Issue 202 - September 2022

AMUST

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES www.amust.com.au ISSUE # 202

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Multicultural News & Views

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Paradigm shift in Resilient Democracy for Resilient the practice Communities of Islam COMMUNITY PAGE 11

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Aussie Imam’s foresight influenced Islamic astronomy EDUCATION PAGE 27

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Islamic Bank Australia: The founder’s perspective BUSINESS PAGE 29

David Crescent Awards recognise Muslim and Goliath meet down under Muslim trailblazers From left: Rukhsana Ashraf, Islamic College of Brisbane, Daniya Syed, Unity Grammar & Maysa Maarbani, Unity Grammar.

Photo credits: The Crescent Foundation/ Imbuity.

Zia Ahmad Australia’s inaugural awards for outstanding Muslim learners, educators and schools were presented to the winners at a gala dinner held at Waterview, Sydney Olympic Park on Sat 6 August 2022.

The keynote speaker at the event, Dr Anne Aly, Federal Minister for Early Childhood Education and Minister for Youth inspired the audience by emphasising the role

Shaq

Hasbulla

Mohamed Ainullah

of education in achieving great success in life.

She related the story of her mother where her grandfather, although not educated himself, ensured that his daughter received professional education back in Egypt that in turn inspired Dr Ally herself to achieve academic and then political success in Australia.

Two Muslim Schools, Unity Grammar in southwest Sydney and the Islamic College of Brisbane each won 6 of the 29 awards on

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Unity Grammar’s haul included the School Award for Outstanding Community Impact while Minaret College from the southeast outskirts of Melbourne won the School Award for Innovation and Renewal.

Students from the Australian International Academy, Kellyville in northwest Sydney and Arkana College in southern Sydney each won two of the awards.

Continued on page 16

Muslim celebrities, American basketball giant Shaquille O’Neal (height 216 cm/7 ft 1 in) and 20-year-old Russian blogger Hasbulla Magomedov (height 100 cm/3 ft 4 in) met in Sydney last weekend, posting their videos that have gone viral on social media.

Shaquille known as Shaq is regarded as the greatest basketball players who played for six teams over his 19-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and is a four-time NBA champion. His eldest son Shareef, 22 (height 208 cm) is also an American professional basketball player.

Hasbulla is one of the most popular mixed martial arts personalities having a large following on social media with more than 3 million followers on Instagram, 1.3 million followers on TikTok and more than 133,000 followers on Twitter. He is currently on his first international tour.

Shaq is in Australia to lend his support to the campaign for an Indigenous voice in parliament met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney on Saturday 27 August.

“Whatever you need from me, just let me know,” Shaq told Albanese, “Shaq loves Australia.” continued on page 2

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NEWS Muslim David and Israeli siege and attacks Goliath meet down under on Gaza condemned NEWS 1-3

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COMMUNITY 8 - 15

Mohamed Ainullah

Continued from page 1 Shaquille posted a video on his social media accounts showing Hasbulla “sneaking up” on him and delivering a right hook to the big man in a yacht in Sydney harbour on Sunday 28 August 2022.

“I can’t wait to see all my Aussie fans and visit these amazing cities, I come from a tiny town in Russia, so I am looking forward to experiencing a different culture,” Hasbulla

said ahead of his visit to Australia.

Hasbulla is from Makhachkala in the republic of Dagestan, in the Russian Federation. He lives with Growth Hormone Deficiency (or dwarfism) and celebrates his condition with confidence, light humour and entertaining content.

Hasbulla is a practicing Muslim sharing his love for Islam regularly, which in turn has garnered him a large Muslim following.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Dr Michelle Bachelet has expressed ‘alarm’ at the large number of Palestinians, particularly children killed and injured by recent Israeli attacks and a number of Australian Muslim organisations including AFIC and IFAM have called on the Australian government to pressure Israel to lift the siege on Gaza.

In a media release on Thursday 10 August, Islamic Forum for Australian Muslims (IFAM) called for the Australian Government to take a strong stand against Israel regarding the attacks on Gaza.

“We demand the Albanese government to denounce Israel as an apartheid and rogue state that kills innocent Palestinians including children and pressure it to lift the siege on Gaza that has left the resident living in misery” AFIC asked the Khatibs at Juma prayers to highlight the plight of people in Gaza and

Muslim Lawn

FEATURE 16 - 17

AUSTRALIA 18 - 20

create awareness of the violation of Palestinian human rights of Palestinians amongst all Australians.

Following Israeli’s bombardment of Gaza, Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) Vice-President Nasser Mashni highlighted the extreme humanitarian crisis caused by the 15-year siege, as well as the active complicity of other countries where the Israeli siege of Gaza was only possible through international complicity.

He also laid out what a peaceful and just solution would be to end the violence against Palestinians.

The UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, has called the latest Israeli strikes on the territory illegal and irresponsible.

Her predecessor concluded earlier this year that Israel’s occupation of Palestine constitutes apartheid. He accused the international community of failing to hold Israel to account for breaching fundamental international norms over its 55-year occupation.

Kemps Creek Memorial Park has a dedicated lawn for the Muslim community with peaceful rural vistas.

Located only 25 minutes’ drive from Blacktown and 35 minutes from Auburn.

Single and double burial graves available.

Part of the local community 2

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Call us on 02 9826 2273 from 8.30am-4pm Visit www.kempscreekcemetery.com.au

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ISSUE 202 / SEPTEMBER 2022

LIFESTYLE 21 - 23

UMMAH 24 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

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Climate Catastrophe: One third of Pakistan under water

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Mohamed Ainullah

With the unprecedented relentless monsoon rains flooding since June affecting all four provinces, Pakistan has now turned into a humanitarian disaster zone affecting more than 30 million people in the country.

Continuing heavy rains have triggered flash floods sweeping away tens of thousands of homes in villages and towns leaving people stranded and homeless.

More than 1000 people have died due to floods this summer with damage to almost one million homes with half a million people living with friends, relatives, relief camps and many just outside.

The floods have washed away many roads, destroying more than 150 bridges making rescue operations supplies to stranded people very difficult.

Climate change has caused erratic weather conditions in Pakistan, resulting in cloudbursts and excessive melting of glaciers that has swelled rivers breaking their banks and flooding low lying areas.

Climate experts say that limiting planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions will help limit more drastic weather events around the world.

“In recent decades, we never witnessed such an unusual heavier downpour in Pakistan,” scientist Shahla Gondal told The Associated Press news agency, adding that authorities are ill-equipped and “do not know how to tackle” flooding disasters.

The United Nations says it has allocated $US3 million for aid agencies and their partners in response to the floods, with money

to be used for health, nutrition, food security, and water and sanitation services in flood-affected areas, focusing on the most

patched to various parts of the country by the National Disaster Management Authority for tens of thousands of flood victims.

The government has declared a national emergency and appealed for international help. Flights have now arrived from Turkey and the UAE, carrying tents, food and other daily necessities.

A large number of Australian charities have mobilised and are appealing for donations of money and equipment to send to help Pakistani flood victims.

On Tuesday 30 August, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia will provide $2 million in support through the World Food Program to assist with “immediate humanitarian needs, particularly those disproportionately affected by the floods, including women, children and the vulnerable.”

“I extend Australia’s deepest sympathies and condolences to the families and communities that have lost loved ones, and those whose lives and livelihoods have been affected,” Senator Wong said in a statement.

vulnerable.

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The coming paradigm shift in the practice of Islam Dr Mohammed Naushaduddin

significant minorities all across the European world and its colonies.

In the early 20th century, Lenin – an exiled young Russian radical – observed: There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen. In 1962, Thomas Kuhn explained this phenomenon by coining the phrase ‘paradigm shift’: an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way.

The practice of Islam is going through a paradigm shift.

To understand this change, we need to understand its past.

Effect on Islam While the rise of Czarist Russia arrested the influence and spread of Ottoman Empire in the late 18th century, the revolutionary Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798. The subsequent Battle of Nile proved that Muslims will need the help of one European power to dislodge another.

In yet another struggle of choosing the lesser of the two unpalatable choices, the era of colonisation began.

Just like the Napoleonic radicals, the 20th century communists believed and schemed that Muslims will eventually abandon all faith, and follow their version of progress.

This is in contrast to the English who were transparent and temperate in their goals.

In that vein, the colonised Muslim world got split into two: 1. the subjugated, under the French radicals and Russian communists, and 2. the protectorates, under the British liberals, with access to their religion.

The medieval timeline The period of Nubuwat was guided. So not much to imagine there except to understand Hadith reports in terms of reliability and context.

The Umayyad century was an imperial period – a time of decades of strife to own something unique. Might determined the outcomes here.

The Abbasid period was an era of consolidation. Democratisation of knowledge also led to viral spread of misinformation and varied perception of the same source.

Seekers of knowledge took upon themselves to create institutions and methodologies to establish the truths, and rules on disagreements.

Then came the Mongols, and razed Baghdad in 1258. The long period of Taqleed began.

The cautious ‘following the precedent’ helped to tame the storm but also killed the appetite for enquiry and experiment, ushering in the protracted struggle of choosing the lesser of the two perceived evils.

Despite the start of downward spiral, Islam spread into the African Sahel, the Indian Subcontinent and the Malayan Archipelago on the merits of appealing equality, fairness and peace.

Advent of modern era Rising from the ashes of religious wars of 1648, the Atlantic sea-farers of Europe took upon themselves to enquiry, and spread across the world. The monarchs and bishops were one step behind the curve.

By 1776, a part of the New World decided they will not need bishops to run the affairs of their nation. In war or in peacetime, their men of science and industry will lead them.

The idea radicalised the Old Europe.

In a hundred year, many Europeans came to believe that religions were not really needed to organise society. By 1917, the radicals in Russia forced atheism in their part of the world. These sentiments were cherished by

The Cold War During the Cold War, the Capitalist World invited Muslims to fill in the demands of expanding economy. The blue collar jobs and the Taqleedi mindset insulated the first generation from their hosts.

The second generation saw the contradictions. However, respect of parents inspired loyalty to traditions which prevented introspection. Where fundamental changes were needed, the tools used by their ancestors were meaningless in the new context.

Also, the minority movements (black rights and feminism) gravitated them towards their ‘Muslim Identity’, an entirely new concept for Muslims now living as minorities.

On the cusp of winning the Cold War, in 1989, the young Muslims were allowed to alienate themselves in the name of the ‘love of the Prophet’. Soon, Daughters of Another Path and Clash of Civilisations were being talked about loud.

The young children of blue collar migrants were happy with narratives of On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History.

Then came that September 2021.

“Now two

decades of unbridled Muslim bias gave free licence for governments to show their bigotry...

Post-9/11 In the following 15 years, ‘Muslims were negatively framed in the media and that Islam was frequently cast as a violent religion’ by the Western newspapers.

Focus of a bright spotlight, lonely in a cold

Rohingya Muslims forced to flee Myanmar.

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room, a young Muslim soul had no escape. A confused young individual was expected to carry the baggage of history, and sort out its contents.

‘Following the precedent’ was meaningless in an unprecedented territory, autocratic dictators were clearly tribal in a world going global, political parties used rhetoric and polemics instead of churning out policies in context of 21st century, while the local imams were convincing the young to be proud of their faith and act normal.

On their individual own – without a pope, without a priestly class, without a nation as defined by Peace of Westphalia – an individual Muslim response was varied.

A few became atheist, disappointed by religions in general.

Some became agnostic while others called themselves cultural Muslims, following their 19th and 20th century European co-religionists – all effected

by Modernity.

The other side of spectrum saw: 1.

Revanchists: calling for open warfare against the former colonists and perceived tormentors, and 2. Islamists: wanting to establish Khilaafat by a more democratic means.

If the former were devious, the latter were romantics.

A large majority carried on by holding on to the rafts of the daily grind with their Imaan fluctuating from one end of spectrum to the other. Their daily experiences effected their deeds.

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Globalised world Now two decades of unbridled Muslim bias gave free licence for governments to show their bigotry in ways that resembled the communist atrocities and medieval persecutions.

The United Nations protests but to no avail.

In Myanmar, millions of Muslims were forced out as ‘Bengali’ while in Sri Lanka mobs were allowed to rampage Muslim dignity at a whim. In India, an attempt is going on to outcast this pauperised minority systematically.

While the sophisticated Chinese claims a moral high ground of ‘re-education’ of Muslims, Denmark and France almost hopped the bandwagon. Eastern Europeans remain petrified of Muslim migrants.

Just like the other Abrahamic faiths, Muslims too are fundamentally democratic whose behaviour is guided by higher human values that are entrenched in ideals of equality, fairness and progress.

This nice notion takes a dent when non-Muslim minorities are persecuted by Muslim majorities, both in the Middle East

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and in Africa. Yes, there is poverty and geopolitical pressures but the fundamental problem is the Muslim practice of Islam that belongs to the 13th century when the Mongol warlords invaded the cultural heartland of Baghdad.

So what change awaits us In the coming decades, centuries will happen.

That important change: inclusion of science in Fiqh as one of the primary sources of Shariah, both as a differentiator and an arbitrator, along with Quran and Hadith.

The Quran appeals to ‘reason’, ’to reflect’, to ‘Haqq’ tens of times, in varied contexts and circumstances.

For millennia, religions have taken care of mental health of their communities and societies – from pulling people out by the dark abyss of depression to inspiring them to great endeavours.

And over these millennia, when one religion lagged behind the understanding of new concepts, a better narrative of life and beyond replaced it.

This process halted in the mid-19th century, due to stubborn refusal of religions – all religions – to comprehend the new emerging realities.

The new masters of information believed modernity was the end of all religions. However, they could not replace the source of Sakinah, that universal mental peace and certainty we all – all of humanity – craves for.

A mix of regimented personal freedoms, materialism and nationalism was a quick answer.

In times of stress, this created industrial scale massacres of the 20th century in the form of World Wars in Europe and Proxy Wars in the rest of the world.

The 21st century will have to pick up these pieces and its inevitable post-traumatic stress.

We need to find a way to channel finite energy-resources and fragile human capital-investments away from military-industrial complex to infrastructure and climate-sustainable networks all across the globe – our Village.

In our context, incorporation of science in Fiqh will finally close the era of Taqleed (when Islam stopped responding to real world needs in the 13th century), opens up paths ahead for partnerships in diversity and inclusiveness, and experiment with novel ways to achieve meritocracy and human progress – helping each Muslim and their societies to focus on solutions and agreed outcomes.

Indeed it is a challenging endeavour for the present and a worthy legacy for our children.

Such an aspiration has potential to inject sakinah into the souls and barakah into the daily grind of all kinds of lives.

The promise of Quran points to this – tens of times – for decades and centuries to come.

Dr Mohammed Naushaduddin is a General Practitioner in South West Sydney, Australia.

ISSUE 202 / SEPTEMBER 2022

LIFESTYLE 21 - 23

UMMAH 24 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

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Pakistan in perpetual crisis

Pakistan has lately been going through an economic crisis with dwindling foreign reserves, dramatic depreciation of its currency and political uncertainty.

Now Pakistan is going through a humanitarian disaster with unprecedented flooding bringing misery to millions of people in the country.

During the last few months, Pakistan has also been going through a political and constitutional crisis since 3 April 2022 with the removal of Prime Minister Imran Khan orchestrated by a parliamentary vote of no confidence on 10 April 2022.

Imran alleged that a foreign country, pointedly the US was involved in the regime change because he conducted an independent foreign policy and had friendly relations with China and Russia.

His removal led to unprecedented protests from his supporters across Pakistan that have continued to date. In rallies all over the country attended by hundreds of thousands Zia Ahmad of people, Imran has been calling for early elections Assalamu that are due in October Alaikum on 20 August.

2023.

However, the High Court Witnessing his popuGreetings of Pakistan has now suspended lar appeal and success in of Peace the ban on live broadcasts Imran by-elections recently held in Khan’s speeches, ruling the state’s methe province of Punjab, the interim government formed by a coalition of op- dia regulatory body had “exceeded its auposition parties with a long track record thority”.

On 22 August 2022, Imran was charged of corruption, are trying their best to deny by the Pakistani police under anti-terror him political office in the country.

Pakistan’s media regulatory body im- laws after he accused the police and judiciposed the ban after Imran criticised police, ary of detaining and torturing his close aide judicial officials, and other state institu- Shahbaz Gill.

Imran accused police of torturing Shahtions in a speech in the capital, Islamabad,

Imran Khan.

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- Strong Muslimah leaders & Speakers - Children’s books need to be diverse - ‘Reflecting Hijab’ workshop by MWA

baz in custody and said the charges against his him were a conspiracy to pit his party against the military.

Imran is expected to appear before the court on Wednesday 31 August and the saga will continue with the current government bent on denying his return to power by all possible means.

The flood disaster in Pakistan will possibly now take precedence over the political crisis and it’s sad that there doesn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel for crisis-prone Pakistan.

community event. I look forward to attend your future events.

Ali Hussein

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- Social spotlight: Senator Thorpe - New photos from inside the Ka’bah

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.

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This is a great initiative which is finally approved (albeit restricted temporarily).

Well done to all involved.

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- Dismantling Islamophobia - Portrait of Dr Jamal Rifi wins art prize - Funeral service honours revert

Re: Islamic Bank of Australia: Ethical & Shariah compliant banking

This was a fantastic event attended by so many enthusiastic young people from diverse backgrounds. Congratulations to the

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- Paradigm shift in practice of Islam - Pakistan in perpetual crisis - Hindu woman vilified as Hinduphobic

If you ask me, a child’s life cut short by Somali Australian Community Association Re: Israeli siege and attacks on a shell or bomb is as worthy of mention as of NSW for organising this much needed Gaza condemned

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Readers comments the passing of an elderly person of natural causes.

I remember the excitement and joy and particularly the expectations raised when all of us heard the news about their election and appointment to places of power and leverage.

I’ll speak for myself and say I am not just disappointed, I am sadly wiser by this betrayal.

David Albuequerque

AMUST ISSUE # 202 FRIDAY 2 SEPTEMBER 2022 5 SAFAR 1444 - Muslim David & Goliath meet - One third of Pakistan under water

EDITORIAL

I applaud AMUST for its service to the Muslim community as in raising awareness of the impunity Israel enjoys from all its crimes against humanity. No MP from both Australian major parties has made a single reference to the attack on Gaza.

On another topic, I cannot but help compare AMUST’s solidarity and humanity for Palestinians with the utter indifference of Australia’s elected Muslim parliamentarians – Senator Fatima Payman and Cabinet ministers Anne Aly and Ed Husic – towards the recent brutal attack on already suffering Gazans. Surely the killing of 17 children among the 48 and the fact that of the 360 Palestinians reported injured, nearly twothirds were civilians, including 151 children, 58 women and 19 older people is worthy at least of a mention among their prolific posts and statements?

If Ed Husic could mourn on his Facebook page the passing of Olivia Newton John and if he and his Muslim colleagues could post pictures of their social outings, surely they could easily have spared a moment of their time to mention those Palestinian children?

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Hindu woman vilified as Hinduphobic and repeatedly harassed Amit Bharti A wise woman once said, “Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in this world, but has not solved one yet.” Had she said it today she would have seen how the hate factories work tirelessly to prove her right.

Recently, the Hindutva hate groups took offence to Halal food being served at an Indian restaurant, a cocktail named Indian bride, and a mural of Gods sharing a meal in suburban Melbourne.

Not only the restaurant owners but their patrons were also targeted by these hate mongers. Social media was filled with misogynistic posts by their supporters.

One Sonu Singla, a fake profile created to amplify hate, started putting private pictures of restaurant owners and making misogynistic offensive comments like, “Take your clothes off”, and “Why just sell burger, sell your body.”

When these sexist comments were called out, rightly by another Hindu woman, the group decided to target her and brand her as Hinduphobic and anti-Hindu. An old post of her where she spoke against the rape culture was picked up and used out of context to target her.

Australian Hindu Media, an organisation registered in NSW, then targeted her with their supporters calling her part of ‘Sar tan

se juda gang’, a convert, and someone who plays by ISIS book among others.

The hate was further amplified with Sachin Gaur of Australian Hindu Media then sharing the post in Indians in Melbourne – Official, a Facebook group with 50K members run by Amit Singh Jadaun.

The group continues to host hate-filled content and continuously targets local businesses with one latest post asking people to boycott a Kebab joint in Werribee by calling them Khalistanis.

Sachin Gaur also shared the post in a group called Indians in Australia. A group which has him, Jay Shah and Bharti Kundal as Admin and Jitarth Jai Bhardwaj as moderator.

Both Sachin Gaur and Bharti Kundal, who has since changed their Twitter profile to Bharti Shankar have been targeting the patrons of the restaurant.

Bharti’s twitter account continue to host pictures of patrons visiting the restaurant without consent and links to their Facebook profiles. Bharti Kundal previously also targeted a couple for eating at the restaurant.

The sharing of posts has resulted in the poor woman getting threatening messages of beheading by a fake profile. The profile further mentioned that he knows where the family of the Hindu woman targeted by the Hindutva group stays and her number and details of her family are being shared by WhatsApp groups in India.

The threat messages did not just stop here

(Photo: iStock/Altered by Arnica Kala/The Quint) and further stated that she will meet the same fate as Kanhaiyalal. Kanhaiyalal was a tailor in India who was recently beheaded by religious extremists.

It seems the group has been following the same modus operandi. First, create a hate narrative against others. Then label anyone who does not agree with them as Hinduphobic, anti-national, anti-India and a separatist.

Then play a victim and tag the same group of people to share the posts.

This is followed by tagging BJP members in India and sharing posts in India.

Just recently a journalist and broadcaster who was stood down by SBS for his Islamophobic social media posts posted on Twitter appealed to Hindus in Australia to ‘Go beyond recreational outrage on social media.’

These words were nothing but a dog whistle calling Hindutva hate groups to pick up arms.

The Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw in a budget estimates hearing held earlier this year stated that AFP is at a heightened alert to protect our community, high office holders, our democratic institutions, and democratic values.

He further added that it has never been more important for the AFP to protect Australia and the way Australians live.

It is hoped that AFP picks up this matter and ensures that they protect the democratic values and citizens of Australia whose only crime is that they called out hate and ate a burger.

Shun the hate letter, not books Professor Irfan Ahmad Disregarding complexity in Maududi’s thought, the letter to Indian PM Modi, signed by 25 Hindu ‘academics, in desperation to ban his books and vilify Islam owes its debt to hatred and has no shred of academic spirit.

AMU’s decision to ban books by Maududi and Qutb is simply baffling, if not cowardly.

‘Only that historian will have the gift of fanning the spark of hope in the past who is firmly convinced that even the dead will not be safe from the enemy if he wins. And this enemy has not ceased to be victorious.’

– Walter Benjamin, Theses on the Philosophy of History.

Thanks to a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and signed by 25 Hindu ‘academics,’ scholars Abul ‘Ala Maududi and Sayyid Qutb received unusual media attention.

The letter – ‘Demanding Total Ban on Jihadi Curriculum’ in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Jamia Millia Islamia and Hamdard University – alleges that “the never-ending violent attacks on Hindu society, culture and civilization are a direct outcome of such teachings” at these “Islamic” universities. The letter is focused on Maududi.

Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) compliantly and swiftly removed not only Maududi’s but also Qutb’s books, which the letter does not even mention. Reporting the ban, Indian Express described Qutb as “Turkish” and Maududi as “Pakistani.”

The fact is while Qutb (d. 1966) is Egyptian, Maududi (1903-1979) is Indian-Pakistani.

The letter demanding the ban is hateful.

Armed with vile aims, it is based on misleading sources, has a mind-defying conspiracy theory and is bereft of academic knowledge, let alone knowledge of Maududi’s rich scholarship. The letter deserves applause, but only for surpassing colonial knowledge in the sheer venom with which it incites division a la Carl Schmitt’s version

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of friend-enemy politics.

My argument is that it is the terror-filled letter, not books by Maududi, which a just democracy should shun.

On the ban by AMU AMU’s decision to ban books by Maududi and Qutb is simply baffling, if not cowardly.

To begin with, the letter demanding the ban itself shouldn’t have been addressed to the Prime Minister but to University Grants Commission (UGC) that governs universities. AMU was obliged to “act” if UGC demanded so. To ban books based on a political letter shorn of academic credentials is unbecoming of the esteemed university that AMU is. Rather than initiate a debate on what are “Indic,” intellectual freedom and academic autonomy, AMU caved in to the unjust, divisive demand for ban.

Walter Benjamin’s thesis in this essay’s epigraph is not only about safety but also integrity of the dead. The dead emperor Aurangzeb is routinely threatened in daily news, TV “debates,” street demonstrations and elsewhere. The letter by “academics” calls Maududi “Aurangzeb-minded.”

Both dead, if Aurangzeb and Maududi are continually threatened, so are we who are alive.

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What is academic in the letter by 25 ‘academics’?

The letter calls Maududi “the fountainhead of Jihadi Islam.”

The toxic allegation continues: “Maududi openly calls for genocide of non-Muslims everywhere in the world.”

For a moment, let’s accept its nescience.

Given that the letter demands the banning of his books, how is Maududi responsible for alleged wrongs long before he was born?

Madhu Kishwar’s note, written after the letter, to the Vice-Chancellor of AMU answers it. Accusing AMU of “taqiyya” (disguise), she warns that having known “the core principles and…mandate of Islam,” “we are not so naïve anymore.”

The issue thus seems not Maududi but Islam itself.

Read this unreferenced passage: “…today, those targeted as Kafirs by Islamists [know]…this violent ideology that has caused endless series of Hindu holocausts in the sub-continent…[T]he foreign Islamic invaders…committed unspeakable brutalities…to force non-Muslims to convert, broke and vandalized lakhs of Hindu… places of worship …[and] also converted them into mosques and tombs, smashed the murtis of our sacred Devi-Devtas, abducted

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lakhs of Hindu women and children to sell them as sex slaves.”

Continuing the hate, the letter relentlessly decontextualises thus: “Internationally designated terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, Muslim Brotherhood, Taliban, etc, continue to derive their inspiration from Maududi’s core ideology…”

No true academic will enact such seamless generalisations, that too without an iota of evidence. This method is not even close to academic reasoning, much less to rigorous scholarship. It is sophistry.

Mark also the letter’s conspiratorial spirit in which Maududi and Muslims are shown to “destroy the remaining vestiges of Indic civilization and decimate the remaining share of native population in their own homeland through Demographic Invasion…”

This beats the conspiracy theory of terrorists Anders Breivik and Brenton Tarrant and other Christian racist groups.

Going by the (il)logic in the letter about links among Maududi, ideology, inspiration and terrorism, books by the Dalai Lama should be banned. Shoko Asahara, executed leader of the Japanese terrorist organisation Aum Shinrikyo had met him in India.

As “evidence,” the letter cites Islamophobes like V S Naipaul and news reports

by Praveen Swami. The former has been called “a new global Hindutva mascot”, who is “known for his hatred for Islam.”

Read the full article at amust.com.au (Courtesy The Wire, 17 August 2022, with slight editing).

Irfan Ahmad (PhD Cum Laude, University of Amsterdam) is Professor of Anthropology-Sociology at Ibn Haldun University, Turkey. Until early 2022, he was Senior Research Fellow at Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious & Ethnic Diversity, Gottingen. A public intellectual, he has taught at Australian (Monash University and Australian Catholic University) and Dutch Universities (University of Amsterdam and Utrecht University). He tweets @ IrfanHindustan.

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Early Divisions in the Jesus Movement Bilal Cleland There were profound differences in the early Jesus Movement which have been hidden by later censorship but the Quran displays awareness of its real nature.

“And in their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Law that had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him: a guidance and an admonition to those who fear God.” Surah Maida 5:49 The Roman Empire was perhaps the most brutal empire in history. It included the Land of Judaea, where its appointed puppets were the Herodians, a corrupt and evil family.

It was accused by believers, of fornication (niece marriage and incest), riches, and pollution of the Temple. These three evils were described in the Damascus Scroll as ‘The Three Nets of Belial’.

John the Baptist was beheaded for criticizing the niece marriage of Herod’s brother Philip to Herodias. Matthew 14:3-5 There is no doubt that these Herodians were enemies of Jesus.

In Matthew’s Gospel 22:15-16 there is an account of an unsuccessful attempt by certain Pharisees, accompanied by Herodians (supporters of the royal family) to trap Jesus into a subversive statement. It is the oft-quoted separation of the rights of Caesar from those of religion.

Paul of Tarsus differed Paul’s Letter to the Romans, giving greetings to his friends and allies, says: “Greetings to the household of Aristobulus. Greetings to my kinsman Herodion,..” Romans

16:10-11 Aristobulus may have been a common name, but it was most prominent among the Herodians and there were at least three of that name living at the time.

Eisenman remarks that Aristobulus who was the nephew of Agrippa I also had a son called Herodion, or ‘littlest Herod’. That Herodion is Paul’s relative is particularly significant. [The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians 1996] Aristobulus was later one of the inner circle around Titus, the conqueror of Jerusalem and destroyer of the temple, along with Tiberius Alexander, Josephus, Bernice and Agrippa II. He also married Salome, the daughter of Herodias, who demanded the head of John the Baptist.

There is also a reference to another apparently highly placed Herodian in the congregation of Paul’s church in Antioch the first group to be called “Christians.”

“In the church at Antioch were prophets and teachers: Barnabas…Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch…”

(Acts of the Apostles 13:1-2) Paul did receive gentle treatment from the Roman occupiers.

After a riot in the Temple, which was over his recognition as one who preached against the law of Torah, he was placed by the Roman authorities in the fortress for protection then escorted by troops at night to the Procurators’s palace in Caesarea.

Here he was lodged in the official residence of the Roman procurator, Felix who was married to Drusilla, the sister of King Agrippa II. Felix himself was the brother of Nero’s favourite freedman, Pallas. [Eisenman The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians] Here he was interrogated rather gently by a party including King Agrippa, all recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, in which Agrippa declares ‘A little more, and your arguments

An early Christan representation of the Martyrdom of James the Just in Jerusalem who was hidden by later writings

would make a Christian of me.’ Acts 26:27 The treatment of James the Just was very different Agrippa used the interregnum following the death of the Roman governor Festus by appointing a high priest who would obey him.

He called a meeting of the Sanhedrin brought James the Just and some of his companions before it and “delivered them to be stoned.” [Josephus. Antiquities of the Jews.

Book XX Chapter IX ] Eusebius of Caesarea, friend of Constantine, described the martyrdom of James.

“So they went up and threw down the Righteous one. Then they said to each other “Let us stone James the Righteous”, and began to stone him, as in spite of his fall he was still alive. …. Then one of them, a full-

The new few weeks belong to Salman Rushdie, the author of the Satanic Verses, who was stabbed in New York on Friday 12 August. The UN and the world’s major countries will condemn Muslims’ attempt to silence free speech, and liberals and conservatives will congratulate each other for identifying the natural enemy of freedom: Islam.

People will discuss the need to defend freedom of speech, and many will identify Islam as the main impediment in this struggle.

Muslims will quote the Quran and the sayings of the Prophet (s) to reject the accusation that Islam is against freedom.

Violence against people with whom you disagree was never an appropriate response.

It makes no difference if one tries to justify it in religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality.

Violence is beastly, and it negates the idea of civil society.

Yet our world promotes and encourages violence under any pretext.

For example, you become an outcast if you criticize Israel and question its apartheid policies in the US and the Western world.

In India, if they catch a Muslim or Dalit with a cow in certain states, they lynch you, and in the Middle East, you dare criticize the power elites; you spend the rest of your life in prison.

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tactics the power elites and intelligence agencies have applied for several centuries.

When they fail to silence free speech, the power elites resort to violence, always.

Last year, the United States banned 1586 books, and the world killed 11 journalists while detaining over 200 of them.

Hindu extremists in India killed hundreds on suspicion of smuggling cows, and in Pakistan, scores lost their lives and property for alleged blasphemous statements against Islam and Muslims.

Israel does not allow its challengers to survive, as it kills them at will within Palestine as well as in other countries.

What happened with Salman Rushdie was wrong. Regardless of his ideas and opinions about Islam since he has a right to express himself fearlessly.

The response to negative thoughts is not violence or banning or burning the books.

But, our world is selective in choosing who to ban, imprison and kill. No religion or ideology is immune from making this choice based on its interests defined by its dominant power elites.

Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Communism, and liberalism have their share in killing dissidents and banning books.

Still, the power elites have chosen Muslims as the main enemy of freedom and violence.

It is a power play, and Muslims must be aware of it. Islam asks its adherents to take a principled stand on human life. It condemns violence and calls for the security of life.

It is the simple message Islam promotes because it believes that life is a gift from God and deserves to live.

The one who attacked Rushdie forgot this simple Islamic message, and he will now face

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

Sunset And Town Held At Juxtapose

Does the world care for free speech?

Dr Aslam Abdullah

er, took the club which he used to beat out the clothes, and brought it down on the head of the Righteous one.” [Eusebius of Caesarea. The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine. Penguin London. 1965 p.

59-60] That illustrates the great gulf between the attitudes of the Roman authorities to those who followed Jesus and the Law of Torah and those of Paul of Tarsus, who in his Letter to the Galatians, condemned the Law.

Fazlul Huq The sun had gone down below the horizon moments back for twilight to make the reign especially over the lower sky.

When near distant range of Rocky Mountains covered with ridges and dents is seen to have the hue made in pink and white.

While landmass coming from footplate is found to make way into water of the bay so gained in height and width to claim attributes of the dwarf mountain.

As the bay colored in darker blue also has the green island gained in body length but not in width.

the consequences of his action in this world and in the hereafter.

Dr Aslam Abdullah is a resident scholar at Islamicity.org. He is also the editor of the Muslim Observer published from Detroit, MI, USA. He is based in the USA and is a trustee of the American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin. He has taught at several colleges and universities in India, England, and the USA.

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While the town held in place on the left shore and ground made on high is seen to dazzle in man-made light.

Dr Fazlul Huq is a retired academic and Editor-in-Chief Emanreserch Journal Of Angiotherapy.

He is also the poet “Jujube” at Allpoetry. com with over 35,000 compositions.

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Dismantling Islamophobia by holding perpetrators accountable Shejuti Hossain Activate Youth (AY) delivered the inaugural Dismantling Islamophobia and Racism (DIR) workshop, in collaboration with Wyndham Community and Education Centre (WCEC) and Wyndham City Council (WCC) on Saturday 20 August 2022.

The sold-out event had over 80 participants who learned how to hold racists and Islamophobes accountable in a range of common scenarios.

AY President and Co-Founder Dr Aaqil Rifai addressed the audience by highlighting AY’s objectives to improve mental wellbeing and advance education through accurate information.

He stressed that at the core, the organisation aims to build confidence in the Australian Muslim Multicultural Identity, and this workshop is in response to the social climate that our youth have informed us they are facing.

Vice President of AY, Zakia Haque, introduced the DIR Project and explained that the program offered victims a reason to invest time and energy to report incidents and seek help from support services.

AY intends to work with local governments, and community organisations to educate and empower the community by delivering victim-centred solutions, rather than burdening victims with educating the oppressor.

Dr Sara Cheikh Husain was the keynote speaker for the event.

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Having researched perceptions of and responses to Islamophobia, she delivered an insightful presentation about defining and responding to different forms of Islamophobia.

She highlighted the importance of reporting incidents to make a positive impact on government policy.

Discussion groups were organised covering select, nuanced Islamophobic encounters in places such as the office, doctor’s clinic, shopping centre and the school yard. Facilitators, trained in their respective scenario settings, immersed the audience in these scenarios before prompting discussions about holding the perpetrator accountable.

A couple of teams provided a live performance on how such a scenario could be managed.

Cr Jennie Barrera, WCC’s Welcoming City portfolio holder, spoke about Council’s initi-

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atives on embracing diversity in Wyndham.

The event was wrapped up with a panel discussion featuring Jazeer Nijamudeen, President of Muslim Legal Network, Dr Shiraz Mahkri, President of Muslim Health Practioners Australia and Dr Sara Cheikh Husain.

Jazeer Nijamudeen explained why you need to be able to identify Islamophobia and how the law can help you hold someone accountable. He also explained that it can be a complicated process so victims should always immediately contact the Islamophobia Support Service or Islamophobia Register Australia to help them through that process of seeking justice or even simply mental health support.

As part of the DIR Project, AY also coordinated a joint Khutba (drafted by Waseem Razvi) by Wyndham City Mosques including Virgin Mary Mosque, Melbourne Grand

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Mosque and United Muslim Residents Association (Point Cook).

Activate Youth is excited to continue empowering, leading, and inspiring the next generation of Australian Multicultural Muslims by providing safe, empowering spaces for them to overcome Islamophobia and Racism.

Similar workshops will be conducted with other local Councils.

Support the DIR Project financially or connect to the key decision makers in your local Council by emailing: vicepresident@ay.org.au Shejuti Hossain is a Civil Engineer, volunteers with Activate Youth and has worked on short films screened in film festivals. She is driven by creating positive impact on the world and is based in Melbourne, Australia.

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Islamic Studies to continue as ISRA and CSU renew partnership Zia Ahmad In a signing ceremony held on Wednesday 18 August at ISRA Academy in Auburn attended by the Governor of NSW, academics and community leaders, the agreement between Charles Sturt University (CSU) and Islamic Sciences and Research Academy (ISRA) was renewed in order to continue offering Islamic Studies and Arabic courses through the Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation (CISAC) at CSU. The renewal of the agreement, originally signed in 2009, is a demonstration of the success of the Islamic Studies and Arabic courses at CSU with more than 2,200 enrolments and 415 graduates during the last 13 years.

The agreement was co-signed by the CSU’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Renée Leon and Associate Professor Mehmet Ozalp, the Director of Charles Sturt University’s Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation (CISAC).

Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley, AC QC, Governor of New South Wales attended the signing ceremony, offering her support for the partnership.

“Congratulations for this agreement, the University and the Centre itself. Charles Sturt University is to be congratulated for recognising the need of Australian Muslims to learn about their religion at this level,” she said.

Prof Leon expressed her appreciation for the relationship between ISRA Academy and CSU saying, “We are very proud of the long-standing partnership between the University and the Islamic Sciences and Research Academy that was launched in 2009, and the subsequent establishment of the Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation in 2011.”

A/Prof Mehmet Ozalp highlighted the pioneering work undertaken by CISAC saying, “The CISAC is a leading national and international partnership between the University and ISRA Academy which elevated Islamic studies in Australia to a new level.”

“Australian Muslims can study Islam from within the Islamic scholarly tradition without compromising the integrity of that tradition.

The future of Islam and Muslims in Australia depends on higher learning and its ability to produce a vibrant local community and religious leaders,” he said.

ISRA Academy will continue its collaboration with Charles Sturt University by offering courses from within the Islamic tradition combining it with modern scholarship and A/Prof Mehmet Ozalp.

Standing from left, Dr Naing Win, President ISRA, A/Professor Zuleyha Keskin, The Honourable Margaret Beazley, Governor of NSW, Professor Graham Brown, DVC, Prof John McDonald.

Sitting from left A/Professor Mehmet Ozalp, Professor Renée Leon, VC. contemporary context, all the while ensuring students excel in their academic pursuits.

The MC at the ceremony A/Prof Mehmet Ozalp while acknowledging presence of in-

Hon Margaret Beazley..

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vited guests, elaborated on the history and pioneering achievements of CSU-ISRA partnership during the last 13 years.

“With the offering of the largest number of

Islamic Studies and Arabic subjects, with the largest number of Islamic Studies and Arabic courses and with more than 2,000 enrolments and 415 graduates over the last 12 years, CISAC is pioneering in this space in Australia, perhaps even in the world. The suite of courses that CISAC offers, is certainly unique on the global stage,” he claimed.

The audience present at the ceremony were addressed by a number of speakers: 1. Professor Renée Leon, Vice Chancellor, CSU 2. Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley, Governor of NSW 3. Dr Naing Win, President, ISRA 4. Professor Graham Brown, Deputy Vice Chancellor, CSU 5. Ms Lynda Jane Voltz MP 6. Mr Paul Lynch MP 7. Associate Professor Zuleyha Keskin, CISAC. The event ended with networking over a delicious Afghani lunch.

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

Dr Naing Win.

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Prof Renée Leon.

A/Prof Zuleyha Keskin.

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Portrait of Dr Jamal Showcasing Islamic school Rifi wins art prize renewal in practice Kyle Bay artist Sam Dabboussy with Professor John Dewar of La Trobe University

Mehar Ahmad The 5th Annual Australian Islamic Schooling Conference was held in Sydney on Saturday 6 August at Malek Fahd Islamic School in Greenacre. The one-day event, organised by the Centre for Islamic Thought & Education (CITE), was attended by educators from all over Australia and New Zealand.

The audience at the conference with the theme ‘Showcasing Islamic School Renewal in Practice’, heard from practitioners about their own transformative renewal projects across schools and classrooms marking a shift for Islamic schools from ‘belonging’ toward ‘distinction.’

The very process of renewal (tajdīd) is embedded in the Islamic tradition that will lead to distinction that is premised and grounded in an Islamic philosophy of education, with a distinct Islamic pedagogy yet cognisant of contextual demands and constraints.

The program started with the recitation of Quran and acknowledgement of country followed by addresses by the host Dr Zachriah Matthews Principal, Malek Fahd Islamic School, Mr Abdullah Khan, Executive Principal & CEO, Australian Islamic College and Professor Mohamad Abdalla AM, Di-

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rector, CITE, University of South Australia.

Dr Nadeem Memon, Program Director of Islamic Education and Mr Dylan Chown Lecturer both from CITE elaborated on the highlights and challenges of renewal in practice.

A panel discussion titled ‘Practice Showcase – Renewal of Policy (frameworks) for Practice’ was held by Lead Practitioners including Mrs Houda Kbbar, Head of Wellbeing, Malek Fahd Islamic School (Sydney), Dr Nadia Selim Associate Lecturer in the discipline of Arabic Language and Culture, University of Sydney and Ms Eman Aweida, Primary Pedagogy and Curriculum Integration Lead and Ms Samah Taki, Secondary Pedagogy and Curriculum Integration Lead both from Irfan College, Sydney.

The highlight of the conference was a number of Parallel workshops were conducted by Senior educators both from Primary and Secondary schools on the theme with further table briefing and discussions throughout the day.

The conference was sponsored and supported by MFIS, ISSA, Masjid al Khalil, Study Space, Sadaqa, The Farid un Nisa Ismani Islamic Education Grant and Islamic School Association of Australia (ISAA).

Mehar Ahmad based in Sydney is a Public School Teacher and President of Seena Inc, Publishers of the Australasian Muslim Times AMUST.

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Mei Nee Cheong A Sydney doctor, who turned the driveway of his home into a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination site, is the subject of a portrait by artist Sam Dabboussy who has been awarded the Australian Muslim Arts Prize 2022 for his work, Dr Jamal Rifi.

At nearly 150cm high, the stunning oil on canvas work is a tribute to a highly respected member of Sydney’s large Muslim community and beckons the viewer to lean in and learn more about Dr Rifi himself.

Speaking from his home in Kyle Bay, NSW, Mr Dabboussy was stunned to hear the good news after submitting work for the past two years.

“It feels fantastic and it’s an honour. It’s nice recognition for all the hard work I have put in over the last year. I am also grateful that Dr Jamal Rifi will be getting more exposure and recognition for the work he has done in the community,” Mr Dabboussy said.

Australian Muslim Artists is an annual exhibition hosted by the Islamic Museum of Australia (IMA) in partnership with La Trobe University, which once again this year saw entries pour in from across the country.

Islamic Museum of Australia Senior Curator Dr Mahmoud Mohammed said the field was extremely competitive.

“It is wonderful and well deserved recognition for Sam, an established artist, to receive this prize. His prize winning work was certainly a standout piece this year.

That said, it was also very refreshing to receive some very good submissions by artists whose works we’ve not previously been familiar with,” said Dr Mohammed.

With no binding theme, the fourteen shortlisted artists this year have referenced everything from the Quran, to political conflict and Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. The mediums too, are varied and include glasswork, textiles, digital art, calligraphy and more.

Islamic Museum Deputy Chair Mr Jevan Bouzo said the Museum’s partnership with La Trobe University and their prize sponsorship is an important driver for artists.

“Australian Muslim Artists represents a

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unique opportunity for both emerging and established artists to exhibit their work in a professional gallery setting and alongside their peers. And, for the awarded artist, there’s also the prestige of having their work acquired as part of the La Trobe University art collection,” Mr Bouzo said.

He further added, “To partner with La Trobe University who really value deep connections with diverse communities such as ours, is an honour.”

La Trobe University Vice-Chancellor Professor John Dewar AO said the University was delighted to support the Australian Muslim Arts Prize for the fourth year in a row.

“It is wonderful to once again be part of this unique initiative that celebrates achievement within the Muslim artist community,” Professor Dewar said.

He further added, “That this year’s prize has been awarded for a work that recognises the critical role individuals can play in the lives of others accords strongly with the University’s ethos of supporting communities; I warmly congratulate Sam on his achievement.”

Shortlisting for Australian Muslim Artists was conducted by a panel of judges including Dr Stefano Carboni, CEO of the Museums Commission for the Ministry of Culture, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Bala Starr, Director of La Trobe Art Institute; community representative Dr Anisa Buckley and Senior Curator at Islamic Museum of Australia, Dr Mahmoud Mohammed.

The Australian Muslim Artists exhibition is on display from 25 August – 15 November 202 at the Museum and online at islamicmuseum.org.au.

As an acquisitive prize, the artwork will become part of the La Trobe Art Institute which manages a collection of art acquired by the University and which has an exhibition and education facility in the arts precinct of central Bendigo.

Mei Nee is a marketing professional who has worked across the arts, arts education and travel. She is currently the Media and Marketing Manager at the Islamic Museum of Australia and is based in Melbourne, Australia ISSUE 202 / SEPTEMBER 2022

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Participatory Conference: Resilient Democracy for Resilient Communities Zia Ahmad A highly engaging day-long conference was held in Sydney on Tuesday 23 August at Novotel Parramatta exploring strategies and generating solutions toward building a democratically resilient society with the participation of Multicultural communities.

The conference brought together over 100 delegates consisting of academics, diverse community leaders, service providers and non-profit organisations as well as Commonwealth and NSW government representatives.

The facilitated discussions in a collaborative atmosphere diligently designed by the newDemocracy practitioners provided the audience with tools and tips for how to effectively utilise democratic participation in order to prevent the spread and influence of populist ideologies, conspiracy theories, misinformation and distrust in our society.

The conference successfully provided sharing of experiences of diverse community, academic and professional expertise on democracy-community relationship, sharing successful examples of democratic participation together with the interaction of relevant stakeholders.

The program was facilitated by Scott Newton, an expert in the use of deliberative, user-centred and participatory decision-making to drive groups to actionable solutions. The C0-Facilitater was Iain Walker, Executive Director of the newDemocracy Foundation (nDF) in Australia.

The conference was organised by Islamic Sciences & Research Academy (ISRA), Charles Sturt University (CSU) with funding from the NSW government.

The program started with the welcome by

the conference convener, Dr Derya Iner from ISRA, CSU followed by Welcome to Country by indigenous Australian, Professor Sue Green.

The first panel in the morning heard community stories from four representative speakers showcasing the community challenges, responses and resilience through their lived experiences: • Professor Sue Green, Course Director Wiradjuri Language, Culture and Heritage, CSU, Indigenous community • Rita Markwell, Advisor AMAN, Muslim community • Darren Bark, CEO, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, Jewish community • Benjamin OH, Asian Australian Alliance, Chinese community The second morning panel consisted of democracy experts explaining in what their years of research & publications suggested about strengthening democracy through communities that required strengthening

communities to ensure effectively operating democracy for good causes, not making democracies a tool for the spread of disinformation, distrust and populist divisive ideologies: • Prof Mark Evans, CSU: “The state of Australian democracy: ‘Culture of contentment’ or the ‘end of complacency’?”

• Prof Tim Soutphommasane, University of Sydney: “The intersection between human rights, disadvantaged communities and resilient democracy.”

• Dr Peter Balint, UNSW Canberra: “Learning democratic resilience: Public Sphere responses to extremism.”

• Dr Derya Iner, CISAC, CSU: “Research-based community activism to save democracy from elitism and nativism.”

There was a Q&A session titled Vision for democracy” enabling attendees to question academic experts on how we might strengthen our democracy as well as a couple of small

group table activities Sharing examples of democracy successfully building community resilience and serving their needs.

Small groups were reorganised after lunch to find solutions from civil society to generate and test initial ideas for further strengthening democracy followed by a final session with reports from small groups for the conference participants to refine and prioritise final ideas for further strengthening democracy as well as understand how each stakeholder could help contribute to the top ideas for further strengthening democracy.

Concluding remarks on the proceedings of the conference were presented by Prof Mark Evans while a vote of thanks was given by Pia van de Zandt.

A formal report on the conference will be presented to the Minister for Multiculturalism and the Premier of NSW in the near future.

The 55th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations designated 21 September as

To celebrate this day, you are cordially invited to join an

Interfaith Prayer Service

On Wednesday 21 September 2022 at 11am at Knox Cultural Centre, Knox Grammar School, 2 Borambil Street, Wahroonga 2076 (a stone’s throw distance from Warrawee Train Station) Dr Jan Fizzell, Senior Medical Adviser for NSW Health would give the occasional address.

Religious leaders from Aboriginal, Bahai, Brahmakumaris, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jain, Jewish, Mandaean, Sikh, Sufi and Zoroastrian communities will offer prayers for peace. School children will provide musical performances. There will be opportunity for lighting a candle for Peace during the service. A light lunch would be provided at the end of the service. Please RSVP by 10 September 2022.

For further information contact Rev. Dr. Manas Ghosh on 0429 892 548 or email: revmanasghosh@gmail.com

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HAA helping the communities in Lismore and Mullumbimby to recover after the floods Alsu Kurlow In March 2022, Human Appeal Australia (HAA) launched a fundraising campaign to help the communities affected by the floods in Australia.

The 2022 Eastern Australia floods were recorded as one of the nation’s worst flood disasters that occurred in South East Queensland and parts of coastal New South Wales.

The heavy rains forced thousands to flee their homes, creating a mass disaster for small towns in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. Lives were lost and thousands

of people were displaced living in temporary accommodation and tents.

HAA in partnership with the Good360, Resilient Lismore and Mullumbimby & District Neighbourhood Centre (MDNC) delivered and distributed aid to the local community in Lismore and Mullumbimby.

On Friday 29 July 2022 as part of the relief response, the Human Appeal teams in NSW and QLD including Director Bashar Al-Jamal, Director of Projects Issam Chaouk and Head of Community Care Amin El-Bureeny, HAA QLD Manager Imam Akram Buksh along with Jihad Dib, MP Member for Lakemba, Shadow Minister for Emergency Services, Energy and Climate Change and Clr Bilal El-Hayek, Deputy Mayor City of Canterbury Bankstown delivered donations to Resilient Lismore (Helping Hands) in Lismore and then

Jihad Dib, MP and Clr Bilal ElHayek distributing donations to Resilient Lismore (Helping Hands).

Human Appeal Flood Relief donations distribution at Mullumbimby 2022 distributed relief items including white goods, care packs and essentials vouchers to the flood affected families at Mullumbimby.

The community open day event was held at the Ex-Servicemen Mullumbimby Club helping those in need whilst bringing our communities together and fostering resilience. The event was attended by a wide variety of people including those affected by flood, local service providers and the general public.

Human Appeal with the help of our generous community has been able to present the $5000 donation cheque to Resilient Lismore and to distribute white goods and essentials distributed to the flood affected families through the Mullumbimby & District Neighbourhood Centre.

“It’s so inspiring to see the parts of the wid-

er community support each other in times of need. Even though they’ve never met and I am so proud of their efforts. The mantra for both charity groups (Human Appeal and Good360) “On the road to goodness” and “Circle of goodness” was in full evidence today.…always remember, there’s lots of good in the world and when humanity stands with one another, it’s an example of the best of us,” said Jihad Dib, MP. This great initiative will assist Resilient Lismore to pursue their relief efforts in Lismore and have helped around 30 families affected by the floods in Mullumbimby.

Alsu Kurlow is the Community Care Events Coordinator for Human Appeal Australia.

Pakistanis celebrate 75th Independence Day Shafqat Ali The Pakistan Association of Australia organised a function to celebrate Pakistan Independence Day in Sydney on Sunday evening 14 August at Himalaya Emporium in Bankstown with traditional zeal and fervour.

Pakistan came into being on 14th august 1947, this year 2022 being the 75th independence anniversary of Pakistan. The event was attended by a number of politicians, community and business leaders and members of the Pakistani community in Sydney.

‘A leader is known by the team he keeps, and a team is known by the events it executes’, the maxim was proved once again valid and correct by Farhat Jaffri, President of the Pakistan Association of Australia commemorating the 75th year of Pakistan’s independence in Sydney.

The event started with a recitation of Quran by Imran Khan and prayers for Pakistan and Pakistanis not only in Pakistan but around the globe.

Hamid Saroha, General Secretary of the Association, reiterated the importance of adhering to Islamic values and stressed that those should also be reflected in each step of our lives.

Pakistan Association of Australia (PAA) over the last 50 years since its inception has held various successful events and each one depicted something new and innovative.

This time it’s incumbent President Farhat Jaffri raised the bar to a new height with fewer promises and pure solid actions. He took the audience through recent past successful events that provided great opportunities to network not only for adults but whole families.

Mr Jaffri shared his vision to break the norm and churn out one after another event continuously this year and until Pakistan Defence Day in March. Many events are planned to spread over the Pakistani Business Expo.

National Anthem with Children

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Also, there were many first-timers like all past presidents of PAA who were invited and given great respect and shared the table with the High Commission er of Pakistan to Australia Choudhary Zahid Hafeez and prominent politicians. They were also accoladed with impressive awards presented on stage.

Another first-timer was the initiation of a lifetime-achievement award that was given to respectable Dr Akbar Khan for his great achievements and services to the community.

A long-awaited desire of the community was also fulfilled by first announcing to submit nominations for the Pakistani Australian of the Year 2022. After a tough voting competition, the award was won by philanthropist and community leader Mr Faheem Rashidi who has a long history of selfless services to the community.

The Consul General Mr Mohammad Ashraf expressed his great pleasure and congratulated the President of the Association for organising such an impressive and well-organised event. He expressed satis-

faction over the performance of his consulate and how it has served during Covid-19.

The Young Innovators team ran a quiz for a local community event organised by the Pakistan Association of Australia. A customise quiz was designed concerning the 75th independence anniversary of Pakistan.

All the questions specifically were designed and developed for the particular event and occasion. There were three winners all girls of different ages.

President Mr Jaffri requested all his team members to come on the stage and acknowledge their great support and continuous hard work.

MC of the event Sahar Zeeshan Khan requested all to enjoy a very scrumptious dinner.

Later, a specially designed cake for the event was cut by Abbas Rana, Patron in Chief of the Association.

Shafqat Ali is the Founder/President of Young Innovators Australia. He is a Trainer, Youth Mentor, Author and Consultant. You can reach him via email at gul52470@gmail.com.

Pakistani Australian of the Year 2022: Mr Faheem Rashidi

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UMMAH 24 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

COMMUNITY

SOCIAL 30 - 31

AMUST

Meri Pehchan Pakistan celebrates 75th Independence Day Daniya Syed Meri Pehchan Pakistan conducted its 7th event to mark the 75th Independence Day of Pakistan in Sydney on Sunday 14 August 2022 at Liverpool Catholic Club.

The event was attended by the High Commission of Pakistan in Australia Mr Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, Senator Mehreen Farooqui and Councel General of Pakistan in Sydney Mr Muhammad Ashraf along with prominent Pakistani community members and their families The event showcased Meri Pehchan Pakistan (MMP) signatured segments including Quiz Competition, Speech Competition and Character Parade in which children demonstrated their knowledge about Pakistan’s history, personalities and facts.

Meri Pehchan Pakistan conducted 2nd Pakistani Youth Talent Awards to acknowledge the achievements of Pakistani youth and children who are making great efforts in various walks of life.

Winners of the Pakistani Youth Talent Awards.

Photo: NK Productions.

The awards were hosted by Co-Founder of Pakistani Youth Talent Award Ms Daniya Syed, who herself is winner of several awards in relation to her technological achievements and community work.

Awards were presented to the winner of 10 different categories including Academics, Sports, Community Services, Performing Arts, Fine Arts, Technology &

Innovation, and Religious Studies while medallions were presented to 32 finalists from these categories.

MPP received over 100 nominations for these awards from Pakistani community in Australia. The awards were sponsored by Pakistani businesses who were presented shields to acknowledge their support during the event.

Photo: NK Productions.

The team

MPP conducted two audience sessions for greater engagement where audiences were given prizes for answering simple yet fun-filled questions which electrified the event.

There was a special performance “Main Pakistan Hoon” by MMP team in which the message was conveyed that our Pakistani youth can play a significant role in facing challenges that Pakistan is facing concluding with Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poetry Hum Daikhain Ge. The Founders and President of Meri Pehchan Pakistan Mr Syed Atif Faheem and Mrs Erum Atif briefed two objectives of the organisation, firstly establishing link of Pakistani youth children with their heritage & culture as well as generating the much-needed funds for underprivileged people inPakistan.

The event received huge appreciation from attendees and special guests.

All the proceeds from this event will be donated to Shahid Afridi Foundation this year..

Daniya Syed is a student of Year 9, she is technology enthusiast and have participated in FLL International Robotics Championship competitions. Daniya also has keen interest in community related activities and volunteers herself for various charity organisations.

Performance.

Photo: NK Productions.

IFAM Eid picnic in Glenfield Zahid Alam IFAM Study Circle in South-West Sydney comprising of 20 families (60 adults and 35 children) went to a memorable BBQ family picnic at a nearby national park in Glenfield on 19 June 2022.

A quiz and trivia on Australia and Islam were conducted before the BBQ where every member of the family took part in winning prizes.

The delicious BBQ offered four varieties of meat along with sweets and was highly SEPTEMBER 2022 / ISSUE 202

appreciated by those present. Every member of the family was involved in cooking and distribution, a major step in ice-breaking and making new friends.

Dhuhr prayer was offered in the open ground followed by addresses by Br Kashif Aziz (Vice president, IFAM) and Dua by Br Usaid Khalil (Secretary General, IFAM).

Zahid Alam is a Project Manager in Telstra and AMUST correspondent based in Sydney. He immigrated to Australia in 2005.

He holds a Masters of Engineering Management degree from the University of Technology Sydney and a diploma in Electronics Engineering from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India.

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COMMUNITY

NEWS 1-3

BOOMERANG 4-7

COMMUNITY 8 - 15

FEATURE 16 - 17

AUSTRALIA 18 - 20

Imam Hussain Peace Conference

Zia Ahmad

The Imam Hussain (r) Peace Conference was held in Sydney on Saturday 6 August 2022 at Redeem Centre in Wentworthville addressed by Hon Chris Bowen, Federal Minister for Energy & Climate change as well as by a number of interfaith leaders.

The event attended by a large number of people both Muslims from various denominations as well as people of other faith was organised by Panjatan Welfare Association and the Pakistan Australia Association.

Maulana Ejaz Hussain related the incident of the martyrdom of Imam Hussain (r) at Karbala almost 1400 years ago on the day of Ashoora, 10 Muharram and its significant today for all humanity.

Imam Hussein (r) lived the legacy of his grandfather, Prophet Mohammad (s) when he challenged the tyrant and established the Quranic rule that life is sacred but still, when the objectives of life are under threat, martyrdom becomes essential to remind the Maulana Nazeerul Hassan Thanvi

Hon Chris Bowen generations of the significance of justice & liberty.

The martyrdom of Imam Hussain (r) was to eliminate despotism, against might is right, and fascism to create a just society Professor Mahinder Singh

that values liberty, equality and freedom.

Lessons of courage, patience, sacrifice, and standing up to oppression and injustice are universal values from the martyrdom of Imam Husain (r) and his companions.

Mr Sankaranarayan Janardha

Professor Mahinder Singh, a Sikh talked about his knowledge of the significance of Muharram and how it was practiced in Punjab Mr Sankaranarayan Janardha, a Hindu highlighted the importance of harmony between people of diverse faiths and cultures in order live in peace.

Father Ijaz Gill a Christian Priest of Pakistani origin talked about his experiences of cordial relations between Christians and Muslims in Pakistan and respect for all places of worship ordained in both religions.

Hon Chris Bowen highlighted the success of Australia as a multicultural country and how people of all faiths had the freedom to practice their faith with respect for the practices of faiths and cultures of all fellow Australians.

The last speaker Maulana Nazeerul Hassan Thanvi in his melodious voice recited passages from the Quran and talked about tolerance and cordial relations between all Muslims together with the people of all other faiths.

Father Ijaz Gill

Funeral service honours revert Muslim in Derby, WA Shariful Islam In early August 2018, I received a call from uncle Hamzah Bin Rashid explaining that a woman on her death bed would like to see Muslims. The name of the woman was Mary Fisher. She was raised a Catholic but in the final 30 years of her life, she had reverted to Islam.

Her first encounter with Islam was at the Derby town library where she found a copy of the Quran. Reading the Quran inspired her to accept Islam. She was alone in her family and silently practised Islam. Her Christian upbringing family members including her husband were surprised, but her decision was accepted and respected.

My wife and I met with aunty Mary in her house in Derby. At that time, she wanted to acknowledge her acceptance of Islam with us. She was unable to talk but was conscious to listen.

Therefore, my wife recited Kalima Shahadah and told her to nod by moving her head or finger. She nodded by moving her head as well as her fingers. Once she acknowledged us and understood that she was a Muslim now, she was very relaxed.

She smiled at everyone. During this time, we wanted to give her a Muslim name and with her agreement, we named her Mariam Fatima. She was very happy when we called

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her by Aunty Mariam Fatima and felt that she belonged to the Derby Muslims community.

Her family informed us that she wishes her burial needs to be carried out according to the Islamic faith. And the whole family was cooperative and willing to respect her last wish and wanted to support the financial costs for the funeral.

A week later, on 22 August 2018 Aunty Mariam Fatima passed away. We rushed to her house to provide emotional support to her family for the loss. We all mourned and reassured the family members that we will organise her funeral accordingly.

Her family members announced a date for the burial.

Local funeral director, Paul Cornish called me to discuss the funeral activities. I explained to Paul the processes and requirements according to Islam.

I encouraged my wife and other sisters to wash the deceased body. Unfortunately, the shroud, I ordered from Perth did not arrive on time. Therefore, my wife and I bought bed sheets from a local shop, washed them and cut them as shroud with the help of a

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

YouTube video.

On the morning of the day of burial, my wife and other sisters were very nervous as they haven’t washed any deceased body in past. With my encouragement and support, they completed the wash saying, “We have done the noble tasks, we are happy and would like to do it again when the opportunity comes.”

Mariam Aunty’s eldest daughter, Kathy Thomson visited during the washing of her mother’s body and was amazed to see how sincerely and carefully the body was being washed.

She hugged & held her mother for the very last time and said, “you are one of the luckiest women I have ever seen and God forgive your any shortcomings.”

She further added, “I did not know that a deceased body goes to the grave in such a clean and mannered way.”

She was crying while she was in the washing area with other sisters and overly happy with our contribution.

At the graveyard, local non-Muslims understood that we were going to lay down the body in the grave and fill it with sand/soil.

Therefore, the deceased family put a notice

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on various notice boards in Derby to warn locals that a baleful/devastating situation may occur at the graveyard.

The funeral director organised a hearse to carry the body to the graveyard within a traditional cot that Muslim use. I had requested the funeral director to make the cot with timber.

Around 35-40 other vehicles joined the procession. At the gate, we carried Janaza on our shoulders. A priest from the Catholic church was present near the grave to observe our activities.

Two brothers climbed inside the grave and other two brothers carried the body into the grave. We were able bring the body smoothly into the grave and I installed the inclined timbers as per the plan.

The sand was placed from one end and finished to the other end with full depth of the grave to minimise any displacement of the timber plank. At the completion, we made dua for aunty Mariam Fatima.

Finally, we asked around, for any questions and information. Everyone present was very happy to see how carefully and diligently we handle the deceased body to its final abode.

A couple of weeks later we received a message of appreciation from Mariam’s aunty family.

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LIFESTYLE 21 - 23

UMMAH 24 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

BUSINESS 29

COMMUNITY

SOCIAL 30 - 31

Abraham Conference 2022: Recovering faith in Faith

Geraldine Doogue

From left: Rev Dr Rob McFarlane, A/Prof Salim Farrar and Rabbi Moshe Givental

Ahmet Polat

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John Cleary

Shirley Gilbert

Kate Xavier Environmental stewardship, global poverty alleviation and addressing challenges related to materialism and individualism were some of the big priority areas identified by the speakers and participants at the 2022 Abraham Conference held in Sydney on Sunday 14 August at Amity College, Auburn.

The inter-religious Abraham Conference is an annual event in Sydney, Australia that brings together Jewish, Christian and Muslim believers to discuss contemporary topics. The theme for this year was ‘Religion for the 21st Century – Recovering faith in Faith’.

Historically, the Abrahamic religions shaped lives and civilisations. In the last century, they are becoming increasingly marginalised, seen as a matter of private devotion and personal morality at best, or divisive and violent at worst.

The recent census shows a decline in the Christian percentage of the Australian population and an increase in those who are not affiliated with religion, further evidence of the loss of reputation of religions.

But religions remain a powerful social force. With the issues that we face in our globalised, pluralist world, how can we recover faith in Faith?

The formal program started with Welcome to Country by Shirley Gilbert followed by Welcome by Ahmet Polat, Chairperson of

AMUST

the Abraham Conference Organising Committee.

“Our collaboration for this conference dates back to nearly 20 years ago. Since then, we have shared the wisdom of our Spiritual traditions with one another. This humble conference platform also aims to produce some solutions for our society through its distinguished speakers, and audience,” Mr Polat said.

He further added, “I believe this event reminds us that such insights and commonalities can foster productive conversations between Jewish, Christians and Muslims.

The Abraham Conference is a symbol of unity, knowledge, and peace and is a great platform for spreading love and peace between all people. Today we will discuss the issues that we face in our globalised, pluralist world, and how we can recover faith in Faith.”

Exploring the theme, Geraldine Doogue AO, renowned journalist and radio and television presenter engaged in conversation with John Cleary, veteran ABC broadcaster together with three panellists from the Abrahamic faiths: Rabbi Moshe Givental, North Shore Temple Emanuel; Rev Dr Rob McFarlane, Presbytery Relations Minister, Uniting Church in Australia; and Associate Professor Salim Farrar, Sydney University Law School.

The moderator of the event John Cleary started the conversation with Geralindine Doogue by a quote from an American Historian, Will Durant: ‘A certain tension be-

tween religion and society marks the highest stages of every civilization. Religion begins by offering magical aid to harassed and bewildered men; it culminates by giving to a people that unity of morals and belief which seems so favorable to statesmanship and art; it ends by fighting suicidally in the lost cause of the past.’

“Institutional religion has been in steady decline in Australia and other countries including the USA since the 1960s. Do you have any observations regarding factors within our traditions that may have contributed to this decline?, John posed the question.

Following the conversation, the three panelists Rabbi Moshe Givental, Rev Dr Rob McFarlane and Associate Professor Salim Farrar made their comments on the conversation as well as taking part in a Q&A session with the audience.

One of the highlights of this years conference were the small group discussions which allowed participants to chat to people they may not normally get to encounter. Working in diverse teams, participants were asked to identify four priority areas for Abrahamic Traditions as they move forward in a world where some are ‘losing faith in Faith.’, Other priority areas included education for all. Interfaith cooperation, helping younger generations connect to faith particularly as it related to finding a sense of meaning and purpose in life.

This wonderful opportunity for respect-

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ful dialogue acknowledged that although we come from different faith traditions, we have many common desires and hopes for our traditions as they provide hope, meaning and the potential for transforming our world to a more just place.

Rev Dr Patrick McInerny finally presented a summary of the discussion saying, “Our job is not to pass the moral voice to the world but it to convey the prophetic message to all humanity.”

Events such as the Abraham Conference provide a good opportunity to challenge our thinking about the other and recognise that although we have marked differences in beliefs and practices, there are many commonalities too particularly related to local and global issues.

Conference partners for the Abrahamic Conference include Affinity Intercultural Foundation, Australian Egyptian Forum Council, Australasian Muslim Times (AMUST), Columban Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations, NSW Council of Christians and Jews, Diocese of Parramatta, Ecumenical Council of NSW, Indian Crescent Society of Australia (ICSOA), NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, and the Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of NSW & ACT. Halal, kosher and vegetarian refreshments were provided by the hosts together with a special Turkish ‘Noah’s Pudding’ marking the day of Ashoora, 10th of Muharram in the Islamic Calendar.

Kate Xavier is the Community Cohesion Consultant at The Association of Independent Schools of NSW and member of the Catholic Diocese of Parramatta Catholic Interfaith Commission.

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AMUST

FEATURE

Learner Awards Academic Impact Primary: Winner: Salwa Mousa Runner-Up: Muhammad Asif

Secondary: Winner: Omar Farid, Australian International Academy, Kellyville

NZF Community Impact

Primary: Winner: Waste Free Wednesdays Team, Arkana College Runner-Up: Hajor Kassar Secondary: Winner: Daniya Syed, Unity Grammar Runner-Up: Rania Shehryar, Australian International Academy, Kellyvile

Sporting Impact Primary: Winner: Assiya Muzzafer

NEWS 1-3

BOOMERANG 4-7

COMMUNITY 8 - 15

FEATURE 16 - 17

AUSTRALIA 18 - 20

Crescent Awar Muslim tra

Coninued from page 1 The prestigious Crescent Awards Lifetime Achievement Award was shared by pioneering educators at Islamic schools, Abdul Karim Galea from Melbourne and Madenia Abdurahman from Sydney, It was a proud moment for grandma, Mehar and granddaughter, Halimah where Mehar Ahmad from Harrington St Public School was the winner of the 2022 TLC Educator Award for Outstanding Contribution to the School Community while Halimah Bokhari from MLC School won 2022 Gould

Studio Primary School Learner Award for Creative Impact.

The Crescent Awards are administered by the Crescent Foundation, sponsored by Crescent Wealth, Australia’s first Islamic superannuation fund and was strongly supported by Islamic Relief Australia and the Centre for Islamic Thought and Education, University of South Australia.

The Australasian Muslim Times AMUST was the media partner for the event while the sponsors included TLC Disability Ser-

Talal Yassine OAM . Photo credits: The Crescent Foundation/ Imbuity

vices, National Zakat Foundation, Gould Studio and Brothers in Need.

AMUST All-Rounder Award (Primary) was won by Safiyah Bowens from Arkana College while AMUST All-Rounder Award (Secondary) was won by Maysa Maarbani of Unity Grammar.

AMUST All-rounder Award recognising outstanding all-round achievement, performance, contribution, service, or effort, across all fields, with impact, inclusive of personal growth and refinement, that has demonstratively benefited self and others.

Award winners: Mehar Ahmad, Teacher with her granddaughter, Halimah Bokhari.

(Photo by Sakinah Ahmad).

Secondary: Winner: Yasmin Hijazi, Islamic College of Brisbane Runner-Up: Danya Mustafa, Islamic College of Brisbane

Brothers in Need Leadership Impact

Professor Peter Shergo Award for Innovation an Principal Mohammed Ta Photo credits: The Cres

Winner: Anhaar Kareem, Al Noori Muslim School Runner-Up: Layth Alsomai, Australian International Academy, Kellyvile

Gould Studio Creative Impact Primary: Winner: Halimah Bokhari MLC School Runner-Up: Julie Mahdy Secondary: Winner: Leila Celahmetovic, Australian International Islamic College Runner-Up: Almaz Kaddour, Australian International Academy, Kellyville

Entrepreneurial Impact Winner: Salma Kareem, Strathfield Girls High School Runner-Up: Mohammed Taha Khan, Australian International Academy, Kellyvile

Staff and students from AIA- Kellyville with Dr Anne Aly. Omar Farid.

Photo credits: The Crescent Foundation/ Imbuity

Yasmin Hijazi.

Photo credits: The Crescent Foundation/ Imbuity.

Staff and students from Unity Grammar.

Educator T Wellbeing Winner: Islamic College of Brisbane, “The Hub”

AMUST All-rounder Primary: Winner: Safiyah Bowens

Co-curriculum

Runner-Up: Hannan Dawood

Winner: Ilim College Hifz Enrichment Program

Secondary: Winner: Maysa Maarbani, Unity Grammar

Pedagogy Winner: Leyla Mohamoud, Sidra School – Sidrah Gardens

Runner-Up: Yunus Shuaib, Islamic College of Brisbane

Runner-Up: Unity Grammar Commerce Program

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LIFESTYLE 21 - 23

UMMAH 24 - 26

EDUCATION 27 - 28

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SOCIAL 30 - 31

rds recognise ailblazers This major award acknowledges, showcases and celebrates Muslim learners who reflect the ongoing effort of becoming a balanced human being (“al-insan al mutawazin” ) – aspirationally following the Prophet’s (s) example.

Crescent Wealth Deputy Managing Director, Miriam Silva AM said the awards provided a tremendous opportunity to showcase the many passionate and talented Muslim educators, students and school administrators in the wider Australian community not just in Muslim institutions.

Ms Silva pointed out that, “the Australian

Muslim community has grown to around a million people, who through all walks of life are now making a major contribution to Australia. A new generation of Australian Muslims is emerging through our schools and educational settings and the communities they serve.”

“Through the Crescent Awards we want to recognise those young people who demonstrate outstanding achievement, contribution and service, and the leading educators, educator teams and schools who enable

them to excel and pave the way for a brighter future for our community and our society.

It is their time to shine,” she concluded.

Mr Talal Yassine OAM, Managing Director, Crescent Wealth while congratulating all the winners as well as the finalists thanked the award partners, sponsors, judges and the volunteers for making the event a great success.

Information on winners and runners up can be found at crescentawards.com.au Information on the Judging Panel can be found at: crescentawards.com.au/judges

AMUST

Lifetime Achievement Award

Distinction in Beginning to Teach Winner: Madenia Aburahman Winner: Abdul Kareem

Educator Individual Awards

Distinction in Beginning to Teach Winner: Ebony Kerrigan, Islamic College of Brisbane Runner-Up: Nisa Johnson, Islamic College of Brisbane

Dr Anne Aly, Federal Minister for Early Childhood Education and Minister for Youth.

Photo credits: The Crescent Foundation/ Imbuity.

old AC presenting School nd Renewal to Executive aksim of Minaret College. scent Foundation/Imbuity.

FEATURE

Excellence in Teaching Winner: Rijad Salkanovic, Unity Grammar Runner-Up: Leila Qadan, Unity Grammar

Leadership Winner: Mariam Bernard, Unity Grammar Runner-Up: Shadia Ghazi, Arkana College K-6 Islamic School

Abdul Karim Galea receiving the Crescent Awards Lifetime Achievement Award from Professor Mohamad Abdalla AM. (Photo by Zia Ahmad).

Innovation

Staff and students from Arkana College.

Winner: Roset Rawa Khair, Unity Grammar Runner-Up: Shahinda Kandil, Australian International Academy, Kellyville

TLC Community Award Winner: Mehar Ahmad, Harrington St. Public School Runner-Up: Roset Rawa Khair, Unity Grammar

Contribution Winner: Rukhsana Ashraf, Islamic College of Brisbane (Primary)

.

Team Awards Learning Environments Winner: Islamic College of Brisbane, Sakinah Greenhouse Gardens

Madenia Abdurahman receiving Crescent Awards Lifetime Achievement Award.

Waste Free Wednesdays Team. Photo credits: The Crescent Foundation/ Imbuity.

School Awards School Innovation and Renewal Winner: Minaret College,

Runner-Up: Ilim College

Runner-Up: Arkana College

Curriculum

TLC Community Impact

Winner: Craig Burchell Islamic College of Brisbane – Futsal Excellence Program

Winner: Unity Grammar,

Runner-Up: Maneesha Iqbal, Fauzina Nabi, Mohammed Shah, Aanisah Buksh, Suraiya Girach – Islamic College of Brisbane Primary School SEPTEMBER 2022 / ISSUE 202

Runner-Up: Irfan Meduselac, Australian International Islamic College

Runner-Up: Arkana College

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AMUST

AUSTRALIA

NEWS 1-3

BOOMERANG 4-7

COMMUNITY 8 - 15

FEATURE 16 - 17

AUSTRALIA 18 - 20

Will Australia comply with China’s four-point grievances to repair the relationships?

Kazi Haq In an effort to repair relationships, China handed in a four-point list of things to the Labor Party of Australia in July 2022.

Previously, China handed the media the 14-point grievance by Beijing’s embassy in Canberra.

It is very upsetting how a sovereign state dictates another sovereign state to comply with unfair demands unless it’s a vassal country. It is also not seen in the recent past that such actions have been conducted against any sovereign states.

China’s rhetoric is palpable to Australia, which needs federal government approval to comply.

In reality, China first started noncooperation with Australia by preventing Australian goods from importing. Australia tried to sort it out, but China stopped answering even phone calls from its Australian counterpart.

Yet, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) unofficial spokes magazine, Global Times, kept making Australia responsible for repairing the relationships. After two years of stalemate, toned down a bit, China placed a 4-point to-do list to bring back rapprochement, as follows: 1. Australia must treat China as a “partner rather than a rival”.

2. The two countries must seek “common ground while shelving difference”.

3. Australia must reject “manipulation by a third party”. Anyone can understand who they are referring to.

4. Both countries must build “public support featuring positiveness and pragmatism”.

The main reason for China’s anger against Australia is included in its 14-point grievance in Serial 5, “call for an international independent inquiry into the COVID-19 virus, acted as a political manipulation echoing the

Foreign Minister Penny Wong and China’s Wang Yi. Credit: AAP

US attack on China.”

China immediately retaliated by stopping importing Australian goods, such as wine, beef, coal, barley, timber, seafood, etc, by citing flimsy excuses.

In a similar way, China stopped importing goods from littoral countries of the South China Sea and stopped tourism in Pacific countries that went against the decision of the CCP. After becoming a leading power, China is using its economic leverage ruthlessly against weak nations, and Chinese diplomats are adept at compelling them to kowtow before CCP. Australia’s robust economy could resist CCP’s coercion, but it’s hard for weak nations to resist such economic oppression.

The deplorable characteristics of CCP have started to expose to the world. It’s happening in front of our eyes. Some weak nations have already fallen into the debt trap of China, as happened with Sri Lanka, and now many other countries appear to be moving in that direction.

Yes, the world has seen the brutality of Western imperialists, including Japan. History reminiscences them with great disgrace.

Does CCP follow the same ideology as those tyrannic leaders did? Democratic people would not accept that. People are now much more civilized and knowledgeable.

The whole world expressed concerns about China’s economic retaliation against Australia. Yet Australia has shown remarkable restraint in repudiating China’s demand.

The beauty of democracy is that democratic values prevent its people from exhaling dudgeon against China.

Australia is making decisions best suited for its country’s development and better for its people. China cannot dictate the Australian parliament.

Are Australians aware of China’s profligate action of dictating the Australian government?

Australian media appear not adept in making ballyhoos like the Global Times.

However, a Pew Research survey in 2020 shows that 81% of Australians see China as unfavourable, which is 24% higher than last year.

Although President Xi Jinping strongly supports “socialism is better than democracy”, yet Australia’s GDP per capita is three times higher than China’s. Taiwan is

a strong democratic country whose GDP per capita is five times higher than China.

These are facts but frustrating for CCP. Chinese diplomats are no more naive than in earlier days; they are now very severe in expounding CCP’s propaganda worldwide.

Former Chairman Mao Tsetung and Premier Chou En-lai stated, “China will never be a superpower, and it opposes hegemony and power politics of any kind”.

Virtually, China is now a superpower.

No one stops China from becoming a superpower, but the question arises with its “hegemony and power politics”. CCP’s ideology has changed from its founding leaders. President Xi Jinping wishes to win power politics with the West.

Also, Xi appears to overcome Deng Xiaoping’s philosophy, “hide your strength, bide your time”. The most crucial question is, is China ready to challenge the whole West, including Asian economic powers?

China’s conduct appeared crossed diplomatic norms by asking Australia to comply with CCP’s requirements. Australia did not respond to China’s wish list. Now the world is watching how Australia takes vengeance against China’s one-sided decision to ban imports of Australian goods.

Undoubtedly, China’s decision makes an indelible impact on Australia’s strategy that Australia would consider in its foreign policy that may not favour CCP. CCP should know a truly democratic country cannot ignore the people’s verdict and will not bow down to a dictator. That would drive China to use either its wolf-warrior or soft diplomacy.

China appears to have no option other than to soften its tone.

Kazi Haq is a retired Commodore from Bangladesh Navy and an electrical engineer. He served as Director in Prime Minister’s Office, National Parliament, and Managing Director of a dockyard. Kazi is the founding member of BIMRAD(Bangladesh Institute of Maritime Research and Development). He is now based in Sydney.

Dementia exposed to raise awareness Najla Turk Currently, there are more than 55 million people with dementia worldwide and this number is expected to increase to almost 1.1 million by 2058.

The prevalence of Alzheimer’s in the greater Sydney region is fast growing. Approximately 65% of people with dementia live within the community.

Did you know Dementia has become the leading cause of death for women in Australia?

Carers are experiencing carer burnout and dealing with community stigma in addition to their roles. Of greater concern therefore is, who cares for the carer?

Dementia is an umbrella term for various types of brain degeneration – whether Fronto-temporal, Vascular, Alzheimer’s or Lewy Bodies type dementia. The commonality is that the brain is dying and eventually the disease will affect all senses and abilities.

Our brains are our engine room so this process will make it increasingly difficult to engage socially and to hold onto the relationships that are important to us, or the way in which we engage in the activities we enjoy.

Understanding dementia is about understanding changes in the way we communicate.

Some abilities are lost but others are retained.

It is important all persons engaging with people with dementia distil what is retained. To

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focus on strengths not losses, regardless of gender and age.

What is dementia? Think of dementia as a challenge in communication.

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

How do you live well with dementia? Familiarise yourself with Dementia Reframed.

Dr Gaynor Macdonald and Dr Jane Mears are co-authors of Dementia as Social Experience: Valuing Life and Care. Both authors are founders and drivers behind ‘Dementia Reframed’.

Their vision has become a growing global movement as they seek to broaden the understanding of those living with dementia and everyone else touched by the disease. Their focus is on caring for the carer and providing information to support carers on their journey.

Experts from across the globe in health and aged care, including those with lived experience, hope to share the latest in dementia research practice and innovation.

Whether you are a health professional, work in allied health, community or someone who wants to know more about dementia, do not miss this opportunity to understand the complexity of dementia.

Register at www.dementiaconference.com/ register for the Dementia Centre and HammondCare International Dementia conference, to be held on Thursday 8 to Friday 9 September 2022.

As well I encourage you to read Sarah Wallace’s personal story after her husband’s

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diagnosis of Lewy Body dementia. The book “Behind Closed Doors: One Family’s Journey through the Australian Aged Care System” is an invaluable resource of the most likely outcome in the event of lack of proper care and sustained human rights violation.

It is with deep sadness that our friend and

Dr Gaynor Macdonald with Najla Turk. dementia advocate, Dr Gaynor Macdonald passed suddenly from an incurable cancer.

Gaynor asked we keep Dementia Reframed alive. VALE Gaynor.

Najla Turk is a highly skilled author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Najla’s expertise lies in building individual capabilities and skillsets that help improve engagement and participation.

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Climate Change Sydney campaign We need to act now against enforced Sydney CBD march on 10 January 2020 due to bushfire emergency and climate change protests

Muhammad Adnan Every day, we see the effects of climate change in the news – from droughts and floods to heatwaves and hurricanes. Climate change is a global problem, and it requires a global solution.

We must all work together, governments, international and local businesses, and individuals in order to make the changes necessary to protect our planet.

Time is running out, and we need to act now.

Role of governments Governments worldwide have a crucial role in preventing and mitigating climate change. They must enact policies to reduce emissions, support clean energy, and protect people and nature from the impacts of climate change.

But while governments and businesses are taking steps to reduce emissions and slow the pace of climate change, individuals also have a role to play.

Individual responsibilities We all need to take responsibility for our behaviour and make changes in our everyday lives to help mitigate the effects of climate change.

There are lots of ways we can help protect our planet from climate change: recycle more; drive less; eat more plants; reduce food waste; walk more; plant trees; buy less stuff; turn off lights when not in use (and switch them on again when you go back); share with others what you’ve learned about how your actions affect our environment; join a grassroots movement for change where you live or work (it doesn’t matter if you’re an environmentalist or not).

And when we all do our part, we can impact the fight against climate change. We need to fundamentally rethink the way we live our lives if we’re going to make a dent in this problem. That means re-evaluating everything from the food we eat to the way

disappearance

we power our homes.

Behaviour change models Behaviour change models are often proposed to shape public behaviour related to climate change, but they have limitations.

One of the biggest challenges is to make these models sustainable. Even if a behaviour change model successfully induces someone to adopt a new behaviour, there is no guarantee that they will maintain that behaviour over the long term.

There are also challenges in designing behaviour change models that are effective and scalable.

Climate change is a global problem, and any behaviour change model that will make a significant impact will need to reach a large number of people.

Overall, we must take a comprehensive approach that includes other measures such as education, regulation, and technological innovation.

Role of media in shaping public opinions on climate change No matter what our individual behaviours may be, it is important to remember that they all add up. This is where the media comes in.

By raising awareness about environmental issues and promoting positive behaviour change, the media can play a vital role in shaping public opinion on climate change.

Through news stories, documentaries, and public service announcements, the media can raise awareness about the causes and effects of climate change.

Additionally, the media can provide information about how individuals can reduce their carbon footprint through lifestyle changes such as conserving energy, recycling and driving less.

By increasing public awareness and understanding of climate change, the media can play a crucial role in fostering behavioural change.

Dr Faroque Amin Enforced disappearance is a crime against humanity and an oppressive tool used by dictators and oppressive regimes in many countries. The United Nations declared 30 August as the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance to take a stand against this gross human rights violation. The South Asian Policy Initiative and Global Voice for Humanity are organising a community awareness event in Sydney on Tuesday 30 August at Martin Place, Sydney.

The organisers have sent out a media release stating that they are planning to organise a rally on Tuesday 30 August 2022, Tuesday at 2 pm at the corner of Martin Place and Macquarie St in Sydney CBD, in front of the NSW Parliament House.

In order to promote this event and invite a mass audience, the organisers gathered on Saturday 13 August 2022 in Lakemba, the most multicultural suburb of Australia. During the afternoon, they distributed leaflets and informed people about this upcoming event. Songs were sung, and poems were recited that described the victims abducted by governments for years and the plights of their families.

Rahat Shantonu, a popular Bangladeshi

singer, sang various songs and Habib Rahman recited various poems. Among the organisers presents were Shibly Sohail, Md Abdullah Yousuf, Dr Humair Chowdhury Rana, Councillor Masud Khalil, Liakot Ali Shawpon, Moslehuddin Arif, Kudrat Ullah Liton, Sohel Iqbal Mahmud, Zakir Alam Lenin, ANM Masum, Khairul Kabir Pinto, Rashed al-Hasan, Mahbubur Rahman Mamun, Abdul Karim, Abdul Matin Ujjal.

Enforced disappearance was a pandemic in many South American countries during the seventies and the eighties. Currently, Bangladesh is the enforced disappearance capital of the world.

A 2021 report by Human Rights Watch mentioned, “Although security forces in Bangladesh have long committed grave human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial executions, including under previous governments, enforced disappearances in particular have become a hallmark of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s over decade-long rule.”

In this context, most of the organisers of this year’s Sydney event are from Bangladeshi backgrounds. They said that various other communities, including the first nation people, social justice organisations, Indian communities and others will join this event on Tuesday 30 August.

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

Muhammad Adnan is a young journalist and researcher. He can be reached via Twitter at @Iammadnan.

Flooding in Pakistan.

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The current state of the Australian economy It continues to inflict financial pains to households FINANCE Dr Abul Jalaluddin As of July 2022, the Australian economy is in a confronting state of play.

Australians are facing real financial pain as the inflation and interest rates are on the march but the real wage growth is on the back foot. Cost of living out goings on essential shopping, electricity bill, mortgage payments and petrol are increasing fast.

In the year to March 2022, the real wages decreased by 2.7%, the worst outcome in more than two decades.

The major economies of the developed world are either travelling at the slow lane of growth or at the brink of a recession, largely due to global inflation, slow global economic growth, impacts from Covid-19, supply chain issues and war in Ukraine. It would require suffering on behalf of Australian households to tame inflation and avoid recession in the economy.

Inflation In the year to June 2022, the rate of inflation was 6.1%. The Australian Treasury now forecasts the inflation to peak 7.75% by 31 December 2022. They forecast the headline inflation to be at 5.5% by 30 June 2023, 2.75% by 30 June 2024 and 2.5% by

Real Wage Growth The forecast for nominal wage growth is 3.75% in the financial years ending 30 June 2023, 30 June 2024 and 30 and 2025. Given the high rate of inflation, Australian households may not see a real growth in wages and salaries before the first half of 2024.

The real wage growth will rely on moderating inflation and getting wages moving up wards again.

30 June 2025.

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)’s target range of inflation is 2 to 3% a year. At the current rate of inflation, the purchasing power of the income and wealth of Australians will continue to erode at a higher rate than expected by the RBA till the end of next year. If this high level of inflation is left untreated for too long, it will undermine Australian living standards and wreck the economy on the long run.

Economic Growth The Australian economy is expected to grow slower than what was forecasted in the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2022. Economic growth forecasts have been cut down by half a percentage point from the financial year ending 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2024. The real GDP is now expected to have grown by 3.75% in the financial year ended 30 June 2022, 3% in the financial year ending 30 June 2023 and 2% in the financial

Can you imagine yourself alone in a 3rd world country refugee camp?

year ending 30 June 2024.

This weaker economic growth outlook is due to various factors including weak consumption, high inflation, increasing interest rates, domestic floods affecting exports, low dwelling investments and constraints in the construction sector.

Rate of Unemployment In the quarter ended 30 June 2022, the rate of unemployment was 3.5%, the lowest since August 1974 when it was 2.7%.

The high rate of employment is expected to be maintained till 31 December 2022. The Treasury expects the rate of unemployment will be returning back to 3.75% by 30 June 2023, 4% 30 June 2024 and 4.25% by 30 June 2025.

Philip Feinstein

Year 10 students from Punchbowl Boys High School pack non-perishables for distribution to the homeless community in Brothers in Need’s Homeless Outreach Program.

Dean Mousad

In early August at the Whitlam Institute in Rydalmere, an exhibition of a refugee camp located in a poor area was displayed.

The exhibition was geared up as a camp where refugees were waiting their turn to be accepted by a country and then transported to their new home.

Or they were just waiting for a people-smuggler to transport them to a place like Christmas Island in Australia. And that wait could be anything between 10 weeks and 10 years . . .

Unlike Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney where meals and a bed were provided, they had no guarantee of a bed, food or even water. Everything was rationed.

Some of them who had money were able to buy things, but they were in the minority. The conditions in camps like this were atrocious in every respect.

The exhibition in Rydalmere began with a fenced entrance where a ‘guard’ greeted

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everyone in a very harsh manner. “Put your bag aside and remove your hat!” he screamed.

The tension was immediately felt by everyone coming in. It gave you the feeling of what it would be like in a 3rd World camp.

The experience, called Refugee Camp in my Neighbourhood, followed the footsteps of refugees and people seeking asylum via a simulated experience. We all gained a better understanding of the challenges faced by refugees and asylum seekers.

Various stories were also relayed to us about these people fleeing their own countries and seeking safety and better lives.

Amongst the various displays were: 1. The UNHCR office in the camp 2. An invitation for refugees to state what 5 things they could be allowed 3. Box minimal rations for one week 4. A make-shift toilet 5. An experience on a people smuggler’s boat People wanting more information about Refugee Camp in my Neighbourhood should contact refugeecampimn@gmail.com Philip Feinstein is a Sydney based writer, musician and activist working for MUSIC FOR REFUGEES www.musicforrefugees.org

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

School students engage in Homeless Outreach Program

People smugglers boat

Food rations for 1 week.

National Debt Federal budget has $1 trillion debt. The Treasury expects that the interest payments on government debt will be the fastest growing area of government expenditure in the coming fiscal years and this will grow faster than the spending in National Disability Insurance Scheme, aged care and health care including hospitals.

For a better economic and financial well-being, there should be more measures to help Australians with cost of living pressures, grow salary and wages by decent pay rises, contain inflation and deal with supply chain issues of the economy..

Brothers in Need has recently been engaging school students in their programs, as part of the Board of Studies’ shift towards project-based learning rather than classroom-based learning.

Unity Grammar’s Year 12 Legal Studies class accompanied Brothers In Need on their Homeless Outreach Program on 23 August 2022. The students gave up their Saturday night for a tour of the Brothers in Need headquarters, packed non-perishables/ toiletries into bags, and then ventured out to Martin Place to distribute the items as well as hot meals.

Other schools which have recently participated in the Warehouse Program include Irfan College and Punchbowl Boys’ High School.

The students brought donations of non-perishables and toiletries which they enthusiastically packed into bags for distribution to the homeless community this coming Saturday night.

The students from both schools were keen as mustard and it was our pleasure to host them here. They learned about the work of

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Brothers in Need and Project Quran and finished off by playing games in the mezzanine.

“I felt that the students really enjoyed themselves, were well-behaved and felt that they’d really made a difference. One guy asked if our warehouse is always open and if he could come back, although that was whilst playing in the games section upstairs!

I’d forgotten how much energy teenage boys have!” says, Dahlia, a staff member for Brothers in Need.

Further information about the school programs, as well as the other work of Brothers in Need, can be found at www.brothersinneed.org.au/ appeals/school-workshop/ Brothers in Need is a Muslim not-forprofit organisation/charitable organisation which was established in 2015. It acts as a family for Australia’s forgotten and aims to transform Australian communities one life at a time. Their largest focus is to assist the homeless community, refugees and asylum seekers.

Dean Mousad is the Co-founder/Managing Director of Brothers in Need, Co-founder/ Treasurer of Project Quran, a Teacher/Mentor at Alfirdaus College and a registered Counsellor with the Australian Counselling Association.

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Silence… the first step towards awareness Princess R Lakshman

Practising daily moments of silence can calm us and make us attentive to people and things around us. Silence does not mean we need to be away from noise. It means that even in the midst of noise we are still able to hear and listen to our inner voice and keep calm.

We often voice our supplications to Allah, but rarely do we practise silence to hear His answers to our questions because we are caught up in reacting to circumstances.

We behave similarly with other people as well. Have you noticed how we talk more and listen less?

We sometimes ask people how they are but we do not pause to listen to their response. We either walk right past them or busy ourselves with other chores, or we start talking about ourselves.

Sometimes, when another person is speaking, instead of listening to them attentively, we start formulating a reply to their words to make a point.

When we practise silence, we become aware of the incessant chatter that interferes with maintaining inner calm. This aware-

ness enables us to discern, through emotions and physical sensations in the body, thoughts that serve us and thoughts that exacerbate anxiety.

The incessant chatter of the mind is what robs you off your peace in the present moment. Instead, it conjures up mental images of the past or causes anxiety about the future – both existing in the mind as imagination.

It is only through the practise of silence that one can listen to one’s own inner voice – the voice of intuition, the voice of one’s soul. Outside chatter that replays in the mind causes noise that blocks out this inner, soulful, intuitive voice.

The inner voice is quiet, calming, and grounding in nature. It does not cause anxiety. Instead, it guides us to calmly surrender to Allah’s plans. It grounds us to be in the present moment and to experience life as it is unfolding in that very moment. It brings a sense of peace and tranquillity.

Here is a 30-seconds silence practice that you can incorporate in your daily life.

1. After salah, sit in silence on your prayer mat or go outside in nature.

2. Straighten your back and let your upper body feel tall.

3. Breathe in slowly and deeply, so that you feel your belly expanding.

4. Hold for a few seconds.

5. Breathe out slowly.

6. Repeat for 10 long, deep breaths in and 10 long, deep breaths out. Repeating long, deep in-breaths and out-breaths supplies oxygen to all the organs in your body. This abundant supply of oxygen energises the mind and calms the nervous system.

7. If there is an issue that is bothering you,

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ask Allah’s guidance to find answers to your questions. With each in-breath and out-breath, submit to Allah’s wisdom and His Plans for you. Let go.

Princess R. Lakshman is a writer, speaker, qualified clinical nutritionist, life coach and a counsellor. She is based in Sydney, Australia.

Pakistan consulate organises flag hoisting ceremony Shafqat Ali Pakistan Consulate General Sydney office organised a flag hoisting ceremony in the West Sydney West on the Sunday 14 of August 2022 morning at in The Ponds Community Hub attended by large members of the Pakistani Community and guests.

The ceremony formally started with the recitation of the Quran followed by the flag hoisting ceremony led by Mr Muhammad Ashraf, Consul General of Pakistan.Mr Ashraf welcomed those present and conveyed the Pakistan Government’s message along with his feelings on Pakistan Inde-

pendence day, 14 of August.

Ms Uzma Gillani, the famous Pakistani veteran actress, narrated a beautiful story fully enjoyed by the audience.

Now that COVID-19 restrictions were over the event this year was attended by a large number of families including kids who came in their traditional green and white dresses.

The ceremony was formally closed with dua for Pakistan and for members of the Pakistani diaspora.

Pakistan’s consulate office organised a traditional Pakistani breakfast for all attendees that included Pakistani Mangos and sweets.

A serious conversation about ageing Ruwaydah Alliston When we are young, we can’t imagine the difficulties we will face when we’re old.

As we age, our health, mental capacity and quality of life diminishes. We may feel we are burdening the family, adding to feelings of depression.

Just as having youth and good health is a test, so is aging. It is another phase of life with new tests, that, if we have the right mindset and follow Islamic guidance, we can make the most of our twilight years and earn a lot of rewards before we return to our Creator.

“It is Allah Who created you in a state of weakness, then gave strength after weakness, then, after strength, gave weakness and grey hair: He creates as He wills, and it is He Who has all knowledge and power.”

(Quran 30:54) There is a widely accepted expectation that our elders must be cared for by their family only, no matter what. But this expectation must be looked at realistically, both by the families and elders themselves.

The reality may be that family is unable to adequately care for their elder, or an elder may not have anyone to care for from the family.

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to look for help.

Caring for an elder can become psychologically and emotionally like caring for an unwell child, and it can be extremely distressing to “let go” and let someone else take care of them.

But sometimes it is in the best interests of

the elder that they are cared for by people with special training and in a setting where they will get the best help.

It is very important that the dignity of our elders be maintained.

Elders have the right to make decisions about their own lives. Informing them of

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their options and involving them in the decision-making process maintains their sense of dignity and is best for their mental and emotional well-being.

Islam honors and respects the elderly.

“Your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him, and that you be kind to parents. Whether one or both attain old age, say not to them a word of contempt, nor repel them, but address them in terms of honor.

And, out of kindness, lower to them the wing of humility, and say: “My Lord! bestow on them thy Mercy even as they cherished me in childhood.” (Quran 17: 23,24) Most people don’t plan for their old age.

When things come to a crisis point, it is the most difficult time to start searching for help and making decisions.

We can’t plan everything ahead but having knowledge of available services and having an Advance Care Plan is helpful.

The National Zakat Foundation’s “Respecting Elders” program is building partnerships with Muslim Community services to raise awareness and working to meet the needs of our elders.

For information about Navigating the Aged Care System, making an Advance Care Plan, and where to get help see NZF’s website www.nzf.org.au/ program/respecting-elders

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How likely are you Developing strong Muslimah leaders to get a stroke? and speakers

Dr Ghazala Kirmani

Are you at risk of developing Stroke? Stroke or ‘Brain Attack’ can happen to anyone who has certain risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, CAD (coronary artery disease), heart disease, high cholesterol and obesity.

Someone who smokes, drinks alcohol or has a sedentary lifestyle is also at risk. If you have a family history of stroke or heart attack it is regarded as genetic predisposition to stroke.

What are the symptoms of stroke/mini-stroke?

Symptoms depend upon which area of the brain is affected .

Sudden numbness or weakness of face, arm or leg (usually on one side), confusion, trouble speaking or understanding speech, trouble in vision in one or both eyes, trouble in walking, dizziness, loss of balance, co-ordination or sudden severe headache with no known cause.

Is there any warning sign of stroke ?

Mini-Stroke (Transient Ischemic Attack) is a warning sign of stroke. This is a transient loss of function. It is usually caused by a small blood clot in the artery of the Brain leading to brief interruption in the circulation.

It may last for a few minutes to 24 hours and it requires urgent medical attention.

Contact your doctor or call the ambulance if you or your family member is having a mini-stroke.

How is stroke treated?

Stroke is treated according to the cause: stroke due to bleeding is treated by a surgery whereas a blood clot will require medication to dissolve it. CT scan and/or MRI will reveal the cause of stroke.

Long term physiotherapy and speech therapy would help improve quality of life.

How can you prevent a stroke?

If you have any risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, CAD and family history of stroke you must be visit your doctor on a regular basis. Take your medications on time to control these diseases.

Adapt a healthy lifestyle such as avoiding smoking, drinki n g alcohol, eating low-fat healthy diet, exercising regularly and maintaining an ideal body weight.

Early medical intervention can prevent damage to the brain cells and hence increase the chances of complete recovery. So, if you or someone you know develops sudden symptoms of stroke, seek medical attention immediately.

Dr Ghazala Kirmani is a qualified doctor from India and is based in Sydney. Worked for Priority care health solutions as an Injury Management Advisor. Runs Health and wellness workshops at House of Sakinah educating Women on health issues.

Follow AMUST on Social Media @amustnews

Khimar Toastmasters Club members and guests during the July 2022 online meeting. Photo credits: Khimar Toastmasters Club.

Maria Nordenswan Whilst not the first of its kind in the world, the Khimar Toastmasters Club is still a bit of a pioneer.

Khimar is an online club created for Muslim women across borders.

The club was put together by Juliana Jamal. Ms Jamal’s vision was to have a Toastmasters Club for professional and educated Muslim women.

According to Ms Jamal, the club was created to “bring together Muslimah from the global community to learn and develop communication and leadership skills”.

The Khimar Toastmasters Club first got together in October last year. The club was chartered in early 2022 as an official club of Toastmasters International.

Toastmasters International is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes public speaking, communication and leadership development.

The Muslimah members of the Khimar Toastmasters Club are diverse in age, educational background and profession. What the members have in common, besides being Muslim women, is the desire to develop into

more effective communicators.

The club has members from Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and the UK. Members meet monthly, on the last Thursday of the month, via Zoom.

Each meeting is an opportunity for members to practice speech giving. There are many roles up for grabs each month: Time Keeper, Evaluator, Toastmaster of the Meeting, Grammarian and so on.

Khimar was set up as an online club so that Muslim women from anywhere in the world could join it. Women can start by attending a meeting as a guest. If they like it, any Muslimah is welcome to join and become a member.

The Club’s members include a copywriter, a lecturer, a lawyer, a student, a teen life coach, a content writer, an entrepreneur, a professional public speaking mentor and many others.

Khimar Toastmasters Club is run by women for women. It offers a safe and supportive environment for Muslim women to get together and practice their public speaking skills.

Khimar is a great platform for professional and personal development. And it’s fun too!

Find Khimar Toastmasters Club on LinkedIn for more information.

Maria Nordenswan is a Content and Web Copy Writer based in Sydney, Australia.

Write your Will for your family’s financial stability Qasim Abbas Financial planning in necessary in life for secured future. It should take into consideration future family members in case of sudden and unforeseen circumstances specially death. In some of such cases, complicated matters arise like inheritance, survivors’ wellbeing, legal matters arising for remaining property etc.

Death is certain for everyone. The Holy Quran says about death: “Every soul shall have a taste of death.”

(3:185; 21:35; 29:57).

“But to no soul will Allah grant respite when the time appointed for it (death) has come.” (63:11) When someone passes away, the funeral cost is certain, which depends upon funeral rituals according to the faith of the deceased, local regulation etc. In Asian countries, funeral cost is reasonable. In Europe, North America, Australia the funeral cost is high.

Therefore, the immediate relatives have to arrange for the above amount towards the funeral cost after the death of their loved one.

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In most countries, when a person passes away, in absence of his/her registered/notarized Will, property left by the deceased are taken over by the government, and after that, immediate relatives have to go through lengthy and complicated legal formalities and have to pay towards legal cost for the property left by the deceased, which takes considerable time.

In case the deceased has made the Will as per Quranic Orders and/or law of the land, duly registered/notarized, his/her immediate relatives have to complete few legal formalities to recover the property left by the deceased, for which less time is required.

In Arab countries, in case of death of a person having written Will, his/her legal heirs have to go through formalities with Shariah Court, where all inherited properties are distributed by Shariah Court in accordance with Islamic Inheritance Law, as per Verses 10, 11 and 176 of Chapter 4 of Holy Quran.

While my stay in UAE, I have witnessed some such cases, where I was witness at Shariah Court to testify and confirm the identity of legal heirs of a deceased.

Therefore, it is strongly advised that Muslims should write the Will and get it registered/notarized. This will also fulfill the obligation of Holy Quran directives to write the Will as per Verses 2:180, 2:240, 5:106

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etc. This is in order that no dispute arises after the death of an individual.

Also, it is strongly advised that the head of the family should open JOINT BANK ACCOUNT with the condition of RIGHT OF SURVIVORSHIP with his wife and/ or his children, with the condition that ACCOUNT TO BE OPERATED WITH ANY ONE SIGNATURE. In such case, in the event of death of one of the Joint Bank Account holders, one of the survivors can easily, legally can withdraw the money from such Joint Bank Ac-

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count at any time. In North America, I have witnessed such few cases.

Therefore, it is strongly advised that the head of the family should write the Will, get it registered/notarized, and also open a JOINT BANK ACCOUNT as explained above.

Qasim Abbas is Chartered Accountant, Cost Management Accountant, Arabic Scholar, multi languages writer and writing newspapers columns based on Quranic Verses.

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Our community is so diverse, children’s books need to be too

Anhaar Kareem

As a young girl growing up in Australia, I grew up reading ‘classic’ picture books that ranged from magical stories to ones about children that I could relate to. But I could never properly relate to the characters.

They didn’t look the same as me, or celebrate the same as me, dress the same as me or eat the same foods as me.

Every time I picked up a book, there would be the same character on the cover, with blonde hair and blue eyes, staring at me.

Unfortunately, only 18% of children’s books, like the ones I adored, have any representation of non-anglo saxon, children of colour.

More shockingly, only 2% have an authentic and positive representation of these marginalised groups.

What further complicates the issue, is that even when racially marginalised groups are included in children’s literature, the way that they’re presented in these narratives, is often problematic.

There is the idea that people of colour can only exist in a tokenistic or performative way in literature.

When minorities are included, they tend to be the side-characters, people in need of saving or even villains. Common portrayals, such as the white saviour narrative which glorifies white characters as ‘heroes’ that save characters of colour embody harmful stereotypes.

So, how does this misrepresentative narrative impact children?

Research shows that 75% of Australians hold implicit bias and much of that is grounded in their upbringing. When books lack characters of colour, children think that

white people and white culture are superior to marginalised ethnicities.

Studies have also consistently shown that books can either encourage an empowering or harmful view of the way children see themselves.

Thus, the representation of these children in literature is pivotal in their understanding of themselves and the world around them.

However, improvement is occurring, some progression we are making in this representation, is the rise of discourse and awareness about this issue.

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This year, for the first time, a Sydney Muslim Writer’s Festival was held, placing the spotlight on Muslim and minority voices in literature.

Attending this festival and seeing all of the diverse authors and books was incredibly empowering for my family and I and is a testament to the positive trajectory we are travelling on.

In order to better the portrayal of marginalised races in children’s literature we must all play our part in ensuring equality in our books.

We need to support writers of colour by purchasing and reading their books. The next time we buy a book for our younger family members or friends, make sure that it is a culturally authentic story.

Re-analyse the books you’ve read and love, do they represent culturally marginalised groups fairly? Or at all? There is so much that we can all do to make a difference.

That way maybe, sometime in the near future, when I read books to my children and grandchildren, their favourites will be diverse, with genuine characters in an empowering and accurate story.

Anhaar Kareem is a 14 year old student and Western Sydney resident. She is an advocate, writer and speaker who is passionate about issues concerning young people.

‘Reflecting Hijab’ workshop by MWA Searage Arabi Muslim Women Australia (MWA) was proud to facilitate an exciting new program ‘Reflecting Hijab’, a workshop on Tuesday 5 July 2022 which aimed to help young Muslim women reconnect with Hijab and Modesty within an Islamic framework.

MWA invited young women aged between twelve and twenty-five to participate in an interactive forum filled with activities and discussions.

Through discussion with MWA’s Youth Advisory Committee, there was a greater understanding of what the Hijab meant for young girls, and that although they knew the hijab was a requirement of their faith, they did not have a clear understanding of its significance.

Reflecting Hijab began with an interactive presentation that allowed participants to share their thoughts and submit questions to the panel speakers.

Dr Ghena Krayem, Associate Professor at the University of Sydney and regular commentator on the Muslim community in Australia, provided an Islamic perspective on the Hijab and reflected on personal experiences as a lawyer wearing the Hijab.

Dr Krayem was able to gauge the inter-

est of the young people by being honest and transparent, allowing opportunity for questions concerning wearing the Hijab and answering them in a way that allowed for careful reflection and instilling hope in their hearts.

The workshop then continued with age-appropriate activities. Girls aged twelve to seventeen years were provided role play scenarios based on potential experiences that they may encounter at school and in everyday life. They presented and performed the scenarios and included how they would respond in that situation.

The second group was made up of young people in the eighteen-to-twenty-five-year range. They engaged in meaningful discussions around their experiences of the hijab in a safe and supportive space.

The insights that were shared and the discussions that the young people had echoed our aim for Reflecting Hijab and really highlighted the importance of fostering community engagement and creating a sisterhood for young Muslim women.

The last interactive session for Reflecting Hijab was light and enjoyable for all. Participants assembled their own travel pin cushions, putting it together and decorating it to their liking.

MWA aimed for the content of Reflecting Hijab to leave a mark on the hearts of Ustadha Feda Abdo and Dr Ghena Krayem facilitating one of the activities during Reflecting Hijab

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Dr Ghena Krayem providing attendees with an Islamic take of the Hijab those who attended. To remind them of their personal journey, participants were gifted a sentimental bag that included a Reflecting Hijab Booklet curated by MWA, as well as other goodies.

As the final activity of the night, participants were asked to write a letter to their future self, outlining what their modesty goals are and how they expected to achieve it.

MWA would then post this letter out in six months’ time to encourage them to reflect on their view of the Hijab, and how they are tracking with their own personal goals and

modesty journey.

The need for a workshop such as the Reflecting Hijab was prominent throughout the night. Providing a space to young Muslim women to discuss topics around modesty while strengthening their relationship with the Hijab and Allah allowed attendees to leave Reflecting Hijab with their hearts feeling full.

Searage Arabi is the Health and Wellness Officer for Muslim Women Australia and is based in Sydney, Australia.

Attendees of Reflecting Hijab take part in an interactive activity where they create their own travel pin cushion

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The Salman Rushdie Saga: A different perspective Zahid Jamil The world has reacted angrily to the stabbing incident of the author Salman Rushdie. He was attacked by a young American of Lebanese origin as he was about to give a lecture in western New York on Friday 12 August 2022. He was rushed to hospital with injuries to vital organs and recovering now in a stable condition.

His novel The Satanic Verses led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s.

While the anti-religion narrative has become common in the Western world, it’s essential that we analyse different perspectives of the story.

Salman Rushdie wrote the book “The Satanic Verses” more than 30 years back, which insulted the Prophet of Islam. Except for a brief written statement when the Iranian President suggested that he may be forgiven if he apologised and withdrew his book, he did not show remorse. The book continued to be published and sold in many Western countries.

Salman Rushdie was born and raised in a Muslim family in the conservative Muslim surroundings of Bombay in India. Unlike French satirical cartoonists and others, he knew very well how emotional and sentimental Muslims were about their Prophet.

He knew that if not for Muslims living in the Western world, it would cause unrest in South Asia, and many may get killed during protests. They did, but he continued to show total disregard for his own people.

The British government and its court system, while providing him with the protection and rightly so, following the Fatwa by the Iranian supreme leader, Imam Khomeini, did not allow a fair trial of him in court.

In the UK and most Western countries, the right to religious belief is protected under Human Rights Act 1998, which allows its people the right to profess any religion or belief. Part of any belief system is to have the highest regard for the founders of their

religions.

Many religions consider their founders as gods, while in Islam, God is one, but they hold the holy prophet in the highest possible esteem. They love and respect him more than their own parents or any other person ever born on the planet.

It’s part of their religious belief which is protected by International Human Right conventions. If a person engages in insulting, mocking and disgracing the holy prophet or, for that matter, any other religious god, he/she deeply hurts the sentiments of the religious followers.

In the West, such people are not questioned but honoured and protected under the false premise of freedom of speech which is very selective. According to Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the right to speech is subject to certain restrictions, which includes the reputations of others.

Having constructive criticism of a religion or any ideology makes sense however, mocking, abusing and insulting other prophets or gods for the sake of it should fall under this Article.

England’s High Court rejected a Muslim group’s request to prosecute Salman Rushdie and the publishers of his novel ”The Satanic Verses” on charges of blasphemy and seditious libel in 1989. The panel of three judges upheld a lower court ruling not to take legal action against Mr Rushdie and Viking Penguin, the publisher of ”The Satanic Verses.”

London’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate ruled in March 1989 that England’s blasphemy law applied only to Christianity, not other religions, including Islam. At that time, Muslims were the second largest religious group in Britain. The case was brought by the British Muslim Action Front, an organisation that said it represented Britain’s two million Muslims. ”We have no doubt that as the law now stands, it does not extend to religions other than Christianity,” said Justice Watkins. The judge further added, ”Where the law is clear, it is not the proper function of this court to extend it. Parliament alone can change the law. Even if the courts had such power, ex-

tending the blasphemy law to other religions ”would pose insuperable problems and would likely to do more harm than good.”

It sounds so unreasonable to an independent person that the legal system of Britain, the champion of justice, failed to incorporate appropriate law for other religions, which were followed widely in the country.

Such exclusive law for Christianity only was clear discrimination against the minorities.

Justice Watkins also dismissed a contention by counsel for the British Muslim Action Front that ”The Satanic Verses” amounted to seditious libel by engendering discontent and hostility and contributing to the breakdown of diplomatic relations between Britain and the Governments of Islamic countries.”

The court said that for seditious libel to be proven, the evidence must show – ”and it did not” – that an attack was made ”against Her Majesty or Her Majesty’s Government or some other institution of the state.”

Obviously, British law placed the Queen above the historical figures who were admired by people around the world. Surely such a law would not be considered just by the global community.

Anthony Lester, the Counsel for Viking Penguin, argued that if Mr Rushdie and his publishers were successfully prosecuted, their rights to freedom of expression and other rights guaranteed by the convention

would be violated. It was another silly argument where you would not persecute a person for a grave crime to protect his ill-founded freedom.

Section 5 of Britain’s Public Order act makes it illegal to use “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour …. likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress thereby.”

However, this law did not seem to apply in this case where an author insults a historical figure admired by hundreds of millions of people and causes distress to them.

The British government is willing to deport Julian Assange to the US for persecution, not giving him the journalistic freedom. Obviously, all conventions and human rights are followed to suit the political agendas of their own while undermining others.

While it’s unfortunate that Salman Rushdie has been attacked, such an incident could have been avoided if the British legal system and Western media would have taken into consideration the religious and humanitarian perspective of faith and sentiments of ordinary people.

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: samaa.org.au.

Experiencing Hajj in a wheelchair Farid Ahmed After my accident in 1998, I became a wheelchair bound person.

Sudden accident and losing the ability to walk was a terrible shock for me. I had to learn new skills to live my day-to-day life confined on the wheelchair. It was a battle against hopelessness, pessimism, and depression. My Faith guided me to enjoy the peace of mind despite difficulties in life.

My Hajj this year on awheelchair increased my faith and brought peace go mind.

I have been sharing my experience of Hajj in wheelchair on Voice of Islam Show as a series with tips for Muslims on wheelchair who are willing to perform Hajj in future.

This can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/voiceofislamNZ My biggest question was, “Would I be able to perform Hajj one day in my wheelchair?” I was not confident, and lacked courage to take the journey.

With the fear of inability to perform Hajj in a wheelchair, I sent two people twice in the past to perform Hajj on my behalf, called Hajj Badal.

But after performing the Hajj this year, I

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felt guilty for not trying it before. With Hajj Badal, I was deprived from the wonderful feeling and the divine experience at Hajj.

My advice, if you are in wheelchair, never give up, and never think that you can’t do it. If I could do it, then Insha Allah, you can

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do it too.

With new technology, medical care, air-travel facilities for disabled passengers, wheelchair accessible hotels in Makkah, Mina, and the facilities in Arafah and Muzdalifah, there is no reason why one

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should not try to perform Hajj.

For the Tawaf around the Holy Kaba, and the Saee between the Safa and Marwa, Saudi authorities have done wonderful work for wheelchair bound Hajis. I found many people in wheelchair performing Hajj with the help of support persons.

The good news is that wheelchair Hajis gets many advantages, and they should consider these as Allah’s Mercy.

There are provisions on upper floors for manual or electrical wheelchairs under roof to provide shade and cool air, safer than the busy ground level for Tawauwhich is 5.6km giving plenty of time for praising Allah and making Dua. A support person can push the manual wheelchair to make the wheelchair person comfortable.

The Saee between Safa and Marwa is 3.5 km for 7 rounds, and that gives plenty of time to make Dua, Zikr, and saying Darood Ibrahimi.

In conclusion, the experience of Hajj is divine, and no one can describe it for you. It is only you who need to feel it, and experience it. Start dreaming, planning, and working on it. May Allah grant all the ability to perform Hajj one day, Ameen!

Farid Ahmed is a survivor of Christchurch attack on 15 May 2019, a peace advocate, author of HUSNA’S Story and Quran teacher in Christchurch.

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The Chinese government stopped me from seeing my wife and son These testimonies are the stories of Uyghurs and Falun Gong Practitioners affected by the Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to commit genocide against them and other minorities. Their families and friends are at risk of forced organ harvesting. Many have pledged to never source an organ from China if they ever needed one.

END TRANSPLANT ABUSE IN CHINA

Rula Mai Hai My name is Rula Mai Hai. I am 39 years old, and I live in Melbourne Victoria. I am now a Citizen of Australia.

On 29 Jun 2016, I married Mayila Abulizi in Urumqi, the capital City of current Xinjiang in China.

She is now 38 years old and a Chinese citizen currently living in Urumqi and has a son from her previous marriage. She is a judge of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region High Court.

In 2018, the department of immigration granted me a sponsored family visa to invite my wife and her son to come to Australia (Visa no: 7579584940363; Visa Subclass UF/309). Unfortunately, her passport was taken away by the local authority and she was unable to come to Australia and reunite with me as expected. She requested her passport from the authority many times but the request was denied.

On 22 Aug 2017, I travelled to China to visit my wife and my stepson, but I was arrested at Chengdu airport of China unlawfully. Chinese police took away my Australian passport and my mobile phone at the airport and detained me for over 30 hours.

Then I was taken to a different location of Chengdu and detained for further 24 hours.

On 24 Aug 2017, two policemen arrived

from Urumqi while I was in remand and flew me to Urumqi. We arrived in Urumqi at 11 pm on that night. There were more than 10 police who arrived at the airport in 4 different police cars and transferred me to the National Security Bureau of Xinjiang.

They took me to one of their interrogation rooms in Urumqi. I was tied onto a metal chair with handcuffs and shackles. There were many police who interrogated me continuously until 10 am the next day. They didn’t give me any chance to sleep or stop the interrogation.

Then I was transferred to the jail about 40 km from Urumqi and was locked up in a small room with another 35 people. I stayed in that room until 13 Sep 2017. During that time, they didn’t give me any explanation and I wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone or make a phone call to the Australian Embassy.

An Australian Embassy staff member from Beijing came to visit me on 4 September 2017. He asked the Chinese Police what was the reason was for arresting me and detaining in Urumqi. The police told him that they were investigating me.

He was shocked and angered from the answer that he received from the Chinese police. After he left, they return my passport on 27 September 2017, however I was told that I could not visit China for the next 5 years. They didn’t explain the reason behind the decision.

I returned to Australia on 29 September 2017.

I am aware that I may never be able to see my wife unless I take some actions to

reunite with her in Australia. She has been interrogated and harassed by the authorities several times since my departure in September 2017.

As an Australian citizen, it is unacceptable for me to be separated from my family by the Chinese authorities and it is affecting my way of living as an ordinary Australian family with my family members.

I hope the the Australian government will help me to reunite with my family.

Rula Mai Hai is based in Melbourne, Aus-

tralia.

The International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC), Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC), China Aid and supporting organizations are asking for your help to raise awareness of forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China and mobilize a global movement to end this transplant abuse.

Take the pledge: endtransplantabuse.org/pledge

Raise your voice Palestinian Lives Matter Sadia Shareef

Palestine is a country torn apart by war and conflict, a once peaceful country before its occupation. But all that’s left of it is despair.

On Friday 5 August 2022, a three-day airstrike jeopardized Palestinians lives. Leaving 31 killed including 6 children and 260 seriously wounded.

Why is Palestine suffering like this? Why are Palestinians constantly being targeted?

Why is Palestinians not receiving the recognition and justice that they deserve? If people knew more about the atrocious and hostile treatment of Palestinians, would they help?

Since 1984, a day hasn’t gone by where Palestinians are able to live freely without the fear of being killed or arrested. Their homes have been destroyed multiple times, and by the time they finish building their houses again, they are being wrecked by conflict.

Many do not even have homes or even electricity. Medical equipment is low and water supplies are being cut by Israel. How are Palestinians supposed to live without such basic human rights and needs, essential for survival?

We need to change the way Palestinians are treated. No one should be treated like this!

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Palestinians search through the rubble of a building following an Israeli airstrike on Sunday & August 2022.

tinian person, how would you feel fearing for your life every day? Afraid to go outside? Afraid to speak up? Afraid of being punished for what is right? Palestinians have lived for years like this.

When will the day come when Palestinians can rejoice with one another and not be instilled with fear? By supporting Palestinians we can end the pain they have endured for over 50 years.

Palestinian Lives Matter. We need to look for ways to help others and not ourselves.

The international community has a duty to highlight the plight of the people of Palestine and should advocate to restore peace in Palestine by helping them get past this unfortunate tragedy.

Sadia Shareef is a high school student based in Townsville, QLD. She is passionate about writing topics that affect our society & humanity.

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UMMAH Beyond Deception: Seeking truth and justice for 9/11 NEWS 1-3

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Dr Daud Batchelor “O believers! If a sinful person comes to you with news, ascertain the truth lest you harm people unwittingly, and afterwards become full of regret for your actions.” (Qur’an 49:6) It invites the question: “Was there deception in the 9/11 events?”

Most Americans now reject the official explanation. Australian agencies need dig below the subterfuges to elucidate the true happenings.

9/11 happened 21 years ago but still the true perpetrators have not been held accountable. A dozen carefully-researched books claim to expose the 9/11 official story to be a fraud.

Evidence suggests that Israel with its overwhelming influence over US government institutions may be behind the planning and conduct of 9/11.

After 9/11, Osama bin Laden emphatically denied responsibility: “I assure the world I did not plan the recent attacks …I have been living in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan following its leaders’ rules. He does not allow me to exercise such operations.”

The Taliban said if the US provided evidence of OBL’s involvement in 9/11, they would hand him over. The US brushed it off and attacked. Until now they have no convincing evidence.

Alan Sabrosky, Former Director, US Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute, is “absolutely certain as a strategic analyst that 9/11 was a classic Mossad-orchestrated operation.”

“WTC-7 – the third tower to collapse that day, and the only one not hit by a plane – absolutely was brought down by controlled

demolition … so were the other towers (WTC-1 and WTC-2). That gives the plane impacts a gruesome cosmetic role, designed to conceal the true cause of building collapse.”

Sabrosky says, “the WTC-7 case is the single issue to effectively “discredit the US Government’s case and rationale for so many misdeeds [needless wars, infringing civil liberties].”

Some evidence points out that the buildings were brought down by means other than impacting aircraft include “real-time clips of secondary explosions at ground level in WTC-1 and WTC-2 (you can hear detonations).”

Sabrosky says, “neither Al-Qaeda nor affiliates had the expertise and local support necessary to allow them needed access to any of the buildings at the World Trade Center, to cut open the walls and wire them for controlled demolition, then escape.”

He points out to evidence of Mossad complicity being, “New Jersey residents saw five people … filming the attacks and visibly celebrating. They set up their cameras before the first plane hit [indicating foreknowledge of 9/11 and complicity]. Police arrested them. All were Israelis.”

Sabrosky explains: “What is fascinating is how little impact it had on public awareness of details of 9/11. A ‘cloak of silence’ descended over mainstream media discussions of 9/11 that don’t conform to the official interpretation.”

Many Executive Branch members (especially ‘neo-conservatives’) were authors of the “19-named-Arabs-in-4-planes” thesis.

A surprising number were on the pro-Israel Project for a New American Century when it reported some ‘catalytic event’ was needed to move the US. He claims that, “The largely Zionist-owned mainstream media [allowed] the official US government view of 9/11 to go

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“Shock and Awe” 2003 Destruction of civil infrastructure, Baghdad, in deceptive “War on Terror”.

virtually unchallenged.”

Sabrosky emphasises: “having a positive incentive to make the 9/11 attacks, only Israel had essential expertise and local support to make the 9/11 attacks, expertise and local support to bring down the three WTC buildings with controlled demolitions, and leverage within/around the US Government to let their operatives evade detection, to be released … if apprehended, and cloak their actions from public scrutiny.”

Raimondo in “9/11 and the Israeli Connection,” concludes, “Israeli spies closely observed the terrorist network that assisted the hijackers between 2000 and April 2001, and ‘during their undercover investigations, the Israelis came very close to the later perpetrators of 9/11,’ (Der Spiegel). In Hollywood, Florida, Israeli spies lived close to Mohammad Atta (terrorist suspect), ‘observing the seemingly normal flight school students around the clock.’”

French intelligence reported that [Mossad] leader, Hanan Serfati, rented several dwellings. “One of Serfati’s apartments was located on the corner of 701st St and 21st Avenue, right near Atta’s apartment.” (Die Zeit) Raimondo notes, “It’s possible [Mossad] was protecting the 9/11 plotters: surrounded

by Israelis from San Diego to Texas to Florida, the hijackers operated in what appears to have been a protective bubble provided

by Mossad.”

In this scenario, it is alleged that Arab

hijackers were involved, protected in their mission by Mossad.

There is evidence that Mossad had prior knowledge of terrorists’ plans to attack the Twin Towers but rejected effective preventive action.

Claims are often countered by the weaponized term, ‘conspiracy theory,’ which could be used by any defendant, to demean valid evidence against them, even if that evidence contributes to their eventual conviction.

Can we really believe the US Government’s version of the 9/11 events when we know they lied when they said Iraq had ‘weapons of mass destruction,’ which led to a 20-year long War of Terror against Arab countries killings millions?

Global authorities should properly investigate these leads, which suggest that 9/11 was a major deception to get the US to embark on serial wars in the Middle East that benefited Israel weakening its Arab foes.

Following Soviet collapse, the sole superpower US, highly influenced by the Zionist lobby conducted costly wars for decades, killing over 600,000 Muslims and destroying a number of Muslim countries.

Dr Daud Batchelor, holds an MA in Islamic and Other Civilisations and a Diploma in Islamic Studies from the International Islamic University Malaysia, PhD from University of Malaya, MSc from the University of London.

Donate for Derby Mosque in WA Shariful Islam Derby, a tourist destination is a regional town in Western Australia’s north located in Kimberley Region with a population of around 8,500 with a vibrant and growing community that has welcomed Muslims.

There are 10-12 Muslim families living in Derby with no place for warship in the form of Mosque/Masjid/Musallah. The nearest Mosque is 750 km away in south Headland.

Muslims Malays from Singapore, Java, Timor, Kupang, Sulawesi and elsewhere in the Indonesian Archipelago began arriving in WA from the 1869s, mainly as indentured labourers working in the pearl-shelling industry.

From 1960’s onwards pearl-shelling industry wound down but many Muslim Malays who arrived as young men in the late 1950s and 1960s remained in Western Australia’s north where a significant number married local Indigenous women and today there are many Indigenous-Malay Muslims people in the Derby, Broome, Kununurra and elsewhere in the Top End towns of Western Australia.

Due to the lack of a place of worship, many Muslims have been losing their spiritual connection to Islam and moving further away from Islam. Although the majority of the local Muslim population’s descendants still use Muslim names, they do not adhere to Islam.

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For the revival of the Indigenous-Muslims a place of worship/Mosque is essential and therefore the Muslim community in Derby intends to construct a mosque and has registered an association (established a website, bank account, PayPal account, and Facebook account, among others), got Shire/ Council clearance for the proposed Mosque project, and in the process of joining ICWA and AFIC. First phase of the mosque project is to acquire the land (See photo) and then construct the mosque in the second phase.

Muslims from all over Australia are requested to donate towards the Derby Mosque by depositing funds into ANZ Bank, Derby BSB: 016620 Account No 6448-57077 or via Pay ID 0480 379 400 or PayPal Account: derbymosque@gmail.com

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How an Australian Imam’s foresight influenced modern Islamic astronomy Prof Dr Mohammad Ilyas Astronomy is a priority area in Islam. Starting from the last Khutba of Prophet Muhammad (s) at Arafah in 632 CE until well into the 19th century, it received continuous State patronage but colonization impacted Islamic astronomy with absolute confusion for almost 150 years.

Imam Ahmed Skaka, of Albanian origins, at Adelaide Mosque recognised the modern urgency to revitalise Islamic Astronomy.

I arrived in August 1971 on Australian International Competitive Fellowship at Adelaide University’s Physics Department for a PhD program. Aged 21, I felt greatly honoured as the youngest theoretical physicist to join rocket and satellite based atmospheric research group at the campus.

I met Imam Skaka soon after, at the historic Adelaide mosque build by Afghan cameleers, the only one in the city at the time, that I attended for my prayers. Regular Friday Prayers at Adelaide Mosque started late in 1971.

Halal food, specially meat was hardly available anywhere in the city. Finally after my arrival the same year, an abattoir was persuaded for regular supply of Halal meat in Adelaide for the first time.

While involved in the Inter-faith discussions and being a co-editor of a student magazine, Reflections brough me close to Imam Skaka.

One of the ‘first’ Main-Frame computers in Australia was installed at Adelaide University. With my early love with mathematics and theoretical physics, I found learning computer use handy for astronomical research.

Research with high altitude rockets required learning positional astronomy.

Once in a serious discussion Imam Skaka said, “Ilyas, if you are doing high sounding science, can’t you do something about the moon sighting problem that we face in Australia and elsewhere?”

I realised the responsibility, this beingfarde-kifayah, an obligation on the Muslim community.

The passion in poet Behzad’s couplets im-

Ahmed Skaka graduated from famous Gazi Husrev Bey Medresa Sarajevo. He served voluntary Imam since 1950 at the Majestic Afghan built Adelaide Mosque.

mortalized by Nayyara Noor (Ae Jazbae dil gar men chahoon…) followed: Oh passionate heart, if I wish, everything will be possible I need walk but a few steps and there my destination will be! …Is it not possible that in the ensuing storm, a new shore flows in.

By 1976, I wrote on prayer times calcu-

lations in a journal Salam, produced by the Australian Federation of Muslim Students’ Associations,.

I prepared the First Adelaide Prayer Time Table and later wrote on the sciencific aspects of prayer times and Islamic calenda in Impact International, UK and Journal of Rabeta al Alam al Islami.

I also advised Australian Imam’s confer-

Author’s rocket borne atmospheric project which contributed greatly to his astronomical research: A Cockatoo rocket ready for launch that included an instrumented payload incorporated in the central scientific payload to measure UV radiation and transmit it to a ground receiver.

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ence in August 1976 and pointed out that more needed to be done.

Later I resigned from my Adelaide University physics teaching position for an appointment in Malaysia to establish new atmospheric programme at the Science University in Penang.

The exclusive balloon-borne ozone layer study put me in the elite global research group and by the age of 34, I was recognised as a global expert in the field With memberships to a dozen international bodies and UNEP Panels receiving a number of awards.

I hosted an international UNEP Ozone conference Officiated by the then Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Addressed Prime Minister Thatcher’s London Ozone Conference Plenary.

It kept me very much focussed and engaged with my Islamic astronomy mission together with building an observatory and publishing my book establishing modern Islamic Astronomy on a global level.

I received encouragement and support from a number of governments, OIC, COMSTECH, Rabita, ICTP, Nuffield Foundation, UK, London University Observatory and many individuals in academia as well from the community.

Fifty years on, the global institutionalization has progressed well overcoming the chaos thanks to my mentor Imam Skaka’s initiative and can do again attitude.

In appreciation, I quote Poet Fazli’s couplet popularized by Chitra (Aap ko bhool jaen ham, itne to bewafa nahin): That we forget you, we are not that disloyal.

My book, Author’s book, “A Modern Guide to Astronomical Calculations of Islamic Calendar, Times & Qibla” was well received by the scientific community” “After a lapse of nearly a millennium, a guide book has been published…”. (Science & Technology in the Islamic World) “… Ilyas has brought closer the day when a Universal Islamic Calendar will come about.” (Royal Astronomical Society, Canada) Prof Ilyas taught physics at Adelaide University, in Malaysia revived modern global Islamic Astronomy, published numerous books, recognized in Noble Peace Prize 2007 to IPCC .

Author’s book, “A Modern Guide to Astronomical Calculations of Islamic Calendar, Times & Qibla”

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New Chief Executive brings global focus to Unity Grammar Dr Sayd Farook.

Andrew Harrington Leading private independent Islamic school, Unity Grammar College, is poised to embark on a fresh era of growth following the appointment of a new Chief Executive, Dr Sayd Farook.

Dr Farook brings a wealth of education and business experience to Unity Grammar, with advanced degrees (including a PhD) in Business, Law, Islamic Finance and Behavioural Economics from the University of Technology, Sydney.

In addition, he has previously fulfilled roles including Strategy and Innovation Advisor to the Executive Office of the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, and Global Head of Islamic Capital Markets for Thomson Reuters (now Refinitiv).

According to Khalil Hafza, Chairman of Unity Grammar’s Board of Directors, Dr Farook stood out as a candidate during the recruitment process.

“Dr Farook’s vision for Unity Grammar very much aligns with our goal of becoming an international benchmark in Islamic education,” said Mr Hafza.

He further added,“We couldn’t be more pleased that he has agreed to lead the College and help us further increase our standing as a role model for values-based Islamic learning.”

Dr Farook commenced in the role on 11 July 2022, and has already hit the ground running as the college prepares to deliver a new STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) building for senior students, as well as a new junior school campus.

According to Dr Farook, it is an exciting time to be joining Unity Grammar College.

“I feel very fortunate to be joining Unity

Grammar at a time when we are poised to grow and increase our educational offering to our learners,” said Dr Farook.

He further aded, “We have an amazing new STEAM building coming up in early 2023, as well as a purpose-built, state-ofthe-art junior campus with space for 850 learners, both of which will enable us to deliver first-class, future-ready education.”

In his role, Dr Farook will also draw on his global experience for the benefit of Unity Grammar.

“My previous experience has shown me it is important that we don’t just benchmark against other Australian and Islamic schools, but that we look at who is delivering the best personalised learning outcomes around the globe,” he explained.

“Ultimately, my aim is to develop an ecosystem of learning experiences that allow Unity Grammar’s learners to self-select and acquire the tools and skills to become creators, innovators and pioneers in the fields of discovery, science, entrepreneurship and human development.”

“Faith-driven education will be essential to these outcomes,” adds Dr Farook.

“Our school is based on five values – namely our connection to our Creator; our mental and physical wellbeing; our relationships with those around us; our ability to learn for life; and our initiative, drive and tenacity.”

“By helping our learners to adopt these values, we believe they will be able to become the best versions of themselves in their service to Allah.”

“A mentality that is focused on service and responsibility will allow our learners to build character and leadership while achieving their dreams and aspirations,” Dr Farook concluded.

Andrew Harrington is the Head of Content & Narrative for Polymer Studios, a boutique built environment focused communications and public relations firm in Sydney.

Unity Grammar College students

A representation of Unity Grammar College’s future STEAM building.

Quiz competition at Pakistan event Shayyan Ali The Young Innovators team ran a quiz for the local community at the 75th Pakistan Independent Day celebrations on Sunday 14 August 2022 at the Himalaya Emporium Bankstown.

The customised quiz was designed specifically designed and developed for the particular event and occasion.

The questions were prepared by Ayaan Ali and Shayyan Ali using Kahoot and were related to different performances and speech-

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es given at the event.

There were almost 400 people who attended the event and were informed twice during the event that there will be a quiz at the end of the program so, please watch and listen to every performance appearing on the stage.

Shafqat Ali conducted the quiz where the majority of the attendees participated for the quiz using their mobiles After each question, the winning leaderboard was shown on the projector to spice the competition. In the end of the quiz competition, there were three winners all girls of different ages.

Everybody enjoyed the quiz activity as it allowed all the attendees to participate dur-

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Quiz winners

ing the event in an active manner.

Shayyan Ali is a youth mentor who helps students in their learning journey through

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interactive STEM Learning workshops. You can get in touch with him through his website https://sites.google.com/view/shayyanali/.

ISSUE 202 / SEPTEMBER 2022

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Dr Rashid Raashed Al-hamdu lillaah Yaa Rabb! Allahu Akbar!!

Allahu Akbar!!! This is the only expression that I could imagine, while deciphering the long awaited dream of twelve years; Islamic Bank Australia; here it is today!

To prudentially convince the top regulators in the land, within the stringent legal limitations of the Banking Act 1959, approving a truly Shari’ah compliant Islamic bank in Australia was indeed, difficult to the extreme. At the same time, achieving it was a very highly revealing and appreciated Islamic milestone for Australian Muslims!

While walking or shopping in a banking square, in the mix of the big four or five, you will also see another bank; Islamic Bank Australia and that is your bank!

Insha Allah, it will go a very long way away, in building a strong and independent Islamic identity for the fast-growing Muslim community in Australia. Practically speaking, one’s heart dwells only three centimetres above his/her stomach. If the source of feeding a believer’s stomach is contaminated by having to deal with ‘interest’ (riba), his heart is bound to exasperate from the tainted oxygen!

Here is the bottom line for a true believer: ‘Declaring an active war with Allah and His Prophet, by dealing with interest,’ is never an option! (Qur’an: 02:279) Any believer who declares many times a day that ‘God is the Greatest in my life’, will never choose to declare war between him and God. Avoiding such a dichotomy in the life of a believer, was the main objective behind the prohibition of dealing with interest in the Qur’an.

Charging interest will make you ‘an aggressor’ and having to pay it, will make you ‘an aggressed upon’. The Qur’an 02:279.

How to avoid dealing with interest, effectively in the banking and financial setting in Australia, was the real challenge! The first and foremost of my identity is a dedicated worker al-Da’wah ila Allah!

In this space, by founding the Islamic Bank Australia, I was determined to establish peace between Allah and His Prophet on one side and a seriously dedicated belief on the other!

Under Australia’s Banking Act 1959, one must declare ‘the type of interest and rate of interest’ in home finance. As such, obtaining home finance legally, by avoiding interest, was a knife-edge option! The most daunting aspect of this challenge was, to provide an effective and truly Shari’ah-compliant alternative in the modern-day banking and financing environment.

This alternative must also meet the dynamic regulatory requirement in Australia as above. While doing so, no compromise could have been made with the mandate of true and dynamic Shari’ah compliance. Alhamdulillah, no compromise has been made either!

At the end, a Shari’ah definition of riba, interest had to be devised and which was functionally avoided in all products of Islamic Bank Australia.

So the prohibited interest in Islam is defined as: ‘A predetermined sum or percentage of money to be paid on top of the principal amount lent, in lieu of time elapsing’. So any amount paid on and above the original sums borrowed, is interest and prohibited in Islam.

Avoiding it altogether is what one’s commitment to Islam wants and this is exactly what the community demands.

Since 2010, after 12 years of regulatory jostling and adjusting the proposed IBA products with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), the outcome of licensing the Islamic Bank Australia, was finally achieved on 5th July 2022.

Alhamdu Lillaah now there is a new bank; Islamic Bank Australia! So, to anyone, Muslim or otherwise, who wants to deal with a SEPTEMBER 2022 / ISSUE 202

Dr Rashid Raashed, Founder of Islamic Bank Australia bank avoiding the zulm of interest, this is your bank!

Twelve years of my professional commitment, time and efforts were there on standby any way! The skills needed were: a Shari’ah graduate with Speciality on Hadith, Arabic and Islamic Studies, MA from the University of Sydney, coupled with a PhD on Islamic banking finance from the Law School, at Macquarie University Sydney.

But then came the most difficult question: Meeting the budget bottom line of A$ 20,000,000.00 (twenty million dollars) expenses. Who will put this money without the guarantee of a banking license? The professional services of top tier audit firms, such as EY and PWC needed to be hired.

To be honest, the proverb ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ had to be redefined and modified! May Allah reward the 13 seed funders led by Br A A M Zakaria, who trusted me and the cause, with their A$ 10,000,000.00 (ten million dollars) savings. They will go in the history book as the biggest part of the equation!

Mr Ramanathan Karruppia, is another friend who himself is an AML CTF auditor.

He directed the mezzanine investor Br Mohammad Shazi, a successful businessman from UEA to IBA project. After three days of scrutiny in Sydney, this is what Br Shazi had to say to me on 16 January 2020: “Dr Raashed! I spent three days with you and heard the story of IBA. I see no pricy shoes or neck ties on you! But I am convinced that you know what you are doing.

I am also convinced that you are leading a team of trustworthy people. Here are the A$ 10,000,000.00 (ten million dollars) investment to realise the first Islamic bank in Australia”. His word ‘trust’ struck me just like a bullet! I will remember it for the rest of my life! Besides, I was highly impressed by the tagline on his business platform: “My word is my promise”!

Yes, collectively, they reveal the nature of the people who worked together, wrapping up the prime gift of Islamic Bank Australia to the fast growing Muslim community today!!! May Allah reward them all for this great gift and contribution! Indeed, this is the great outcome for which, every single investor, promoter, customer and shareholder be proud of.

As an ethical alternative, Islamic bank is not only for Muslims. It is for anyone who wants to deal with banking products without involving interest!

Although a decade of my intellectually productive life was invested in this venture, I am fully convinced that no better cause could have been there anyway! It was thus, a deliberate choice that could not have been

shaken by the procedural difficulties, challenges and delays; come what may!

This is the project where, working for the cause of Da’wah ila Allah, met for me, with the mission of building a strong identity base for the Australian Muslims! In itself, this is a distinctly great cause!

Australia is the winner By approving the license to the Islamic Bank Australia, the Australian Government/s have truly lived to its democratic values and ideals! Bravo to the nation Australia; the icon of fair dinkum! Through this experience, the Australian Muslims stand tall and proud for their identity as the citizens of this great country!

This is the country where we belong and this is where our loyalty squarely rests!

Considering the Australian economy as a safe-haven for the stable quality assets, we envisage that there will be influx of overseas Islamic banks investing in the country, through Islamic Bank Australia.

Came with the above, are the lots of community emotion, aspirations, trust, and equality of all citizens before the law. The most important of all, is the enormous respect of Australian Muslims for the Australian government and its banking regulator APRA living true to their democratic ideals!

We appreciate that the most revealing word in our offering is the magic word “Islamic”. Naming the entity as “Islamic Bank Australia”, was thus, a deliberate choice.

With my cornerstone role as the founder of IBA through IFSA and IFSA Investment, I am the direct witness to all the motives,

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objectives, community emotions and expectations behind this project.

Obviously, the IBA Board and its C-suite will be very mindful to maintain this legacy and meet the public expectation without a compromise!

Many Muslims are still coming to terms that there is a new bank in Australia called Islamic Bank Australia! The Australian Muslims are exhilarated for their own bank being licensed. But the real challenge ahead is to prove what benefit, if any, the Islamic Bank Australia is going to offer to the overall and non-Muslim Australians.

In short, this new bank is going to bring diversity and competition in the market. In itself this is a win for the public.

As an alternative to the interest driven conventional banking, according to the Qur’an 02:279, the main objective of Islamic banking is to provide financial justice to all its consumers, regardless of their faith.

The Bank Islam Malaysia’s majority customers are in fact non-Muslims.

The IBA Board and its C-suite will probably prove it as true also in Australia! This is the reason that our bank’s logo inculcates the main objectives as: “You, Ethics and Justice”, implying superior customer service, ethical banking and the commitment to provide financial justice by not dealing with interest.

In itself, the competition would benefit the overall market. But Islamic banking would also open up the Australian investment market to the untapped sources of resources and investments from the Middle East and the South East Asia.

As the Chair of the Shari’ah Audit Executives (SAE), I was directly involved in developing all the products of Islamic Bank Australia. In this space, I also confirm that all the IBA products do provide a ‘watertight guarantee’ of Shari’ah compliance.

While operating on the way ahead, with a board seat to guard the Shari’ah non-compliance risk, I am duty bound to deliver the Shari’ah trust invested in me without a compromise; insha Allaah!

Without a doubt I can also say that this guarantee alone is the most outstanding feature of Islamic Bank Australia. The community confidence aside, this feature would also deliver a great financial dividend- insha Allah to the investors in our bank.

Our journey has just started. Insha Allaah, the great outcomes are ahead waiting for all Australians!

Dr Rashid Raashed based in Sydney is currently the Director of Islamic Financial Services Australia (IFSA). He graduated with speciality in Hadith from Islamic University, Patya, Chittagong, Bangladesh, BA (Hons) in Arabic and Islamic Studies, Tripoli, Libya, MA (Usyd) and PhD (Macquarie Uni) in Islamic Financial System. He has served as Imam at Surry Hills and Sefton mosques and is founder and Chairman of Leadership University and College, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

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Social Spotlights Senator Lidia Thorpe @SenatorThorpe

Incredibly honoured, empowered and strengthened to join my brothers and sisters for prayer at the Elsedeaq Heidelberg Mosque. Sheik Imam Alaa Elzokm spoke beautifully about about Muhammad doing a Treaty with the people in Medina. How seeking justice means we work together, across communities. In solidarity, always

Tina Rahimi

@tinarahimiboxer What an amazing experience it has been to represent my country on the world stage.

Not the result I wanted today but I’m still so pleased to be leaving Birmingham with a BRONZE medal Alhamdullilah (praise to God).

Positive, grateful but definitely have unfinished business to handle. Cannot wait to be on the big stage again! #paris2024 NOTE: Never give up on your dreams!

There will always be ups and downs but you just have to keep going and believe in the process! ☺️ Massive thank you to everyone who’s been on this journey with me and have believed in me

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Greenacre Public School @GreenacrePS

Community Connections - Greenacre Public School would like to acknowledge and thank Joumana from Greenacre Community Connect for supporting our families and students by providing hampers and bread for our breakfast club.

They work hard in providing our community with whatever means they can access. - Nancy Kourouche | Community Liaison Officer

ISRA Academy

@isra.org.au

ISRA, in partnership with Sirius College and Activate Youth, held the Australian Muslim Identity Forum. The panel discussion was incredibly important addressing many points such as: - Parent-child communication is critical.

- There are areas where Islamic values are aligned with Australian values and where they are not. Youth need to know the difference.

- Islamic knowledge is key for youth to navigate the challenges and opportunities they face.

- The Australian Muslim community is maturing but more collaboration and unity is needed, moving forward.

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Auburn Gallipoli Mosque @gallipolimosque

S.A. We want to share a beautiful thing that happened at our mosque earlier today.

The gentleman below is John John Alexander Thomson. John found the Ayetel Kursi display pictured in a rubbish bin.

Suspecting it might be some kind of sacred script, he got in touch with us and brought it into our mosque.

We thank John for his thoughtful and amazingly considerate act.

Muslim Women Australia

@MuslimWomenAustralia Everyday is a day of learning at MWA. Over the past few weeks staff have benefited from learning and development sessions in addition to the experiential learnings and every day experiences.

An amazing mental health training session with Hend Saab, Senior Psychologist where staff were able to learn more deeply about common mental health concerns as well as healthy self care.

There have also been some inspiring sessions with CEO Maha Abdo OAM on self reflection and doing the inner work on self awareness.

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TOP 6 Memes

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New photos from TOP 6 inside the Ka’bah Tweets

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IT E D S P O T S

Supported By

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Mind, Body & Soul W O M E N ’ S R E T R E AT Facilitator: Princess R. Lakshman A Self-Care event for women to gather, relax, foster friendships and feel empowered.

S e lf - C a r e Ti p s

Henna

Relaxation Activities

Sunda y 13 Nov 2022 | 11 a m - 3 p m Ve nue : Dar-ul-Islam 204- 206 Humphries Rd, Bo n n y r ig g NS W 32

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Gift Bags

3 Course Lunch

Wo m en O n l y E v en t Re g i s te r : seen a5 .ev en t b r i t e.co m .au in f o @s e e na. o rg . au | w w w.seen a. o rg . au

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ISSUE 202 / SEPTEMBER 2022