UMIS Magazine 2024

TheUMIS Magazine

AcknowledgementofCountry

The University of Melbourne Islamic Society acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which this magazine was written and printed, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin nation, and also pays its respects to the Boonwurrung, Yorta Yorta, and Dja Dja Wurrung peoples, on whose lands the University of Melbourne also has campuses.

Aboriginalsovereigntywasneverceded.

The University of Melbourne Islamic Society also stands in solidarity with all occupied andoppressedpeople,everywhere.Noneofusarefreeuntilweallare.

In the past few months, the University of Melbourne has seen protests and acts of solidarity with indigenous peoples across the world emerge on its grounds. People have come together to call upon the University to condemn the violence against the Palestinian peopleandthedestructionoftheirland.‘The students, united, will never be defeated’,and ‘disclose, divest, we will not stop we will not rest‘ have echoed throughout campus, demanding the University to divest from weapons manufacturers and companies complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Calling for the liberation of stolen land and subjugated people, on the stolen land of Indigenous Australians, who continue to be subjugatedbycolonialsystems.

Alwayswas,alwayswillbe(Aboriginalland).

FromtheRivertotheSea(Palestinewillbefree).

‘We only descend by the command of your Lord. To Him belongs whatever is before us, and whatever is behind us, and everythinginbetween.AndyourLordisneverforgetful.’

— Quran 19:64

02 Editorial team & acknowledgements

03 Editor’s letter

NON-FICTION

08 Is Evolution Compatible with Islam?

AhmadQadri

32 The Weaponization of Media: Looking at Reporting of the Genocide in Gaza

HananeSied

38 10 Million Displaced: Discussing Sudan’s

Humanitarian Crisis

MahamMannanwithFarahElmalik

&MobeenMougadam

42 Leave Yourself No Excuse

MuhammadMunshi

44 To Make Peace with Failure ZainabAboothahir

52 “Your Identity is Not Free of Politics: Muslim Advocacy on Campus and Beyond”

MahamMannanwithNabilBenHassine &DeenaEl-Shabasei

CREATIVE

14 Opening Hours

AnumIsmatFaisal

24 A short collection of poetry

BadisSai

26 In the In-Between FathimathIaadhaShareef

28 Arab Spring

Abdur-RahmanButler

31 Balance

SafreenKhan

24 A short collection of poetry

BadisSai

26 In the In-Between FathimathIaadhaShareef

28 Arab Spring

Abdur-RahmanButler

49 Keep the Heart of Truth Alive DaniaEl-Ghattis

51 When One Limb Suffers

StephanieVita

PHOTOGRAPHY

SafreenKhan

ZahraaAlbatat

EmanKhateeb

MehrabKhan

AbeerKhan

MaherShah

AmeerAlameh 18 MaryamTahir 20 HumzaGhouse

ZahraaAlbatat 30 AmiraMarwan 36 KareemZaghlool 41 Austreelia Anonymous

FarahElmalik 53 AmeerAlameh

55 AmeerAlameh

ARTWORK

16 Figs

HudaMousawi 21 LeyaanKapisiz 27 KaseerShikrani

46 NoorBesisou

47 From Your Fingertips

AnumPathan

48 Osama Jamil

56 Sponsors

EDITORIAL TEAM & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Editorial Team

Maham Mannan

Abeer Khan

Zoha Shahzad

Hanane Seid

Noor Besisou

UMIS 23/24 Executive Committee

Ahmed Kamal

Clarissa Indranada

Kaseer Shikrani

Maryam Tahir

Farah Elmalik

Maham Arshad

Maham Mannan

Advisory

Reham Elzeiny

Ahmad Qadri

EDITOR’S LETTER

Dearreaders,

As-salamu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullahi wabarakatuh

I hope this letter finds you in the best of healthandimaan,bi-ithnillah.

I wanted to compile this magazine to encourage and promote creativity amongst the Ummah, & give Muslims a space to share their creative works. I find that creative endeavours are often overlooked or undermined in our communities, and that we lack the avenues and facilities to pursue them. Ironically, Muslims have a rich history in the arts and humanities, as they do in mathematics and the sciences. I hope to reignite and emphasise the pursuits of literature, painting, storytelling, poetry, and overall creativity within the Ummah and push us to realise the great value of these ventures, and the great potential withinus.

By the grace of Allah SWT, among us are a plethora of talented and outspoken individuals. Unfortunately the world is not always the most hospitable place for what we have to say. This past year has been a particularly silencing and antagonising one for the Muslim voice. With many of us being suppressed or rebuked when speaking up against the atrocities committed against the Palestinian people by Israel, unwelcoming spaces have reared their ugly heads. If there ever was an important time for us to speak up, create, and let ourselves be known - this isit.

It is vital for us to have a seat at the table, and if you want a seat at the table you have to be in the room. Sometimes we will have to build the room ourselvesfoundationandall.

Love, MahamMannan Editor-in-chief

by Safreen Khan

‘All living beings roaming the earth and winged birds soaring in the sky are communities like yourselves. We have left nothing out of the Record. Then to their Lordtheywillbegatheredalltogether.’

Quran 6:38

IntheheartofBotswana'sOkavangoDelta,Icapturedabeautifulzebraandherfoal.This captivating animal serves as a powerful reminder of Allah’s greatness and the intricate beautyofHiscreation.

InIslam,alllivingbeingsareregardedassignsofAllah'sartistry.TheQuranbeautifully emphasisesthisinterconnectedness,asseeninSurahAl-An'am(6:38),whichremindsus that all creatures on earth and in the skies form communities. This verse invites us to appreciate the diversity of life and the unique roles each creature plays in the grand tapestryofexistence.

The tender bond between the mother zebra and her foal exemplifies the core Islamic values of compassion and nurturing. The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) taught us the importanceofkindnesstoalllivingcreatures.OneHadithstatesthatAllahhasdividedHis mercy into 100 parts, with 99 reserved for the Hereafter and only one for this world. This profoundmercyisreflectedinhowwetreatanimalsandtheenvironmentaroundus.

As we marvel at the beauty of the Okavango Delta, let us remember that every creature, from the majestic zebra to the smallest insect, is a testament to Allah's infinite mercy and wisdom. Embracing this perspective can deepen our appreciation for the naturalworldandinspireustoactwithkindnessandrespecttowardsallofcreation.

illustration by Anum Pathan

By Zahraa Albatat

by Eman Khateeb

EVOLUTION EVOLUTION IS COMPATIBLE WITH ISLAM?

by Ahmad Qadri

Religion and evolutionary scientists are forever at each other's throats, fighting a war that may very well be decided by the survival of the fittest. For some religious folk, the scientific theory will and should die out, just like anyotherweaktheoryofthepast,fortheevolutionists,the outdated religious creationist ideas cannot survive in the faceofabiggergame-modernscienceandwhatseems tobe,intheirview,commonsense.

One such advocate of the anti-creationist camp and perhaps one of the world’s most famous new atheists, Richard Dawkins, once visited an Islamic religious school in the United Kingdom during the filming of a documentary. While investigating how religion and secondary education combine, Dawkins was told by students that while teachers could outline and elucidate theorieswithindifferentsubjects,itwasuptothestudents themselveswhethertheyacceptedtheconclusionsofany given scientific theory. Dawkins then promptly (perhaps strategically)askedtheMuslimstudents(whoveryclearly disagreed with the theory of evolution) whether they believed ‘the fact that humans are related to chimpanzees’, to which the students, as expected, shook their heads in unison. Yet, Dawkins’ most gloating momentoccurredwhenheinterrogatedabiologyteacher (who also, just like her students, happened to be an evolution denier) on a question that one of the students asked-thatifevolutionweretrue,whywouldtherestillbe apes around today? The biology teacher was dumbfounded, seemingly unable to answer the question, smiling to avoid her embarrassment. Dawkins seized the opportunity, demonstrating to his viewers that religious schools and teachers should be a thing of the past, especiallywhentheysupposedlyinfectscientificfactswith religioussubjectivityandmyth.

Plenty of religious communities continue to dismiss evolutionas‘justatheory’.AstudybyBarnesetal.(2021) demonstrates that Muslim students within the United States and across the globe show a low acceptance rate of the theory of evolution (especially macro-evolution). Undoubtedly, atheists on the anti-religion side of the spectrum continue to use this denial to harbour doubts within young religious people, not just in relation to the theory of evolution, but with respect to the epistemic virtues of religion itself. In this article however, I shall demonstrate, with reference to the scientist cum philosopher

Shoaib Ahmed Malik and his 2021 work Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghazali and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm, that there need not be such a conflict between evolution and Islamic thought, and that a middle ground can indeed be struck between the extreme atheistic camps that weaponize evolution and the religious groups that seek to disengage with the scientific evidence at hand.

The study on the next page by Barnes et al. (figure 1) demonstrably shows that denial of evolution persists, yet one of the reasons for this denial may not be scriptural or theological at all, but rather philosophical. Many evolution deniers appear to hold an epistemic misunderstanding, believing that evolution is simply a theory — or more precisely, a ‘guess’ — in science that cannot be conclusively proven. This stems from a mindset that there is insufficient evidence for evolution, as it is an unobservable process, despite the overwhelming consensus among biologists regarding the validity of species evolution and the mistaken idea that the theory might eventually be discarded. Frankly, such a view is naive. It would be beyond the scope of this article to examine and discuss each piece of evidence in favour of the theory of evolution being true, thus, I will refer the reader to Malik’s (2021) book chapter on ‘what evolution is and isn’t’ (pp. 2165). Malik provides a substantive outline of the definition of evolution and a broad range of scientific evidence that supports the conclusions of the macroevolutionary theory. The chapter also usefully covers and addresses common objections and misunderstandings.

1

Suffice it to say here though, that this article will (obviously) not seek to disprove evolution in light of the insurmountable evidence which is sourced from the disparate fields of genetics, homology, palaeontology and more. I will investigate whether Islam can theologically accommodate the theory of evolution and address the question of whether it would be blasphemous or contradictory to scripture for the average Muslim to accept this theory. Interestingly, in my own experience, fellow young Muslims hardly ever consider the actual theology and philosophy behind Islam vis a vis evolution, the focus (and this is perhaps ironically rooted in a culture of scientism) is almost alwaysondisprovingitas‘bad’scienceorsciencetobe discarded. Of course, it is important to state that while scientific theories undergo change and paradigm shifts, certain‘macro’theoriesremainstaticandtheydosothe more evidence is given in favour of them, which can increase over time. The notion of the earth being spherical,forexample,hasbeenascientifictheory(and is now an empirical fact) since antiquity, yet this idea is not plainly dismissed due to it merely having been a theory of sophisticated physicists and mathematicians. The same might be said of the existence of gravity which has remained a fact of scientific understanding since the 17th century. Evolution roughly falls into this category of scientific theories where change would require a mountain of evidence of errors. Indeed, when there exists an abundance of evidence and consensus, denyingatheorybecomesamuchmoreradicalventure and,therefore,notalwaysadesirablecourseofaction.

So,ifweacceptthatevolutionistrueastheevidence demands,wheredoesthisleaveusinrelationtoIslamic scriptureandtheology?Simplyput,Malik(2021)argues that, at least the Sunni Muslim, may fall into one of three camps with respect to the theory of evolution and Islamic belief. These viewpoints are named: creationism; human exceptionalism, and Adamic exceptionalism. There is an additional fourth framework whichposits‘noexceptions’totheevolutionaryprocess, but that school of thought is considered to be beyond the confines of the agreed upon orthodox Sunni theologicalschools,

therefore this article will not consider the fourth position. All three aforementioned frameworks, however, seek to reconcile evolution with scripture (or deny it altogether). One can be confident of the fact that all three positions would be consistent with basic Islamic Sunni creed which is widely accepted across the majority of the Muslim world and through most of Islamic history. That is, the frameworks of the Athari, Ashari or Maturidi schools respectively. Of course, exactly why and how these schools can accept evolution will become clearer asIoutlinethepositionsingreaterdepth.

The creationist position on evolution and Islam is straightforward - a complete denial of common ancestry either on scientific, philosophical or religious grounds (Malik,2021,p.114).Notonlydosomeinthiscampdeny the epistemic virtue of the theory of evolution within the scientificparadigm(theyconsiderevolutionanunproven assumption) as I mentioned above, but they also hold scriptural reasons for their position (Malik, 2021, pp.118119). This involves the scriptural affirmations in the Quran which do not hint at any type of gradual evolution or creation of humans, animals, plants and so on (Mabud,1991,p.74).Anotherreasonrelatedtotheology liesinthefactthatthereisaperceivedstateofdishonour thatthetheoryofevolution,intheviewofthecreationists, seemstoimply.Ifthisweretrue,anyreaderoftheQuran would sense a conflict or contradiction, since the Quran very explicitly elevates the status of the human being which is made evident by verses such as Q17:70 and Q95:4(Buti,2017,p.314).Furthermore,humansarealso notedasthespeciesforwhomtheuniversewascreated andaspossessingadvancedintellectsanduniquesouls (Buti, 2017, p.314). Of course, while these arguments would be perfectly acceptable to hold in an Islamic theologicalsystem,theyseemtomissthemarkandadd assumptionstotheevolutionarytheorythatsimplyaren’t there. There is no value system within evolution, not because the theory denies it altogether, but rather because the scientific method refrains from assigning values to any observable or studied entity. It is simply beyond the scope and study of empirical science. Therefore,intermsofvalue,honour,beautyandsoforth, scienceadoptsastrictlyneutralphilosophicalviewpoint.

Thus,mostoftheargumentsfromscripturewhichdepend on the value of human beings that are used to deny evolutionlosetheirteethwhenoneacknowledgesthatthe aesthetic and/or moral status of the human being is beyond the scope of science and more specifically, the theoryofevolution.

Thisbringsustoanother,slightlymorelenientposition that one may adopt with respect to Islam and evolutionhuman exceptionalism. As the label suggests, human exceptionalism refers to the notion that evolution is a real phenomenon,butthehumanspecies,fromAdamAShas not been included in the process. Scholars such as Yasir Qadhi (who could be described as being closer to the Athari school of thought) and Nuh Ha Mim Keller (an Ashari theologian) subscribe to human exceptionalism. This view seeks a middle path between the complete denial of evolution by the creationists and those who may force evolution onto Islamic scripture. For the human exceptionalists, their concerns with the creationist camp arebasedonthenotionthatthereseemstobesometype of conspiratorial attitude within the creationist camp that not only is unwarranted by Islamic scripture, but also forces the community to distrust hordes of scientific evidence and the wide-reaching consensus of scientistsan idea that leads to internal inconsistencies within theological thought. This criticism of the pure creationist viewpoint however, does not mean that human exceptionalists are totally open to any type of scientific belief or theory. They maintain, as theologians no less, thatthescriptureofIslamseemstospecificallyemphasise that the human creation was exceptional and that attempting to interpret the verses of creation as metaphorical or allegorical would lead to serious theological ramifications and more severe internal incoherence within the Sunni framework that scholars utilise to read and interpret scripture. Thus, human exceptionalists assert that while it is theologically unproblematic to believe that all species on earth were a product of evolution and shared common ancestry, they draw the line at the human species which was miraculously created with Adam AS to whom all humans today trace back their lineage. The image below provides a clearer conceptual image of how Adam is disconnected fromtheevolutionarytree(Malik,2021,p.131).

exceptionalist idea of evolution (Malik, 2021, p.131)

There is, however, another viewpoint which utilizes the Sunni theological framework (mainly the Ashari framework) and a theological-epistemic tool known as tawaqquf (usually defined as theological suspension of opinion) to go a step further in accepting human evolution asatheorythatdoesnotcontradictscripture.Howisthis?

The Muslim theologian and philosopher David Solomon Jalajel, as well as Shoaib Ahmed Malik himself both deduce that in relation to Adam and his creation, according to Sunni methods of interpretation of scripture, only three main facts must be affirmed by the Sunni Muslim in order to remain sincere to the Ashari school of thought’s methods and findings. That is, that all humans today are descendants of Adam; that Adam had no parents; and that Adam was created from dust. Interestingly, contrary to popular belief, there is no requirement to believe that Adam was the first human or that the human species itself began with Adam. Taking this fact into consideration, proponents of the Adamic exceptionalistviewarguethatthefullevolutionaryprocess can be accepted, including that humans evolved from a commonancestor.Theonlymiraculouscreation(andone of the only facts which the Quran requires one to believe) is that of Adam being created directly by God as an individual - perhaps in a manner similar to the virgin birth of Jesus which the Quran alludes to in 3:59. Since the Quranissilentonwhethertherewereanyhumansbefore the creation of Adam, it is perfectly valid for one to exercise tawaqquf and suspend opinion on this topic, at least as far as the theology is concerned. That, of course, also gives room for the Sunni Muslim to accept the evidence for evolution as it includes human evolution in a manner that does not contradict clear scriptural description.

Figure 2: a visual representation of the human

Again,theimagebelowprovidesavisualrepresentationof the possible places where Adam might have been miraculously created. There exists also a parsimonious advantage for the Adamic exceptionalist framework which istheavoidanceofhavingtopositanadditionalmiracleby God to avoid a ‘genetic bottleneck’ issue, and thus perhaps the need to posit another divide miracle which requiresthesuspensionoralterationofgeneticlawsaswe understandthemtoday.

Overall, the three aforementioned schools fit well into the hermeneutics and interpretive system for most Sunni Muslims around the world. It is hoped that works such as Malik’s which systematically investigate issues regarding science and religion will continue to trickle down from the ivorytowersofacademiaandintothemainstreamthought of religious communities, as well as atheistic camps that seek to disprove religion. Whether such a popularisation projectwilloccurandhowlongitwilltakeisaquestionthat requires an essay in itself. For now however, it is a bonus to the religious intelligentsia as well as the common man, that there exists answers to evolution and its supposed conflictwithreligionthatdoesn'tnecessitateonetodismiss serious scientific evidence as well as stretch interpretation ofscripturetounreasonabledepths.

References

Barnes, M.E., Roberts, J.A., Maas, S.A., & Brownell, S.E., 2021. Muslim undergraduate biology students’ evolution acceptance in the United States. PLoS ONE, 16(8), p.e0255588. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255588

Malik, S.A., 2021. Islam and evolution: Al-Ghazālī and the modern evolutionary paradigm. 1st ed. Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429345753

Al-Būṭī, Muhammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān. 2017. The Greatest Universal Sureties: The Creator’s Existence and The Creature’s Function. trans. by Nicholas Walter Mogiliansky Lock. Damascus: Dār al-Fikr

Mabud, Shaikh Abdul. 1991. Theory of Evolution: Assessment from the Islamic Point of View. Cambridge: Islamic Academy.

Figure 3: a visual representation of the Adamic exceptionalist idea of evolution (Malik, 2021, p.136)

By Mehrab Khan

The hiss of the crickets and the lack of fear in my body somehow occupy the entire dimly lit street. Ten and twenty rupee notes stay crumpled up in our hands and pockets as we wonder whether we should spend them all on junk food. Relief fills our hearts at each other's agreement, and  we celebrate the decision by running down the slope reserved only for motorcycles. Our shoe straps are now hurting our feet as we enter the shop— the most appealing place at this hour. Embarrassment grows on our cheeks. We hope that uncle has forgotten about the dozen other times we emptied his racks today. We spend the next 10 minutes picking out the candies we desire, never sure of how many exactly we want when asked the question. We absorb the warmth of the tiny, brick-walled and colour-adorned shop while uncle places everything in a bag and hands it to us. We leave, planning what we shall get tomorrow and the days after. We strategise how to hide our poor spending habits among the crowd that wewillface.The shopperdangleslowandbehindus,aswe greet guests and run past people we don’t recognise. Exiting from the chaos outside, to the very same chaos that occupies the inside of the house. We look for the parents and ask them aboutthewhereaboutsoftheirkids,wantingtogivethemtheir share of the snacks that cannot wait to be opened any longer. We rejoice with the rest of the kids and interrupt their hourly eidi count, justifying our lack of funds with the manifested bag of chips that dangles in our small hands. Wondering where some of my favourite people are, contemplating annoying my eldest cousins until they succumb to responsibility, but understanding their desire to spend time with cousins that are not half their age. I forget that everyone will grow up. I feel like I’ll be a kid forever. try to hide from our parents, avoiding the inevitablewalktothecar,andthenthecarridebackhome.

OPENING HOURS

by Anum Ismat Faisal

I cannot help but think that such a past will live on forever. I think about nothing but the open shutter of the dukan and the light, calming the air of the neighbourhood. In my mind, the air feels the same on the way home. The kebabs during the barbecue taste the same. The urge to meet family you’ve never seen before is similarly stagnant. Once again, Iforget:everythinggrows.Likeuncleand his shop, flourishing, seeping into the life of the village, until inevitably disappearing. I hadn’t realised that the pastisnotforever.

The memory dissolves and disappears in the clouds as I stare out the car window. Somewhere in the back of my mind, the decision of going back slowly solidifies. I try to pick out all my regretsandmistakesoveralltheseyears here. I wish to hold them up to the sun until they turn to ash. I’d roll down the window and throw them out, while my car propels away from this place. Making myself believe that there is freedom in escaping. At the same time, fear brews in the pits of my stomach, as if this decision is a taboo one and acting on it would mean that I've failed. What would I do then? When people who succeeded with their immigrant dream make a monument out of me. The tour guide points to his left, leading the others away fromme. Now,thousandsofmilesaway

At the same time, fear brews in the pits of my stomach, as if this decision is a taboo one and acting on it would mean that I've failed. What would I do then? When people who succeeded with their immigrantdreammakeamonumentoutofme.The tour guide points to his left, leading the others away fromme.

Steppingcarefullysoastonot lose my footing on the salt water-stained rocks, I try to make it to the edge. The sand disappears from beneath the rocks and gets replaced by the sea. I sit on the big boulder with my legs tucked under me, and stare out at the horizon. Everything looks dull. The storm clouds take over the blue canopy, turning it grey. The sea reflects back the same melancholy to the sky. The cold wind is trying to make it all worse. I brace for the final puzzle piece to click in, for my brain to finally close this chapter and start counting the days until I can go back home. But as I sit here, expecting for my resolve to finally leave me, a sense of belonging overcomes me. Surprisingly, the whole of me doesn't desire to leave this wind or all this grey. I think of my future, hoping for it to be me, oceans away. But much to my dismay, it’s me, sitting on this very same rock, it murmuring I remember you against my feet. Nothing shakes me morethanthisfeeling-fear,likeneverbefore.

S L O W L Y,

as I sit atop this rock, I realise that life will not become easier for me anytime soon. And with my whole heart, I try to prevent acceptance from manifestingwithinme.Irealisethatmaybemylifeis independent, not tied to the changes of my family’s life after all. I contemplate the possibility that what I miss

the most in the world, is maybe not where I belong. I feel tired, but realise that I'm not ready to sit down yet. The dream of escaping filled me with ease. It brought colour back to my face. I was ready to leave all my struggles behind, but that's not much of a life now is it? Without hardship?

The shop will open again. More Eids will come. Perhaps someone else will come to continue manufacturing uncle’s warmth. More kids will run to the sounds of the shutters opening and disappointed sighs will echo when some realise that they've come too late, past the opening hours. Things will be different. Everything will stay until, one day, it won’t. And as I let the desire for the past go, burns from its friction adorn my hands, from where the past used to be. But this too, will heal.

Even though self doubt streams through my blood, it is accompanied by motivation. I stare out at the sea and nothing else motivates me more than these foreign waves. It hurts to know that it's this path I shall take, but as I get up and walk back to the sand I know I should allow for change to happen. I must stay, so that I may grow. I may

‘Figs’

Oil paint on canvas paper, 2024

By Huda Mousawi Instagram: @hudartisto

This painting was completed as part of the subject ‘Painting Techniques’ at the University of Melbourne. It is from a transient unfinished state, depicting the looseness of paint in an alla prima approach.

This is a still life painting of figs on a cream cloth. By utilising the alla prima painting technique, the entire piece was completed in one sitting. Since oil paint is a slow-drying medium, the surface was wet throughout the painting process, creating a fluid effect. This makes it harder to layer paint and create depth, as opposed to fast-drying paint. Hence, the directionality of the brush strokes are essential for the depiction of textures and form.

by Abeer Khan

by Maher Shah

The The Makkah Makkah and and Madinah Madinah

Edit Edit

by Ameer Alameh

by Maryam Tahir

artwork by Leyaan Kapisiz

by Humza Ghouse

by

by Zahraa Albatat

Zahraa Albatat

by Badis Sai

OPENING ACT, A CALL TO PRAYER

As the plain and sterile walls spectated The bloodied nurse and machinery operated On my mother as she was painfully elated As I was struck onto the stage, Set up with blinding lights And frightening sights. I was put here to fulfil my fate

COSY HOME

I wake up; 8:32

I immediately pounce at this opportunity

GO and turn on the TV

AFTER dealing with the morning chores

My nose is greeted by warm semolina bread

I follow Yemma to the backyard, guided to the table beside the lemon tree

All ready to eat with my family

1445 YEARS AGO

All this time and you are still here, The words He sent down the message you spread

It speaks to us in right to left, If only you can come and show us, Right from where you left off.

Ya Rasoolullah, We don’t have the face to admit your ummah’s sorrowful mistakes Would you recognise us anymore?

I yearn to see your face, Looking at the path towards you Am I worthy?

IN THE MOSQUE

I put on your “dress” and rush to the mosque, And walk in awe of the minarets I leave my new shoes on the rack, Reassured that they won’t be taken

After washing, I join the row and begin

The heart beats with the flow of each rak’a

My soul, fed with every word

We converse through recitation

A humble drop in the ocean, moving through the current

But Allah knows that I am the sea, Vast and thrashing

Moving against the grain.

STUCK IN CLASS

My soul drifts into class, but my mind is elsewhere I shush my phone, to listen attentively And remembered that I don’t need to say a word I can just observe what’s going on around Me

A passive participant, Anactivelistener

FAMILY GATHERING

My slumber is abruptly interrupted, I thought “What’s going on today?” Yemma ushers; “Quick the gathering” We shouldn’t be late!

A steamy shower and a fresh change

Run down the stairs for some coffee, Kindly ask dad for some change And rush to the car to make it in a hurry!

As soon as we arrive, I noticed the atmosphere

An ocean of hugs and kisses

A stranger in the face of familiarity

A close friend amidst loneliness

CLOSING ACT, A FINAL PRAYER

In the warm house of God, lays the cold body

In a house of bright lights, there must be shadows

We congregate to fulfil his final rights

We congregate to fulfil his final rites

We pray together for this poor soul in the next world

We dig the grave together for the body in white sheets

The corpse sinks to the ground, covered in soil

The soul returns to its Lord, to meet judgement

photographs provided by Badis Sai

IN THE IN-BETWEEN

by Fathimath Iaadha Shareef

I packed my life into a single suitcase

A piece of home stitched into every thread

Boarded a plane with trembling hands

To a land where no one knew my name

A girl from the islands, wide-eyed and lost

Crossing oceans to chase dreams

That whispered a future but sounded strange

In this new city, the streets hum unfamiliar

The faces blur—so foreign, fleeting in their glance

I walk past them as if rehearsing a role

An extra in a script I’ve skimmed over

The call to prayer fades behind tall buildings

A sound I ache to hear, now swallowed by the wen

On Eid, after the prayer, I drift in a lecture hall

Yearning for my best friends to adorn my hands with henna

As Friday afternoons slip by, void of family warmth

Longing for the joy of Biriyani shared after Jummah

Alone at my desk, the clock ticks slowly

The ache of Iftar lingers, heavy in my heart

the loneliest I have ever been

I wrap my hijab tighter

Wearing my faith like armour

In spaces that sometimes fear what they don’t understand

Every day I call my mother

Just to hear her voice, soft and full of love

The language of home unspools in my ears

But the guilt grips tight—how can I laugh where her warmth doesn’t reach

How can I cherish this fragile dawn

When it costs leaving them behind?

To find sweetness in this new life feels wrong

To sip coffee in cafés without their company

To grow into someone they barely know

But there are moments—

When the sunlight catches my face

And I feel the girl I was, melting away

In her place, a woman

Taller than the girl who left

One half shaped by loneliness

The other, by newfound maturity

I learn to cook meals that remind me of home

But the taste is never quite the same

Every flavour feels like a memory

A reminder that I am suspended between two worlds

Through it all, I find comfort in my faith

In the quiet of my room

I bow my head, and the world slows down

It is Al-Wakeel that keeps me tethered

The prayers that echo in my heart

Even when the call doesn’t reach my ears

In every bead of the tasbih, I find home

In every sujood, a moment of peace

It’s my faith that connects me to my roots

When the world around me feels so far from who I am

And yet, I am scared that the house and the street

Won’t smell the same when I return

That I will feel like a guest in my own childhood

The walls may remember me

But I have outgrown them

As they have outgrown me

And yet here in this new city

I am no more than a visitor

Wandering through a place

That will never fully be mine

So I live in the in-between

In this liminal space where home is both everywhere and nowhere

And though it aches

Though the homesickness never quite fades

I learn that I can carry both within me

A heart that belongs to two places

Yet fits in neither

While The full moon floats, A mu’mins prayer is heard Ya Rab, here I am

&

illustration

poem by Kaseer Shikrani

Arab Spring

by Abdur-Rahman Butler

Infinite navy extends beyond the sand dune shore

A crisp breeze from the west leads the palm trees

To stumble, mumbling bees pollinate leaves tumble

And easy bask sweats stress away in the shiny

Tomorrow dawning, balmy mountains booming

Twirling rivers selling boats at the souk bazaar

Hurling rugs and spices on camel-back caravan

Stretching far, oscillating olive trees mimic the Vibrating springing please of the oud guitar,

And midnight sand dunes reflect constellations

From some desert star dripping luminosity

Into falcon eyes guarding ancient cities hidden

Behind the cloaking mystery of relentless emptiness

Contradicts the rich history of civilisation perpetuity

Art by Amira Yusuf

by Asel Kondi

In the stillness of dawn, I find signs of You woven in the wind, like the ancient olive trees whose roots draw strength from unseen depths. You are the truth that etches my name on the earth, the pulse that hums within all creation.

I am a traveler in the vastness of Your design, where every grain of sand speaks of Your presence, And any mirage of doubt dissolves in Your light. How can I not seek You, when my heart is drawn like a reed in the river, guided by the flow of Your wisdom?

I have known both the sting of exile and the joy of return, for You are the peace I carry within, the direction that leads to the unseen horizon, where the stars align in silent prayer. And I, a poet without a homeland, find my place in Your vastness.

You are the stillness between my thoughts, the quiet where love is nurtured, waiting to bloom like a rose in the garden of Your mercy.

And when the night falls, I lift my gaze to the heavens, knowing, even in the darkness, You are the unseen light that leads me to the dawn of Your endless grace.

by Amira Marwan

by Safreen Khan

Balance

I keep losing my balance, I sway and I fall, In a world where I yearn to leave legacy's call. Why is it so hard to draw close to Your light, When I know You're with me, in the day and the night? One moment, I feel Your presence in the cracks of my skin, In the whispers of winds, in the air I breathe in. Yet I search for You still, though You're nearer than sight, Closer than my jugular, yet I wander through the night.

"

I turn to Your verses, for healing I plead. From the depths of my soul, Your wisdom I learn,

يداذإو"

So I lift my hands high, "Ya Rabb, let me see!" "Do not leave me to myself, not even one blink," For without You, I falter, I break, and I sink. The ground where I stand, without You, is weak, No soul can hold me, no shelter I seek. Every rib that I lean on proves fragile, unsure, But You are Al-Baqi, Your love will endure.

Without You, all balance is lost, and remains. So I strive, and I toil, though my feet often slip, In this state of imbalance, I tighten my grip. 'Til the day that I meet You, in peace, face to face,

I return to Your grace

photography by Safreen Khan

THE WEAPONIZATION OF MEDIA: LOOKING AT REPORTING OF THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA

by Hanane Seid

During times of conflict and war, media and communication networks can become powerful tools weaponized to serve political, military and ideological agendas. Rather than functioning to provide information, they are also employed to shape public opinion, justify military agendas and control narratives on local and international scales. History has repeatedly demonstrated how the media can be weaponised to justify military agendas, from the propaganda implemented in the World Wars to the narratives justifying and covering up the genocide in Gaza. This framing continues to legitimise violence and human rights violations. Taking a deeper look into the weaponization of media in the reportingofGaza,therearetwocriticalwaysit generally plays out: the distortion of traditional media narratives, and strategic manipulation ofsocialmediaplatforms.

Traditional media’s (news article, television, radio) reporting on Gaza has often been distorted through selective framing, that is, focusing on certain aspects of the conflict while downplaying or omitting others. This narrative skewing, especially in Western media, often presents Israeli military actions as self-defence while minimising or obscuring therealitiesofPalestiniansuffering,effectively justifying violence and perpetuating asymmetrical power dynamics. Simultaneously, social media has emerged as a powerful space of its own, where narratives are either amplified or silenced through censorship,mediablackoutsandpropaganda. Mediacensorship inparticularlimitsthereach of Palestinian voices, while propaganda is used to demoralise populations and sway global opinion in favour of Israel's illegal militaryoperations.

MEDIA IMPERIALISM & ORIENTALIST FRAMEWORKS

Media imperialism underpins traditional and social media systems, and follows the path of Orientalist viewpointsandtheotheringofPalestinians.Powerful nations and corporations shape our media landscape and push ideological and political narratives that align with their geopolitical interests. This structure reinforces the power dynamics that selectively amplify some voices, while silencing others.

Westernmedia’sreportingof Palestineisareinforcementof these imperialist structures, but it is also rooted in an Orientalist framework. This framework developed by Palestinian philosopher Edward Said, identifies the racistperspectivethatdepicts the Global South and particularlytheArabWorldas ‘inferior’ and ‘uncivilised’ within Western media. This frameworkplaysacrucialrole in shaping global media narratives,reinforcingharmful stereotypesandobscuringthe realities of Palestinian life underoccupation.

Core to the Orientalist and imperialist frameworks is that the West is always justified in offering “improvements” to outsiders and in doing so through colonial and even genocidal means. This has translatedintoWesternmedia’sreportingofPalestinewhichjustifiesIsrael'swarcrimesinGaza.This isfosteredbyamplifyingOrientalistpropagandafromtheStateofIsrael,usingterminologyreferringto Gazan civilians as “human shields”, “collateral damage” and “human animals”, which ultimately dehumanises Palestinian lives and justifies the genocidal actions of the Israeli regime. Furthermore, the portrayal of Israel as a ‘beacon of democracy and progress in a hostile region populated by barbarians’,isalsoanideologyrootedinWesternOrientalismandonethatframesIsraelasacivilised force within a supposedly “regressive” Middle East, reinforcing the false dichotomy between a “civilised”Westandan“uncivilised”Arabworld.Byadoptingthisperspective,Westernmedianotonly legitimises Israel’s violent actions but also marginalises Palestinian experiences and aspirations, presentingtheirresistanceasirrationalorinherentlyviolent.

BIASESINAUSTRALIANMEDIA

Traditional media’s reporting on the genocide in Gaza also adopts selective framing that dehumanises Palestinian lives, supported by Orientalist and imperialist attitudes embedded within Western media structures. A closer look at the Australian media sector alone reveals significantbiasesanddehumanisingcoveragefrom six mainstream organisations, in a report from the Islamophobia Register Australia written by Dr SusanCarland.

“Five of the six outlets studied (The Australian, ABC News, 9 News, The Daily Telegraph, and News.com.au) demonstrated an imbalance against Palestinians in their reporting, in at least one of the three categories that were studied”. For instance, in the reporting of an Australian family trapped in Gaza, ABC News used middle voice tone and stated bombs "fell," a phrasing that implies spontaneity, rather than acknowledging them as targeted attacks. This subtle linguistic choice distances the action from the perpetrator, contributing to the erasure of accountability from Israel on their war crimes inflicting devastating loss oflifeinGaza.

LANGUAGEASAMMUNITION

Across the Western media landscape, language is strategically used to minimise the severity of Israeli actions. Passive language like “found killed in clashes” has been employed, casting doubt and ambiguityovertheresponsibilityfortheatrocitiesin Gaza (Jackson, 2024). This extends to the devaluation of Palestinian deaths by referring to the Palestinian Ministry of Health as the "Hamas HealthMinistry"whencitingdeathtolls,framingthe

figuresasunreliableandinturnminimisingthe lossofPalestinianlives(Osman,2023).

"Language is the most powerfultooloutsideofthe battlefield,andtheWestern media knows this and is using it well to the advantage of Israel," said Abdulkader Assad, a USbased linguist and journalist. (Osman,2023).

By shaping narratives and framing events through a biased lens, the media plays a crucial role in perpetuating the ongoing occupation against Palestinians and moulding public perception to sustain oppressive power dynamics.

CITIZEN JOURNALISM IN GAZA, AND ITS CENSORSHIP

Citizen journalism in Gaza has given first hand insights into the scale of the massacres and humanitarian crises, through powerful images, personal testimonies and real time updates. However, this potential for transparency is frequently undermined by mass censorship and algorithmic manipulation, which restrict the visibilityofPalestinianvoices.

For instance, on platforms like Instagram, users posting about Palestine have faced shadowbanning, limiting their content's reach and visibility. TikTok removed over 925,000 videos related to the Middle East between the 7th and 23rd of October (TikTok, 2023).ThissilencingofPalestinianvoicesisnotanew phenomenon. In 2021, Human Rights Watch found Facebook responsible for censoring individuals protesting Israeli authorities occupying Palestinian homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in the West Bank (Human Rights Watch, 2023). They noted thatthiscensorshipwas:

“silencing many people arbitrarily and without explanation, replicating online some of the same power imbalancesandrightsabuses thatweseeontheground.”

(HumanRightsWatch,2023)

PLATFORMIMPERIALISM

The concept of ‘platform imperialism’ proposed by Jin (2020) extends the notion of media imperialism by focusing on the roles that digital platforms like Facebook and search engines like Google play in the media sphere. Jin argues that these multinational platforms out of the US do not merely function as distributors of information, they actively produce and perpetuate imperialistic narratives. The consequences of this are evident in various global contexts. For instance, Meta is being sued for billions due to its role in enabling the spread of propaganda that contributed to atrocities and human rights violations against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and the Tigray people in Ethiopia (Amnesty International, 2023). Similarly, in Gaza,socialmediaalgorithmsandcontentmoderation policies amplify dangerous and dehumanising propaganda from Israel and its allies justifying the genocide in Gaza, all while silencing Palestinian voices. An evident example is Meta’s automated tools for detecting terrorist content, which incorrectly deleted non-violent Arabic posts 77 percent of the time, reflecting the harmful biases embedded within theseplatformalgorithms.Thesemechanisms

demonstrate how social media platforms, originally designed to amplify diverse voices, have instead become spaces that contribute to ongoing atrocities across the globe. Far from being neutral spaces for freeexpression,theyserveasinstruments that shape and manipulate public perception, often at the expense of marginalisedgroups.

The role of media in genocideisnotpassive; itactivelyshapespublic perception, dehumanizes victims, and enables continued violence.

These systems are rooted in biased power structures and imperialist frameworks which have evolved into the digital sphere. Recognising the biases embedded in all media forms is essential, as is holding media corporations accountable for unbalanced reporting and algorithmic censorship. As seen in the Islamophobia Register’s findings, even within the Australian context, skewed and biased reporting on Gaza is prevalent and has devastating consequences. Amplifying marginalised voices is crucial for spreading truth and challenging censorship.Onlythroughtheseeffortscan we aim to challenge imperialist media structures which continue to be a tool of oppression, and instead hope to foster spacesoftruthandaccountability.

In memory of Hind Rajab, a five yearoldPalestiniangirlwhowas killed by Israeli forces. Hind was travelling in a car with her four cousins, aunt, and uncle on the 29th of January, 2024, when an Israeli tank fired on their vehicle. Hind survived the initial attack, and called for help while on the phone with paramedics, surrounded by the dead bodies of her family members. Two paramedics, Yousef Zeino and Ahmad al-Madhoun were killed by the Israeli military on their way to her rescue. Hind’s body was found two weeks later, on the10thofFebruary.

Glorytothemartyrs.

by Kareem Zaghlool

10 MILLION DISPLACED: DISCUSSING SUDAN’SHUMANITARIANCRISIS

Interviewer: Maham Mannan

Interviewees: Farah Elmalik and Mobeen Mougadam

I sat down with Farah Elmalik, and Mobeen Mougadam from Sawt al Sudan to discuss the crisis in Sudan. Sawt Al Sudan is a collective of Sudanese diaspora in Melbourne advocating for a free Sudan through fundraising, awareness and actions. You can follow their powerful advocacy efforts on Instagram: @sawtalsudan.au.

Where are each of you from?

FE: My family is from Sudan, my dad is from Atbara and my mumisfromShendi.

MM: We’re from Sudan as well. My mum’s from El Obeid andmydad’sfromKadugli.

Can you tell me what’s been happening in Sudan?

FE: It’s currently passed 500 days since the war started in Sudan on the 15th of April 2023 between the RSF and the SAF in a battle for power. It has resulted in around 10 million being displaced, 25 million people in famine, and an estimated 150, 000 people killed. It is one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, and majority of Sudanese people have been extremely affected by it – either knowing someone who has passed away or have fled the war themselves.

Who are the RSF and SAF?

FE: The RSF is paramilitary force, and the SAF* is the Sudanese army. What’s going on is a counterrevolutionary war,sotheywanttotakepowerfromthecivilians.

MM: Before them there was a dictator, Omar El-Bashir who was there for about 30 years. Both of the leaders for the RSF and SAF were working under him and then agreed to get him out of power. They performed a coup, and got him out of power.

FE: During this time there was a 2-year military transition people until the civilian led government came in place. By the time that came around, the RSF and SAF were growing in powerandbothwantedpoweroverthecountry.

I feel like there is a lack of awareness and coverage of Sudan’s crisis. Why do you think this is?

MM: Discrimination in the media. So, you don’t get much representation of African news in general. Also the crazy outbreak of the war has only started last year in April. The tussle for power has been going on for a few years. But even now there’s minimal coverage compared to other wars, but thatagain comesbacktodiscriminationinthemedia.

FE: I think it’s also important to state that this is a humanitarian crisis, there are people currently fleeing their homes with nowhere to go. There have even been reports of peoplereturningbacktoSudanbecauseofdiscriminationin

neighbouring countries when they fled as refugees. So as much as you know there are reasons behind it, the fact that it isahumanitariancrisismeansthatitdemandsattention.

MM: And just the scale of the issue to get some perspective. There’sbeen10millionpeopledisplaced–

FE:That’slikeMelbournetimestwo.

MM: With nowhere to go, no food, no access to consistent electricity.

On an individual scale, how is this impacting people in Sudan?

FE: Islamic Relief as well. There’s also lot of grassroots organisations because the war is more concentrated in some areas than others, and there’s always a constant move of people. If I talk about just personally, my family was displaced four times. Some areas are sometimes better than others, and they have to constantly move. Which adds to the constant struggle, because you think you’re safe and settled andthenwarspreadsandyouhavetorelocateagain.

Through what avenues is aid able to reach Sudan?

MM: There’s a lot of different channels which aid reaches Sudan, whether you give directly to family members or through organisations on the ground, like UNICEF or KhartoumAidKitchen.

FE: Islamic Relief as well. There’s also lot of grassroots organisations because the war is more concentrated in some areas than others, and there’s always a constant move of people. If I talk about just personally, my family moved from Khartoum to Atbara then from Atbara to Halfa and then they went to Aswan. Some areas are sometimes better than others, and they have to constantly move. Which adds to the constant struggle, because you think you’re safe and settled andthenwarspreadsandyouhavetorelocateagain.

When’s the last time each of you visited Sudan, and do you see yourself returning soon?

MM: Mines been a while actually, I went back at the end of 2017. My mum said we’re going on holiday – we went to my grandma’s house for 3 months [all laugh]. My mum’s 11 siblings, are all back in Sudan. Even my dad’s side is all in Sudan. I went before the war broke out, it was an amazing trip.

FE: SubhanAllah the last time I left there was December 2023, four months before the war, and I was in Khartoum, which is where the war broke out initially. There was a little unrest but most of it was quite peaceful, it was like the Sudan I had been to every year before. There was one instance when there were protests, so you could kind of feel that things were becoming uneasy. But I never would have imagined in 4 months that I wouldn’t have been able to go back,thatmyfamilywouldhavebeendisplaced.

Are you unable to go back because it’s unsafe or are there no flights going in?

MM:Ithinkthere’snointernationalflightscurrently.

FE: It’s too much of a risk, people only go back for necessity – if they tried to settle in a different country and I guess they haven’t really found their place, or life has been tougher. Which kind of shows you the discrimination towards Sudanese people, with people finding it easier to return to a countryatwarthantostayinthatcountry.

Are external nations or powers somehow involved in this?

FE: There definitely are, I like to refer to the situation in Sudan as a regional proxy war, because it's much bigger than the two main parties. All these regional powers picking different sides for their own interests. Speaking about the UAE specifically, there’s been evidence of aid trucks being sent into Sudan to the RSF with weapons. What the UAE is doing, is backing the RSF and making them wealthy and in power, and in turn they get access to Sudan’s resources like itsgoldcontinuouslydestabilisesSudan.

So Sudan has resources, and they want their resources.

FE: Sudan has a lot of resources, like gold and oil and it’s being exploited by these regional powers who are picking eithertheRSForSAFfortheirowninterests.

MM: that’s why there’s a lot of boycotting going on towards UAE, but it’s not just the UAE. Other countries have invested inthewarfortheirownmonetarybenefits.

FE: In a way, Sudan being destabilised has a benefit to all these nations. That’s why it’s so important to amplify Sudanese voices, amplify their efforts, amplify what they’re trying to do for their country because of how neglected they’vebeeninthatsphere.

Does anyone see a way out of this? What’s the solution?

FE:Dua’a

MM:Fornow,realisticallyisforthewartostop

FE: The people don’t want the war to continue. It’s not the people against the government – the people are not supporting the death of their own people. The way I see this stopping is for regional powers to stop taking interest in Sudan’s resources, and for immediate de-escalation and a ceasefire.

Us sitting here, what’s the best thing that we can do, and what would you say to Muslims around the world right now about the importance of mobilisation, especially for causes that are unnoticed?

FE: It’s importance to recognise that as Muslims we are commanded to stand up for justice. If we try our best to make people, who are significantly affected by this conflict, know that their pain is heard and felt and seen, you’re breaking down barriers that are stopping us from embracing the unity wehaveasMuslims.

MM: What Farah said. We have all these blessings Alhamdulillah but sometimes you don’t realise what’s happening in the world, you get stuck in your bubble. You’re only judged on what you’re capable of doing, and your intentions, so any small thing you can do, whether it’s educating yourself, reading an article, or sharing a story, take advantageofit.

F: Also realising your importance in this matter, like in our Deen when one part of our body hurts, the entire body hurts. Understanding that your existence as an individual is so crucial to ensuring that the entire body can function. Part of our body is hurting all around the world, and it’s our duty to makesurethesepeoplewhoaresufferingfeelsupported.

A lot of people likely found out about Sudan’s crisis from social media. Some may criticise online activism, calling it performative, saying it doesn’t do or change much. Especially since you both are from Sawt Al Sudan, what are your thoughts on power of activism & advocacy online?

MM: That’s one of the reasons we started Sawt Al Sudan in the first place, there’s not many organisations in Australia which spread awareness about Sudan. About whether people think online activism is performative, we know that as long as we have the right intentions, everything makes a difference.

FE: We identified a gap we saw between the Sudanese community actions and other activism spaces, and there wasn’t a space for Sudan, so we decided to fill it. In the context of people thinking online activism doesn’t help – if you think that only making big change is good change then you’ll never make any change at all. With one post, if you are able to make someone see a child who is suffering, know their name and make dua’a for them, then you have succeeded.

Donations are vital too, what are some places we can donate to? You mentioned some previously.

MM:There’slinksonourpage,KhartoumAidKitchenisone.

FE: Our Islamic Society is also working on a Sudanese campaign (follow @project.blackseed) where you can donate through our Launchgood community that will feature various differentcharitiesinsha’Allah.

MM: SAPA (Sudanese American Physicians Association) too.

FE: Yeah SAPA, they’re extremely good and working on the ground.Verywellrecognised.

FE: One of the most important things is that awareness can go a long way. The conflict that is going in Sudan is a regional proxy war, and majority of these regional powers are Muslim. The Sudanese people in a sense have been neglected by the Muslim community. So, ensuring that that is turned around, you are doing a huge service to Sudanese people.

Some final questions. What’s your favourite memory of Sudan? And if you went back, what’s something that you would do, where would you go?

FE: Everyone’s houses are connected. When you have family that grows up and gets married, they don’t move out, they just extend the house. When you go into these houses it feels like a maze, it’s a whole neighbourhood. You feel so connected to the people and it’s so refreshing because it’s like, this is not even just my home, it’s my grandma’s home, my grandma’s grandma’s home and so on. And having that lost,islike…

MM: Yeah you’ll have a courtyard, and in between the housesisabigfield,andyou’llhaveyourentirefamilythere.

FE: There’s so much trust because everyone knew each other. But memory, my favourite is when my Haboba – Allah Yerhama, she got molokhiya leaves and she was teaching me how to make molokhiya. She also taught me how to weave baskets, and it was one of the most heart touching, beautiful memories I can remember. It felt like my Haboba was passing on a tradition to me. And even though she’s no longer alive, I’m still able to hold onto that and pass it onto others,soitfeelslikeapartofherisstillhere.

MM: For me it was when Jido, my grandpa, we went to the market back in 2009. We had a donkey and a trailer behind it, he put me and my brother on it and there was a bump coming up and my Jido fell off and we kept on going [laughs]. The donkey ran away from him and he had to chase us down[alllaughing].

It’s always the simplest things you cherish the most

FE: It really is, even just waking up in the morning and hearing the adhaan. And the comfort of knowing that, these areyourpeople.

If you wanted to send a message back home, what would you say?

[silence]

FE:liketothepeople?

Yeah

FE: I don’t know, I cant. There’s nothing that you can say like, Ifailedyou.

MM: Allah ma'akum – God is with you. But I need to stay connected more with them. We call sometimes but I’m not as connected with my cousins so that’s probably something I needtodomore.

FE: im speechless you know, there’s no words you can give to people that are undergoing something that none of us wouldbeabletocomprehend.

photographs from Farah’s last trip to Sudan

launching PROJECT BLACKSEED

aunitedummahforanelevatednarrative

Aisha has narrated to me that she heard the Prophet ﷺ saying, 'This black seed is healing for all diseases except As-Sam.' Aisha said, 'What is As-Sam?' He said, 'Death.’

Onceayear,weunitetoraiseawarenessandraise fundsforkeyissuesimpactingourummah,driving meaningfulchangethroughcollectiveaction.

CAMPAIGN2024:RAISE $1MILLIONFORSUDAN

DONATETOSUDAN

Leave Yourself No Leave Yourself No

Excuse Excuse

by Muhammad Munshi illustration by Hafsah Sajid

It can be easy to find ourselves getting swept up in the tides of our busy lives. Waves of studies wash over us at university. The torrents of a 9-5 leave us drained each day. We’d like to contribute more to our Akhirah, but at times may fall short in making the progress we wish to see. We may find this frustrating, or even feel a little helpless, stranded at sea. Will we be able to do enough? Shaytan relentlessly circles us, he’d love nothing more than for us to become stagnant, and drift aimlessly. To give up and sink into the dark depths below, never feeling good enough.

How can we, in our ever-limited time, make sure we’re on track? Perhaps we worry too much about the distance we need to cover to reach the shores of our goals. What if we instead looked at all the small, but consistent contributions we can make? Make our way forward one stroke at a time, and eventually look back at the distance we’ve covered.

Looking at the wisdom we can find in the Hadith, we can learn that the best and most beloved deeds to Allah are those that are consistent, even if small. The efforts we make towards Allah, in whatever capacity we have, will be reciprocated with multitudes of reward and forgiveness. We just need to take that step towards him.

In light of this, what are some small things we can easily start doing to launch ourselves forward onto the path before us and work towards and build momentum?

A simple but effective one is something most of us already aim for in some fashion. Building a relationship with the Quran. The words of Allah contain guidance for all the needs we have and the troubles we may face. It isn’t uncommon for one to be reading along, only to find that the verses they are reading are relevant to what is going on in their lives. It is only fitting that we make the effort to read it as regularly as we can.

No matter what challenges you face in building this habit, find a way to read just a little. Find whatever time works for you, whether it’s just before you go to bed, on your commute, or after one of your daily prayers. If you feel tired at the end of a long day, read just one verse. Just one. You can build up the amount you read over time. Eventually, you can work towards reflecting more upon its meaning, and even make your way towards memorisation. Develop your own pace, but never let yourself be stagnant.

If you find yourself forgetting, make use of a simple reminder on your phone. Let there be no room for Shaytan to leave his whispers, nor your Nafs to overwhelm you. Leave yourself no excuse.

Another simple action is increasing Dhikr, the remembrance of Allah. Nourishment for the soul, Dhikr is one of many ways to deepen our connection with Allah, purify ourselves, seek His protection and forgiveness, and find tranquility in our lives. Allah tells us in the Quran, that “truly it is in the remembrance of God that hearts find peace” [13:28]. As with the Quran, it will help us remain grounded, and be conscious of Him consistently.

Once again, start small if required. We often have small windows of time throughout our day.

After our prayers, walking to your next lecture, waiting for the train. Our day is full of little moments, where even a few seconds can be used for words of remembrance. When you find yourself in such a moment, say them, even if just once. We haven’t anything to lose, and so much to gain.

There is an abundance of words or phrases to choose from, some of which you may already be saying on a daily basis. Pick one and say it whenever you get the chance, and work your way up from there to the best of your ability, adding variety as you go. Useful resources like the Fortress of the Muslim are easily accessible and great to make use of in this regard.

Along with this, you could also build up a habit of making more dua throughout your day. We’re encouraged to ask Allah, no matter how small our needs. You can never ask for too much from the One who owns the Heavens and the Earth. If anything, all these little actions accumulate and help build your connection with Allah more. Leave yourself no excuse.

Last but not least, is charity (where you can afford it, of course). Remember that Sadaqah is never a reduction in your wealth - Allah has promised us. Charity also purifies us and our wealth, opens doors to forgiveness, and brings blessings into our lives. If you remember Allah in times of ease, He will remember you in times of difficulty.

The amount you give does not have to be grand either. Give in an amount you can manage, even if a few dollars. If you’re unable to, that’s okay! At the very least, your intentions will be rewarded.

While you should have an idea of what you’d like to achieve or where you’d like to go, don’t get too hung up on the goal itself. Focus on the process. Sometimes we set ourselves lofty goals and get overwhelmed with what we’d like to achieve, feeling too small or incapable of doing so.

Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. Think about the contribution you need to make today, and set your efforts there. Leave yourself no excuse. In Sha’ Allah, when you look back months, or especially years from now you’ll see how far you’ve come.

It is important to note our daily obligations, like our 5 prayers, should be our top most priority. If such areas need work, make sure they are being consistently addressed as well, with the other smaller things complementing your efforts. They’re not mutually exclusive. If you slip up, pick yourself up and remind yourself why you started in the first place, and of where you’d like to be. Life is full of distractions, which can put us at risk of becoming heedless and vulnerable to Shaytan’s influence. Find what motivates you the most, and hang on to it.

The principle of what I’ve outlined applies to almost anything, like gaining Islamic knowledge, performing more acts of Sunnah, voluntary prayers, increasing in repentance, and so much more. Find the initial steps you can take and go from there.

There is always something to improve upon, something to increase in quantity, something more to learn, and even to pass on to someone else. This way it can go on to become a Sadaqah Jaariyah for you, one of the few ways for you to accumulate good deeds even after you’ve returned to your Rab.

No matter where you find yourself drifting in the ocean today, find something to hang on to and make your way forward. Slowly, but surely. Build yourself a raft, one stick at a time at a pace the currents allow. Eventually, build yourself a boat, allowing yourself more stability and momentum. Then build a ship, where others can embark. Just remember, leave yourself no excuse.

by Zainab Aboothahir

If you’ve been feeling like every one of your goals feels impossible to achieve, like success comes to youwithtwicetheamountofwork,ifyourambitions are sitting on this pedestal in your mind and like you'rejustnotcapableofachievinganyofthemright now, you’re probably experiencing symptoms of perfectionism.

Thosefeelingscometoyouwhenyou’refeeling really stuck, almost paralysed, by the idea of pursuing anything grand in your life. Whether it’s gettingintoyourdreampostgrad,puttingyourselfout there and trying to get more involved in the community, or trying to be a better Muslim and do moreworship.Whateverthegoalis,whenyouhave aperfectionisticapproachtoeverything,you’regoing to constantly like your goals are not going to come easy,thatyou’regoingtohavetobeontopofthings allthetimewithoutmessinguptheconsistency,and thatyoumustbemotivatedand‘inthemood’todo things.

Whenthiswhirlwindofemotionshappens,it’stoo much,soyoumightjustgotryanddistractyourself with something else until you feel ‘ready’ to come back and start the task – i.e., procrastination. See howyoucanprocrastinate,notbecauseyou’relazy, but because you have such an amazing and ambitiousmindthathassetthesehighstandardsfor yourself?Ifyoudofeellikethis,pleasestopbeating yourself up for not doing enough – that’s not the problem.

The problem is that you’re too afraid of not achieving your goals to the point that you expect yourselftobe‘ready’beforeyoustart,otherwiseyou fear you may be faced with the opposite: failure. Really,perfectionismisjustacopingmechanismto run away from failure. So, the problem here is your mindset.

Even if you want something so badly, even if you’ve worked so hard for it and you’ve prayed so muchforit,untilyoumakepeacewiththealternate outcomewhichisfailingtoachievethatgoal,you’re going to remain stuck in the same place and never evengiveitatry.

We human beings want control over everything, but We human beings want control over everything, but that’sreallythenafswayoffeedingthemselves that’sreallythenafswayoffeedingthemselves

Therealityisthateverythinginthisworldisaffectedby factorsoutsideofourcontrol,andsometimestheycan outplay your efforts. But that shouldn't stop you from giving it your best shot and to keep going no matter whatyouface.

When you plant a seed, you can water it, give it the right soil, make sure it’s getting enough sunlight and takegoodcareofit,butyou’renottheonethatmakes it grow. Allah does. You do what you must do, and Allahprovidestheoutcome.

Ifyoufeellikeoutcomesaredirectlycorrelatedtoyour efforts,thenyou’remistaken.Youcandoeverythingin alignment with what you want to achieve, but in the end,youmustletgo,detach,andnotobsessoverthe outcome.Moveontothenextthing.LetAllahtakecare of it. And if your plant doesn’t grow, then that's when you reflect and improve on your gardening for the future.

You’llrarelygetthingsrightthefirsttime.Thefirstdraft of your essay is not going to be the best. The first semesterofunimightnotbethebest.Sobeit.Allow yourself to not get things right the first time. Allow yourself to stumble and make mistakes. Stop putting somuchpressureonyourselftobesoperfectallthe timeandrememberthenatureinwhichAllahcreated you:ahumanbeingwhowillconstantlyerrandfallinto sin,butalsoonewhoidentifiestheirmistakesandcan come back even better and stronger. There will be daysyoudon’tfeellikeit,therewillbedaysyoudon’t produce your best work, there will be days you don’t feelready–it’sok,justgiveitagoanyway,because atleastitgivesyousomethingtoworkwithandbuild on.

When you stop fearing failure, you allow yourself to When you stop fearing failure, you allow yourself to try, and when you try as many times as you need to, try, and when you try as many times as you need to, that’s when you land on the one try that leads you to that’s when you land on the one try that leads you to success,InshaAllah. success,InshaAllah.

‘From your fingertips’ by Anum Pathan

Art by Osama Jamil

Keep the Heart of Truth Alive

by Dania El-Ghattis

We live in times where bombs pelt down more frequently than rain

Where no one seems to bat an eye when children cry in pain

Where news channels encourage hate and shroud the truth in lies

Where heartless genocides unfold before our very eyes

To those who claim it all began on 7.10 I’ll say Did you not hear of Israel’s apartheid till today?

Since ‘67 Palestine has been under occupation

But truthfully, it all began with the Balfour Declaration.

Over a hundred years ago, when Britain raised its hand And promised to gift Zionists a stolen Arab land

A land where all ethnicities and faiths had been united

Where Muslims, Jews, and Christians had for centuries resided

Yet no advancements have been made since ‘48 it seems And 2024 is simply echoing the screams

Of all the Palestinians bombed at bus stops and in markets

For Lehi and Irgun had chosen children as their targets

Alas, we should recall the mass exodus of December In 1947 when Haganah lost their temper

And ‘cleared’ the Arab cities and committed acts of terror

100,000 Arabs did not lose their homes by error

Haganah, now the IOF, continued on their mission

To break the Palestinian towns through further demolition

And now we watch the hospitals and schools burst into flames

And refugee camps bombed to bits despite their empty claims

Which army shuts the water down amidst the fire and heat

And kills civilians as they run to aid trucks in the street?

Which army uses phosphorus and bombs the sick in bed?

Which human being can dare to rob young infants of their bread?

Yet if the bombs and nitric acid won’t assuage their thirst

For children's blood and mothers' tears, then will we be the first

To witness ethnic cleansing every day and every night

And feed the fire with silence and ditch every human right?

Oh Palestine, the home of hope, of greatest strength and will

Oh you whose beating heart of faith no enemy can still

Oh you who taught us what it means for dignity to stand

To sacrifice your life and die upon your cherished land

For every tear your children shed, for every drop of blood

We’ll fight to make our voices heard, we’ll raise our hands to God

And though we drop our heads in shame, our hearts burn full of rage

Oh Palestine, we will unite to free you from your cage

To every being that walks this earth whose heart is still alive

We call on you to spread the word, to raise your voice and strive

To liberate a people for it's time their chains were broken

Injustice cannot triumph when the words of truth are spoken

When One Limb Suffers When One Limb Suffers

by Stephanie Vita

Buried beneath the rubble, a dove clip-winged, with captured fragments of their familiar voices  a foreign language on foreign ground, a bruised and fractured landscape unconscious and uncertain

Those ‘compassionate’ killers and their shining steel weapons ring through her ears

Her jugular vein is thunderous and throbbing Her fading shadow staggers Ghost-like, across dusty gravel. To them, she is deceived Yet they deceive themselves

For them, she would have saved her last grains of rice the ground beneath her feet – a gateway to paradise. Instead, a betrayal of hands that once nurtured theirs, ready to love them more than they were ever able

The breeze on her skin makes an army of arrows. The shadow of his once-worn coat cuts deep. Its perfume cradles her like son Each crease of her palms is a road of resistance – a road to reward She continues to pave them with age With her faith gathered wearily beneath hazy eyes, she raises them There’s one thing on earth that could never be stolen

And yet,

Here I stand, a castle built upon my brothers’ bones, A treacherous traitor, a kind and charitable predator, Aiding them to soothe myself. I look and look away, again

‘When one limb suffers, the entire body feels pain and restlessness.’ If you are the limb, then I am the wound Gangrenous and unfeeling How could you ever forgive me?

“YOUR

IDENTITY IS NOT FREE OF POLITICS”: MUSLIM ADVOCACY ON CAMPUS AND BEYOND

Maham interviews Nabil Ben Hassine and Deena ElShabasei, organising members of Unimelb for Palestine (UM4P) — a non-affiliated, grassroots collective of University of Melbourne students, staff, andalumniorganisingoncampusforafreePalestine.

NabilandDeenaranforthePeopleofColour(POC)

Office Bearer position under the Activate ticket in the UMSU elections, which occurred in early September of this year. Activate for UMSU was a new party whichemergedthisyear.

A Tunisian and Egyptian duo, Nabil and Deena’s goals included direct action regarding Palestine and the University’s ties with weapons manufacturers, and fostering an inclusive and safe community for POC on campus.

When the encampment began, did you guys have any initial concerns?

DE: We were like, yeah, they're gonna get us within one hour. And then they didn’t. Then the next day, we're like, okay, maybe Sunday, once the weekend finishes, and then they didn’t. And then we were there for a month, exhausted, , forgetting our family's faces [laughs].

It did lead to the University agreeing to a level of disclosure. Were you guys, satisfied with that, enough to pack up and leave?

DE: So they released the first part of the disclosure around July. They gave us partial disclosure, which was good. I think we're happy with what they've promised, and they have delivered partially, but obviously we expect way more. The goal is divestment.

Would you have run for the POC office bearer position, if none of this had gone on?

NB: For me, personally, I've always sort of been around the POC space. It was always in the back of my mind, that it was an option. Given, the climate of everything, it made sense to run now, and I think the encampment, the negotiations with the university, matured me a lot. I don't think I would have been mature enough to hold a position like that without the experiencethatIhadthisyear.

DE: I think the encampment definitely primed us for going for that position. I feel, for me personally, hadn't that experience occurred and all the events with UM4P, I don't think I would have considered going for UMSU.

I think you really mobilised the Muslim community at uni to start voting. We don't really see Muslims in political spaces, especially if you go higher up. We're just there, as placeholders or for the diversity quota. Like Fatima Payman, soon as she went against what Labor wanted, she was ostracized. Before it was like –

DE:Wehaveahijabiingovernment.

MM: Exactly. Andweneedtostresstheimportanceof advocacy and the role of Muslims in politics. How would you both say your Muslim identity has influencedyourrolesinadvocacy?

Interviewer:MahamMannan

Interviewees: Nabil Ben Hassine &DeenaEl-Shabasei

NB: About Fatima Payman, she came to our encampment. There were a couple people that gave her, in our encampment, a little bit of a telling off. The constituency she represents is majority Muslim. My dad lives in Perth, in Fatima Payman’s constituency, which is the main Arab neighbourhood. Generally speaking, they want more from their politicians, and so, it’s really brave what she did. It's one of those things where you feed off each other. In terms of your second question, I think there is a general feeling amongst Muslims that we don't take part in politics. But it's important to remember that politics doesn't exist outside of people. People are politics. You go to your little brother's soccer game and there's politics. Why isn't my kid playing striker? Why is he playing defender? There's politics everywhere. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, also lived a life filled with politics. He had to negotiate between many of the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula, he struck deals with different religious groups, that is inherently political. If we try to remove politics from our lives, we’re removing a very human thing. This mass mobilisation that we saw from the Muslim community, it was something that needed to happen, because I think too often, we take for granted how easy it is to not get involved in these things, without realising that it is very privileged to not get involved. It's good that a lot of Muslims in the community, especially at the University of Melbourne,arewakingup.

DE: Your identity is not free of politics, especially as a Muslim, where your identity is politicised as a threat to society. We tend to prioritise our capacity here and try to assimilate as much as we can to avoid any scrutiny, to give ourselves the best opportunities and out of gratitude. I don't think we realise how that puts us in a place of playing into the politics that are against us. We still have to advocate. If you look at the themes of the Makkah surahs, it's Islam against something that's trying to oppress it. Islam talks a lot about fighting against oppression. None of the prophets presented the revelations and were immediately greeted with peace. So many of them were prosecuted. If we look at the Madinah surahs, you see how community and politics is integrated, because in Medina is where the Prophet, SAW began to establish a community of Islam. I feel like the encampment and the campaign were great opportunities for us to teach these values and see how politics is not something we're free of. The way we campaigned, we also spoke so much about Islamophobia, we can’t escape Islamophobia. It was a good opportunity to sit down with Muslim students and be like this is why we'rerunningforit.

Unfortunately, you guys did not win this time around. Although it was close. What are you going to do moving forward, and what were some of the goals you outlined?

DE: Before going into goals, because I think Nabil will speak on that best. One of the things I found interesting was people who weren't involved in the politics, always said in feedback was that they just used to vote for the person with the ethnic last name. So, I think it was good that we had Muslim representation, because people knew who they could rely on, who would actually represent them, instead ofjustgoingoffethniclastnames.

NB: About goals, obviously, we had campaign goals, and if we won, we would have had a very strong emphasis on Palestine, the racism report and an appropriate follow up on the work that Hiba and Mohamed did, making international students feel more integrated into the community. In terms of broader goals, , I wouldn't necessarily say that what we did was a failure. Ultimately what we wanted to do is mobilise and to see the power in individuals who wouldn't normally feel that way. We woke up a lot of people, and I think that's really important. So moving forward, our goals and aims remain the same, and they also extend beyond the campaign, which I think is so beautiful about what me and Deena do. Whether we win or lose, we'll always fight for Palestine, for Sudan, for The Congo. Always keep pushing forward. We don't need to have an electoral roletodothat.

byAmeerAlameh

Some people ask you're pushing for weapons divestment, and what it has to do with us, and argue that we don’t have a direct influence on the events in Gaza and so there’s no reason to bring any of that here. What do you have to say to that?

DE: The qualm I have with that argument, is that, as an ethnic person, why are you here in the first place? If everything is okay there, why did you end up here in the first place? Now you've brought it over here. You're here for probably because of political reasons, because of political destabilisation that this country or another Western country, brought to your country. So nowyouhadtocomehereforopportunities.

NB: I think a lot of people see what we do in snippets. They might see the encampment. They see that two, three days, they don't see the 11-month campaign that we've built, of protesting essentially, pretty much every day, of communicating, of organising every day. And they don't also see how scared the University is, how much money the University has spent to limit what we can say and how we say it. It's crazy that students can lead a protest, post something on social media, and the next day, you've got a University executive who makes $300,000 a year having to write an official statement. Even if we look at South Lawn, they’ve put up no camping zone signs. If the protest was useless, then the university wouldn't react. The fact that they are reacting, it just goes to show that they're trying to protect something that is larger than we can fathom. It's a massive iceberg. All the deals that, all the deals that we have uncovered, all the all the things that we have seen, even though they're worth 10s of millions of dollars, you know, millions of the scholarships, the investments, all of it. It's so much money. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Below that, there is something larger, and Australia is a very militarized society. But it's hidden by very fancy florets and ornaments and decorations where, you know, we live in a world where, particularly in Australia, where we can enjoy life. We can go to the beach, we are able to go to the park and watch the footy or see friends. And then underneath all that simultaneously, there is this truth that Australia develops weapons and it's essentially a colony for America. And it's very much built on blood. There’s also many different Australia's, the one that we enjoy in Melbourne is very different to what an Indigenous community experiences, three hoursfrombroom,forexample.

I've seen so many hateful comments under your Instagram posts. Like, these kids are so violent, you're just like puppets of, like, the Middle East –

DE: It's just a tale as old as time, when we think about the Vietnam War, like the way they spoke about Vietnamese people. You call it terrorism in the day, and then you call it guerrilla warfare once it succeeds. That's just what happens when you fight a colonial power. You're going to be called a terrorist, until people find out that that you were wronged. It's like, whoever controls the narrative. That's how it goes. We could sit there peacefully, and they would call us time wasters. They’re going to call us jihadists, aggressive, they'll call us anything negative to undermine what we're trying to protest. They'll always try and undermine what we protest because it threatenstheirpower.

NB: It's illogical, because, you know, if you're a migrant in this country, everything that you do is challenged, right? Like simultaneously, you're relying on government money, but at the same time, you're stealingjobs,right?

Sometimes we're privileged, lazy students, but we're also immigrants from the Middle East who are barbarians and don't know what we're talking about. Whatever fits the narrative. What they do is strip us of who we are as individuals. We have law students, med students, we have engineering students. We have some of the most intelligent, bright, hardworking individuals working with us. By trying to pigeonholeusintheseracistvacuums,youstripusofouridentity.

What would you say to people may be hesitant to get involved, maybe out of fear, or are discouraged by the feeling that this is so much bigger than any of us?

NB: The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, started off with just a couple companions, and now Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. From little things big things go, it’s just one step at a time and you take it slow. There’s gonna be times when you move forwards, you move backwards. Even the Prophet, peace be upon him, at the time was not popular. Sheikh Abdulla Hawari, who came to the encampment said this reminded him of when Muslims were kicked out of Makkah and were kicked out of the city. You’re not always gonna be liked or popular, but as long as you do what is good and act with pure intentions, I think that is important. My personal opinion is, why not. In 2 years, you’re gonna say that you were aware of what was going on in Gaza, in 5 years you’re gonna say you were protesting. Live in the moment, see the destruction, and act accordingly. Don’t wait for the status quo to change and then jump on the bandwagon. There’s this idea that we won’t save Palestine in a day, sure. Every time we do good, not only do we get good deeds, but things actually change. We as individuals have a lot more power than we think. Change can literally be a 15 minute conversation, I’ve had conversations with my friends telling them to post about Palestine, and now they’re posting. It compounds because they have 5 friends, and now those 5 friends are posting aboutPalestine.

DE: To Muslims who are fearful or hesitant, I think that fear develops because we have to be seen as ‘good Muslims’ by the West, and it’s a privilege to be in this country. If you weren’t in this country, you would have been in your country that [the West] destabilised and do you want to go back there? So you have to be a ‘good Muslim’. But isn’t being good and just inherently part of being Muslim? The only reputation we have to uphold is in front of Allah SWT, and have Muslimseverbeenacceptedbysociety?

NB: I’m a big history person, my historical obsession is the crusades. There’s this sermon that sparked the crusades, called ‘Urban II: Speech at the Council at Clermont (1095)’. Read that speech, it sounds like something Donald Trump would say. It’s almost exactly what is being said about Muslims in the Western world. A lot has changed, but what’s remained constant is that we are still seen as theenemy.Youdon’thavetofitin,justdowhat’scorrect.

DE: Before that it was the Quraysh, standing up for ourselves or protestingisnotnew.

photography by Ameer Alameh

Scenes from the encampment by Ameer Alameh May, 2024

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