur Rashid the following elected directors now constitute the ICFAL Board: 1. Nashat Qadan

2. Muhammad M A Khan 3. Shah Mustaque Parvez 4. Rafiqul Islam Dr Muhammad Khan, on behalf of the Board and the management of ICFAL thanked all respected members, guests and those who actively participated in the AGM for their valuable opinions, support and contributions.

There were three new products launched at the AGM: 1. Takaful: Also known as Members Mutual Assistance Fund for helping participatory members to repair/fix damages to buildings financed by ICFAL for the member concerned.

2. Burial Fund and Burial Expense Account: An account similar to Hajj Fund account, which will help members from Islamic faith to purchase burial plot along with other associated burial expenses in instalments.

3. Long Term Fund Account: For members willing to invest their fund for a longer time, which may potentially attract a higher annual dividend than that of General Membership accounts.

ICFAL is open to members of the Australian community to join ICFAL and invest in order to build a strong, prosperous and sustainable Islamically compliant financial institution in this country.

Omer A Ergi delivering the public lecture.

shed some light on critical and challenging issues. Destiny, as one of the principles of Iman, is certainly one of them.

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

13

AMUST

14

COMMUNITY

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

NEWS 1-4

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

BOOMERANG 5-8

COMMUNITY 9 - 16 18

AUSTRALIA 19 - 19 17 21

ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018

LIFESTYLE 22 - 24

UMMAH 25 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

COMMUNITY

SOCIAL 30 - 31

AMUST

IFEW AGC: Developing leadership skills Zia Ahmad The 35th Annual General Conference (AGC) together with the Annual General Meeting of the Islamic Foundation for Education and Welfare (IFEW) was held in Sydney on the long weekend from Saturday 29 September to Sunday 30 September 2018 at Dar-ul-Islam, Bonnyrigg.

Starting as the Australasian Integrated Family (AIF), IFEW has been one of the pioneers in establishing daawah, education and welfare activities for almost 36 years in Sydney.

One of the offshoots of IFEW is the MEFF Eid Festival being organised for more than 34 years at the Fairfield Showground while another one is the Australasian Muslim Times AMUST currently being produced by Seena Incorporated.

The AGC brought together four generations of family members participating in a well-structured balanced program with reports for the past year and planning for next year.

The theme for the AGC 2018 was “Developing Leadership Skills” and was broken down into two presentations and two workshops.

Mehar Ahmad, while talking on the topic “Lead the Leaders”, pointed out that all human beings being the Khalifa of Allah on earth have the potential of being a leader but they need to develop the key leadership skills such as effective communication including listening, effective interpersonal

Sakinah Ahmad, IFEW President.

Annual group photo of IFEW members present at AGC/AGM 2018. Photo by Jumanah Husna.

relationships, reliability, respect and love, mentoring time management and problem-solving.

Usaid Khalil talked on “The Prophet (s) as a leader and daaee” elaborating on his key characteristics to be recognised as the most influential leaders in the lives of mankind ever being followed as a leader in their daily lives.

The first workshop was conducted by a team consisting of Manar Ahmad, Saminah Ahmad, Ibrahim Khalil and Hanifah Siddiqui in order to analyse “what kind of leader are you” by using a survey based app.

The second workshop was conducted by Manar Ahmad to figure out the “protocols in non-profit organisations.”

The AGC started on Saturday morning with the recitation of Quran by followed by the welcome by IFEW President Aamir Ahmad and words of advice by Dr Qazi Ashfaq Ahmad.

Maintaining three decades of tradition, AIF Tarana in Urdu was sung by first and second generation while the 3rd generation song (Iqbal’s dua) in Urdu sung by 3rd and 4th generation kids.

The AGC also included business sessions with reports and planning for various IFEW projects as well as family reports for each

individual, adults as well as children with questions and discussions.

The 35th AGC handbook was prepared well in advance containing talks, reports and future plans, distributed as a printed copy as well as in electronic form.

As per tradition, a photography session was held to take annual portrait photos of individuals, basic families as well as group photos of all IFEW members and their families consisting of four generations.

The event also included the passing of 35th AGC annual resolutions and election of Shura and office bearers for the next two years 2018-2020. The AGC/AGM concluded with an address by the newly elected President of IFEW, Ms Sakinah Ahmad followed by dua by Dr Qazi Ashfaq Ahmad.

A number of IFEW members, parts of a large extended family have been associated with Islamic activities in Australia in general and Sydney in particular for more than 45 years having founded many community organisations and working in fields of education, daawah, publications, family organisation, student, youth and women’s activities.

Zia Ahmad is the Editor-in-Chief of the Australasian Muslim Times AMUST.

The Annual General Meeting of the Australian MEFF Consortium, organisers of the Multicultural Eid Festival & Fair was held on Sunday 16 September at Dar-ulIslam, Bonnyrigg, Sydney with the presentation of the Annual Report and election the Management Committee and selection of Office Bearers.

In compliance with the constitution, members elected of eight Management Committee members who selected office bearers by mutual consensus for two years 2018-2010 and constituted the Festival Committee to help organise future MEFF events.

The results of the elections are as follows:

Management Committee

Usaid Khalil Vice President 1 Hanif Bismi Vice President 2 Aamir Ahmad Vice President 3 Fauzia Bismi Secretary

AMUST Media

NOVEMBER 2018 / ISSUE 156

Zia Ahmad

Ali Alsalami President

Support rebuilding of Toowoomba mosque The Toowoomba Mosque was established in 2014 converted from an old Church.

But it was soon burned by an arson attack in 2015.

The mosque was the victim of hate crime in an otherwise peaceful and harmonious community of Toowoomba.

Efforts were made to replace the burnout structure with a purpose-built mosque for the community and approval was promptly given by the local council to go ahead.

The construction work is now underway at an estimated cost of $900,000, of which there is a shortfall is $570,000.

This will be the only mosque in the city/ region catering for around 2000 Muslims.

A full-time Imam has been teaching around 100 children during the after hour/weekend Madrasa.

Muslims in Toowoomba need support and

MEFF AGM and two-yearly elections

Najia Khalil Assistant Secretary Manar Ahmad Treasurer Saminah Ahmad Assistant Treasurer Trustees

dua from the generous Muslim community in order to complete this project. Please donate.

Bank Account Details: Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Toowoomba Plaza Branch. A/C Name: Toowoomba Islamic Charitable Organisation BSB 064459,

A/C No 1034 1586. Swift Code: CTBAAU25XXX Contacts: Prof Shahjahan Khan Ph +61421081048, Email: Shahjahan.Khan@usq.edu.au Dr Mainul Islam Ph +61432533550, and Mr Shahbaz Rafiq Ph 0402398608 (Brisbane).

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

The management committee also includes two trustees elected for a period of four years 20162020.

Zia Ahmad Shujaat Siddiqui

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

15

AMUST

COMMUNITY

NEWS 1-4

BOOMERANG 5-8

COMMUNITY 9 - 18

AUSTRALIA 19 - 21

Black Saturday Bushfires - Blessing of the Fleet

Hunter of the Wurunjeri Willum people.

The welcome speeches were made by CEO of the City of Whittlesea, Simon Overland and Mayor Kris Pavlidis.

Prayers were read by Pastor Richard Wilson, Mufti Aasim Rashid and The Reverend Dr. Ruwan Palapathwala. A Sikh prayer was made by Amardeep Kaur and the Buddhist prayer offered by Venerable Chhet Hout.

Mufti Aasim Rashid read a beautiful dua as a part of the Blessing of the Fleet Ceremony 2018;

Gulhan Eryegit Yoldas On Saturday 13 October the 22nd Annual Emergency Services Blessing of the Fleet ceremony took place in Whittlesea, near Kinglake.

This is an annual multifaith service hosted by the City of Whittlesea and administered by leaders of local faith communities, in recognition of the role of emergency services personnel in protecting our community.

This year was particularly significant as we near the 10 year anniversary of the devastating Black Saturday Bushfires which ravaged Kinglake and the surrounding areas of Victoria’s north, destroying homes, farms and the whole town of Marysville. The Black Saturday Bushfires remain Australia’s all-time worst bushfire disasters, claiming the lives of 180 people and injuring 414 people.

Premier Brumby at the time described the situation by stating: “There’s no activity, there’s no people, there’s no buildings, there’s no birds, there’s no animals,

Mufti Aasim Rashid making dua for emergency services. everything’s just gone. So the fatality rate comed people from all faiths to join in will be very high.”[1] prayer.

The Blessing of the Fleet ceremony welThe smoking ceremony was done by Ian

O Allah, I seek Your Protection from: Straying, or be led astray; Slipping, or being made to slip Oppressing, or being oppressed Acting ignorantly, or being treated ignorantly O Allah: I seek Your Protection from: The collapse of buildings Falling to death (The pains of) old age; Grief; Drowning; and Fires O Allah: I seek Your Protection from: Knowledge of no benefit; A heart that does not soften; Insatiable carnality; Hunger, for it is a wretched bedmate; Betrayal, for it is a terrible confidante; Lethargy; Miserliness; Cowardice; And the Trials of life and death Ameen The event ended will a solemn minute silence for those who perished in the fires and on duty and the national anthem sang by all.

Gulhan Eryegit Yoldas is on the advisory board for ECCV Gambling Harm project.

She’s an active member of Whittlesea Interfaith Network and currently works as the Community Engagement Facilitator for Al Siraat College. Gulhan has a robust history of advocacy for Interfaith dialogue & building resilient, compassionate communities.

She is passionate about empowering and developing Muslim youth as spokespeople for their communities.

Celebration of 50 years of Turkish migration AMUST Media NSW Labor Leader Luke Foley delivered a speech in NSW Parliament on Tuesday 16 October to commemorate 50 years of Turkish Migration to Australia.

The first plane load of Turks landed in Australia on 14 October, 1968, following the signing of a bilateral assisted-migration agreement between Turkey and Australia on 5 October, 1967.

Mr Foley hosted four of the passengers on the first flight and their guests in NSW Parliament to watch him speak – Mr Sebehattin Tas, Mr Yasar Kaya, Mr Mehmet Akkoyun and Mrs Tehvide Dolcel. Mr Melih Karalar, Turkish Consul General Sydney and representatives from Turkish media outlets were also present.

“As the Member for Auburn, the spiritual heartland of Turks in NSW and as the leader of the Labor Party I am proud to represent our Turkish Australian community,” Mr Foley said.

He further added, “Members of the Turkish community contribute to all facets of Australian life. They are overrepresented in our professions and business community.”

“I congratulate Australia’s Turkish community on its 50 years of out-

16

Sebahattin Tas, Tehvide Dolcel, Luke Foley MP, Mehmet Akkoyun, Yasar Kaya and Melih Karalar (Turkish Consul General to Sydney). standing contribution to Australia’s multicultural fabric. You should be, as we are, proud of your contribution to our great nation,” Mr Foley said.

The agreement for the ‘Residence and Employment of Turkish Citizens

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

in Australia’ was Australia’s first such agreement with a nation outside Western Europe. It saw the first major Muslim community settle in the country and represented a major step in the gradual dismantling of the

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

White Australia policy.

Today, there is an estimated 150,000 Australians of Turkish descent in Australia with an estimated 60,000 living in NSW.

ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018

LIFESTYLE 22 - 24

UMMAH 25 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

Seminar on Unani Medicine for health professionals Dr Habib Bhurawala The Indian Crescent Society of Australia (ICSOA) organised a seminar on Unani Medicine (also known as Greco-Arabic Medicine) for health professionals on Thursday 25 October 2018 at Himalaya Restaurant in Sydney.

The event was attended by more 50 Australian health professionals, GPs, specialists and allied health professionals from diverse backgrounds from South Asia and the Middle East.

Professor Syed Ziaur Rahman, MBBS MD PhD, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at JN Medical College of Aligarh Muslim University in India was the keynote speaker at this seminar and spoke on the topic of “Unani Medicine-history and future directions”.

Professor Rahman is currently visiting Sydney for a short period primarily to receive Distinguished Alumni Award from Western Sydney University where he comProfessor Syed Ziaur Rahman.

COMMUNITY

SOCIAL 30 - 31

pleted his PhD a few years ago.

Professor Syed Ziaur Rahman has been working in the field of pharmacology for the last 21 years. He works in the field of traditional medicine with particular reference to Unani Medicine.

Professor Ziaur Rahman is the founder trustee and treasurer of Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences which is doing much work in India to preserve the history of Unani Medicine and conduct education and research in this area.

During his address, Professor Ziaur Rahman introduced Unani Medicine with its etymology and definition given by Ibn Sina.

He discussed Traditional Medicine versus Streamline Medicine.

For some, Unani medicine is still main medicine and opt Allopathy when in need of surgical crisis and emergency.

Professor Ziaur Rahman said that the foundation of Unani Medicine was laid by Greek physicians like Aesclepius, Hippocrates and Galen, but later on developed and promoted by Arab Physicians like Al Razi, Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd.

That is why in some countries, Unani Medicine is also known as Greco-Arab Medicine.

Professor Ziaur Rahman elaborated that still the six basic principles of life (Sitta-e-Zaruria) viz Change of Air, Physical activity and relaxation, Diet (safe drinking and food habits), healthy pattern of Sleep and wakefulness, Proper Excretion and retention of fluids and regular Mental activities, are the basic rule of treatment by Unani physicians (called Hakim).

Medicine is prescribed only whenever

AMUST

Professor Syed Ziaur Rahman being presented certificate of appreciation

by Mr Abbas Alvi, ICSOA President.

badly necessary.

This theory is indirectly having partial similarity with the accepted definition of health as a state of physical, mental and social wellness.

Professor Ziaur Rahman discussed the fundamentals of Physic (Umoor-e-Tabiyyah) in detail saying that as per Unani Philosophy, If anyone one of these is lacking, then human body will not exist: Arkan: Basic Elements; Mizaj: Temperament; Akhlat: Humour; Aaza: Parts of body; Arvah: Soul; Quwa: Faculty of power and Af-aal: Function.

He further elaborated how Unani drugs are classified and the ways of diagnosis and treatment options.

Professor Ziaur Rahman in the second part of his talk told about the Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences, which his family created and established in Aligarh (India). He also talked about the collection and importance of this Academy in India and abroad.

During the third part of the lecture, Professor Ziaur Rahman introduced “Dawakhana Tibbiya College of Aligarh Muslim University”. He showed pictures of its new buildings and all its Unani products.

His talk was followed by an interactive question-answer session which generated a

lot of interest.

Dr Fasihuddin Khan, Secretary of ICSOA, was the MC for this program that commenced with the recitation of Quran by Mr Abbas Chelat, treasurer of ICSOA. Mr Abbas Raza Alvi, President of the Indian Crescent Society of Australia, welcomed everyone with a formal acknowledgement of traditional owners of the land and provided an update of ICSOA activities, mission and future goals.

Dr Habib Bhurawala, ICSOA health co-ordinator briefed the audience on the activities of ICSOA health subcommittee.

He highlighted ICSOA health committee’s initiatives in the last two years such as community education seminar on heart disease prevention, tackling childhood obesity, blood donation awareness and speech and language development in children.

“Our aim is to network with other organisations and health professionals from different communities to implement various health promotion and early intervention initiatives for the broader Australian society,” he said.

Towards the conclusion of the program, Professor Syed Ziaur Rahman was presented with a certificate of appreciation by ICSOA recognising his contribution towards health care.

Al Amanah College holds Year 12 Graduation Ceremony

Ayman Alwan Al Amanah College, Liverpool held its Year 12 graduation ceremony for the class of 2018 on Friday 21 September 2018.

The ceremony was attended by Dr Sheikh Salim Alwan, Chairman of Darulfatwa, the Islamic High Council of Australia, Head Principal Mr Mohammad El Dana, Al Amanah College Principal, Mr Ayman Alwan, Dr Rafik Hussein, Chairman of 2MFM, community NOVEMBER 2018 / ISSUE 156

leaders, executive staff, teachers, students and their families.

The school Captain opened the event with a recitation of the holy Qur’an.

Guest speakers congratulated Year 12 students on their success in completing a 13year long schooling journey. Staff reminded students that despite their graduation and farewell bid, they all remain a part of the Al Amanah community.

Al Amanah Head Principal Mr El-Dana encouraged students to uphold the school’s principles, share their knowledge and experiences on the ethos of Al Amanah College.

Darulfatwa Chairman Dr Sheikh Salim Alwan reminded students to abide by the Is-

lamic teachings and values as they embark on their tertiary education at universities and workplaces.

The Al Amanah College community congratulated students on their outstanding academic achievements and efforts in setting the high benchmarks in various areas of education and schooling.

The ceremony concluded with a ’seniors 2018’ video capturing memorable moments in students Al Amanah journey, development, fun and friendships.

Year 12 Students commenced their HSC Examination study break from 22 September 2018 and begin their HSC Examinations on 18 October 2018. Graduates are engaged

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

in refining their skills to prepare for their HSC examinations.

Staff, students and parents of Al Amanah college congratulate the year 12 class of 2018 and wish all students success in the upcoming HSC Examinations.

Ayman Alwan JP is the Principal of Al Amanah College. He is a high-performing executive with more than 15 years of Education experience. He has in-depth knowledge of education operations at all levels.

Ayman is highly passionate about teaching, learning, teamwork and team building.

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

17

COMMUNITY

NEWS 1-4

BOOMERANG 5-8

COMMUNITY 9 - 18

AUSTRALIA 19 - 21

Better Muslim, Better Australian Dr Asrar Talukder

The Islamic Practice and Dawah Circle (IPDC) held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) from Saturday 29 to Sunday 30 September 2018 at Encore Events Centre in Melbourne.

The opening ceremony was attended by Mr Robin Scott, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Victoria; Ms Inga Peulich MLC, Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Victoria; Australian Green Senator Janet Rice, Khatib of East London Masjid UK, Sheikh Abdul Qayum, and representative from local city councils, other community organisations and IPDC members from all over Australia.

The AGM opening ceremony started with the recitation from the Holy Quran and acknowledgement of the traditional owner of the land.

In his opening speech, IPDC Central President Dr Rafiqul Islam explained, how IPDC volunteers are carrying out their mission to “Be Better Muslim, Better Australian”; “Religion is not just about theology but also morality and ethics, which is meant to inspire, to guide, to empower us to be better Muslims,” he said.

Dr Rafiqul Islam further added, “In Islam, we find two Major things; trust and servic-

Dr Rafiqul Islam, IPDC Central President, presenting AGM souvenir gift to Hon Robin Scott, Victoria State Minister for Multicultural Affairs.

“Religion is

es. Our unconditional trust in our creator Allah gives us a purpose that is to serve His creations; mankind and his environment for a common good.”

Mr Robin Scott praised IPDC’s “Better Muslim, Better Australian” vision. He appreciated wonderful community undertakings by IPDC and encouraging

participation in society.

The Minister also announced that the Victorian Government will contribute $75,000 to IPDC’s Victorian Melbourne Multicultural Centre (MMC).

MS Inga Peulich, Shadow minister for Multicultural affair told that such events were very important to reach the heart of the organisations.

not just about theology but also morality and ethics.

“

AMUST

They uphold the values that shape the future opportunities for our children and our grandchildren.

The Australian Green Senator Janet Rice told that the work of IPDC that included bringing people together, actively engaging in the broader community, building social harmony, weaving the Islamic cultural identity into and through the multicultural fabric of Australia would enrich the tapestry of Australia.

Sheik Abdul Qayum, the Imam of East London Mosque, explained that being good to Allah means first and foremost being good to himself, to his family and to his neighbours. A good Muslim must be an active member of the society for the common good. In Islam, smiling to others is considered a charity.

IPDC Young Muslims and kids presented a wonderful information session including their mission and activities around Australia.

The opening ceremony was concluded with a vote of thanks by IPDC Central Deputy President Dr Ismail Hossain.

After the opening ceremony, AGM continued with its regular agenda. During this AGM, the members have elected the Executive Board (CMS) and the central IPDC President Mr Monir Hossain for the next two years.

Dr Asrar Taluker is central media secretary of IPDC. He is based in Perth.

Elders enjoy info-picnic on a rainy day Zahid Jamil

18

Moulana Nizam Thanvi not only recited Quran, Naat and made dua but also entertained audience with some humorous poetry while sitting under an umbrella.

Mr Zahid Jamil of SAMAA paid hom- brella. age to Sydney Singer Mr Riyaz Shah, who SAMAA’s Services include developing passed away recently, innovative & effective who had entertained Service Modules, in orSAMAA elders for sevder to facilitate the proviAttendees enjoyed eral years at most of the sion of culturally specific events. He described him needs of our Seniors. the delicious as the true friend of SAIn order to assist in barbeque and MAA who is missed by this mission, SAMAA the whole South Asian has many dedicated volSouth Asian community of Sydney. unteers who provide Mr Zahid Jamil also yeoman services such as Cuisine including thanked Ms Robina Yastake elders to doctors, biryani and min for her services to grocery shopping, social SAMAA and wished her events, mosque visits etc. desserts. good luck in future enThese volunteers also deavours. assist seniors in home Moulana Nizam Thancleaning, cooking, delivvi not only recited Quran, Naat and made ery of home-cooked meals or simply spend dua but also entertained audience with some time with them. humorous poetry while sitting under an umImportantly, SAMAA is actively nego-

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

“

“

The wet, cold and windy weather did not dampen the spirit of Seniors from the South Asian Muslim Community to reach Bungarribee park to gather for annual SAMAA picnic on Sunday 7 October 2018.

A large number of their family members, SAMAA members and young volunteers joined together to make it a memorable event.

South Asian Muslim Association of Australia (SAMAA) has been caring for community elders since 2007 and organises events at regular intervals to alleviate social isolation faced by seniors after their retirement and as they age.

SAMAA organised a special bus service from Auburn train station to bring seniors to the picnic venue, though most of them arrived in family cars due to weather conditions.

Attendees enjoyed the delicious barbeque and South Asian cuisine including biryani and desserts much of which were prepared

by SAMAA volunteers who always enjoy the company of seniors and were pleased to be able to serve them.

The seniors not only enjoyed a day out with their contemporaries but were also given useful information about various aged care services and were also entertained by local artists.

Ms Wafa Zaim from the Islamic Women Association of Australia (IWAA), a service provider specialising in offering services to Muslim elders, spoke about their services.

Now government offers Consumer Directed Care (CDC) Home Care Packages with four levels of care depending on physical and mental needs of elders. The first step is the registration with My Aged Care (MAC).

IWAA staff and SAMAA volunteers would love to help elders in this process.

Once a person is assessed as eligible and subject to availability, the Home Care Package approval will be allocated to the consumer. This will facilitate provision of appropriate services.

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

tiating with various service providers for all levels of services including services at home and in Aged Care facilities advocating service providers in fulfilling their CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diversified) requirements of South Asian Muslims.

For more details, please visit SAMAA website http://samaa.org.au Zahid Jamil is an engineering post graduate from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and runs a financial planning practice based in Sydney. He heads South Asian Muslim Association of Australia, SAMAA: http://samaa.org.au ), a benevolent institution offering wide range of services to the community elders. He also moderates an Islamic website “Islamic Forum for Education and Research” http://isfer.info/

ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018

LIFESTYLE 22 - 24

UMMAH 25 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

AUSTRALIA

SOCIAL 30 - 31

AMUST

Prayer for peace at interfaith gathering Dr Patrick Mclnerney

Rev Dr Manas Ghosh. peace; Let peace fill our hearth, our world and our universe.[1] Literally representing the A to Z of the religions, the following leaders and representatives from 16 different religious communities offered prayers for peace: • Aboriginal Community: Ms Dianne Torrens • Armenian Apostolic Church: Deacon Nishan Basmajian • Bahai Community: Mrs Satu Hessar-Amiri • Brahma Kumari: Sr Margaret Parker • Buddhist Community: Venerable Rabdrol • Catholic Church: Rev Fr Dr Patrick McInerney • Coptic Orthodox Church: Rev Fr Dr Shenouda Monsour • Hindu Community: Pandit Jatin Bhatt • Islamic Community: Mr Neil El-Kadomi • Jain Community: Mrs Priyanka Jain • Jewish Community: Mrs Kati Haworth • Mandaean Community: Prof Dr Brikha Nasoraia • Sikh Community: Mr Manjinder Singh • Sufi Community: Imam Adil Guntekin • Uniting Church in Australia: Rev Keith Hamilton • Zoroastrian Community: Dr Pheroza

Venerable Rabdrol.

Imam Adil Guntekin.

Daruwalla To conclude the service, and as an exAs one participant said: pression of our hopes for the world, all the “There was so much respect, love and attendees lit peace candles and placed them understanding displayed. Leaders and mem- on a tablecloth decorated with the flags of bers from diverse faith and community all nations. After the service, 25 doves were groups coming together and offering heart- released as a symbol of spreading the mesfelt prayers for Peace in our Hearts, Peace in sage of peace to the world. Then all enjoyed our World, and Peace in our Universe.” great fellowship over a variety of vegetarian The peace prayers foods. were interspersed with Rev Simon Hansford performances from varsummed up the sentiWe acknowledge ious faiths and cultures. ments of all the particiThese included a spepants: that all religions cial song written for the “Thank you for the teach us to love, occasion by Malcolm marvellous, hopeful serDunbar, drumming and vice. The content and direspect and live dances by Arthur Philrection reflected the hope with others in lip High School, singing so many of us have for

by Granville Boys High the community and for harmony and school, violin recital by our world.”

Ben Tjoa, songs from [1] The words adaptpeace. the Sathya Sai Choir, the ed from the Upanishads Church of Jesus Christ were used by Mother Teof the Latter Day Saints, Gulten Akbar, Di- resa in 1981 and urged people of all faiths to pankar Chowdhury, George Mordecai and use the peace prayer daily at noon. the Human Services Choir.

Rev Simon Hansford, Moderator Uniting Rev Dr Patrick McInerney is the Director of Church in Australia NSW and ACT Synod, the Columban Mission Institute and Coorgave the occasional address, emphasising dinator of its Centre for Christian-Muslim the role that religions together can play in Relations and is based in Sydney. modeling and promoting peace.

“

“

An Interfaith Prayer Service for Peace was held on 21 September 2018 at the Fellowship Centre, Parramatta Mission in Sydney attended by more than 200 people representing many faiths and religious communities.

In 1981, the 55th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations declared the 21st of September to be the International Day of Peace. In 2001 they voted unanimously to designate this day to non-violence and cease-fire. They further proposed there be events to educate people and create awareness about peace.

Responding to this call, the Rev Dr Manas Ghosh of the Uniting Church has, for the last 15 years, hosted an Interfaith Peace Service, firstly in the parish of Lindfield and, for the last five years, in Parramatta. He explains: The objective of the service is to build harmony and peace among all people of faith as well as the wider Australian society.

We are all Australians; we share one planet; we share a common humanity; and we all long for peace.

This year more than 200 people attended the Interfaith Peace Service at the Fellowship Centre, Parramatta Mission, hosted

by Rev Dr Manas Ghosh and his dedicated team of volunteers.

Introducing the service, Rev Dr Manas Ghosh said: “We acknowledge that all religions teach us to love, respect and live with others in harmony and peace. While we pray together for peace, we also commit ourselves to work together for peace, to make this beautiful land of ours a peaceful country.”

Auntie Kerrie Kenton gave a welcome to country. Dr Zeny Edwards, the immediate past Programme Director of the UN International Day of Peace Association of Australia, lit the Peace Candle. Dr Geoff Lee, State Member for Parramatta, brought greetings and a brief message from the Premier of NSW. All the attendees prayed together: Lead us from darkness to light, from falsehood to truth; Lead us from despair to hope, from fear to trust; Lead us from hate to love, from war to

Moving forward together Australia Ernie Friedlander OAM There are many diverse opinions about living in Australia, but looking at the positives, they outweigh the negatives.

We can complain about what we are missing but, should also look and appreciate what we have.

The Moving Forward Together organisa-

NOVEMBER 2018 / ISSUE 156

tion is focused on making the communities aware and rise above prejudice, discrimination and stereotyping and considering people on their merit, rather than their nationality, colour or religion.

We were successful with our Harmony Day Poster & Song Writing Competitions, where this year, school students entered some brilliant interpretations on the theme of 2018 “Growing Together in Harmony”.

With over 3000 entries from all over the State, it exceeded our wildest expectations, not just by numbers but the quality of the posters submitted.

The Prize Giving Ceremony was held on 20 September at the NSW Parliament hosted by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian MP. Alan Joffe chaired the Harmony Day Poster & Song Writing Competitions committee, and Peter Grace was again the MC, having done a sterling job in 2017.

In Blacktown for the 3rd year in a row we held a Harmony Walk.

We changed the Walk’s title slightly from Har-

mony Walk to “Moving Forward Together Festival” which we will use for an event we are planning to conduct in Campbelltown adding- “Harmony Walk for Unity.”

The Campbelltown event at the Campbelltown Athletic Centre will take place on Sunday 18 November from 1pm to 5pm.

In all these initiatives, we work closely with the NRL, who now also got the West Tigers to take a leading role in the Campbelltown event.

We expect local schools will also be heavily involved. One school in particular, the Sarah Redfern Public, was outstanding in encouraging others to be involved.

The West League Club has also been very supportive, along with the Campbelltown Council and both the Federal & State members of Parliament.

Ernie Friedlander OAM is the President of the Moving Forward Together Association based in Sydney.

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

19

AMUST

AUSTRALIA

NEWS 1-4

BOOMERANG 5-8

COMMUNITY 9 - 18

AUSTRALIA 19 - 21

Jewish Music Festival is for everyone Philip Feinstein On 15 August 2010 an unusual but exciting music festival began in Sydney.

A dream coming true for Sydney-man Gary Holzman was the formation of the Jewish Music Festival called Shir Madness.

Gary is a man where music runs through his veins and he wanted to share this with everyone.

The Shir Madness music festival became an annual event for the Jewish community with just one condition: Any musician could apply to perform as long as there was a Jewish connection – either one of the band or troupe must be Jewish, or the act must consist of one Jewish song, or the composer of one of the songs must be Jewish.

“We don’t ask about religious beliefs as this is not relevant to us; we know that performers have included Muslims, Christians and no doubt many atheists too” said CEO Gary Holzman.

Since the inauguration of the first festival, there have been a variety of musicians from many backgrounds.

The most recent festival was held just three weeks ago and featured an amazing musician who’s background is Moroccan – his name is Shai Shriki. A very talented man who plays various instruments including the Spanish guitar and the oud – he had people dancing in the aisles during his performance.

Growing up with Moroccan music around him, starting with his grandfather, Shai took

Gary Holzman, CEO of Shir Madness. very strongly to the Magreb style. “I love the different cultures in this festival and have appeared on previous occasions” he said.

See shirmadness.com/performers/shai-shriki/ The Shir Madness festival first began at the Bondi pavilion and has now got a new home, the Emanuel Synagogue, featuring 4 stages. “Festival guests to the event have one problem: They need to make a decision as to which acts they will attend, as the stages all run concurrently” said Gary Holzman. “We always have both local Australian musicians and some imported artists like Shai.”

Other artists appearing at the last festival included jazz singer Alma Zygier who followed in the footsteps of her famous par-

Shai Shriki and band at Shir Madness festival. ents, Deborah Conway & Willy Zygier; duo potential.” See https://shirmadness.com/ Being the organiser of the Australian MuSimon Tedeschi (piano) and Roger Benedict (violin) with great classical renditions by sic for Refugees project, I was pleased to Schubert, Rachmaninoff and Hans Gal; Hel- learn that Shai Shriki, whose parents come lo Tut Tut with their eastern European mu- from Casablanca in Morocco, runs a simisic Balkan Klezmer; Bonnie Love with their lar organisation in Europe and he provides gypsy cabaret; Dafka, a ukulele duo; Ilan music instruments to refugees in Lesbos, Kidron, APRA and ARIA award winner; fa- Greece. “I feel very strongly for the refumous Australian Glenn Shorrock from Lit- gees no matter what their background” said tle River Band; Richard Clapton, legend of Shai.

Shir Madness builds bridges and promotes Australian rock; and many more.

Shir Madness has now progressed to be harmony between Jewish and non-Jewish an annual event alternating between Sydney communities through the universal language and Melbourne. It is a non-political organ- of music.

I therefore find it interesting that reports isation focussing on cohesion of different types of Jewish music from all over the from Le Desk online newspaper stated that world. With a mixed audience of all ages, King Mohammed VI of Morocco recently this year’s event attracted over one thousand ordered that Holocaust studies now be inmusic enthusiasts and ran all day and into cluded in the educational program at schools in order to fight anti-Semitism. the evening.

I suspect music will also play a part.

Gary summed it up by saying “The festival builds bridges and promotes harmony between communities through the univer- Philip Feinstein is a Sydney based writer, musal language of music. It also provides role sician and activist working for MUSIC FOR models and is an inspiration for young per- REFUGEES www.musicforrefugees.org formers to pursue their artistic and creative

family as their neighbour?

Pauline Hanson and her ilk are too quick to demand assimilation of recent immigrants and particularly Muslims with Europeans and their culture.

Did she and her tribes assimilate with the

culture and values of the original owners of this country?

Who should assimilate with whom? Victors have written Australia’s history. It is time the vanquished record their version of it.

“The festival

“

builds bridges and promotes harmony between communities through the universal language of music.

Separate day for indigenous Australians is soft apartheid Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s thought bubble to declare a separate holiday to celebrate as Indigenous Day is to admit that the superiority and separate identity of white Australians will not be compromised.

It is apartheid in soft form.

26 January, according to the Prime Minister, is a day for all. How can that be when the indigenous people refuse to participate in it and call it the Day of Invasion?

The history of Australia since that day about 200 years ago has been the repetition of what Europeans did in the Americas. It was a story of systematic killing, rape, abduction and theft of the indigenous people.

The Australian government should do more than just say “sorry”, and that too after two centuries.

Today, we have reached a comic situation where the original owners of this land have to appeal to the conquerors for recognition in the constitution.

For the sake of political correctness, it has now become customary to acknowledge the first owners of this land whenever and wherever a public function is held. How sincere are we in this acknowledgement?

For more than two centuries Australian governments have failed to wipe out the gap between the settlers and indigenous, in terms of health, education and income.

How many Australians of European descent are prepared to accept an indigenous

20

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

Today, Australia is a multicultural society and the demographic landscape of this nation is changing fast, and away from its European identity.

However, statistics on immigration show that government policy is subtly trying to curtail the intake of people from certain

“Victors have

written Australia’s history. It is time the vanquished record their version of it.

“

Dr Ameer Ali

cultural and religious background into this country. It is a policy intended to appease the far right political elements. Isn’t such a policy promoting a form of soft apartheid?

Even the national flag is no more national but a relic of British colonialism. While the indigenous people are rejecting that flag totally, it is losing its meaning and significance to many non-European communities.

At least as a first step towards making multiculturalism meaningful let us move away from 26 January and choose another day to celebrate as a day of unity and integration for all Australians, including the indigenous.

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018

LIFESTYLE 22 - 24

UMMAH 25 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

AUSTRALIA

SOCIAL 30 - 31

AMUST

Rohingyas success through sports and academic excellence Suraya Daly On Saturday 13 October, the Rohingya community of Brisbane organised an event in Durack, Brisbane to get the entire community together in order to have fun and have some food together, but at the same time, build some community-based work.

A large part of the day was to recognise the sporting achievements of the Rohingya community – of which there is much to be proud of. The ’Rohingya Get Together Barbecue’ was sponsored by the Burmese Rohingya community.

The ever-resilient Rohingyas once again showed their courage in that attendees were large in number despite the unrelenting wild weather.

As the high-achieving former student of the Australian International Islamic College in Durack, Brisbane and a member of the successful Rohingya cricket team, Salim Mohammed, described: “It was fun and it was fantastic to see my community always showing support where needed.”

The Rohingya cricket team in Queensland, the Rohingya Strikers Queensland, is the first and only Rohingya cricket team in Australia, sponsored by the state government.

Since its establishment six years ago, the team has won a major competition six months ago between two federal MPs, Moreton and Runcorn.

True to the Aussie way, as young 11 and 12-year-olds, they saw cricket being played on television and gave cricket a go. Fast forward to today and the team has achieved tremendously.

Importantly, the get together had a purpose to highlight a powerful message to the members of the Rohingya community.

The President of the Burmese Rohingya Association in Queensland, Mr Hossain Johar, emphasised the importance of ‘giving back’ to the wider Australian society for the young Australian Rohingyas.

He stressed the importance of representing Rohingya economically, and financially, through education, health or sports; not for-

getting that they live in Australia, the country that has given them the opportunity to be where they are today.

“The speech [from the president] was very powerful and strong, but smooth and friendly. It was to the level that the youngsters can pay attention. I would say from the event, the youngsters were very empowered to do better than what they were doing,” said Salim.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been forced to flee from their homes in Myanmar. The government of Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country, maintains that the Rohingya people are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and has denied them citizenship, leaving them stateless.

The systematic discrimination against the Rohingya people has reduced them to living

in appalling conditions and segregated, with restricted access to schools, healthcare and jobs.

The UN has described the latest mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar as “the world’s fastest-growing refugee crisis” and “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

Despite an underprivileged background, Salim has proven against all odds that greatness can be achieved with willpower and a determination to succeed.

Entering the Australian school system in Year 8, Salim had difficulties early on due to the language barrier and academic challenges, in addition to assimilating to a new country.

This impacted Salim’s grades in Year 8, 9, and 10 but instead of giving in, he took the challenge and continued studying through to

Year 11 and Year 12.

After countless sleepless nights studying and going through struggles, Salim and his friend admirably made history in their school by gaining the highest OP’s (Overall Position) it has seen to this day, with OP’s 4 and 3 respectively.

Suraya Daly is a graduate of the Queensland University of Technology in the qualifications of the Graduate Certificate in Creative Industries and a Bachelor of Journalism. She works in technology sales and has a passion for writing, where she would often hone her creativity by contributing articles which can be found on her blog on www.surayaspeaks.wordpress.com. For enquiries, please reach out to suraya.daly@gmail.com

The role of Police MCLO: Tammy Tong AMUST Media Police focus on reducing levels of antisocial behaviour and the community’s perception and fear of crime.

In Sydney City, there are many new arrivals living, working, studying and visiting in the region. This is where Multicultural Community Liaison Officers (MCLO) come in.

Tammy Tong, at Sydney City police, is among more than 30 liaison officers working across the metropolitan area, including two in regional NSW. Full-time, unsworn and dressed in civilian clothes, Tammy is the newly employed liaison officer. Growing up in Hong Kong, she is fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin.

Tammy has worked closely with people from diverse cultural backgrounds in the past decade. She has a passion in social justice and building community capacity. She holds a degree in Communication and International Development.

Sydney city is very multicultural.

Tammy’s main role is to engage with communities and help them to understand their rights and responsibilities when in conNOVEMBER 2018 / ISSUE 156

tact with police and help to report a crime to police or support in raising concerns with police.

She works in line with police officers, and as a grassroot level, to liaise with multicultural communities.

In some cultures, people tend not to approach police when an incident happens such as being assaulted in public transport or having mobile phone/wallet stolen or being a victim of fraud.

The role of MCLOs is to break down barriers, reduce misconceptions and establish communication between the police and the community.

Using language skills and understanding of cultural issues, MCLOs can assist people who are victims of crime and their family members, to build better understanding and improve communication when dealing with police.

Tammy works closely with the Crime Prevention Officers to educate the community about safety and ways to protect themselves in public space to avoid being the victim of opportunistic crime.

She is based at 192 Day Street, Sydney and can be contacted at 9265 6499.

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

21

LIFESTYLE

NEWS 1-4

BOOMERANG 5-8

COMMUNITY 9 - 18

AUSTRALIA 19 - 21

Symposium: Global Reflections and Resilient on leadership Cities Urban Communities through service AMUST

Dr Jan A Ali

The Global Cities and Resilient Urban Communities symposium was held at Bankstown campus of Western Sydney University on 25 October 2018 attended by around 50 people.

The event was held to coincide Western Sydney University annual Research Week from 22 to 26 October that celebrates research accomplishments of WSU academic and research staff.

Cities are an important part of the national mosaic of every country in the world a n d studying them

My group outside Parliament House.

Too often we get caught up in lofty ideals when it comes to leadership and too often we forget the impact on the ground.

In my own Islamic tradition, the concept Over a period of four of Khidmah, which is ‘service’ in Arabic, is days in late August, fundamental to leadership. I was reminded the 2018 National Stuof its immense virtue at the forum. I was redent Leadership Fominded that sometimes you have to get your rum brought together hands dirty and make a meaningful differ200 young people from ence to someone’s life, even if it means asacross the country to sisting them in the garden.

Canberra in order to exOne poignant moment was when former plore the intersection of NSW premier Mike Baird reflected on his leadership, faith and values.

The purpose was simple; to instruct and time in politics. In particular, he reminisced inspire young people on what it means to the devastating moments of the 2014 Lindt be a leader. The overarching theme was the cafe siege and how he was resolved to uniexploration of how leaders across politics, fy society, at a time where divisions were business, activism and entrepreneurship easily exploitable for political gain. It was navigate their faith and values in their pro- impressive to see his remarkable courage in the face of backlash. fessional lives.

My message to fellow young people is to I found the openness of discussing faith use your faith tradition, and spirituality to be whatever it is, to engage rather refreshing in our the world, not withdraw secular times. I was infrom it. As one of three spired to discover how young Muslims at the many leaders derive 2018 Forum, I hope to strength from their faith see more Muslim youth and values. become active and parOne leader was former ticipate in wider society, Treasurer Peter Costello to ensure positive repwho used his Christian resentation. faith to frame his leadI’ve since made ership principles. Anfriends from diverse other leader was current religious and cultural Opposition Leader, Bill backgrounds. Each of Shorten who shared his the speakers at the Fovalues of fairness and rum were motivated by equality. a range of values and During the Forum, diverse faiths, guided the federal Liberal leadby one potent motive, ership spill was underGetting my hands dirty! which was to serve othway, and hence the then ers.

Prime Minister Malcolm One of the themes of the forum was gratTurnbull was unable to speak. I won’t deny how exciting it was to be right in the thick itude and being grateful for the people that support you. So I’d like to give a special of it.

For me, the forum was life changing in acknowledgment to one of the Forum ormany ways. I don’t mean that as a cliché. ganisers Jock Cameron for his extraordinary I discovered that leadership transcends its perspective on servant leadership.

I would like to thank my sponsors for suptechnical definition of representing others, and extends to incorporating ‘servant lead- porting my journey: Australian Lebanese ership’, which encompasses putting the con- Foundation (ALF), Cumberland Council, cerns of others first. We had to practically Father Patrick McInerney on behalf of the implement servant leadership through com- Columban Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations and Dr Mehmet Ozalp from Islamic munity service.

We met families in Canberra and helped Sciences Research Academy (ISRA). them with manual tasks of cleaning and gardening. It was humbling. I remember col- Ibrahim Taha is a young, first year student lecting some items on the floor and walking at Sydney University. Ibrahim is involved in to the bin when I thought to myself “wow, many organisations and has keen interest in this is what being a servant leader is like.” politics, religion and social issues.

Ibrahim Taha

22

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

from a scientific perspective is absolutely critical.

It is important to note that cities throughout the world are facing insurmountable challenges as the process of globalisation continues to bring about large-scale economic changes and their social effects.

The cultural, spatial, economic, and social impacts of the processes of globalization on urban areas are proving to be far-reaching and urban communities are forced to find new ways of coping and building reliance.

The symposium on Global Cities and Resilient Urban Communities was organised to better understand this and bring together academics, researchers, research students, and policymakers (from local councils and state and federal departments) working in the field of global cities and resilient urban communities in Australian context to discuss the formation and transformation of urban centres and dwellings with a particular focus on urban community resilience and sustainability.

With this aim, the symposium explored existing debates on global cities and urban community development and sustainability and further generated analytical discussions about how urban spaces are undergoing unprecedented transformation and how to relate and respond to it in an era of globalization and global transformations.

There were two keynote addresses and two sessions entitled Resilient Urban Communities and Global Cities, respectively.

Professor Paul James, Director of the Institute for Culture and Society (WSU) gave the first keynote address entitled Urban Sustainability and Resilience: Working Togeth-

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

er as Global Challenges Compound.

Michael Humphrey, Professor and Chair in Sociology, School of Social and Political Sciences, the University of Sydney gave the second keynote address entitled Global Cities and Entrepreneurial Urbanism North and South.

In the first session, Dr Dallas Rogers from the University of Sydney spoke on Public Perceptions of Foreign and Chinese Real Estate Investment: Intercultural Relations in Global Sydney followed by a talk by Associate Professor Awais Piracha from Western Sydney University on The Great Sydney Divide: The NSW (Australia) Planning Policy Divergence.

In the second session, Professor Shahadat Hossain from the University of Dhaka spoke on Theorising Global Cities: Economic Restructuring, Urban Space and Political Conflict followed by a talk by Associate Professor George Morgan from Western Sydney University on Resilience or Resistance? Precarious Work and Precarious Lives in Global Cities.

The symposium concluded with a talk by Dr Jan A Ali from Western Sydney University on Muslim Terrorism in Western Global Cities: The Case of Sydney.

Dr Jan A. Ali is a Senior Lecturer in Islam and Modernity in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University. He is a Sociologist of Religion specializing in Islam with a research focus on existential Islam.

The God Bearers Dr Reginald Naulty Better than the golden journey to Samarkand no less arduous, but more profound, is the apprenticeship in divine things and the satisfaction it brings.

Its beginnings are haphazard, from here an idea, from there, a song appears, a book you read, a person you met, the mild persistence of the Godly set.

The wind in your face, a touch of grace, you`re on your way to a sacred place.

Still removed from the inward fire you`re on the scent, your heart aspires: God can be made more evident like shafts of sunlight in the heavenly tent.

Dr Reginald Naulty, originally from Adelaide, has taught at Charles Sturt University and has been a prolific writer since 1972.

ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018

LIFESTYLE 22 - 24

UMMAH 25 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

LIFESTYLE

SOCIAL 30 - 31

AMUST

Triathlon Pink attracts many more Muslims Sakinah Bokhari On Saturday 6 October 2018, hundreds of women and kids competed in Triathlon Pink held at Sydney Olympic Park. There were different categories with different distances to suit each athlete.

Triathlon has become a popular sport. A triathlon is a multiple-stage competition involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance disciplines, swimming, cycling and running.

A strong contingent of 12 athletes from the Sydney Cycling Sisters and Swim Sisters completed the triathlon with good pace and strong performance. They competed in the Long (300m swim, 9km cycle, 3km run)

Sena Asaroglu with her brother Mustafa Semih Asaroglu.

or Ultra course (600m swim, 18km cycle, 6km run).

For many, it was their first triathlon. Junayd Lum (age 10), Amali Lum (age 8) and Eesa Bokhari (age 9), also completed the triathlon under the 7-9 year old category (50m swim, 2km cycle, 500m run) with a strong finish.

The event was well organised and enjoyed by all participants and many families that came out to show their support. Each athlete received a medal at the finish line.

Sena Asaroglu, Yr 11 IB Student, from Australian International Academy, Strathfield, also competed in the Fun Run and did very well. She ran 3km with support from her brothers. She did it as part of CAS (creativity, activity and service) for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.

Triathlon Pink holds events in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast and they are a national series which aims to raise funds and awareness for their charity partner, National Breast Cancer Foundation. In 2017 / 2018, they hope to take their fundraising past $2 million.

It was wonderful to be part of such a fun event to help raise funds for charity and also enjoy the challenge with so many other Aussies.

It was good to see a greater representation

by Muslim Sisters at this event, much more than previous years. They felt so comfortable amongst all the other women and proud to be in a country that supports such events.

I hope to participate in many more triathlons in 2019.

You can find out more about Triathlon Pink at www.triathlonpink.com.au To join Sydney Cycling Sisters or Swim Sisters, visit their facebook page www.fb.com/sydneycyclingsisters www.fb.com/swimsistersquad

Eesa Bokhari with his proud grandparents Zia and Mehar.

Sakinah Bokhari is a teacher based in Sydney.

Anisa Buckley.

Team effort: Sakinah with Hanifah.

Pedal power to fight cancer with team Al Siraat Amnah Arain

As October rolls around, the annual Great Cycle Challenge also greets us!

Started in 2013, in just 5 years, it has become one of Australia’s biggest cycling events. This challenge calls for all people, young and old, to jump back on their bikes and start peddling to fundraise for cancer research and increase awareness of childhood cancer.

For the last few years, I have had the opportunity to participate in this challenge with team “Al Siraat.”

Our Australian community of 42,498 riders from all 6 states and 2 territories have ridden a total of 10,305,632km, and together we’ve raised $12,280,194 that have been gifted to the National Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI).

This has only been possible due to the collective efforts of every individual involved

and every donation, big and small, contributed to the amount collected.

This year I have set my riding goal to 60 km, and although my fundraising goal was $100, thanks to our generous sponsors in the Al Siraat and Epping community, I have already surpassed my goal.

Alongside my co-members; Tanya Kubitza, Mariam Moeladawilah and Br Sadaf Gauhar, we have ridden approximately 90 km so far this year, and have raised $3326.

With less than 10 days till the end of October and the close of this great challenge, we will try our best to reach our goal of riding 150 km.

With Allah’s help, we hope to continue this challenge again next year, and once again participate in an event where we can make a difference to children’s lives, once pedal at a time.

As a Biomedical Science student myself, I have recently gained a fair amount of insight into the severity and destruction of cancers.

The most heartbreaking cases are always the one involving children, with many experiences yet to have felt, and so many beauties of Allah that they are

Members of Team Al Siraat, Mariam and Tanya, in their Great Cycle Challenge jerseys.

“We have ridden approximately 90 km so far this year, and have raised

$3,326.

“

NOVEMBER 2018 / ISSUE 156

yet to discover. Many young cancer patients require regular doses of chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgeries, and therefore, most of their precious childhood is taken up by the memories of the clinical hospitals and painful needles.

It is also narrated in a Hadith that “There is no disease that Allah has sent down except that He also has sent down its treatment.” (Sahih Bukhari).

Therefore, as Muslims, it is our moral obligation to find the cure and treatments for malicious diseases such as cancer and give our children a chance to shine in their communities. And what better way to raise

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

awareness on this issue than by hopping on our bikes and going for a spin around our suburbs?

While also increasing the physical activity and encouraging others to also increase their daily activity, it provides the means of funding further research into developing newer and more efficacious therapeutics for cancer patients.

Amnah Arain is a third year Biomedical Science student, involved in multiple community organisation projects and is based in Melbourne, Australia.

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

23

AMUST

LIFESTYLE

NEWS 1-4

BOOMERANG 5-8

COMMUNITY 9 - 18

AUSTRALIA 19 - 21

HOME exhibition showcases poignant artworks from refugee artists Deveta Patel

City of Greater Dandenong’s annual exhibition, HOME, has announced six shortlisted national artists from a refugee or asylum seeker background.

Their artworks will be on display at the Walker Street Art Gallery from Thursday 18 October to Saturday 24 November 2018 and all artists will receive $1000 each from sponsor IKEA Springvale, to support the development of new work.

Selected by a panel of specialists from within the Creative industries, curator David O’Halloran is excited to announce the national shortlisted artists: Amir Tehrani, Tadros Hanna, Mirwais Janbaz, Lobsan Dhoyou, Zia Atahi and Elyas Alvi.

Afghani Mirwais Janbaz has explored themes of dark and light where women are struggling in another part of the world. In 1997 Mirwais moved to Pakistan to flee a civil war in Kabul.

HOME Exhibition: Since moving to Australia Mirwais has Thursday 18 October – taught art classes to Saturday 24 November other refugees.

Afghani photograWalker Street Gallery pher Zia Atahi has ambassador: “To ex& Arts Centre, explored how environperience the traumas ments affect human that being a refugee corner of Walker and behavior. Zia has preputs you through, and Robinson streets, viously run photograstill say ‘I will make phy workshops in Inart’, is an affirmation Dandenong donesia and Australia. of the human craving In 2018 Zia was a Nafor expression. The tional Photographic Portrait work here is a reminder of our need to care Prize finalist. for one another, while also nourishing our Comedian, writer and presenter Sami hunger for art that reflects heretofore unseen Shah has come on board as the 2018 HOME points of view,” said Shah.

All six shortlisted artists will be provided with professional development opportunities in the creative sector.

Now in its fourth year, HOME is a celebration of the City of Greater Dandenong’s cultural diversity, with the city now designated as the most culturally diverse community in Australia. Over half of Greater Dandenong’s residents were born overseas.

Residents come from 157 different birthplaces and speak more than 200 languages.

Among the most widely spoken languages

is Vietnamese, Khmer, Punjabi, Mandarin, Cantonese and Greek.

Through HOME, exhibiting artists are connected to mentors to increase experience across the creative sector and may be offered further opportunity to participate in the City of Greater Dandenong’s Artist in Residence program.

HOME is just one of the ways the Council aims to foster greater understanding of others and harmony within the community.

Islam-inspired design and dolls Humankind Frazia Ali

Subhi Bora Based in Sydney and Dubai, Peter Gould is a celebrated designer and creative entrepreneur who is globally recognised for positive, inspirational projects.

One of his recent projects is Salam Sisters; a range of dolls to inspire the next generation of young Muslim girls. Launched earlier this year in the UK, USA, Indonesia, France, Saudi, and Australia, Salam Sisters has attracted international media attention from HuffPost, Buzzfeed, NowThis, ABC, Inc Arabia, and more.

There has also been incredible support from Muslims everywhere sharing messag-

24

es such as, “jazakallah kheir for designing such beautiful dolls that truly represent us!

As Muslims and an ethnically diverse community. Love them!”

The inspiration for Salam Sisters came from Peter’s two young daughters.

“As a Muslim parent, and speaking with other Muslim parents, it became clear that there were no dolls sharing messages of empowerment and inspiration that were also inclusive and authentically connected with elements of the Muslim experience; while remaining super cool and fun,” Peter explained.

The Salam Sisters are available for purchase in Australia from au.zileej.com – and are selling out fast, don’t miss out!

Alongside Salam Sisters, Peter and his creative team at Studio Zileej welcome the opportunity to work with local brands and organisations who seek to improve their

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

brand or project with design.

Studio Zileej has worked with MAA, Immigration Museum, Westfield, and other Australian brands to help strengthen their presence and launch new projects.

Get in touch with Studio Zileej to see how your idea can be brought to life through a design-driven process, check out studio. zileej.com “Our vision at Studio Zileej is to help set new standards in design-driven branding for Muslim audiences, that will connect with and service a new generation,” Peter concluded.

Subhi Bora is the Creative Team Director at Zileej a design company that develops original brands and experiences to enable a more inclusive and representative future.

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

Humankind is an asset for this world All beauties of this world depend upon Humankind The differentiation of the people for the purpose of identification Not division on the basis of religion, colors and birth place Every human is unique and beautiful similar to the vase of diverse flowers Every human is unique and beautiful for those who observe Nature Frazia Ali is a Pakistani American Muslim single mother. She has two children and lives in San Ramon California, USA. She started writing poetry to spread peace and love through her writing.

ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018

LIFESTYLE 22 - 24

UMMAH 25 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

UMMAH

SOCIAL 30 - 31

AMUST

Trump’s America espouses hate inside out Abdul Malik Mujahid There is a climate of hate in Trump’s America and due to the US being the centre of world power, this is obviously effecting the globe as a whole.

During the past week three incidents are of great concern: 1. A white supremacist killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last Saturday 2. Another white supremacist murdered two Black customers in a Jeffersontown, Kentucky grocery store after failing to attack a predominantly Black church minutes before the attack 3. These killings happened in the same week that 12 bombs were sent to CNN, and leading Democrats, including former United States Presidents Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton Thank God that all of the culprits were caught. Law and order is still intact. But rising hate, fear, and anger must concern us all.

America is talking about these incidents.

We must join the conversation and help connect the dots. We must all work to save our democracy.

Trump supporters and opponents must both stick to civil discourse. Dehumanization of immigrants and minorities must stop.

Demonization of political opponents is responsible for this violence.

All three of the terrorists in the incidents this week were hateful of the “Other”.

The synagogue attacker railed against a Jewish refugee advocacy group, saying it was bringing ‘evil Muslims’ into US. Rhetoric against refugees and immigrants has been rising since Trump’s Muslim Ban and “Build a Wall” campaigns.

The suspect who sent 12 bombs to Democratic politicians was a Trump-supporting Republican who had demonized his political opponents, plastering pictures of his targets on his van.

Political violence is connected with political rhetoric. It can be from all sides.

In worse situations, when law and order is weak, it can lead to civil wars or genocides.

President Trump did not start this hate, even if he has made it worse. And it will not go away with him.

It will take a generation or two before America frees itself from rising fear, hate, and anger.

We must, therefore, develop coalitions with organizations we can ally with to liberate America from fear, hate, and anger.

The hate which started toward Muslims in the post-9/11 world is now finding new targets.

Synagogues are not the only houses of worship targeted for attack.

The Kentucky attacker first tried to kill people in a Black church, and white supremacist Dylan Roof killed nine worshippers in a Black church in North Carolina in June 2015; in Texas alone, more than 15 mosques have been attacked in the last five years

Unlike Muslims who are under constant attack by Islamophobes, one does not often hear public criticism of Jews. So why were they attacked? Here is why: • Jews, by and large, support policies that favor immigrants and refugees.

• Anti-Semitism thrives among white supremacists. It is rooted in fascination with Nazi Adolf Hitler’s beliefs.

• Historically, Jews have been the classic target of hate in Christian societies because of the belief that Jews killed Jesus.

Muslims do not believe that.

• Although Christian theology has moved away from blaming Jews today, this belief remains in the white supremacist fringes of America.

We should go beyond interfaith dialog with liberal churches to include conversations with Conservatives and Christian Evangelicals.

Remember that Islamophobia is a term that was coined in America:

Media Scan

Turnbull advice not to move Australian Embassy

Ainullah

Australia should stick to policy of more than 40 years that its embassy be in Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem, the former PM Malcolm Turnbull said on Tuesday 30 October while holidaying in Bali.

Australia is to expect a “very negative reaction” from Indonesia if it follows the United States by moving its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

NOVEMBER 2018 / ISSUE 156

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that no decision had been made yet on the embassy’s location.

The Trump administration turned its back on decades of US policy last December by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and in May it moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

• It has put a name to the kind of hate and rhetoric which wiped out all Muslims from the Central African Republic, resulted in the genocide of Rohingyas in Burma, sent three million Uyghurs to Chinese concentration camps, and led the Indian government to strip four million Indian Muslims of citizenship.

• They were all authorized and demonized, called foreigners, terrorists, and accused of trying to impose Sharia.

• We must understand that it is our responsibility to fight hate in America, as minorities in other parts of the world suffer when hate is normalized here.

• Please remember to speak out against war. The cycle of war-terror-hate teaches us to hate and dehumanize each other.

May God give comfort to the families of those who have been killed in these terrorist attacks this week.

Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid is president of Sound Vision and a host of the daily show Radio Islam on WCEV 1450 AM in Chicago, USA and www.RadioIslam.com.

Recognition of Israel should be suspended

The Palestinian Central Council (PCC) has authorised the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to suspend recognition of Israel and stop security coordination with Tel Aviv.

The suspensions should be in place until Israel recognises the Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Following a two-day meeting in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the council said

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

the PLO and Palestinian Authority will also end security coordination and suspend economic agreements as set out under the 1994 Paris Economic Protocol. It also decided to revoke the validity of the Oslo Accords.

The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas compared the expected Trump peace plan to the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which saw the British government commit to the creation of a state for Jews in historical Palestine.

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

25

AMUST

UMMAH

NEWS 1-4

BOOMERANG 5-8

COMMUNITY 9 - 18

AUSTRALIA 19 - 21

Urgent help needed for earthquake/ tsunami victims Zia Ahmad

The 7.5 magnitude earthquake triggering up to 7 meters tsunami waves on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Friday 28 Septembers has left thousands dead, tens of thousands injured and possibly hundreds of thousands internally displaced needing urgent food and water supplies.

While Indonesia is experienced in managing natural disasters, international help is needed to provide immediate relief to the victims especially in remote areas cut off by broken roads, landslides, and crippled communication.

The Australian government has approved an immediate $5 million aid package and a number of aid organisations including Muslim Aid Australia emergency teams are already on the ground making assessments and providing immediate aid.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was appealing for 31 million dollars to help Indonesia cope with the disaster.

According to Save the Children organi-

sation, at least 600,000 children have been affected by the quake, with many sleeping on the streets among ruins.

The Indonesian Ministry of Social Affairs has asked UNICEF to send social workers to support vulnerable children who are alone or became separated from their families living through horrific experience after the disaster.

The toll from the disaster is expected to soar as losses in remote areas remain unknown, while communications are down and bridges and roads have been destroyed or blocked by landslides.

More than 20 countries have offered help after Indonesian President Joko Widodo appealed for international help. However little of that has significantly reached the disaster zone as yet.

Much of the aid does seem to be sitting at the airport and not getting out fast enough to the areas that need immediate help.

A tentative deadline of Friday 5 October has been set up to find anyone still trapped under the rubble after which the chances of finding survivors from the disaster will be impossible.

Freedom of expression essential for progress Dr Faroque Amin Most Muslim majority societies now live in fear and subjugation. Lack of freedom of expression supports a lack of good governance, which eventually results in the decline of political rights, civil liberties, economic development, innovation, knowledge development and so on.

This vicious cycle of backwardness is affecting a great number of people all over the Muslim world.

Occasionally we are being deceived by the presentation of building new infrastructures as development in many countries, but in reality, a real sustainable and civilizational development still seems to be a far-fetched dream there.

The very recent example that shook the whole world is the alleged state-led assassination of a Saudi dissident journalist Mr Jamal Khashoggi.

Ironically and painfully, his last column that he wrote for the Washington Post before his disappearance was titled as ‘What the Arab world needs most is free expression’.

His country has a very special place in the hearts of the Muslims worldwide due to its inclusion of the two holiest places.

However, it along with most of the Mus-

Police bringing Bangladeshi photo-journalist Shahidul to a court, one of them closed his mouth. Source: The Statesman. lim majority countries is now tormented by ing state-control over the expressions are wars, conflicts and backwardness. rampant there.

Lack of or complete absence of freedom The government has recently enacted a of expression is a strikingly common feature law known as the Digital Security Act 2018 among those societies. that allows authorities search and detain While every Muslims knows of Saudi any person on mere suspicion, and imprison Arabia, Bangladesh is a relatively unfamil- them for up to 14 years iar country located in South Asia although it even for any views excontains the third largest Muslim population pressed in a digital mein the world after Indonesia and Pakistan. dia that the government Enforced disappearance, silencing the op- may see as defamatory position by any possible means and increas- or offensive without clarifying the concept of defamation or offence!

The government has long been silencing the opposition there using similar tools and existing laws, while the main objective of this new law seems to make the punishment harsher.

In spite of all these cruelties, calamities and coercion, the world around us is inevitably changing every day.

All must realise that the freedom of expression is one of the basic human rights, which is also a much-needed agent of any society’s progress.

People have the dignity and right to express their views as well as society has the right to strive freely for a better future.

A question often wanders in inquisitive minds, especially in this age of communication wonders as the whole world has Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina with Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin become a globalized locality, why some soSalman in a meeting in Riyadh on 17 October 2018. Source: Dhaka Tribune.

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

“All must

realise that the freedom of expression is one of the basic human rights.

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

“

26

cieties are incredibly advanced and why some others are still lagging far behind?

To keep it very simple, we can consider those societies as advanced Saudi journalist and where people writer Jamal Khashoggi. want to live in, and even migrate to.

In this context, we can clearly see that freedom of expression has a positive correlation with the proliferation of innovation and knowledge without any doubt.

From a historical perspective, Muslims during the early formative years of Islam practised an unprecedented degree of freedom of expression.

Almost fifteen centuries ago, an ordinary man or woman or even a slave was able to visit the Prophet (s) freely and discuss any issues.

Furthermore, numerous religious injunctions were revealed to him when someone disapproved of a common tradition or practice, in favour of those disagreements.

All these events remain in the history of Islam as a framework of acceptance of diverse opinion.

The companions and the subsequent early generations adopted this human nature in such a positive manner that they were able to construct a knowledge-based civilization and spread it in various corners of the globe while the rest of the world was left behind.

It happened primarily by the internal philosophical strength of belief. An unblemished belief in God always aims at freeing a human being from any sort of active or passive fear, subjugation and submission of any other entity.

Dr Faroque Amin works with Suprovat Sydney, a Bengali community newspaper published from Sydney, Australia.

ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018

LIFESTYLE 22 - 24

UMMAH 25 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

EDUCATION

SOCIAL 30 - 31

Learning Arabic: Are we going to remain indifferent?

Nadia Selim Muslims have always identified with Arabic as a language of religion.

However, research suggests that Arabic teaching remains challenged by a lack of resources, poor teaching approaches and a diminishing supply of suitably trained teachers.

Academicians have brought these issues to the attention of educators through various conferences and workshops without effecting any significant change, both within Australia and without. It is as if we are locked in a vicious cycle.

For instance, as far back as 1984 a workshop held in the South African district of KwaZulu-Natal, emphasized that inadequate teaching methods had been in use in secondary school Arabic classrooms since their inception and that because of this students were abandoning their study of Arabic and that it was necessary to rebuild love for Arabic.

In the following year, this workshop was followed by another attempt to orientate teachers at a local school. Moreover, the Association of Muslim Schools conducted

numerous seminars successively.

Unfortunately, in 2002 two South African researchers (Mall and Nieman) found that teaching methods had not changed to any significant degree and concluded that problems were not tackled genuinely and that action plans were not actualized.

In the Australian context, in 1993, researchers issued a report on the status quo of Arabic in Australia, and their research sug-

gested that resources, teacher training and student attrition needed attention. Moreover, they emphasized the need to develop programs for genuine second language learners, i.e. non-Arabs.

However, as recently as 2013, Peter Jones reported that Australian Muslim students of non-Arab backgrounds were quite dissatisfied with their Arabic learning at Islamic schools.

AMUST

We are certainly aware of the issues anecdotally as well. Many non-Arab Muslims will speak of their failed attempts to acquire proficiency in the language or moan about their children’s dissatisfaction with their Arabic courses.

So what is the problem? Why, do we choose to turn a blind eye? Why are Muslim educators not championing change?

This can only mean one thing. As Muslims, we speak of the special relationship we have with Arabic but we do not translate this into work and effort.

In my view, the persistence of these problems has its roots in indifference. An indifference to the purpose of Arabic in our lives as Muslims, an indifference to our role as educators, an indifference to striving for excellence, and indifference to each other as educators and most unfortunately an indifference to our responsibility of delivering the key of the Quran and Sunnah successfully to future generations.

The pressing question is, as Muslims, are we going to remain indifferent?

Nadia Selim based in Adelaide is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Islamic Thought & Education (CITE), University of South Australia.

Public servants more New Arabic programs important than Muftis for Victorians kids Dr Salih Yucel A Mufti is a religious scholar who give fatwas or religious rulings in accordance with Shariah or Islamic law within the context of time and place.

However, in many Muslim societies, Muftis were appointed by rulers and were obliged to give fatwas to defend their interest of the ruling class and maintain silence against corruption, oppression and injustice.

Mohammad Hashim Kamali in his book, ‘Shari’ah Law: An Introduction’ states that “fatwa under the Shari’ah is a vehicle that facilitates the free flow of thought and expression in religious issues, whereas now it has in many countries become an instrument of restriction on freedom of expression in religious matters.”

Therefore, the majority of Muslim people follow independent scholars instead of the assigned Muftis. Muftis can now be considered as ‘semi-free religious counselors.’

In Australia, we are lucky that the imams elect the Mufti. His power is merely symbolic and expected to represent and serves all Muslims.

As it is known, all state positions are called public servant in the West. According to Said Nursi, ‘there is no position in Islam except public servanthood. A nation’s ruler is a public servant.’

This is based on a most prominent hadith relating an incident with the Prophet.

Prophet Mohammad (s) was serving water to his companions when a bedouin came in and shouted: “Who is the master of these people?”

The Messenger answered in such a way that he introduced himself while expressing a strong principle of Islamic leadership and public administration using three words: sayyidu’l qawm khadimuhum meaning, “the master of the people is the one who serves them.”

At-Tabari explains Sayyid as a jurist who NOVEMBER 2018 / ISSUE 156

is pious, kind, devoted and most honourable of believers. Ar-Razi says that a Sayyid is one who is most noble in religion.

Al-Qushayri states that Sayyid is one who does not want any position, does not expect any rewards from any creation, and is free from any unlawful desires.

By this definition, the attributes of Sayyidhood is more important than a biological connection to the descendants of the Prophet.

A Sayyid unites, does not divide and people barely know that he exists.

The Sayyid in the context of hadith is ‘khadim’ which comes from the root word for khadama, service.

Based on that the word ‘khidmah’, meaning to serve, be of service, provide work, or put into operation while ‘khadim’ means domestic servant, attendant, or waiter.

Detailed meanings include a person whose job is to provide a service in a public place, someone who does menial work or is employed as a designated person or government official, or a servant in a royal or noble household.

The pronoun ‘hum’ includes everyone which should be served equally in a tribe or a country.

For serving Muslims or humanity you don’t have to be a Mufti, an Imam or head of an organisation.

Reflecting on the above-mentioned hadith, it is clear as to how the Prophet first serves his people before speaking about the importance of serving people.

He responds to rudeness with a gentle smile before beginning to talk.

Thus, leadership through action comes before leadership through words.

Australian Muslims may need one Mufti but many servants in order to serve humanity.

AMUST Media More than 5,000 Victorian children will start learning a new language – including Arabic, while at kindergarten, the Victorian government announced recently Minister for Early Childhood Education Jenny Mikakos said that weekly Arabic language sessions will be offered at: • Annadale Community Centre, Mickleham • Bluebird Way Child and Family Centre, Roxburgh Park • Craigieburn Child and Family Centre, Craigieburn • Craigieburn Early Childhood Services Centre, Craigieburn • KU Craigieburn Children’s Centre, Craigieburn • Pembroke Crescent Preschool Centre, Craigieburn “This investment will give our children an even stronger connection to the language they speak at home, and the good future they de-

serve,” she said.

“We know how important it is to parents that their children remain connected to their language and heritage.”

“This will give our children important skills and an even stronger understanding of the language they speak at home.”

“As this investment shows, we believe our multiculturalism makes Victoria stronger.”

These language programs are expected to reach more than 5,000 children across 160 kindergartens, in a range of languages including Mandarin, Punjabi, Italian, Japanese, French, Vietnamese, Greek and Spanish.

Among these are 29 kindergartens which will offer Aboriginal languages and 27 that will offer Auslan.

The government will fund extra staff to teach children these new languages in partnership with existing staff – at no cost to parents or early childhood services.

This will help make sure that kids growing up in these families can stay connected to their language even at kindergarten.

Dr Salih Yucel is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation, Charles Sturt University. He worked as an Imam at Redfern Mosque in Sydney between 1987-1992 and then as a Muslim chaplain at Harvard Medical Schools’ hospitals for seven years.

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

27

AMUST

EDUCATION

NEWS 1-4

BOOMERANG 5-8

COMMUNITY 9 - 18

AUSTRALIA 19 - 21

Dynamic relationship between radicalisation and Islamophobia Dr Jan A Ali In the post-9/11 “War on Terror” era “radicalisation” has been linked to Islam and Muslims and, therefore, inevitably has been rendered an Islamic and a Muslim phenomenon.

As such, “radicalisation” has found a rather generous fame in the field of countering violent extremism, particularly among policy-makers, politicians, journalists, and academics.

Even in the public discourse the concept of radicalisation is often passionately debated.

Radicalisation and various theories about it relating to the processes and causes have become a critical analytical tool for understanding issues of “home-grown” violent extremism particularly in the West (Amghar 2007; Silber and Bhatt 2007; Slootman and Tillie 2006).

Apparently, the growing problem of narrow-minded extremist ideas and actions, especially among young Muslims in Australia and other countries of the West is being understood and interpreted through the popular discourse of radicalisation.

Popular because radicalisation is generally defined, at least in theory, as a process through which an individual is gradually socialised into “extreme” ideas and stance which potentially paves way for political action often of a destructive or violent nature.

Radicalisation in this sense poses a great threat to national security and, gives the authorities, therefore, an opportunity to identify and deal with the perpetrators.

No doubt Muslim radicalisation takes place in society and warrants preventative and protective strategies. There are some Muslims who have a very superficial understanding of their religion and who are susceptible to extreme views and ide-

as promoted and promulgated by a select few overzealous ill-informed manipulative sheikhs and imams. Their risk management may be necessary.

However, what is not warranted are strategies that are poorly, impetuously, and expediently developed and consequently, instead of targeting the perpetrators, targets Muslims in general.

One of the serious consequences of this is that Muslims end up experiencing enhanced discrimination and marginalisation through an imposition of a complex web of social, cultural, economic, and political barriers in their everyday living.

Muslim net experience, particularly in relation to their participation in social processes, becomes a socio-spatial challenge and an experience of Islamophobia.

In the last decade, terrorism-related global events have brought an intense focus on the phenomenon of Muslim radicalism.

Irresponsible media reports about terrorism and Muslim radicalisation and cavalier and imprudent government response in the form of hastily development strategies (ie policies and legislative reform) to address Muslim radicalisation have intensified Muslim experience of Islamophobia in Australia.

No doubt there is an under-representation of Muslims in major institutions and key processes in Australian society (Akbarzadeh, 2013).

A considerably low level of Muslim participation, it seems, is linked to social and cultural norms and that when the norms and/ or values of Muslims do not align with those of the mainstream population then there is a withdrawal from participation (Wise and Ali, 2008).

Why this occurs is probably due to a number of “exclusionary” factors and processes prominent among which is Islamophobia involving treating Muslims and their faith differently based on deep-seated prejudices

and the fear of the unknown “other”.

Islamophobia acts as a barrier for Muslims in a variety of socio-economic, cultural, and political processes and operates through practices which may be intentional or unintentional, overt or covert, conscious or unconscious and may operate at a variety of levels – individual, institutional, and social.

Research exploring the issue of underrepresentation of Muslims in major institutions and key processes suggest that underrepresentation is an outcome of a range of factors including Islamophobia (Wise and Ali, 2008; Dunn et al, 2004).

The literature shows that there is a tangible link between Muslim radicalisation and Islamophobia.

It notes that the media focus on radical political Islam and jihadism, various government policy responses, and the material and social conditions of Australian Muslims potentially leads to the emergence of radicalised Muslims.

The negative media treatment of Muslims and their faith has a strong link with antipathetic government disposition.

Can, then, the emergence of new generation of radicalised Muslims and their appeal to radical political Islam be attributed to the media’s role in the creation of ‘moral panic’ and ‘folk devils’ and at the same time the formulation of draconian anti-terror legislation and austere government measures coupled with the decline in civil liberties and social justice and the obsession with ‘War on Terror’ or ‘home-grown terrorism’?

This can be answered in affirmative as it proves the existence of Islamophobia in mainstream Australian society.

While the experience of Islamophobia generates feelings of harm and disrespect, there are more practical consequences for Australian Muslims, particularly young Muslims who are locally born and who ex-

pect their citizenship rights to be honoured.

Patterns of discomfort and fear, distrust and exclusion amongst Australian Muslims emphasise in a general sense that their whole way of life is not only devalued but not to be accommodated.

The pervasive sense of Islamophobia creates for Australian Muslims generally, and young Muslim Australians in particular, discomfort and fear that affects their sense of belonging both to the nation and to their neighbourhoods and spaces of everyday life.

Radical political Islam or Muslim radicalism cannot be understood in isolation from the crisis of society but as an integral component of it. The rising Islamophobia, racialising of Muslims as Other, and incessant draconian and oppressive state measures and policies are aggravated by socio-cultural, economic, and political exclusion which are then further exacerbated by sharp inter-generational differences.

The literature further reveals that the socio-cultural and political discussions centring on identity and belonging combined with the questions of immigration, integration, counter-violent extremism, and securitisation, all contribute to further ‘othering’ Muslims who are already under siege.

For all Muslims, but particularly for young Australian Muslims, Islamophobia exposes them to socio-economic marginalisation and consequently problematises their integration in Australian multiculturalism.

Islamophobia creates, particularly for young Australian Muslims, poor social and economic conditions leaving young them considerable free time which they may utilise unproductively and potentially makes them vulnerable to social ills including exposure to the ideology of radical political Islam.

Thus Islamophobia potentially also fuels social agitation and violence.

Need to to NN Need Need toreach reach reach thousands ofof people? th t thousands thousands of people? people?

Advertise Advertise with with us us us Advertise Advertise with with us Prices Prices start start at $250 atat $250 Prices Prices start start at $250 $250 Email Email info@amust.com.au info@amust.com.au Email Email info@amust.com.au info@amust.com.au

A

AMUST AMUST AMUST

amust.com.au amust.com.au amust.com.au amust.com.

AAU

ARR US ST RAA A LL A SN N I AI M N MN M US UM SL SLU LI IM IS M MLT TT M IM M EE AAUUSSA TTU AA LTLR A SS I IA A A S A U I IIM TSES IS MES

28

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018

LIFESTYLE 22 - 24

UMMAH 25 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

BUSINESS

SOCIAL 30 - 31

AMUST

The Royal Commission on Banking The Interim Report Discredits Financial Services Industry FINANCE Dr Abul Jalaluddin The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Insurance was established on 14 December 2017. The Interim Report, released on 28 September 2018, found the financial services industry was driven by greed with the pursuit of short-term profits at the expense of basic standard of honesty and customer service.

Banks were obsessed by a sales driven culture whereby from Executives to frontline staff were measured and rewarded by reference to profits and sales.

The Royal Commission so far completed hearings into consumer lending (mortgages, credit cards, car loans ect.), financial planning, financing to small business and medium enterprises, agricultural lending, borrowings by remote communities and conduct of regulatory authorities.

The findings of these hearings include charging dead customers for financial advice, the exposing of mortgage fraud rings operating in big banks, unfair practices against farmers and struggling small businesses as well as fees for no service.

Corporate regulators have recently estimated that customers have been charged $1 billion in fees for services not provided by big four banks, APM and others in the industry.

The Commissioner Kenneth Hayne heavily criticised the lenders for their lack of responsible lending practices with their mortgages, credit cards, car loans and other loans. Under the law and credit code, a lender must assess prior to issuing a loan if the borrower can afford to repay the debt.

All major banks and finance providers, more often than not, take some steps to verify the income of an applicant for a home

loan. But the Commission found that much more often than not, none of them took any step to verify the applicant’s outgoings which goes to the heart of the irresponsible lending practice.

The industry’s misconduct went unpunished by the regulators, Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC) and Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA), which were ineffective and often resorted to some remediation programs and enforceable undertakings.

The Commission blasted them as a weak watchdog, too close to the banking sector and reluctant to act on misbehaviour. Sec-

tion 912D of the Corporations Act 2001 (that requires banks to tell the regulators about unlawful behaviour within 10 business days) was breached but regulators did not prosecute the banks.

The policy reform agenda to fix the Australian financial services sector would be challenging and an onerous task. The areas to tackle would include a crackdown on executive bonuses, the separation of financial planning and advice businesses from financial product manufacturers, regulating aggressive sales-based performance culture, abolishing mortgage broker commissions and keeping corporate regulators well-funded on an ongoing basis.

The Interim Report stopped short of making any recommendations although some draft ones would have been well-received

by Australian consumers including business clients.

The final report, expected on 1 February 2019, will have recommendations in relation to banking, superannuation, insurance and financial services industry.

No time is to be wasted to further engage with the industry, reform agenda must commence immediately, even though corporate regulators’ current approach is to go for consultation rather than litigation.

Dr Abul Jalaluddin is an Islamic Finance expert, taxation advisor and a regular columnist for AMUST. He is based in Sydney.

Digital disruption in Halal certification Shabeer Shaik Abdurahaman Certifications have become a complex task right from the very beginning, and what makes it even more difficult is the trustability of it. In the case of halal certification, strict guidelines need to be maintained given that the Muslim population is dependent on it.

POCertify simplifies the process for the suppliers of products along with given confidence to the Muslim population with the help of Blockchain technology thanks to decentralisation and it being independent of influences.

Halal Certification The Halal certification is a process whereby the features and quality of products are according to the rules established by the Islamic Council, which further allows the Halal marking.

An example of the halal certification on meat is animals having to be slaughtered in a single cut and thoroughly bled with no contact of other animals especially pork.

(Next time you see the halal symbol, it refers to Halal products.)

The Muslim population is about 2.18 billion people across the world and estimations of one out of three people being Muslim in 2030 according to the statistics. The Halal market is estimated to grow from the US. $45.3 billion in 2016 to over US $58.3 billion by 2022. Islamic Finance accounts for 43% of the halal industry while the halal food market accounts for 36%.

There have been many instances of halal certificates being wrongly justified. For example in 2011, Orion a Cold Storage in Cape Town, South Africa was accused of using halal labels on disapproved meat. Orion labelled halal on Kangaroo meat from Australia and Water Buffalo meat from India even though they were not approved

by South Africa’s Muslim Judicial Council (MJC).

The local halal market of South Africa NOVEMBER 2018 / ISSUE 156

faced a massive issue after Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) delisted the Muslim Judicial Council Halaal Trust (MJCHT) for not meeting various criteria. It reflected on a multi-billion dollar industry with the Islamic population in South Africa facing problems of food. JAKIM’s audits look into whether halaal authorities meet international health and safety standards.

The issues found included, tangible proof of implementation for training inspectors, monitoring and auditing reports.

POCertify will help countries that face halal certification problems either in a more decentralised manner or using smart contracts to ensure that it falls in line with global Islamic practices.

Target Market Many Muslim consumers have lost confidence in purchasing halal products due to the negligence and manipulation of the overall production and retail market.

POCertify looks at solving to increase the trust factor for store owners, food and beverages manufacturers, restaurants and halal institutions so that their overall sales increase and their marketing efforts don’t go in vain.

Even traders such as international importers and exports, along Abbatoir facilities of meat such as cattle and sheep, meat and poultry wholesalers will grow to prosper in ensuring the Muslim community is happy with their products and help develop their efforts into rightful sales.

The Process of POCertify POCertify focuses as a decentralised application (dAPP) built using Blockchain technology and Smart Contracts technology which helps publish a Halal Certificate.

POCertify ensures justification on documents being produced as it is on a transparent, secure and decentralised platform of Blockchain with verification of a digital hash signature.

Blockchain technology together with Islamic principles will digitally encrypt the Halal Certificat in it’s PDF Format and verify the Halaal certificate on the Blockchain.

If it is correctly verified it proceeds to be used, and if not the producer or supplier is not given the certificate.

Ownership is not claimed by anyone, ensuring that manipulation practices are entirely removed. An authentic and transparent system is enabled for the consumers, merchants and halal associations thanks to the proof of existence.

Another advantage is the anonymity and privacy which prohibits modification through third parties or governments having hidden agendas.

With no central authority, the Blockchain allows for the Halal certification to be available at all times unlike when a website is

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

down due to maintenance issues. POCertify takes the process to an overall more sustainable model thanks to Blockchain technology.

Shabeer Shaik Abdurahaman, is the Founder of POCertify. He hopes to solve the Halal certification problem around the world.

His 15 years experience in the Information Technology field includes certifications from renowned institutes like Google, IBM and Microsoft.

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

29

AMUST

#SOCIAL

NEWS 1-4

BOOMERANG 5-8

COMMUNITY 9 - 18

AUSTRALIA 19 - 21

GET YOUR

BUSINESS

NOTICED

Silma Ihram: The Drum

ALL YEAR LONG

in the 2019 IFEW Islamic Planner Calendar Annually, the Islamic Foundation for Education & Welfare (IFEW) publishes the Islamic Planner Calendar, which includes both Islamic and Public holidays, prayer timings and a mosque directory.

UP TO 6,000 COPIES ARE DISTRIBUTED FOR FREE ALL OVER NSW AT:

Advertising Rates: Large

$500

Small

$400

Community Organisations

Government Departments Shops

Book Online at https://goo.gl/5LT4ch

Mosques Business Outlets

www.ifew.com

Community Functions

For more information: ISLAMIC FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION & WELFARE

30

Call 0418 204 251 or Email planner@ifew.com

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

Silma Ihram appeared on ABC’s The Drum on Tuesday 23 October. Hosted by Peter van Onselen, the other panellists included Dr Barri Phatarfod, Terry Barnes and Annika Smethurst with guest Bruce Mountain.

The panel discussed Labor’s compromise to get children off Nauru, a new law the Government claims will slash energy costs and NAPLAN results show children progress the same in public or private schools.

Tasneem Chopra: The Drum

Tasneem Chopra appeared on ABC’s The Drum on Monday 29 October. Hosted by Craig Reucassel, the panelists included Cate McGregor, Peter Hartcher and John Safran

with guest Danielle Wood.

The panel discussed the return of far-right and hate politics, Cricket Australia’s cultural review and political transparency.

Sinead O’Connor converts to Islam

Irish singer Sinead O’Connor has announced her conversion to Islam, changing her name to Shuhada’ Davitt.

“This is to announce that I am proud to have become a Muslim,” she wrote on Twitter on Friday 19 October. “This is the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian’s journey. All scripture study leads to Islam. Which makes all other scriptures redundant.” The singer added: “I will be given (another) new name. It will be Shuhada’.”

She spells her new name, which means “one who bears witness” in Arabic, with an apostrophe at the end. Shuhada’ comes from the Arabic word Shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith in which Muslims state (or bear witness to) their belief that there is only one God and Mohammed is his final prophet.

The name also means “martyrs” in Arabic.

On Thursday Davitt tweeted: “Thank you

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

so much to all my Muslim brothers and sisters who have been so kind as to welcome me to Ummah (the Muslim community) today on this page. You can’t begin to imagine how much your tenderness means to me.”

ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018

LIFESTYLE 22 - 24

UMMAH 25 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

TOP 6 Muslim Memes

BUSINESS 29

#SOCIAL

SOCIAL 30 - 31

TOP 9 Tweets

#SineadOConnor

A board game for addressing social issues AMUST

Moosa (a renowned South African Comedian), these people change perceptions,” Ebrahim said.

A South African based Ebrahim created The Middle Path, which Muslim entrepreneur has is a strategy-based board game about decided to address social everyday Muslim problems. The Board issues in the Muslim comgame, which is currently crowdfunding on munity through a hilariLaunchgood.com, aims to reach $US5000 ous strategy-based board in order to get it into production. game called The Middle The game consists of a board, player piecPath. es and a deck of cards.

The Muslim struggle is Each card has been illustrated by a talreal. New data released by the UK Home ented British Muslim artist, Asma, better Office show that hate crimes against people known as “Mvzlamic”. in the UK, because of their religious beliefs, The aim of the game is to get your chorose by 40% in 2018, when compared to the sen character to “The Middle Path”. “After previous year. Of that, playing this game, you 52% were directed at will be forced to conMuslims. front this dichotomy of Muslims not only Similar trends are bewhat the ‘Middle Path’ experience hate ing seen across the rest really means”, Ebrahim of the Western World. said. externally, but It doesn’t end there.

According to Ebrahim, internally as well, Muslims not only expethe response has been rience hate externally, phenomenal.

“We’ve from within the but internally as well, had people pre-order the Muslim Community game, stating that they from within the Muslim Community. Issues such aren’t Muslim, which is as racial and gendered awesome,” he added. stereotypes, religious intolerance and labeThe crowdfunding campaign will end on ling continue to plague the greater Muslim Thursday 8 of November. They have optcommunity. ed for an All-or-nothing campaign, which “How do we solve these Issues? Through means that they will only go ahead if they Humour, of course”, says Ebrahim Vahed, reach their target. Support the campaign by a South African Entrepreneur and founder going to of Binaye Industries, a tech company prohttps://goo.gl/n8eT5W viding innovative products, experiences and solutions to the Muslim consumer.

Ebrahim is the Founder of Binaye, a South “Comedy has long been and still is, an African tech company focused on providing effective way to bring about social change” innovative products, solutions and experihe continues. “Whether it’s the Daily Show ences to the Muslim consumer. with Trevor Noah or Stand-up by Riaad

Ebrahim Vahed

“

“

“dad, i have to stop dr octopus from destroying the city” indian dad: “at least he’s a doctor”

NOVEMBER 2018 / ISSUE 156

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

31

NEWS 1-4

BOOMERANG 5-8

COMMUNITY 9 - 18

AUSTRALIA 19 - 21

HOME &LAND PACKAGES FROM

$599,000 SYDNEY - Walk to Proposed Private School - Minutes walk to New Cudgegong & Riverstone Station - Registered Land ready for construction - Delayed settlement options are also available - Minutes drive to Shopping Centre & Public Schools

Phone: (02) 9627 3073, 0400382227, 0412421596, 0437100237 Website: www.qartabahomes.com.au Email: info@qartabahomes.com.au Address: 3/63-65 Garfield Rd East, Riverstone NSW 2765.

32

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

WWW.AMUST.COM.AU

ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018