percent of all sponsored trips between June 2018 and April 2022 were to Israel, with the next closest destinations being Taiwan (12%), and the USA (11%).

Palestine: The devastation of 50 years of injustice Shireen Abu Akleh - Al Jazeera New Reporter

Sadia Shareef

As the unfortunate war continues in Ukraine, many around the world have shown sorrow and support for the people of Ukraine. But what many don’t realise is that there are many countries, like Ukraine suffering due to unjustness and violence. One of those countries is Palestine. For more than half a century, Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

For more than 50 years, Palestinians have been stripped of their fundamental human rights, land, livelihoods, friends and family. For more than 50 years, Palestinians have witnessed and suffered the deaths of loved ones—the destruction of their homes and business.

Forcefully, they have had to live a life of persecution and violence, a life of fear and torment. Their homeland being torn apart, generations of bloodlines vanishing throughout the years, and their existence crumbling in front of their eyes.

The persecution of Palestinians is truly an inequitable and prejudiced sight.

But unfortunately, many have turned a blind eye to this issue. The number of unjust and appalling acts that the Palestinian people have faced over the past weeks, months and years is truly an ugly sight for many.

This conflict has had numerous short and long-term consequences for Palestinians.

Innocent people, such as Shireen Abu Akleh, have died due to these impacts. Shireen Abu Akleh was a Palestinian-American journalist who was killed by Israeli soldiers while filming for the Al Jazeera news channel.

Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by Israeli forces while capturing footage of an Israeli army operation in the West Bank.

Al-Samoudi, a journalist who was shot in the back at the same site, said that “We were going to film the Israeli army operation, and suddenly they shot us without asking us to leave or stop filming”.

They were not even given a chance to leave before shots were fired.

Luckily Al-Samoudi survived, but unfortunately, Shireen Abu Akleh died instantly from significant injuries and couldn’t be saved. Hanaysha, a reporter at the scene, said that “We were four journalists; we were all wearing vests, all wearing helmets,”

This clearly shows that the Israeli soldiers could identify that they were members of the press and shouldn’t have fired shots at them.

What these reporters had witnessed was truly appalling and unjust.

Not only did Israeli soldiers kill Shireen Abu Akleh, but they also mercilessly attacked individuals who were at her funeral to mourn the death of a highly influential, innocent, passionate person who was loved by many.

Akleh did not receive the funeral she deserved. Mourners were brutally beaten with batons while they held her coffin up high. Shireen Abu Akleh couldn’t leave this world peacefully, which is truly upsetting.

Hundreds of people across Palestine are affected by horrific events daily.

Palestinians are suffering incessantly, and many are grieving the loss of loved ones who did not deserve to die for standing up for their right and freedom to live a normal life.

Palestinians cannot participate in their religious or cultural beliefs and are being forced out of their place of worship. They do not have the freedom or right to do what they wish without the fear of being killed, tortured, or imprisoned.

Palestinians are people, too; they have the right to be humans and be treated like human beings and not like worthless beings. These so-called ‘rules’ placed by the Israeli Defence Force are a breach of international law and human rights.

To this day, Shireen Abu Akleh has yet to receive the justice she deserves.

When will Palestine be given a chance to breathe freely?

We anxiously wait for that day when Palestinians can rejoice and celebrate with family and friends without the fears and injustice they are currently going through.

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

IFAM delegation attends ICNA convention in US

Usman Malik

A three-member delegation of IFAM comprising of President, Rais Khan, Vice President, Dr Kashif Aziz and Secretary General, Usaid Khalil visited the US towards the end of May to attend the ICNA convention in Baltimore, Maryland.

The Islamic Forum for Australian Muslims (IFAM) is a grassroots national daawah organisation that has been working closely for a number of years with its counterpart, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).

This year the ICNA annual convention was held on 28-30 May 2022 at the Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, the USA, attended by thousands of people, including representative delegations from various national and international Islamic organisations.

The three-day, 47th annual convention with the theme “Building a just society: The Mission Continues” brought together the most competent speakers from North America and overseas, highlighting the Islamic mission of creating a just society free from discrimination-based culture, race, or language.

The convention also serves the purpose of imparting the message of Islam to the young generations living in the West and keep their connection with the global Ummah.

IFAM delegation expressed a feeling of immense pleasure to be part of the event and remarked that such events were significant in environments where people had limited sources of connection with Islamic education.

The delegation appreciated ICNA’s consistent efforts in arranging large-scale events and ensuring their smooth operation. They had the opportunity to network with Muslim activists and leaders in North America.

IFAM aims to hold similar events in Australia on a national level with delegates from overseas to strive globally for Islamic awareness, social justice and harmonious living.

Muslim World can progress through science and technology again

Prof Dr Mohammad Ilyas

Much of our modern activities relating to economic well-being, social development, abundant food supply, health, societal happiness, national security, and meaningful living depend upon harnessing the fruits of science and problem solving technology through good economic and educational setting and material prosperity and welfare with industry and commerce to eradicate poverty, disease, and insecurity in the Muslim World today.

Starting in 609 CE in Makkah, Islamic Civilisation rapidly spread throughout much of the Mediterranean and the Middle East and further east. The Muslim Empire in South Asia was established in 1175 CE which led to the eventful rule by the Mughals until 1857 CE.

Muslim Empire survived in Andalusia (Spain) until 15th century and the Ottoman Empire ruled over Bosnia and Belgrade and had sway over Romanian principalities near Danube. The Muslim Khilafah on the European and Central Asian parts and north Africa survived until 1923 CE and as a result, Aragon, Cordova, Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, Granada, Delhi, Agra, Basra, and many other cities continued to be at the zenith of cultural and commercial glory for many centuries with early development of modern roads and bridges and elegant buildings.

Since its inception, Muslim State dealt with many challenges including the Mongol sacking of Baghdad, European Crusades and the period beyond to modern times but Muslims were generally resilient and united and overcame these setbacks with strong science and technological capabilities built on good economic strength.

Around 1660 CE, two of the greatest monuments of modern history were erected: St. Paul’s Cathedral in (European) London and the Taj Mahal in (Muslim) Agra. Between them, the two symbolize, the comparable level of architectural technology, craftsmanship and sophistication up to that point of history.

Today, despite Muslims controlling nearly 50% of critical global resources, Muslims who ruled for over 1000 years across three continents, have a world GDP share of about 2% for a population of around 22%. Almost 50% of the Muslims live below poverty line.

What the Muslim World desperately needs is inspirational leadership, unity and reawakening. Hewlett-Packard CEO, Carly Fiorina summarized bench mark Muslim science and technology culture in the following words: … a civilization that was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean and from northern climes to tropics and deserts. Driven by invention its commerce extended from Latin America to China. Its mathematicians created algebra and algorithms that would enable the building of computers and the creation of encryption and technology industry. Its physicians found cures, its astronomers paved the way for space travel and exploration. … The technology industry would not exist without the contributions of Arab mathematicians. ….

Muslim Countries need to regain their sense of self-respect through science, technology and economics which they enjoyed for nearly 1300 years.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was a revolutionary leader who pushed for Muslims to re- energise in modern science and technology at the later part of 19th century and established a first modern institution for this purpose, the renowned Aligarh Muslim University in India where the author also had honour to be educated.

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 .

A journey of mercy for Qurban

Zahid Alam

A group of four parents and students took a journey of mercy to distribute Qurban from Sydney, Australia to Cambodia and Vietnam from 7-13 July 2022 in spite of risks and uncertainty associated with COVID-19.

The delegation organised by Amity College with the charity partner ARO included Mehmet Saral, Ronya Naboulsi, Abdul Habib and Serkan Iner.

The main aim from this trip was to give children within the group experience of values that they cannot experience while being in Australia experiencing first hand the resilience of people struggling in the third world.

The group stayed 2 days in Vietnam and 3 days in Cambodia.

The trip started in Vietnam where the group had a chance to see their cultures and lifestyles with scooters being the main mode of transport. More than 50 million scooters are used in the country because having a car is very costly. You can see 4-5 people (whole family ) people on one scooter.

The Group had a chance to learn Vietnam’s history and a chance to witness how they struggled and survived even in hopeless situations during the visits to the Cu Chi tunnels.

How those difficult conditions improved their resilience after the experience of a 20 year of war against the most powerful country. It was a lesson for us that one must never give up even when you are in the most difficult situations.

The group visited the genocide museum in Cambodia realising the importance of freewill and human rights by listening to the stories of those unfortunate people.

They learnt how a regime or a dictatorship -one manpower – makes one nation destroyed its elites. They had a tour guide who lost her father and brother during those times. She fled from Vietnam with her mother.

The regime killed many people for different reasons. One of them was checking the people’s palm. If the palm was soft and not rough they kill that person because he/she may be an educated person.

The Group distributed meat packs and some Eid gifts to the children. They all experienced the joy of giving and had a chance to experience empathy. All of the members in the group felt very emotional when they saw the smiles on children’s innocent faces. It was hard to explain the enjoyment of the thoughts when those disadvantaged people were taking the meat bags.

The Group understood the blessings that they have in our country when they saw the people who don’t have running water, a proper bed or a kitchen facility. Most of them live and sleep in one room. Some of the houses(if you can say it is a house ) do not have walls.

The Group visited the dormitory of a sister school of Amity Girls. They were overjoyed to see with the effort of local support 25 girls had the advantage of having shelter to continue their education. Most of their parents live in very remote areas and that dormitory became a chance for them to get a proper education.

They thanked Amity parents for sponsoring their education. They were in very humble conditions but were very happy. When the Group asked what they wanted to be, they all said that they wanted to go to uni and become teachers, doctors dentists to serve their country.