Issue 203 - October 2022

AMUST

AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES

Ground-breaking speech bySenator Payman

Muslim winners at Premier’s Awards

Scourge of Hindutva is increasingly going global

AIMA Leadership Camp: Enthusiasm, and networking

NSW Labor to counter Islamophobia and vilification of Muslims

Zelenskyy: A role model for leadership

Highly influential scholar, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, passed away

The Premier’s Multicultural Commu nication Awards 2022 were presented at an event on Thursday 8 September at Sydney Theatre Company at Dawes Point where the finalists were announced and winners presented with awards by the Premier of NSW, Dominic Perrottet and Minister for Multiculturalism, Mark Coure.

Muslim Women Australia won the award in Best Use of Digital or Social Media Award category for their ‘On Purpose’ pod cast, a campaign based on a podcast, pri marily aimed at Muslim communities to increase awareness and education about do mestic and family violence, agency of Mus lim women, and advocacy in the family and on a community level more generally.

Podcast discussions covered the topics of family cohesion, advocacy of Muslim wom en, concepts of masculinity, and the effects of discrimination in the Muslim community.

Podcasts were made available as whole ep isodes, as well as short snippets on various social media platforms.

Boushra Elkheir, a journalism student at the University of Technology Sydney won Alan Knight Student Award for her docu mentary ‘COVID in the West’ highlighted what life was like in Western Sydney during Sydney’s lockdown in 2021.

continued on page 3

The NSW Labor Party Leader Chris Minns together with his 15 shadow min isters met more than 100 Muslim com munity leaders and Imams over dinner at ANIC offices in Chullora on Monday 12 September 2022, assuring the Muslim community to counter Islamophobia and religious vilification in NSW.

The talking points during the dialogue included concern on Islamophobia and an ti-Muslim sentiments across some sections of the Australian society, laws against vilifi cation and hate-speech on religious grounds in NSW, countering right-wing extremism and the upcoming state elections on Satur day 25 March 2023.

Mr Chris Minns assured the Muslim com munity saying, “I can give you this assurance

that a New South Wales Labor government will stand up against Islamophobia wherev er we find it. We’ve supported religious vil ification legislation in the past and make no mistake, it’s important to protect the unique multicultural society that we have built in this country and we’re determined to do it.

The program was started by the MC, Bilal Rauf, ANIC Senior Legal Advisor & Me dia Spokesperson with acknowledgement of country and recalling a similar meeting held a couple of years ago in the same place before the commencement of COVID-19 restrictions.

Imam Anas Yaghmour recited from the Quran, Chapter 30, Verses 20-24 calling on humanity to reflect on the signs of creation, companionship, compassion and mercy and diversity of languages and colours.

continued on page 3

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the most influential contemporary Muslim scholars and Faqih who blended tradi tion with modernity passed away at the age of 96 on Monday 26 September 2022 in Qatar.

Originally from Egypt and spending most of his life in exile, he was the chairman of the International Union of Muslim Schol ars and actively dispensed theological rul ings (Fatwas) and advice on daily living as well as on global politics till his last breath.

He was the author of more than 120 books and over 60 publications including the most authoritative work, “The Lawful and Prohibited in Islam”, which has been translated into all major languages.

Although a scholar of Sunni theology, during the latter part of his life he sought accommodation with Shia theology calling for greater understanding between the two schools of thought.

He was one of those few who retracted his juristic position after realising that he had made a mistake in his judgment. Yet, he never showed arrogance for his knowl edge and scholarship.

Although inspired by Ikhwan al Mus limoon, Muslim Brotherhood, he always rose above his organisational loyalties when serving Islam, interests of Muslims and cause of human justice.

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Dr Aslam Abdullah

Zia Ahmad

Mohamed Ainullah

NSW Labor Party Leader Chris Minns.

Boushra Elkheir

Yusuf alQaradawi

Ground-breaking speech by Senator Fatima Payman

Zia Ahmad

The youngest and first hijabi in the Aus tralian parliament Senator Fatima Pay man commenced her first ground-break ing speech with Salam, the Islamic greeting of Peace on Tuesday 6 Septem ber 2022 advocating for diversity and multiculturalism and recognition of First Nations People in the Australian society.

“I would also like to acknowledge this coun try as my home base where I live, care for, and maintain continu ing reciprocal relation ships with all who share this land,” Senator Pay man said.

She further added, “I recognise the resilience and strength of all First Nations people of Aus tralia and appreciate their knowledge sharing and stories that influ ence the life of many new Australians like me.”

Senator Payman, Labor from Western Aus tralia is the first parliamentarian of Afghan or igin who was sharing during her first speech, her family’s story of fleeing Afghanistan to Pakistan, and later migrating to Australia and settling in Perth at the age of 5.

She acknowledged the support of her fa

ther saying, “I would like to take this oppor tunity to thank my late father, Abdul Wakil, who selfless sacrifices will never be forgot ten, and whose advice is about hard work, perseverance and integrity. I will hold on to his pearls of wisdom.”

While thanking her mother, she said, “You have made me so proud of all your achieve ments as a mother, as a wife, a makeup artist, and soon to be pharmacist salesman. I love your sense of humor and enjoy our sponta neous kitchen counter philosophical discus sions.”

She expressed great hope for her new home, Australia sayinhg, “I am grateful to this beautiful country. It is a country that offers so, so much to so many.

People travel from all parts of the world in the hopes of calling Aus tralia home. My family and I also had that same hope.

“A final thank you to my beautiful home state of Western Aus tralia for putting your trust in me and the Labor Government. We will work hard for you and with you every day. President and fellow senators. I stand before you tonight as a young woman, as a West Australian, as a Muslim, devout to her faith, proud of her heritage,” She confidently stated.

Senator Payman is a former head girl of Australian Islamic College in Kewdale, ob tained a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Sociology and Graduate Diploma in Pharmaceutical Sciences from University of Western Australia.

During the speech she recounted in detail her settlement in Australia from childhood to adulthood, her studies and finally her interest in politics.

“Resettling was difficult, but not as diffi cult as what my mother was about to urge my father to consider to migrate to Australia. In 1999, my late father risked his life and left his family behind to traverse the Indian Ocean for 11 days and 11 nights on a small boat and stormy weather in the hope of finding safety and security for his wife, two daughters and a son on his way.”

Muslim Lawn

02 9826 2273

“Anxiety and waves of doubt flooded my mother’s thoughts as she waited and waited for any news of my father arriving safely in Australia. Four months later, we finally re ceived the good news. And from there on, for four, four years, my father worked around the clock as a kitchen hand, a security guard, a taxi driver, while learning English as a sec ond language and saving up enough money to sponsor my mother, my two siblings and I.”

“In 2003, we were finally reunited with my father and settled in the northern suburbs of Perth to begin our new life together. As we adjusted and adapted, I witnessed the strug gles my parents went through to put food on the table, to pay for our education and to pro vide a roof over our heads.

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

Located only 25 minutes’ drive from Blacktown and 35 minutes from Auburn. Single and double burial graves available.

Part of the local community

I am grateful to this beautiful country. It is a country that offers so, so much to so many.

NSW Labor to counter Islamophobia and vilification

Continued from page 1

Mr Rauf during his welcome thanked Mr Minns for the initiative as well as shadow ministers, some whom had travelled from outside Sydney to join the event since there was no parliamentary sittings this week.

President of the Australian National Imams Council (ANIC), Imam Shadi Alsuleiman during his address appreciated the great turn out of politicians and community leaders to have a dialogue on issues of concern and co operating together for a diverse, multicultural and harmonious NSW.

The Grand Mufti of Australia, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, after acknowledging the cus todians of the land expressed his appreciation for the politicians who work to ensure that Australia remained as one of the best coun tries in thew world safeguarding human dig nity, security, freedom and stability.

He admitted that Australia is indeed a success story for multiculturalism where all citizens have the right to celebrate their cul ture, practice their faith and raise their voices resonated by the state and federal political leadership.

Ms Ramia Abdo Sultan, ANIC Communi ty Relations Advisor introduced herself as a lawyer, a wife and a mother, born and raised in Australia and visibly Muslim with a Hijab and took pride in her mixed Palestinian and Lebanese heritage.

“The concerns being raised here are not just concerns. They are lived experiences, and I worry about how my children, especial ly being girls, would come to deal with such challenges particularly in the absence of ade quate protections,” Ms Sultan said.

She concluded, “Hence, I call upon every one in this room, to call religious vilification and Islamophobia out and be a game changer in paving the way for religious protections for Australian Muslims.”

Imam Wessam Charkawi showcased a glimpse of the cinematic version of the mov ie “Before 1770: Discovering Australia’s Muslim history” soon to be hitting the Aus tralian cinemas, a multimillion dollar project paid for by the community.

“Knowing that Muslims had a long-stand ing relationship with Aboriginal people from North East Arnhem Land (Yolngu Clan) is profoundly significant in terms of the Aus tralian Muslim identity. It allows Muslims to draw strength from such a relationship and realise that Islam is no stranger to the first peoples of this land, ” Imam Charkawi said.

Mr Jihad Dib MP and Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change and Emergency Services thanked political and communi ty leaders for participating at the event and highlighted the support provided by commu nity through the tough times during the last three years.

“I think of many disasters, remember the bushfires, the incredible amount of support, the generosity and the work that this com munity did was unbelievable. It was then fol lowed by the drought and then floods and I remember collecting bales of hay by Human Appeal from the community to help farmers who were victims of the drought,” Mr Dib recalled.

He further added, “Then, of course, COV ID-19 and the leadership that this community demonstrated during COVID, when things were really tough and the patience that you demonstrated when things were extra tough on people in those 12 so-called LGA’s.

Mr Dib thanked his Labor colleagues, par ticularly those attending from the regional ar eas of NSW and then introduced the leader of

the opposition in NSW, Mr Chris Minns MP as the next Premier of NSW while thanking him for proactively engaging with the Mus lim community.

Mr Minns greeted the audience with the Islamic greeting of “Assalamu Alaikum” and after acknowledging the traditional owners of the country thanked ANIC for organising this historic event and expressed his appreciation of ANIC’s work in all states of Australia.

He talked of his visit to UMA centre in Padstow in March this year saying, “The work that UMA does with the local Mus lim community, particularly Muslim youth, is amazing. Getting together, playing sport, shooting hoops, lifting weights and sharing a meal. The UMA is helping many young Mus lims find their identity and sense of belonging right here in this wonderful country.”

Mr Minns went on to say, “Your generosity in sharing in cultures, cuisines, artistic tradi tions have enriched Australian life and the Muslim community has found success here in Sydney and NSW. But as Ramia has said, we must remain vigilant against those who want to promote intolerance. They want to promote division and disunity in this wonder ful country. Sadly, there are far too many in cidents of Muslim Australians being subject ed to unwelcome and often vile comments and they shouldn’t have to. Recent report on Islamophobia in Australia found the largest number of incidents unfortunately occurred in the state of New South Wales.”

Talking about the upcoming NSW state elections, he said, “Should we form gov ernment in March next year, friends during the next six months, New South Wales Labor will be making a strong case for change in the State Government in New South Wales. We want a start by addressing the rising costs of living in Sydney, in particular the exces sive costs of tolls and the impact they’re having on families and businesses. We start fixing the skills and labor shortages and that means investing in type and training and ap prenticeship systems. And we want to relieve the pressure on our hospital system. We also

want to take full advantage of our state’s rich cultural diversity, which I believe is our great strength and competitive advantage in a very competitive.”

“We can do more to mobilize our diverse population to build those economic connec tions with our trading partners. Much of what we have seen over 800 years ago. While there are many reasons that this government does not deserve to be returned to office, in my opinion, that does not mean Labor will win the election in March 2023,” Mr Minns warned.

Highlighting the strong bonds between the Labor Party and the Muslim community, he said, “In fact, we need to convince you and all the communities in New South Wales that we’re worthy of your trust and that we’re worthy of your support as leader of the New South Wales Labor Party. I’m aware of the strong links and historic links between the Muslim community and New South Wales Labor in many elections at local state and federal elections. We’ve enjoyed strong sup port from the Muslim community in New South Wales. So my shadow cabinet and I are here tonight to recognise and honour that long standing relationship and the help and the support and the electoral support that the Muslim community has given my party for decades now.”

He further emphasised, “We’re also here to reaffirm the value of our friendship and commitment to the community, the Muslim community here in New South Wales. And I want to assure you, each and every one of you, from the senior leadership of this Coun cil to every member sitting here tonight, that we will never, ever take your support or your friendship for granted”

“We are grateful and appreciative for you and all of your colleagues who have attend ed, particularly those who have come from certain distances. And we know that that’s a real ask on your time. And we’re grateful for that,” Mr Minns concluded.

The program concluded with a vote of thanks by the MC and mingling during the dinner.

Muslim winners at Premier’s Awards

Continued from page 1

This documentary captured the day-today activities of the multicultural commu nity in Western Sydney and shed a light on the community’s reactions to imposed re strictions when compared to Sydney’s East and north.

The winner in the category of Publication of the Year was SBS Dari/SBS Pashto for a special series of 12 articles and podcasts

in Dari and Pashto called ‘Life in Australia’ was conceptualised and commissioned to meet the needs of the sudden humanitarian intake from Afghanistan in August 2021.

More than 4,000 people were evacuated to Australia in a ten-day airlift from Kabul and more than sixteen thousand visas have been set aside by the Australian government over coming years for people from Afghanistan.

The series of 12 podcasts and articles

summarises what a new arrival could need in-language to ‘feel at home’ in Australia –covering issues such as housing, education, employment, immigration, buying a car etc.

The winner of the Best Audio Report was National Ethnic and Multicultural Broad casters Council (NEMBC MEDIA).

The audio is a 5-minute news bulletin produced in over 28 languages daily since May 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pan

demic in Victoria & recently in NSW. The daily news is broadcast on community radio stations 75 times a week in Victoria and 32 times a week in NSW.

The multilingual news service has been able to reach millions of culturally and lin guistically diverse communities through radio broadcasts and innovative online strat egies.

Imam Shadi Alsuleiman. Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed.

Ms Ramia Sułtan. Mr Jihad Dib MP.

SBS Dari and Pashto producer Mujeeb Muneeb, SBS Program Manager Andrew Bolton, SBS Head of Language Content Davide Schiappapietra and SBS Pashto Executive Producer Abdullah Alikhil.

National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters Council (NEMBC MEDIA).

Hajjeh Maha Abdo.

Modi’s India gets a free pass on Human Rights – but not China!

Lee Rhiannon

The people of Jam mu-Kashmir are at a critical juncture in their struggle for justice. De spite the fact that they live in the most milita rised region on earth, experience shocking hu man rights abuses, and have been given a genocide warning by Genocide Watch, few Western countries have acted. It’s time for the Australian government to speak up about the crimes of the Modi government.

It is just over 1000 days since Prime Min ister Narendra Modi spoke to the people of India about why his government unilaterally repealed sections of the nation’s constitution to end the limited autonomy Jammu-Kash mir had won.

Modi spoke of “a bright future ahead” for Jammu-Kashmir. He emphasised that these changes would ensure the region reaped the benefits of “development” – a word that he used 11 times in his speech.

Three years after this speech was given, the evidence is overwhelming that what is happening in Jammu-Kashmir is one more example of the ugly policy of Hindutva cur rently being enforced across India by the governing Bharatiya Janata Party.

Hindutva is an exclusionary ideology pro moted by extremist Hindus. In India and in Australia there are numerous examples of how proponents use hate speech and violence in their quest for a Hindu only society. Hin dutva is not Hinduism.

It is widely understood that Jammu-Kash mir has been targeted by the Modi forces as it is the only state that has a majority Muslim population.

Modi’s speech was pure propaganda de signed to disguise the reality of the crimes being perpetrated against the people of Kash mir. That reality is brutal. The constitutional changes shifted control over Jammu-Kash mir to Delhi. The damage caused by the 2019 lockdown of the region, enforced by 38,000 additional India troops, and cuts to internet and phone services are still being felt today particularly in terms of the impact on educa tion and health services, as well as domestic and overseas trade.

Doctors and government workers were un der threat of punishment if they criticised the government’s handling of the pandemic. The Health and Human Rights Journal reports that the large Indian military presence in the region seriously impacts on the physical and mental health of locals. The decision of the Supreme Court of India to reject a petition calling for the restoration of 4G internet ser vices during the COVID restrictions so stu dents could continue their classes at home has set back education standards.

Prior to the 2019 lockdown business in Kashmir was described as “booming” and the region had a low poverty rate of 10.3 percent compared with the national average of 21.9 percent. The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry found that for the first four months of the lockdown the state suffered a loss of about $2.4 billion. The personal cost was huge as jobs disappeared. Unemployment soared to 17.9 percent, near ly double the national average at 9.5 percent.

Throughout all this Kashmiris continued to protest, often at great personal cost. Thou sands of Kashmiris were arrested. Many have been killed by Indian military, police and security forces. The level of persecution was on display last year when three Kashmi ri students spent more than three months in gaol for doing nothing more than celebrate Pakistan’s win over India in the T20 Cricket World Cup.

These young men were arrested under a socalled anti terrorist law, the Unlawful Activi ties Prevention Act. This law is popular with the Modi forces as it enables them to readily gaol opponents. Under the UAPA authorities can designate anyone as a “terrorist” and de tain them without any evidence. As it is al most impossible for most detainees to qualify for bail many people have been gaoled for years without being found guilty. Increasing numbers of Kashmiri journalists and activ ists are being arrested and detained under the UAPA.

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights Michelle Bachelet has de scribed the use of this law as “worrying”. She said “hundreds of people remain in detention in India for exercising their right to the free dom of expression”; and has named Jammu and Kashmir as “having among the highest number of cases in the country”. Indian po lice and security forces use this law to take male teenagers and young Kashmiris off the streets and out of their homes.

Indian authorities are well placed to use these bias laws to harass and detain Kash miris as the region is occupied by nearly one million Indian army, paramilitary units, spe cial forces and air force personnel.

This prompts the question – who benefits from Modi’s version of “development”. The answer is easy to determine as the influx of capital goes hand in hand with massive de mographic change – recognised as settler colonialism by many Kashmiris. It is not dis similar to what Israel is doing to Palestinians on the West Bank.

Further, it is alleged by locals that Delhi is appointing people to senior jobs in Jam mu-Kashmir. For the Modi forces this serves the dual purpose of maintaining control over various government and non-government es tablishments in addition to further facilitating demographic change. Many of these people exercise arbitrary control over local econom ic activity by prescribing business operating hours purported to be based on the “prevail ing security conditions” and undisclosed “threat alarms”.

The population shift in Jammu-Kashmir is highly significant as these outsiders become voting residents once they receive their dom icile papers. Within a few years this could mean that Kashmir is no longer a majority Muslim country. This suits the Modi forc es. Non-Kashmiri settlers dilute the region’s ethnic and religious makeup and if the long promised United Nations plebiscite about the future of Kashmir ever occurs they could well swing the vote to favour India retaining control of Jammu-Kashmir.

Recently the Modi government opened up another plan to build a supportive voting block by granting voting rights to any Indian citizen temporarily living in Indian Occupied Kashmir. This would capture Indian military personnel, government and private sector employees and migrant workers. This would add about 2.5 million voters to the 7.6 mil lion existing voters in Jammu-Kashmir – a 30 percent increase in the Kashmiri voting population. These changes are seen by many Kashmiris as another attempt by extremist Hindu forces to decrease the number of Mus lims in India.

The people of Jammu-Kashmir are at a critical juncture in their struggle for justice. Despite the fact that they live in the most mil itarised region on earth, collectively experi ence shocking human rights abuses and have been given a genocide warning by Genocide Watch few Western countries speak up about the crimes of the Modi government.

(Courtesy Pearls and Irritations, 13 Sep tember 2022)

Lee Rhiannon, a former Senator, volunteers with communities in Western Sydney.

Love for the sake of Allah

Anas ibn Malik re ported: Prophet Mu hammad (s) said:

“No two persons love each other for the sake of Allah but that the better of the two is the one with the strongest love for one’s com panion.” (Sahih Ibn Haban)

Many hadith describe the status of two people who love one another for the sake of Allah (swt), and describe the high position in Para dise which He (swt) has promised them and the great honour which He (swt) will bestow upon them on the Day of Resurrection.

Allah the Almighty will greet them on the Day of Resurrection and say to them: ´Where are those who loved one another for My glory. To day I will shade them in My shade on the Day when there is no shade but Mine.’ (Reported by Muslim)

What a magnificent honour and tremendous reward that will be bestowed upon those who truly

loved one another for the sake of Allah, on that awesome Day! Allah will shelter them with His shade and upon whom He will shower His mer cy and kindness.

The two who love one another for the sake of Allah, and not for the sake of anything else in this life which is filled with greed, desires and interests, is very difficult, and none can attain it except the one who is pure of heart, for whom this world is as nothing compared to the pleasure of Allah.

They both should treat one an other as he or she would love to be treated. For whoever does not love for his brother or sister what he or she loves for themselves, their friendship is hypocrisy and it will be against them in the world and in the Hereafter.

Sukoon Quteifan is a graphic de signer and illustrator based in Syd ney, Australia. She is the creator and the illustrator of “Sukoon Al Quloob - Peace of Hearts”, an Is lamic Cartoons facebook page. You can follow her on facebook @SukoonQuteifanArt.

Sukoon Quteifan

The scourge of Hindutva is increasingly going global

While Modi and Yogi governments con tinue to make life increasingly difficult for the large Muslim minority in India, Hindutva ideologues are now flexing their muscles on a global scale moving from hate speech to violence targeting Muslims, Sikhs and Christians.

On Thursday 22 September 2022, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) con ducted a large-scale raid across the coun try on the premises of the Popular Front of India (PFI), an Indian Muslim political movement formed largely to counter Hin dutva groups, detaining over 100 PFI lead ers and activists on charges of terror-fund ing and money laundering.

PIF, a large scale India-wide organisa tion has been holding peaceful rallies ad vocating for rights and dignity of the 200 million strong Muslim minority in India that is increasingly being repressed under the Modi government.

Founded in 2006 with the merger of the Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD) and the National Development Front (NDF), PIF has various wings to cater to different sections of society, including the National Women’s Front (NWF) and the Campus Front of India (CFI).

Meanwhile the Yogi government in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) is making life difficult for Muslims by “surveying” with the aim of breaking up Islamic educational institutions, Awqaf, Muslim endowment boards and legislating provincial laws against interfaith marriages, prosecution and financial penalties as well of bulldoz ing of homes of those protesting against oppression.

Overseas ofshoots of RSS and Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in Western countries, particularly in US, UK and Australia are increasingly advocating for Hindu right wing vision of India, en gaging in Islamophobia and hate speech.

Events in US, Australia and recently in Leicester in the UK are an indication of propagation of Hindu right wing political philosophy, Hindutva, in new ways, violent ly, on the streets of Western countries being exported out of India.

On Saturday 17 September, young Hindu men marched through the streets of Leicester, chanting “Jai Sri Ram”, now a Hindu nationalist war cry, and attack ing Muslims.

In the US, Canada, UK as well as Australia, the Hindu right is moving rapidly from electoral influence and lobby ing to demonstrations of street might, muscular brand of Hindu pride and chauvinism that Hindu na tionalists have always aspired to.

Australia has been witnessing an uptick in hate crimes committed by Hindus against Muslims and Sikhs. One such attacker, Vishal Sood, was eventually arrested for a series of attacks on Sikhs, and was convict ed and deported since his visa had expired. When he got back to India, he received a hero’s welcome.

Attempts have also been made by Indian authorities in Australia to silence critics of Modi and his Hindu nationalist policies.

Thirteen academic fellows resigned from the Australia India Institute at the University of Melbourne citing interfer ence from the Indian High Commission and attempts to censor research and writ ing that presented an “unflattering” im age of India.

Associate Professor Somdeep Sen from Roskilde University in Denmark in an opinion piece on Aljazeera published on Monday 26 September 2022 has warned that the recent UK violence should serve as a wake-up call and Hindu nationalism is no longer a worry just in India.

“Islamophobia now appears to be a matter of public and foreign policy for In dia. The Indian High Commission in the UK responded to the events in Leicester by specifically referring only to the wor ries of the Hindu community there,”

A/Prof Somdeep Sen writes.

He concludes, “However, Leicester should serve as a wake-up call: Hindu na tionalism cannot be ignored any more as a domestic, Indian issue. The movement has gone international – and is taking an increasingly violent form in other coun tries too. It is now a threat to democrat ic principles, equality and human rights everywhere. India under Modi will not address it. The world must.”

Readers comments

Re: ‘Reflecting Hijab’

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Re: Modi’s India gets a free pass on Human Rights – butnot China!

Crimes against humanity in Kashmir is horrendous. And it’s a shame that people of India even after knowing the situation put a blind eye to it. They cheer when a kid gets blind by pellets shots and make hundreds of excuses when rape and s committed by In dian military personnel. Shame on India and their parents mentality!!!

Rosie

Meanwhile most of the Western world is making a song and dance about Ukraine.

mal

Re: Will Australia comply withChina’s four-point grievancesto repair the relationships?

Shouldn’t have any relationship with Chi na until it ceases it’s systematic abuse and human rights violations and oppression of the Uyghur people. abusharif1

Re: Crescent Awards

A truly wonderful initiative by Crescent Foundation and partnering organisations.. unitygrammar

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Hindu-Muslim community leaders reading out a statement to maintain peace and brotherhood in Leicester, UK.

Why is tobacco considered as dangerous

Dr Mohammed Naushaduddin

In 1950s’ United States, 50% of men and 20% of its women smoked to bacco. The premise was tobacco was a harmless stimulatory substance, like cocoa.

Spread of tobacco

About 10,000 years ago, one man toiled the whole year to feed his family of ~5 members. This was humanity’s humble and perilous endeavours to a settled life. The peoples of the Fertile Crescent domesticated the grass es, and agricultural produce swelled popu lations; food security sprouted civilisations; their Prophets guided early human morality.

About 3,000 years ago, ~1,000 BC, the Mexican culture fig ured out the stimulato ry nature of its native tobacco. Because it was non-nutritive, this was used in ceremonies and rituals: the ancient idea of getting high on special occasions. By 1500s AD, they were using mushroom hallu cinogens.

From 1500’s, tobacco was brought to Europe by the Spanish colon isers of Mexico – along with many other nutritive food products like tomato, potato, pepper, etc. High demand from European nobility and cheap labour in the form of African slaves helped spread to bacco use across the whole of Europe.

who were being slayed by the dozens. Indus trialisation met the raging popular demand, and helped spread its use to the colonised world.

In 1910’s, the new advertisement industry offered tobacco to wom en – as a sign of equality vis-avis their men. In a decade, the medical fraternity gave its blessing too.

Masses began consuming tobacco in their early teens.

During these times, an aver age life expectancy was around 50 years, which was mostly due to infections and wars.

Something was not right

Today, 10% of Australians smoke; women closely equal to men. Of our sick, 20% are smokers. “ “

In 1951, some 40,000 British phy sicians enrolled their lifestyle activities into a database. By 1956, it was clear that a few of them were dropping dead by heart attacks and strokes. A common theme appeared in the data: they all smoked.

Frustratingly scien tists could not find out the chemical(s) direct ly responsible for this harm. The best predic tion was: 7 out of 10 people will be harmed in some way, over the long term. This kind of science does not serve a specific individual, it served their community.

Why do smokers smoke

Here are the few major reasons

1. Tobacco is addictive, which means a lack of tobacco use causes intense craving that prevents normal and productive function of a human being. The brain creates a tantrum in the head, focussing all attention to itself unless it is fed what it wants.

2. Tobacco can be a part of a habit, which means one is not addicted to it. However an intense desire overtakes us in some cir cumstances which can be a daily routine. Remove the routine, the person does feel the crav ing to use tobacco.

3. Tobac co can mask anxiety. Since anxiety is still a stigma, many people use tobacco to help them calm down or focus in certain situ ations. They may not like tobac co but they need tobacco.

4. Tobacco can be fashion able. At the start, anyway. Then habit or addiction takes over.

5. The combination of all

the group. Just like Covid infection where we cannot predict who will die of infection but we know many will die if suitable vaccines are not taken.

Anxiety

Some smokers will have anxiety problems, masked well by the effects of tobacco. Par ents and friends, teachers and doctors, can all highlight this to an individual smoker early on. They should be urged to consider anxie ty as trigger to smoking, and to seek mental health advice. Stigma around mental health is a barrier to good health and overall develop ment of our young.

Slippery slope

Smokers are more likely to experiment with other more harmful drugs, leading to more addictions which leads to severe per sonal, domestic and societal problems.

Deprivation

Simple mathematics will inform the con sumer that the whole supply chain benefits from tobacco habit except the consumer and their family; the system is totally rigged against them. Today, a billion people puff away tobacco, and generate the revenue of ~$1 trillion dollars worldwide.

What about Fiqhi understanding

There is no direct mention of tobacco use in Quran and Hadith.

If one uses science as an arbitrator and an evidence, which it is, we have two distinct issues. On a personal level, use of tobacco cannot be pronounced as haraam – as not everyone gets affected by it.

The 18th century revolutions in Europe helped spread tobacco to the masses: the poor felt better they could smoke like the nobility,

Since 1960’s, a long battle began between medical fraternity against centuries-old to bacco industry – one of few the industries that does not need any innovation to make increased profits.

above.

Why is tobacco not banned

It will be hard to prohibit tobacco for the following reason:

6. Public outcry: smokers will obviously protest in whataboutery – pointing to activities that causes death (fast food, driving cars, adventure sports, etc); non-smokers will worry the government can get addicted to policing their activ ities.

7. Policing costs: hard policing of low-level misbehaviours creates unnecessary hard ships for law-enforcers. It is the pattern and the harm they are trying to elicit and rectify.

8. Judiciary will not want to be part of pro hibition where an activity does not cause harm in all those who consume. It is a po litical decision, to protect the community and its assets.

9. Governments are led by public opinion and science. To regulate its use they can, and do, generate large revenues (in many billions) from taxing the smokers –across the whole globe.

So why is tobacco dangerous

Health harm

Since 1956, we know tobacco causes im mense health damage in the longterm, espe cially along with other health risk factors like high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.

Annoyingly we cannot customise this risk for a person early on; we can only predict for

On a societal level, tobacco clearly causes harm in the long term to most of the people and their family’s assets. It is in this sense, heavy regulations can be used by govern ments to limit its use. Meanwhile, the smok ers themselves need to negotiate the trade-offs with their loved ones.

Why an understand ing is needed

One can not legislate everything, especially when science or evidence is not per fect. If done, this can be counter-pro ductive.

However there is lot of scope for ‘nudg ing’:

• Empowering people with knowledge (of loss of earnings, loss of health, late treat ment of anxiety, etc) so they make better decisions for themselves and their fami lies.

• Gentle reminders by their loved ones of future harm.

• Understanding by wider society that ad diction or anxiety is real, that treatment of underlying causes greatly benefits people going through tough times.

• Governments should not hesitate to leg islate against habit-breaking measures, and certainly not allow its promotion an ywhere.

Today, 10% of Australians smoke; women closely equal to men. Of our sick, 20% are smokers.

Compared to 1950’s, things are much bet ter. However, there is huge scope for persua sive ‘nudging’ within our communities.

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

King Charles III: The New Carolingian Era

began to resist the imposition of the rule of Divine Right Catholic Hapsburgs upon their country.

In the main London Mosque the accession of the Islam-friendly Charles III, was cele brated with prayers and the singing of God Save the King, to the shock of many millions of Mus lims around the world.

“The truth about Charles is that he is a committed Islamophile. He has studied the Quran and even started learning Arabic to further that end. He is a fan of Martin Lings’ (Abu Bakr Siraj al-Din’s) acclaimed biogra phy of the Prophet Muhammad.”

But Yahya Birt, Research Director at the Ayaan Institute in London and a communi ty historian, felt he had to draw attention to less admirable facts.

“For years, the Royal Family and Charles in particular sold millions of pounds’ worth of military hardware in the Arabian Gulf, and the monarchy will be used to front fu ture trade deals with autocrats with a pen chant for the romance of royalty.”

“So, my final plea to British Muslims is not to be easily charmed by Charles and rush unthinkingly for the photo, career and funding opportunities and the imperial gongs at the crowning of a new Islamophilic monarch.”

Muslims of this present generation seem to consider that Islam is new in the Western political sphere since the War on Terror and the Satanic Verses.

That is far from the truth.

The time of the first two kings by the name of Charles was also a time of upheav al worse than the horrors of Brexit and the covid pandemic. It saw the worst conflict ever upon British soil with some 600,000 killed in the Civil War and the disease which accompanied it.

It witnessed the execution of King Charles I for treason in 1649 and the Common wealth Republic from 1649 to 1660 under Cromwell.

Rule by Divine Right, the orthodoxy of James I and Charles I, where the will of the

king was law, received a fatal blow.

The restored monarch, Charles II in 1660, behaved like a Divine Right ruler but was very nervous about Parliament’s role.

At his sudden death his brother James II, also a devotee of Divine Right, succeeded to

the throne but was challenged by those who saw that a Catholic monarchy would result in persecution of Protestants.

The Exclusion Movement, to prevent James from taking power, occurred at the same time as the Protestants of Hungary

Garcia in “Islam and the English En lightenment 1670-1840,” traces the roots of modern British constitutional history to the Tecklelite politics of that time.

Count Teckely, fearing Hapsburg rule and intolerance would be imposed upon his people, preferred the Ottomans.

“Teckely accepted Ottoman-Islamic law in order to protect Protestant Hungary’s constitutional right to free worship, clerical independence, and national sovereignty.”

Teckely became the “Protestant Maho metan terrorist” for the seventeenth century Tories.

They equated resistance to the Catholic James II to Count Teckely’s resistance to the Catholic Hapsburgs.

Tories produced propaganda claiming that those Protestants who were resisting the Catholic king were actually in a radical international conspiracy with the Muslims.

“Allegedly, these infidels plan to over throw Christendom, renew the English Civil War, and welcome an Ottoman invasion .. ” [Garcia p. 31]

These “Protestant Mahometans” were linked to the English Whigs, rivals to the Tories and eventual authors of the Bill of Rights which established the constitutional monarchy as a result of the Glorious Revo lution of 1688.

The Second Carolingian Era ended with successful Islamic theoretical influence over the resistance to Divine Right Catholic Monarchy and the Protestant Mahometans Islamic ideas helped usher in the era of con stitutional monarchy.

The old claim epitomised by Louis XIV “L’etat, c’est moi”[ I am the state], died.

The Third Carolingian Era in Britain un der an Islamophile king, perhaps not in Aus tralia as it moves towards republicanism, may prove even more productive than that.

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

Labor urged to recognise Palestine

The Hon Shaoquett Moselmane, the only Muslim MLA in an Australian State Legislative Council (upper house), is a strong advocate for highlighting the violation of Palestinian human rights by the state of Israel. This was a speech delivered on Wednesday 21 September in the NSW Parliament House.

Shaoquett Moselmane MLA

In my final adjournment speech, I take great pride in speaking on justice for the Palestinian people. I am honoured that I have been in a small way a part of NSW Labor and national Labor conferences that have over the years called on Labor in government to recognise the State of Palestine.

The most recent unanimous reaffirmation of Labor’s support was at the 2021 national conference, which enshrined it in the par ty’s policy platform. The motion called for a Federal Labor Government to recognise Palestine as a State and to support United Nations Security Council Resolution 1397, which was adopted in 2002.

I look forward to a further reaffirmation of that position passing at our upcoming NSW Labor conference next month and to the Albanese Labor Government to make good on Labor’s promise to the Arab Australian community sooner rather than later.

Since the partition of Palestine in 1948, many in Labor have supported the recogni tion of Palestine established on the principle

of a permanent two-State solution based on the 1967 borders as the realisation of the in alienable right of the Palestinian people.

Australia’s 1948 historic position was put by then foreign Minister Dr H V Evatt, as chairman of the UN Special Committee on Palestine, who authorised the partition of Palestine into two States. Upon the basis of that decision, the State of Israel was created.

Whitlam’s 1972 policy on Palestine was even handed. It built upon Dr Evatt’s 1948 two-State solution. This was followed by the Hawke Government’s 1983 acknowl edgement of the right of the Palestinian peo ple to self-determination.

Soon after was the Keating Government’s continued support for the basic principle of a two-State solution, a position re-endorsed by the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments. However, it was with the Rudd and Gillard governments that Labor in government be gan to take that extra step in balancing La bor’s positive position vis-a-vis Palestine, specifically under the Carr foreign ministry.

In the campaign for recognition for Pal estine, Prime Minister Rudd told the ABC RadioPM program:

“… the time has come for Australia to join countries like Sweden and the Holy See in formally recognising the Palestinian State. It is time for Australia to draw a line in the sand on this matter, as 137 States already have.”

The late former Prime Minister Bob Hawke also joined Kevin Rudd, Gareth Ev ans and Bob Carr in calling on Australia to recognise Palestine as a State.

In a 2017 Financial Review opinion piece,

Hawke called on the Australian Government to recognise the State of Palestine:

“Australia was there at the very begin ning. The least we can do now, in these most challenging of times, is to do what 137 other nations have already done—grant diplomat ic recognition to the State of Palestine.”

This significant call to recognise Palestine was echoed in a landmark speech by the Hon Bob Carr on 30 July 2017 at the NSW Labor State conference, by driving home the point that it is time to recognise Palestine. Australia must act now, before Israel gob bles up the remaining Palestinian territories. It may be too late, given the rate of settle ments taking place on Palestinian land.

I am proud to be a member of a party that supports peace and justice for the Palestini an people. The recognition of a Palestinian State is also a rebuke to those who contin

ue to cover up Israel’s apartheid practices, its human rights abuses, its ongoing illegal occupation of Palestinian land, its ongoing hostilities and the subjugation of the Pales tinian people, the illegal settlements as well as the blockade of the Gaza Strip, the col lective punishment, the ever-deepening hu manitarian crises and the daily suffering of the Palestinian people.

I am proud to have been part of this jour ney in support of justice for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, an indige nous people who have never ceded rights to their land. No matter the oppression, no matter the subjugation, no matter the occu pation, no matter the dehumanisation or the attempted eradication of Palestinian culture and rights, justice will prevail and Palestine will be once again.

Bilal Cleland

The royal couple at the historic 17thcentury Badshahi Mosque in Lahore on 2 November 2006.

Shaoquett Moselmane speaking on Wednesday 21 September 2022 in NSW Parliament House.

COMMUNITY

Major new Islamic Centre takes shape in Brisbane

Imran Andrew Price

An exciting new project, Brisbane Islamic Centre, the largest of its kind in Australia is starting to take shape in Brisbane. When completed, it will be the largest Mosque in Queensland and a most comprehensive Islam ic Centre in Australia and a hub for all members of the community.

Brisbane Islamic Centre Ltd (BIC) was founded in 2007, primarily to establish and develop a major new Islamic Centre at 161 Underwood Road, Eight Mile Plains, on the Southside of Brisbane. It is a registered charity with the Australian Charity and Notfor-profits Commission.

The ten-acre block on which the Centre is being established is owned by BIC Ltd, and was donated Waqf to the community. The land is freehold and unencumbered fi nancially.

The location of the Centre promises to be one of the more exciting developments on the Southside Brisbane Landscape.

The Centre that will be built on 5 acres of land and will include the following:

• Masjid with modern male and female fa cilities

• Underground parking for 300 cars and another 100 car parks at ground level

• Community Hall for weddings and func tions for up to 800 guests; with it’s own commercial kitchen and a cold room.

• Several serviced offices for other organ isations, with an adjoining shared Board room, reception and a kitchen

• Islamic Library

• Auditorium with a theatre seating for 150 people with state-of-the-art audiovisual facilities

• Islamic Museum documenting the histo ry of Muslims in Australia and Queens land in particular

• Coffee shop

• Book shop

• Madressah classrooms

• Interfaith and cross-cultural dialogue fa cilities

• Youth facilities and children’s play ground

• Janazah and Gusal facilities

The Complex will consist of 3 levels:

• Underground car park, youth centre, sports facility, Madressah and a Janazah / Ghusl facility

• Ground floor Masjid for men and an In

formation Centre (Dawah)

• Upper-level Masjid for ladies with di rect easy access; serviced offices and the community hall.

The Community Hall will accommodate about 800 people for functions and will in clude a commercial kitchen.

The cost of construction is estimated to be $20 million with over $3m having already been raised.

The second stage being the other 5 acres of the development will be to build the first Muslim Retirement and Aged Care Village in Brisbane which will also incorporate a Medical Centre and a Child Care facility.

This centre, the Sukoon Village will con sist of 91 x 2 and 3 bedroom apartments, 20

aged care units and 10 Dementia care units.

The Development Application for Sukoon Village has just been granted by the Bris bane City Council.

Both, the Brisbane Lord Mayor, Adrian Schrinner and local Federal Member of Par liament, Graham Perrett have recently vis ited the site to see the progress of the con struction and give the project their support.

A major fund raising dinner is planned for Saturday 15 October at Wilson’s Steak & Seafood Restaurant in Eight Mile Plains and an open house family day event on the con struction site itself is planned for December.

This Project will form an essential part of the community and fills the huge void cur rently experienced with the lack of suitable facilities. It will also facilitate a better un derstanding of Islam and Muslims in Aus tralia for generations to come.

More details are available at BIC website: www.bic.org.au, Facebook and Instagram pages.

Support for this important new project will be much appreciated with donations in cash or kind such as building material, la bour, expertise and ideas.

Bank account details for BIC: Suncorp Bank, Brisbane Islamic Centre (Construc tion Fund) BSB 484 799, Account number 480 458 040.

Visitors are most welcome to the display centre and office at 161 Underwood Road, Eight Mile Plains. Please call 0402 898 741 to make an appointment.

For more information please contact secretary@bic.org.au.

Imran is Training & Placement Officer at Epic Assist. He has an MBA from the AGSM (UNSW) and a Diploma in Islamic Studies from IIUM. He is President of the Brisbane Muslim Fellowship Inc., a convert support group set up at the Kuraby mosque in Bris bane.

Member of Parliament for Moreton electorate, Graham Perrott with board members and the Project Manager, Randall.

AIMA Leadership Camp: Enthusiasm, collegiality and networking

Dr Habib Bhurawala

The Australian Islam ic Medical Association (AIMA) organised a na tional leadership camp in Canberra from Saturday 10 to Sunday 11 Septem ber 2022, attended by almost 100 doctors and other health profession als as well as medical students from all across Australia, where Senator Fatima Payman, the Labor Senator for WA deliv ered the keynote speech.

Dr Muhammad Afzal Kahloon, Canber ra-based senior Urologist and President of AIMA, welcomed all attendees saying that the objective and purpose of AIMA is to unite and inspire Muslim health professionals in Australia.

“AIMA members wish to serve and con tribute to the welfare of Muslims and the broader Australian community,” he said.

Dr Kahloon urged Muslim medical and health professionals to come forward and support AIMA’s vision, goals and objectives with active participation in various activities.

Dr Habib Bhurawala, a Sydney-based senior Paediatrician and Chair of the AIMA leadership program committee provided a brief update on the event’s purpose.

“This leadership camp is an opportunity to develop leadership skills for AIMA cen tral and state executive committee members, future leaders including junior doctors and medical students,” he said.

“This camp will also provide ample net working opportunities, especially for junior doctors and medical students,” Dr Bhurawala further added.

The programme on the first day, Sunday 10 September, commenced with a short Islamic talk, lessons and guidance based on the Holy Quran delivered by Dr Jamal Tashkandi, con sultant Anaesthetist based in Rockhampton, Central Queensland and a member of the central leadership team of AIMA.

This session was followed by a talk by Dr Helen Parsons, CSC, FRACMA, on Medical Leadership, together with a Q&A session. Dr Parsons is the current president of The Royal Australasian College of Medical Administra tors and served in various public and private health facilities and Australian defence forc es.

Dr Ashraf Chehata, Melbourne-based Or thopaedic surgeon and National vice-pres ident of AIMA, spoke on Prophetic Lead ership, explaining lessons derived from the battle of Uhud with subsequent Quranic rev elation and its relevance to Islamic Leader ship today.

Senator Fatima Payman, Labor Senator for

WA, delivered a keynote speech acknowledg ing the support she has received from various Muslim community sections. She narrated her story of growing up in Perth from age 5, schooling in a Muslim school and her studies in pharmacy at the University of WA, later deciding to join politics and achieving rapid success in getting elected as a senator.

During the tea break, Senator Payman free ly mingled with delegates at the event, net working and obliging those who wished to take photos.

Dr Imran Ali, Canberra-based Anaesthe tist and Logistics co-ordinator for the AIMA Leadership camp, welcomed everyone on behalf of the AIMA-ACT team and provided housekeeping instructions and updates.

Dr Muhammad Ashraf, a Mackay-based general surgeon and secretary of AIMA, wel comed everyone to the first in-person meet ing of AIMA nationally since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and provided an over view of AIMA’s activities.

“AIMA is a national organisation with branches in each state and territory with well-established programs such as blood do nation drives and free CPR training for com munity members, he said.

Dr Ashraf further added, “AIMA aims to expand programs to provide guidance and

mentoring for medical students and young clinicians and to unite, inspire and serve”.

He reminded everyone that actions are judged by intention, and urged the audience to purify our intention.

Mr Shahid Majeed, CEO of E-LEAD, Global Centre of Excellent for Leadership, Engagement and Development conducted in teractive workshops on Leadership and peak performance which were very well received.

He spoke about creating an impact through developing and enhancing the capacity and aspiration of future and emerging leaders for active Leadership in a global society.

A promo video highlighted the achieve ments of AIMA, showing glimpses of previ ous events, including a public health aware ness campaign during COVID-19, CPR training in masjids and Islamic centres, and blood donation drives.

Mr Dan Bourchier, an Experienced mul ti-award-winning ABC Journalist who is the host of ABC Canberra, First Nations herit age, spoke about his experiences in media being a journalist of First Nations heritage and his journey over the years.

He answered many audience questions on equity, access, and presentation of minority issues in mainstream media, generating ro bust discussion.

Ms Mobinah Ahmad, Managing Editor of AMUST, an all-rounder with BSc, BA, MA (Digital Culture), MA (Islamic Studies) and a Digital Strategist at Digital Ninjas with substantial experience in dealing with mass media delivered the next session.

During her presentation, she advised the delegates on successfully engaging with mainstream media in order to convey pro fessional and Islamic messages in a positive way.

Mr Zia Ahmad, a retired Biochemist, cur rently Editor-in-Chief of AMUST and win ner of several journalism awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award at the NSW Premier’s Multicultural Communications Awards 2021, during his presentation, talked about AMUST’s positive news media plat form and how AIMA members can contrib ute articles on its self-submission system.

The second day Sunday, 11 September, commenced with an Islamic talk from Dr Mostafa Saleem, Consultant Gastroenterolo gist based at Launceston, Tasmania.

He reminded participants about the roles and responsibilities of Muslims in general and health professionals in particular towards humanity and the Islamic community.

A project Management session included using various software by Dr Ahmed Saeed Goolam, a Sydney-based Urologist and member of the AIMA Central leadership team, followed by several small group work shops were conducted amongst the delegates discussing set topics with the spokesperson for each group presenting a summary of dis cussions to the audience.

Dr Kahloon, AIMA President, presented future goals and strategy as a way forward for AIMA followed by further discussions and delegates’ reflections on the AIMA Lead ership Camp proceedings.

The leadership development program concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr Mu hammed Ashraf, Secretary of the Australian Islamic Medical association, acknowledging the incredible contribution of many volun teers and AIMA-ACT’s office bearers in the leadership camp’s organisation over the weekend.

He also announced the plans for a national AIMA conference in 2023.

Recording of previous AIMA events and details of other activities conducted by the Australian Islamic Medical Association is available on their website:

www.aimamed.com.au.

Dr Habib Bhurawala (MBBS MD FRACP DCH) is a consultant general paediatrician currently working at Nepean & Blue Moun tains hospitals in Sydney. He has a strong in terest in community work, especially health education/promotion.

Dr Muhammad Afzal Kahloon.

Senator Fatima Payman.

Dr Ashraf Chehata.

Mobinah Ahmad.

Islamic Awareness Month: Sydneymosque opens its doors for all

munity members can congregate, social ise, eat on a sofra, exercise or teach/study martial arts

The Islamic Council of New South Wales (ICNSW) held an Open Mosque project on Sun day 24 September 2022 at the Darul Imaan Masjid at Wolli Creek. Launched as part of ICNSW’s Is lamic Awareness Month campaign in September, the event provid ed an opportunity for a mosque to open its doors to Muslims and non-Muslims for a full day of programs, food and en tertainment activities.

The program invites cross-cultural and intra-community dialogue allowing knowl edge and experiences to be transmitted with in the community. This in turn helps build capacity within the mosque for stronger community engagement as well as for pub lic relations.

Traditionally, Islamic townships did not have town halls or community centres. They had mosques. Just like at Darul Imaan Mas jid, these mosques had:

1. Prayer halls for men and women to con duct their daily prayers as well as for the

congregational friday prayer

2. A canteen or soup kitchen catering for regular meals (usually on a Thursday night) or to host iftars and celebratory events like a wedding or Eid festivities.

3. A madrasah (school) providing public ed ucation free of charge for all community members ranging from pre-school aged children to the elderly.

4. A community staging area where com

5. An administrative office that organised hajj and funeral services, weddings, con versions and charity collection and distri bution in the local community.

The above features were pointed out to the attendees. Aspects of Malay culture, such as the 5 button, 3 pocket Baju Melayu (Malay shirt) were explained. The buttons represented the 5 pillars of Islam and the pockets represented Islam (Worship), Imaan (faith) and Ihsan (beauty).

Many Muslims who attended had never visited Masjid Darul Imaan before and had never sampled Malay cuisine before.

Sheikh Soner Cronulu was the speaker on the day.

During the event there were a number of talks about community development and Islamic awareness. Passionate communal invocations and Quran were recited in the mosque.

Elias Attia is a solicitor who has worked as a research assistant and community devel opment consultant addressing social issues in Sydney as well as in rural Australia.

Queensland Muslims launched in Parliament

Queensland Muslims Inc Launched in the Speak ers Hall in Queensland Parliament House on Saturday 20 August 2022. Among the guests were members from the three levels of govern ment, members of the Federal and State Police, CEOs from Set tlement Agencies. Leaders of Multicul tural communities, and members of the Muslim and wider community.

Queensland Muslims Inc is an umbrella organization representing in excess of thirty Queensland Muslim Organizations repre sented by thirteen executive members head ed by their president Habib Jamal.

Queensland Muslims’ three targets are advocacy, Social Cohesion and Community with set values, vision and mission being an integral part of the fabric of Australia.

Some of the issues to be tackled by work shops and expos are problems arising in the

On Saturday 27 August 2022, Queensland Muslims Inc held their first official function in the form of a Citizenship Ceremony in the hall of the Islamic college of Brisbane.

Dr Jim Chalmers, the Federal Treasurer, was the presiding officer in the ceremony in which one hundred people from thirty-six countries received Australian citizenship.

A highlight of the event was a little twoyear-old boy who took Centre stage waving

the Australian flag which made the audience laugh. The new Australians cut a welcome cake and enjoyed a sumptuous afternoon tea before leaving with a plant to mark the occa sion, donated by Councilor Kim Marx.

Janeth Deen is a descendant of the first five Muslim families to settle in Brisbane. She is a retired secondary teacher and is a vol untary community worker. She is the Direc tor of the Muslim Charitable Foundation, Trustee of the Holland Park Mosque, Pres ident of The QLD Multicultural Council, co-founder and President of the QLD Mus lim Historical Society. Curator of the QLD Muslim Museum and Board Director of the Islamic College of Brisbane.

Elias Attia

Janeth Deen

The MC for the event was Dr Mustafa Ally OAM who added humour to the event. Amongst the guest speakers were Senator Paul Scar, James Martin MP Member for Stretton and Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schinner.

Queensland community such as drug and alcohol addiction, unemployment, domes tic violence, SES training, mental health issues, youth problems and the list goes on. The members will also support events held by member organizations by working coop eratively.

Brainstorming: Muslims’ engaging with media

bridged.

A media engagement dinner event was held in Burwood on Monday 5 Septem ber 2022 hosted by the Islamic Council of New South Wales (ICNSW) as part of its Islamic Awareness Month campaign in September providing opportunities for the journalism community to interact with community members interested in engaging with the media and addressing Islamophobia.

The event served to educate journalists about Islam and the Muslim community by introducing them to new Muslim faces and good news stories as a way to counteract negative stories about the community.

It also introduced young Muslim journal ists/graduates and students to senior jour nalists exposing them to pathways into the media industry.

The event included a panel featuring Sheikh Wesam Charkawi (Abu Hanifa In stitute), Khaled Sukkarieh (ICNSW), Nabil Al Nashar (ABC) and Helen Vatsikopolous (Walkley Foundation/UTS) exploring whether and how the divide between the Muslim community and the media can be

At times apprehensions in the room was high as the Muslim speakers raised difficult issues in their engagement with the media and what a solution are possible when mov ing forward. These are the difficult conver sations we had to have to ensure commu nities and media organisations can better engage with each other.

The panel was moderated by Fauziah Ibrahim, co-host of ABC’s Weekend Break fast and a veteran journalist.

Other members of the media fraternity were able to showcase their programs and how community members might want to en gage them. Around 15 journalists and media professionals attended from the ABC, SBS and other news organisations.

AMUST’s Editor-in-Chief Zia Ahmad highlighted his interaction with ABC for al most four decades and appreciation for the public broadcaster for highlighting issues of concern for the Muslims and positive stories on the community.

Mrs Mehar Ahmad, President of Seena Inc, Publishers of AMUST talked about the importance of community media channels, in particular AMUST in uncovering stories that normally do not reach the news desks of larger publications.

Journalism student Boushra El Kheir was praised by her mentor Helen Vatsikopolous during the panel discussion for her citizen journalism project covering the lived expe riences of Western Sydney residents living under the 2021 COVID-19 lockdowns

ICNSW is changing the way we engage with media to ensure there is a pathway to improving Muslim community and media relations. This is not a one off dinner event and that was made clear to the journalists who attended. Further media engagement activities are planned in the future.

ICNSW is welcoming readers interested in these programs to contact ICNSW via email: elias@attialawyers.com.au

Elias Attia

Celebrating Eid while reflectingon sacrifice and gratitude

An Eid meet and greet event was held on Sunday 7 August 2022 at James Cook University (JCU), Townsville.

It was a joint event was organised by Muslim Stu dent Association (JCU MSA ) along with the Aus tralian Islamic Medical Association (AIMA) and Islamic Medical Association of Queens land (IMAQ)

Eid is a time to celebrate and enjoy with family and friends, but how often are we reminded to reflect upon the significance of the sacrifice in Prophet Ibrahim’s (a) life and think about the importance we give Allah in our own.

This event was open to students from all faculties of JCU including medicine, IT, those pursuing PhD’s and from varied eth nic backgrounds.

The event was addressed by 2 speakers, Dr Usama Shahid from the Townsville Uni versity Hospital and Dr Omer Shareef, Vice President of IMAQ.

Dr Usama’s talk began with a wakeup call from Surah Hadid: “Has the time not yet

Blue Grey Mountains With City In Front

Fazlul Huq

Ranges of Rocky Mountains covered with ridges and dents extended towards the right and left are found to be hued in blue and grey mixed with tint of pink.

When distant mountains so much more gained in height are seen to have the cover of snow and ice.

As mountains held at low have also patches of white over the slanting face, valley like lows and the high mounts.

While land in front so even and flat is seen to have the city in place abounding in high rise dressed in white.

As other dwellings lacking in height scattered over body of the plain also have the hue mostly made in white.

While city edge right in front is seen to have in place extended bush dressed in green and gold.

Dr Fazlul Huq is a retired academic and Editor-in-Chief Emanreserch Jour nal Of Angiotherapy. He is also the poet “Jujube” at Allpoetry. com with over 35,000 compositions.

come for the believers’ hearts to be humbled at the remembrance of Allah…” (Quran 57:16)

This one ayah debased all my excuses like: ‘once I get into Uni I’ll have more time for my spiritual needs’, ‘once these exams finish, I’ll listen to more Islamic lectures’ or ‘once I’m stable in my job I’ll go back to Hifz’.

But the reality is that life will not pause for you to come back to Allah, there will always be something pulling you back, convincing you that Allah can wait but the dunya cannot.

Every decision we make is an active choice between this life and the next; be tween what we want and what Allah wants.

Although it’s hard to wake up for my 7am compulsory classes, I’ll never miss any be

cause of the consequences. So why is it that some mornings I must battle and struggle with myself to wake up for Fajr?

I understand the consequences are much greater than missing a class, yet I’m com paratively lenient with myself. We work day and night for our worldly goals while stressing we aren’t doing enough, but con gratulate ourselves for the bare minimum for Islam.

Dr Shareef shared from Surah Najm: Each of you will only be left with your efforts. So, what greater comfort could there be that there are no outcomes required of us, except our heartfelt efforts.

There were also takeaways on the benefits of being content and expressing gratitude.

The most beloved of deeds to Allah are those that are most consistent, even if they

are small. (Bukhari).

In light of this, the MSA members began planning a fortnightly meetup to explore the Prophet’s (s) life and learn how to apply his examples in the modern way to strive for continual progression and improvement as Australian Muslims.

Overall, it was a night filled with food and laughter, but also advice from Dr Usa ma Shahid and Dr Omar Shareef who spoke about life lessons to take away from Eid-ulAdha.

Imaan Ashraf is a fourth-year medical stu dent at James Cook University in Queens land, where she is the Academic Representa tive for her cohort and an executive member of the JCU Muslim Students Association.

Edhi Foundation joined Gallery One62 to raise funds for flood relief in Pakistan

Edhi Foundation and Gallery One62 both to gether organised an ex hibition for Pakistan flood relief held earlier in September at the Gallery One62 premises in Au burn.

Many local artists in cluding Zahid Ahmed, Ayesha Gillani, and many other peoples showcased their art work at the event.

There were all sorts of paintings featuring Pakistani culture and also this was aimed to raise funds. Gallery One62 exhibited the pencil as well as sketch artworks of local artists, concern for humanity as well as cal ligraphy.

Edhi Sahib said, “No religion is higher than humanity”.

A number of patrons bought the artworks and the funds were donated to Pakistan flood relief.

If you are an artist and associated with art, you can also donate your artwork where the funds from sales will be donated to Pakistan flood relief.

The community members thanked artists who contributed to the exhibition includ ing Zahid Ahmed, Ayesha Gillani, Jugni, Waqeea Chaudhry, Umar Ahmed, Mahrukh, Shahid Malik and many others.

There are some paintings available for purchase from Gallery One62, 162 Par ramatta Road, Auburn, NSW 2144 .

For more details please Contact Shahid Malik: 0418 461 768, Hamid Khan: 0408 574 266.

Hamid Khan represents the Edhi Founda tion while Shahid Malik manages Gallery One62.

Shafqat Ali is the Founder/President of Young Innovators Australia. He is a Trainer, Youth Mentor, Author and Consultant.

Shafqat Ali

Imaan Ashraf

Recognition for ICNSW volunteers

The Islamic Council of New South Wales (ICNSW) held its inaugural volunteers lunch on Saturday 3 September 2022 in Bankstown kicking off its Islamic Aware ness Month campaign in September, mo bilising communities and volunteers to address Islamophobia in the community.

Community volunteers and workers are the backbone of our efforts. They work tire lessly on a regular basis and sometimes with limited resources of their own. They have incredible stories, networks and ideas about how we move our community forward.

The event provided an opportunity for volunteers to network with each other, learn about other volunteering opportunities and why their efforts were critically important to the Muslim community.

ICNSW’s long term objective is to make volunteerism a pathway to personal and pro fessional development.

The event proved emotional for many vol unteers. Following two years of COVID-19 disruptions, a recognition event was long overdue. Over 60 letters and feedback forms were received by ICNSW over the follow ing days requesting more opportunities to

get involved.

The event provided an opportunity to showcase what ICNSW has been able to achieve through its volunteers.

The majority of the attendees were teach

ing ICNSW’s Islamic Special Religious Education (ISRE) programs in NSW pub lic schools. The program currently teaches 28,000 students each week through 540 vol unteers working across over 300 schools.

With no government funding, ICNSW re lies on donations, occasionally a contribu tion from a major sponsor, and the generos ity of its volunteers.

“Many people don’t know what the Is lamic Council of NSW does,” Said Khaled Sukkarieh, ICNSW Chairperson. “This event highlighted the important work of our volunteers that often goes unrecognised.”

Sister Megan wrote about her experienc es volunteering as an ISRE teacher and the positive impact it is having on the students and the supervising teacher:

“Firstly, thank you for organising such a successful event to celebrate, inspire and encourage the community leaders, mem

bers, existent (and future) volunteers. It was fantastic to have the opportunity to meet other volunteers and hear their experiences and listen to such speeches that moved me to tears and cemented in my heart that I am where I am meant to be.” ICNSW was rep resented through its volunteer board, chap lains and ISRE teachers. Volunteers from other organisations attended. Around 180 attended the event.

Since my appointment as its CEO in 2021, I have been overseeing ICNSW’s post COVID-19 recovery effort.

A volunteer recognition event was one of the first events suggested by our ISRE su pervisors. They’ve got their hands full, help ing communities cope with trauma caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns of Western Sydney.

The least ICNSW could do is say “Thank you!”

Muslim men discuss domestic violence

Alia Sarfraz

“Domestic Violence is no longer an unad dressed phenomenon. Controversy is nev er far away from this topic. Culture wars, gender wars and the far right with the far left is all of what we have to deal with.”

The podcast hosted by Faraz Nomani in tended to discuss Muslim men’s perspec tive: they were the unheard voices in the situation.

The podcast opened to feature a true life story of a sister whose husband had been regularly absent from home and the COV ID-19 lockdown made a situation become unbearable until her husband revealed that he had a second wife and the situation with his first wife had become unbearable. He now wanted out.

The sister had to unpack and leave with her two children who appeared to be under the age of ten. She had nowhere to go. She called another sister who asked her to call National Zakat Foundation. They were able to assist.

Shocking but also drawing the sisters in and showing a possible female perspective, it appeared to be a clip to highlight the work of the National Zakat Foundation.

Two young sheikhs in the community were able to join in and offer their view points at this juncture. They were Sheikh Jamal-ud-din El-Kiki from the Lebanese Muslim Association who often deals with husband and wife reconciliation matters and Sheikh Mohammad Trad who is the Imam at Zetland Mosque and works for AFIC.

They both do not uniquely see domestic violence as a Muslim specific issue as it af fects all communities. Coming out of lock down has had residual effects and traumas

especially within Muslim communities. Where there are cases of injustice, they nor mally involve some level of trauma which is why they recommends healing.

Sheikh Trad went on to talk about physi cal abuse and psychological abuse attributed to socioeconomic factors and he feels that branding of this issue as being associated with Islam is not right.

Faraz infers that a lot of brothers feel that they get labelled as an instigator.

Sheikh Jamal says that he deals with a lot of men who have the mentality that, “he has to teach her a lesson or she deserved it.”

Sheikh Trad went on to address, “toxic masculinity,” and how the times affect the understanding of this.

Toxic Masculinity is condemnable ag

gressive behaviour and it is not in line with Islamic teachings.

They quoted the hadith, “the best of you is the one who is best to his family (especially the wife).”

Sheikh Jamal also cautioned against throwing around of labels, “misogynist,”” narcissist.”

“The alpha male notion is not found in the Seerah,” said Sheikh Jamal.

Sheikh Trad warns of boasting in compa ny, “my husband only does what I tell him, “or “she only ever has to listen to me” type mentality. No one knows behind closed doors.

We need to be quiet in community about personal matters and submit to Allah first. One of the tensions between men and wom

en is the sense of individualism. Marriage is supposed to be about softness.

Questions from the audience included the showing of emotions for a male. Sheikh Jamal responded with the Prophet (s) being able to readily show his emotion.

“Bravery and courage is recommended in Islam with Haqq (truth),” said Sheikh Trad. Though the topic was domestic violence, most of what was discussed was relation ship dynamics between married couples. Gender roles, feminism, past traumas, nar cissism and societal expectations.

Spiritual abuse was also touched upon. Issues of conflicts with religion and the need to prove oneself right for the court and fighting for the kids is where matters become more complex and where Muslim men feel unheard in marriage breakdown.

Men abusing to try to take advantage was when it was brave for a man to confront the issue head-on. Is this all about power dy namics?

The host’s conclusion: masculinity was set as an example by the Prophet Mohmmad (s). Who could argue with that? Where there is harm, there should be no further harm.

While some of this is difficult to apply, these are messages that are important for everyone. The overall tone was wanting re lationships to thrive.

It was a positive message set forth by these brothers.

There are many takeaways from the topic which could apply to any relationship dy namic. The conversational dynamic and the diverse backgrounds of the panel were re freshing.

It was good to see young, informed Mus lim men who are open to listening to all sides of a story.

Elias Attia

Boushra Elkheir wins Premier’s award

Boushra Elkheir won the Alan Knight Student Award at the annual Premier’s Multicultural Communications Awards (PMCA 2022) held in Sydney on Thurs day 8 September.

Boushra Elkheir at the Premier’s Multi cultural Communications Awards.

The UTS student won the award for an observational documentary she produced during Sydney’s 2021 lockdown.

Her documentary, How the West Was Lost, provides an exclusive insight into the day-to-day activities of Western Sydney res idents who faced the harshest Covid-related restrictions across Greater Sydney.

By showcasing the story through her fam ily, Boushra drew upon the Tale of Two Syd ney’s by comparing the state government’s handling of the pandemic in Western Syd ney and how it differed with the city’s more affluent eastern and northern suburbs.

Boushra Elkheir, a fourth year Law and Journalism student, produced the 25-min ute video as part of her capstone Journalism assignment and was mentored by Dr Helen Vatsikopoulos.

The 21-year-old felt the need to dedicate her assignment to raise awareness about her community’s struggles because she believed that “our voices were not being heard”.

“We had police tackling people to the

floor for not wearing masks whereas in the eastern suburbs, police were turning a blind eye to the thousands of people flocking to the beaches.”

“We really felt like second-class citizens for simply living in Western Sydney,” she

said.

The fourth-year student was presented the award by UTS academic Dr Kathy Egea, the wife of the late Alan Knight, who was the former head of journalism at UTS.

The award ceremony, held at the Sydney Theatre Company at Dawes Point, was at tended by the Premier of NSW, Dominic Perrottet and Minister for Multiculturalism, Mark Coure.

“I’ve been in parliament for 11 years and with my background I didn’t really have a great appreciation until very recently of the importance of multicultural media and communications,” Mr Perrottet told the au dience.

“I saw firsthand the role multicultur al communications had by providing key health messages to communities right across our state. And the work that many of you here in this room did, I believe, had a lasting impact that we should never forget.”

Corporate groups visit Brothers in Need

Dean Mousad

Brothers in Need has re cently been hosting cor porate groups in their programs, as part of their employers’ allocation of volunteering hours.

One group who attend ed in late August was the Microsoft team. They had a tour of the Brothers in Need headquarters and packed non-perishables/toiletries into bags, and plan to distribute them at Martin Place in October 2022.

Brothers in Need is a Muslim not-forprofit organisation which was established in 2015. It acts as a family for Australia’s forgotten and aims to transform Australian community one life at a time.

Its largest focus is to assist the homeless community, refugees and asylum seekers.

Other groups which participated in the Warehouse programs and other programs

include Salesforce, Clifford-Chance and Pi ety Group.

Salesforce and Piety Group attended the Soup Kitchen, whilst Clifford-chance did the packing activity.

The Piety Group’s Soup Kitchen event can be viewed in this video:

https://tinyurl.com/keys6ayz

Dahlia, an administration assistant made the following comments re these visits:

“They came to our headquarters in Octo ber, with infectious enthusiasm. They were such a dynamic, bubbly group – we had a good laugh at the end about the ways in which we grew up. We seemed to have a lot in common, across the different cultures.

I loved going out to their flagship store on Pitt Street and seeing their ‘headquar ters’, so to speak. They couldn’t stop telling us how wonderful it had been to help out, and were massively excited to distribute the bags which they had packed. I can’t wait to see them at the Homeless Outreach program in October!

It’s one of the best ways to spend a Sat

urday night – so rewarding! I remember the first time that I went to the homeless run. I was over the moon to finally be able to directly help the homeless people who I had seen around my previous workplace (Garvan Institute of Medical Research) for years.”

Further information about corporate pro grams, as well as the other work of Brothers

IWWA Youth holds Multicultural Night

Anhaar Kareem

The newly established IWWA Youth Commit tee ran a ‘Multicultural Night’, second event this year on Saturday 17 Sep tember 2022.

The first event, a triv ia pizza night was held on the 25 July. This event was centred around introducing the concept of IWWA Youth and meeting new people.

Various activities at the Multicultural Night included world map games, potluck food from around the world, kahoots and best dressed competitions that were both fun and also a social mingling, helping young people to connect and to educate them about the im portance of multiculturalism in Islam:

“O people, we created you all from a sin gle man and a single woman, and made you into races and tribes so that you should get to know one another.” (Quran 49:13)

Many of the girls that attended mentioned

how enjoyable and empowering the night was and IWAA is making an impact.

IWWA, the Islamic Women’s Welfare As sociation was established in 2000 and for the last 22 years, the organisation has strived in providing activities, lectures and support to Muslim women and children in the commu nity.

While over those decades the organisation has also empowered young people through its initiatives, the IWWA Youth committee was started to give a voice to and empower young people, to determine what programs and events they would like to see more of in the community.

The next event will be held on Saturday 15 October, as the first of a speaker panel series, inviting inspiring Muslim women to address the youth.

These events have been facilitated by the generosity of IWWA and its president, Sister Abla Kadous.

Paying only $10 joining fee, attendees are invited to a state of the art facility with food, prizes and amenities provided to them that highly encourages young Muslim women to attend the programs.

“Indeed, they were youths who believed in their Lord, and We increased them in guid ance.” (Quran 18:13)

The importance of young people in Islam is demonstrated many times in the Quran and Sunnah and it is thus, so important for them to be empowered and united, through events such as this.

You can reach IWWA Youth Committee through our email: iwwayouthcommittee@gmail.com or on Instagram @iwwayouth.

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

Boushra Elkheir (centre) at the Premier’s Multicultural Communications Awards.

in Need, can be found at brothersinneed.org.au

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

Dean Mousad, Managing Director of Brothers in Need, and Dahlia, Administration Assistant, visit the Microsoft Flagship Store to discuss opportunities for volunteering with Brothers in Need.

Victims of Enforced Disappearances remembered in Sydney

Dr Faroque Amin

International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances was observed in Sydney on Tuesday 30 August 2022 calling on the Australian government to imple ment the Global Magnit sky Act.

The rally was jointly organised by the South Asian Policy Initiative and Global Voice for Humanity.

A large audience gathered in front of the NSW Parliament building, on the corner of Macquarie Street and Martin Place in Syd ney CBD, to protest against ongoing occur rences of enforced disappearances in many countries worldwide.

Representatives from diverse communi ties, political and community leaders, hu man rights activists and the general public were present at the event.

This protest event was initiated by the representatives of the First Nation’s Na deena Dixon and Uncle Dave Bell. Shibly Sohail, the South Asian Policy Initiative’s secretary, presided over the program.

Senator David Shoebridge from the Aus tralian Greensduring his address said that Australia now has the Global Magnitsky Act legislated and therefore the government should use this law to bring the foreign per petrators to accountability who use Austral ia as their safe haven.

Senator David Shoebridge said that en forced disappearance and abduction were crimes that took place against the tradition

al owners of this land on the site where we stand today.

Same type of crimes taking place in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and other countries.

He further added that US has recently sanctioned the Rapid Action Batallion of Bangladesh. If Australia doesn’t prioritise human rights issues at the expense of other trivial matters, that would be a short-sighted strategy.

Former Senator Lee Rhiannon during her address said that enforced disappearance is a crime against humanity and the interna tional community needs to take a firm stand against this heinous crime.

Veronica Koman, the representative of Amnesty International Australia, said that her organisation is working tireless ly against these state-sponsored crimes in many countries. However, the international response is still not adequate in this matter.

Renuga Inpakumar, a representative of the Tamil Refugee Council, provided a heart-wrenching account of how the Sri Lankan Military have been torturing, ab ducting and killing Tamil people in the country. She said that Sri Lanka has now taken second place in terms of enforced dis appearance numbers.

Mohammad Rauf, a representative of the Arakan Rohingya community from Myan mar, Amar Singh, a representative of the Sikh community from India, Anjum Rafiqi, a representative of the Kashmiri community from India, and Joe Collins, a representative of the West Papuan community from Indo nesia talked about the plights, struggles and sufferings of their people by the State au thorities.

Various representatives of the Bang ladeshi community also addressed those present claiming that Bangladesh was now known as the enforced disappearance capi tal of the world.

The current regime has abducted more than 600 opposition leaders and activists over the last decade, many of whom have been not been heard from for several years.

Alongside torture, murder and other means of oppression, the Bangladesh gov ernment has been using enforced disappear ance as a tool to spread fear and terror.

They described that the family members of those who have disappeared, many po litical leaders and activists are still waiting hopelessly for their loved ones. Children are growing older without their fathers while their parents have been waiting and some have died waiting for years for their sons to return.

The speakers at the event asked the in ternational community to raise their voices and concerns to stop this gross human rights violation in Bangladesh and in many other countries.

Among the Bangladesh leaders, Mos

lehuddin Arif, Kudrat Ullah Liton, Sohel Mahmud Iqbal, Mohammad Hyder Ali, Fa ruk Hossain, and Rashed Khan highlighted the plight of those who have disappeared presumably under the regimes’ watch.

During the event, Rahat Shantanu sang a song, and Habib Rahman recited a poem to remember those countless victims of en forced disappearance.

At the end, Md Abdullah Yousuf, a senior member of the event organising committee, thanked all participants who had shown their concern by joining the rally.

The same day, a representative group led by Shibly Sohail and Faroque Amin submit ted a memorandum to Md Ashfaq Hussain, Consul General of Bangladesh in Sydney demanding that the Bangladesh govern ment stop the heinous practice of enforced disappearances immediately, bring back the victims and cooperate fully with a UN com mission into this crime against humanity.

Dr Faroque Amin works with Suprovat Syd ney, a Bengali community newspaper pub lished from Sydney, Australia.

Moselmane being denied preselection by NSW Labor

Concern has been raised that the NSW Labor Leadership seem to have decided not to preselect Shaoquett Moselmane MLA, the only Muslim representative in any state Upper House in Australia at the upcoming state elections on 25 March 2023.

If they finally do remove Moselmane, then Labor would be removing the first member of the Islamic faith in the Legislative Coun cil and the first-ever member of the Islamic faith elected in any state or federal parlia ment.

Mr Moselmane has been a member of the ALP since 1982 and was elected to the Leg islative Council of the NSW Parliament in December 2009.

He has a long-standing involvement with various communities including South Asian, Arabic, Greek, Italian, Macedonian, Chinese and many other multicultural communities.

He was earlier elected to Rockdale City Council in 1995 where he served a number of times as Deputy Mayor and was elect ed Mayor of Rock dale City Council on four separate occa sions, from 2001 to 2002 -3, 2005 – 2006 and again in 2009.

Mr Moselmane has been a strong advo cate for Palestinian rights, speaking in the NSW parliament and raising his voice against the violation of human rights of Palestinians by the Is raeli authorities from time to time.

The NSW MP was the target of radio shock jocks earlier in 2020 and a police raid under full limelight

of the media in June that year but was fully exonerated by November 2020 again join ing the parliament and his membership of the Labor Party was restored on Thursday 12 November after he was absolved of being the target of any for eign influence plot.

On his return to parliament in October 2020, he read a state ment in which he re affirmed his position that he had done noth ing wrong.

“To date, Mr Pres ident, I remain nonethe-wiser as to what this investigation is all about. I don’t know why it was necessary for my public humiliation, nor do I know who decided that

it was necessary for the media to accompany the police raid into my home.”

He never received any explanation as to why he was targeted in a meticulously coor dinated campaign by right wing radio shock jocks, Australian media, AFP, ASIO as well as by supporters of Israel and was highly disappointed by his own Labor Party for not coming to his support against these concert ed attacks.

Mr Moselmane acknowledged the support of grass root members of the multicultural community throughout the traumatic last few months that took a toll on him person ally and on his family. He specially thanked members of the Australian Chinese, Arabic and Pakistani communities for their strong support.

If the news of his removal for pre-selec tion comes true, the Muslim community would be denied of its advocate in NSW Legislative assembly and the only outspo ken critic of Israeli atrocities in the Austral ian parliament.

Shibly Sohail presiding over the event.

Senator David Shoebridge speaking at the event.

Zia Ahmad

Former Senator Lee Rhiannon speaking at the event.

Psychological underpinnings of racism and religious prejudice

Each year in Septem ber the United Nations commemorates the UN Day of Peace. This year’s theme was “End racism. Build peace”.

The United Nations in vites us to work towards a world free of racism and racial discrimination; a world where com passion and empathy overcome suspicion and hatred – a world that we can truly be proud of.

Racism in its most basic sense is the man ifestation of a person’s tendency to attach significance to an individual’s race – one race, one culture or one religion as superior to another.

Twenty percent of Australians reported experiencing discrimination on the basis of skin colour, ethnic origin or religion. Most people reject blatantly racist attitudes, yet underlying attitudes that underpin discrimi nation and intolerance are still held by many people.

Psychological Underpinnings

Racist beliefs can develop early in a per son’s life and become deeply rooted in their

minds. People learn negative stereotypes about other races, ethnicities or religions as children. These lessons are critical to a child’s development because they help them form a sense of identity – their notions of self and others.

Nelson Mandela said, “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his reli gion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

So much of contemporary racism has been driven by a sense of loss. Those who may have previously felt more powerful or in control are now feeling they are losing their place, and they are responding with anger.

Racism is also borne of fear and anxie ty. The human ego can feel vulnerable and threatened by what people are not use to. In dividual fear can extend to one’s culture and community. This has been one threat that has run consistently through the historical fabric of racism – fear that a certain other poses a danger to a national identity or way of life.

To cope with this vulnerability and fear, people cling to their worldviews as a means of protecting themselves and the world they are used to. These worldviews may be inappropri ate and detrimental to others and themselves.

Children learning about homelessness

Brothers in Need, a Muslim not-for-prof it organisation/charitable organisation which primarily distributes food to the needy, has recently received donations of non-perishable food and hygiene items from childcare centres, who have proac tively collected items during Homeless ness Week in August.

One such centre is Kidz Connect Early Learning Centre in Punchbowl. They proac tively collected items during Homelessness Week in August and aimed to teach the chil dren about homeless and helping the needy.

It was just fabulous to visit them, meet the tiny children and pick up all of the items which they had collected. The owner, Rana Moussawel, kept saying that they hadn’t collected ‘many’ items, but I reassured her that ‘every little bit helps’, and that they had in fact collected quite a lot!

One packet of pasta can feed a family for a night and make a world of difference to them. They collected several packets of pasta! How many mouths does that feed? Heaps! I personally love pasta – a little goes

a long way. The kids were so endearing and friendly.

I couldn’t stop smiling & absolutely strug gled to hide my laughter behind my mask.

One of them kept reintroducing himself over and over again…. when I mentioned how the Brothers in Need logo has four hands, they were quite confused and couldn’t un derstand why it has four hands when they only have two hands….I tried to explain what homelessness means and mentioned not having a bed to sleep in at night, then one told me that his mummy tucks him into his bed.

They were just so cute! They may have been a bit too young to understand the con cept of homelessness, but I think that they understood it to some degree…I recall my niece being shocked that a homeless person had to sleep on the street, when she was about 6 years old…these kids were even younger but I feel as if they’d picked up on the concept of giving to those who have less than you. I loved meeting the kids and the staff and seeing the goodwill,” says Dahlia, staff member of Brothers in Need.

Further information about the work of Brothers in Need can be found at:

brothersinneed.org.au or by calling 1300 007 433

Ground-breaking speech by Senator Fatima Payman

Continued from page 2

“Like many hard working Australians, this came as second nature to my parents, who just wanted the best future for their children. From discrimination and abuse to job insecu rity and low wages. My father endured those hardships without complaining or seeking compensation.”

“My first experience of being made to feel like the other. At a university tutorial when a young man ridiculed my hijab. You see, I never felt different growing up. Perth felt like home from the get go because home is where the heart is and my heart was with my family.”

Many hijab-wearers around Australia will identify with the pivotal moment that Senator Payman describes as leading her to politics. She talked about discrimination and of the

feeling of being different during her school and university studies and how she coped with it.

“So I didn’t feel different or strange. I felt like any other Aussie kid growing up in the northern suburbs of Perth catching public transport to university and hoping to become a productive member of society.”

“But comments like ‘go back to where you came from’ or inferences to extremism forced me to feel like I didn’t belong. So I started volunteering in the hopes that being part of the change, if I was seen to be spread ing goodness in society, perhaps then I will be accepted as an equal member of this na tion.”

“I joined the WA Police Muslim Commu nity Advisory Group as the youth representa tive. I served as the President of University of

Western Australia’s Muslim Students’ Asso ciation for two years and worked hard to have an active presence on university grounds to break down those barriers of the unknown.”

She talked about getting interested in poli tics and joining the Labor movement.

” I felt seen, appreciated and like I be longed. I made friends with people who shared the same core values. I remember my father always encouraging me to vote Labor, not because he was very well versed in Aus tralian politics, but he had a firm belief that Labor cared for the working class people and ensured the wellbeing of everyone on the economic spectrum.

“It was Labor who established Medicare so that people like my father had access to the best treatments and medication without the financial burden being on the families to bear. It was Labor who abolished the White

Australia policy to acknowledge, respect and celebrate the diversity of our growing mul ticultural society so families like mine don’t feel ostracised.”

“It was Labor who pioneered superannua tion and fought for workers rights, ensuring everyone was afforded a fair day’s pay. So hard working Australians like my father, wer en’t taken advantage of. And it is Labor who advocate strongly for education of all levels to be accessible to each and every Australian, to have the same opportunities to start life on the front foot. It was a proud moment when I finally joined the Labor Party as a member.”

“And from there on, my experience as a union organizer at the United Workers Union solidified my labor values and motivated me to spend every day fighting for fairness, jus tice and equality.”

John Bellavance

Dr John Bellavance is the Vice-President, Universal Peace Federation Australia –UPF.org. UPF is an NGO in General Con

sultative Status with the Economic and So cial Council of the United Nations

Dean Mousad

Dahlia, Administration Assistant, Brothers in Need, meets the children and staff of Kidz Connect Childcare Centre, Punchbowl during Homelessness Week in August.

Unlearn your fears: 5-Step Process

that is causing you to feel fear

Fears are learned. The environment we grow up in and the mindset we are conditioned and pro grammed with shape our perceptions of fears.

So how do we unlearn our fears?

In the journey of trans formation, one must first identify what needs to be transformed. Similarly, to un learn fears, one must first identify what one fears.

5-Step Process to identify and unlearn your fears

1. Make a list of what you are fearful of. These things could be emotional or phys ical.

2. Beside each fear, write down where you got this fear from? (parents, friends, TV or Film or books)

3. Write down what exactly would happen to you physically if you had to face this thing that was causing you to feel fear

4. Write down positive aspects about the thing you fear from a logical and rational point of view

5. Every time you feel fear, remind yourself about the positive aspects of that thing

It is the fourth step that people struggle with most.

For example, one of my clients had a fear of dying in a car crash. She didn’t fear death, however, a car crash was not how she want ed to die. She said she couldn’t find any thing positive to say about a car crash.

You may agree with her. At some level, I do too. However, let us look at this from a Muslim’s perspective. Once I did this with my client, she was able to overcome this fear completely.

Where there is FAITH there is NO FEAR.

Example of how to unlearn fear

Let’s look at how my client unlearned her fear of dying in a car crash using the above 5 steps.

1. She listed her fear – Dying in a car crash

2. She listed how she developed this fear –She saw pictures of a car crash in a news paper clipping when she was very young

3. She wrote down what would happen to her physically if she was in a car crash – broken bones, brain damage, blood everywhere (notice she didn’t mention death)

4. She wrote down the positive aspect of this car crash – death, returning to Allah, and inshallah Jannah

5. She wrote what she needed to remind her

Making Ground: The participation of Muslim girls in sport

The community engage ment ‘Making Ground: The Participation of Muslim Girls in Sport’, co-organised with Al Sir aat College, the City of Whittlesea and the Social and Global Studies Cen tre (RMIT University), was held at Al Siraat College in Epping on Thursday 1 Septem ber 2022.

The event is an outcome of the project ‘In the Game: Overcoming barriers and parental attitudes towards physical activity outcomes of Muslim girls on the fringes of Melbourne’, funded by the Victorian Government’s ‘Change Our Game’ Grant, the Office for Women and Sport and Recreation (OWSR) and led by RMIT academics Dr Tuba Boz and Professor Hariz Halilovich. Research partners, participating commu nities, policymakers, educators, sporting associations, parents and students came to gether to celebrate the successful comple

tion of the project and share its main findings and highlights. The event commenced with a welcome message from Peggy O’Neal AO, Chancellor of RMIT University, who emphasized the importance of communi ty-based research.

Dr Tuba Boz provided an overview of the findings from the study and introduced the panel discussion led by Professor Hariz Hal ilovich.

Panellists included:

• Professor Hariz Halilovich (RMIT, Mod erator)

• Sarah Styles (Director, Office for Wom en and Sport and Recreation)

• Rahat Arain (Director of Student Learn ing, Al Siraat College)

• Sarah Loh (Executive Manager, FHG, VicHealth)

• Tanja Kubitza (Content and Relations Lead, Al Siraat College)

• Megan Harper (Sports Inclusion Officer, City of Whittlesea)

• Rachael Hussein (Community Engage ment Officer, Al Siraat College)

• Safiye Asanova (PE Teacher and Girls Coordinator, Al Siraat College)

• Nawal Jaleel (Student, Softball player)

• David Halley (Head of Secondary PE, Al Siraat College)

The panel discussed the opportunities and challenges of Muslim girls’ participation in

self every time this fear gripped her – That dying in a car crash will not matter when her soul is released from her body because she will no longer exist in human form. She will be await ing her judgment day. She needs to focus on the now and do good deeds and look forward to entering Jan nah when she dies.

This logical con frontation of her fear gave her a renewed perspective of her tem porary existence here in this duniya.

As Muslims, we are wonderfully equipped with this realisation that life in the duniya is tem porary. Fear is shay tan’s whispers to make you think otherwise. Steadfast faith and trust in Allah overcome all fear.

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

sports from a variety of perspectives.

Ms Jaleel explained why she joined the softball team and gave advice to parents, students and local clubs about facilitating Muslim girls’ participation in sport. Ms Asanova discussed the challenges she expe rienced with clubs around culturally appro priate uniforms, while Ms Arain spoke of her experiences in leading the Bicycle Users Group.

Ms Styles and Ms Loh spoke of their own experiences in participating in sports and highlighted the efforts of VicHealth and the OSWR in overcoming barriers and creating fairer access to all.

Mr Halley shared his views as a ‘profes sional insider’ and ‘cultural outsider’ and Ms Kubitza who was featured in the ‘Whit tlesea Girls Can’ video highlighted the im

portance of role modelling and the idea that ‘seeing is believing’.

Ms Hussein and Ms Harper highlighted the outcomes of their collaboration in facil itating the participation of Muslim women and girls in sports. Their ‘Golf come and try’ program yielded positive results and pathed the way for Muslim women and girls’ par ticipation in this sport.

Here is a brief video about the program: https://tinyurl.com/3xyru3s4

The closing remarks were made by The Hon Lily D’Ambrosio MP, Minister for Energy; Environment and Climate Action; Solar Homes on behalf of The Hon Ros Spence MP, Minister for Multicultural Af fairs; Community Sport; Youth; Prevention of Family Violence.

This event, like other project activities, fa cilitated networking opportunities and con versations between communities, schools, sports clubs, and state sporting associations and had a profound impact on breaking ste reotypes and building relationships.

Dr Boz and Professor Halilovich plan on developing this project further and to con tinue working together with Muslim com munities across Victoria.

Dr Tuba Boz is a Research Fellow at the Social and Global Studies Centre, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.

Prof Hariz Halilovich, Social and Global Research Centre, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies. RMIT University, Mel bourne.

Princess R Lakshman

Dr Tuba Boz & Prof Hariz Halilovich

Domestic Violence is one of the greatest challenges in the general community as well as in the Muslim community which is often hidden or denied.

Every single day, vulnerable Muslims continue to suffer silently from social, emo tional, financial, physical and sexual abuse by family members they trust while living in a toxic home environment.

Those who are fortunate enough to escape these abusive relationships find themselves dealing with trauma, isolation, stigmatisa tion, and financial hardships while barely supporting themselves.

Although the victims are often women and children, it is important to acknowledge that men too are victims of domestic violence.

Through NZF’s Healing Forward Pro gram, we aim to support the victims of do mestic violence by providing the right ser vices and resources for their needs.

We believe supporting domestic violence victims and helping them grow from their trauma will allow them to flourish as con tributing individuals of the Australia Mus lim community.

If you, or someone you know, who is or has been a victim of family and domestic vi olence, please submit your application and find out how we can assist you at https:// www.nzf.org.au/apply or call us on 1300 663 729.

Anonymous

It all starts out so blissful Life’s a honeymoon

Domestic Violence: Healing forward Surviving DV

You’re so besotted, never wanting it to end

It’s your happy place This delusion You live in denial

You live in deep pain

You’re frozen in fear, can’t escape

Trapped in a nightmare

So, you trick yourself that you can change the one you love by loving them more

You trick yourself, that it will be ok

Living between reality and delusion

Until one day it goes too far, and you understand

It was all a delusion in your own head

Reinforced by the broken promises he made

Lies to keep you entrapped in his service

So, the pain of staying becomes greater than the fear of leaving

The terror of being caught trying to leave

The fear of reprisals

The fear of being alone and unloved But you get out

You find safety, but still afraid

The more you stand up for yourself

The stronger you become

And the weaker he becomes in your eyes

The flashbacks keep coming

The terror, the physical and emotional pain

The re-occurring nightmares

The anxiety builds over the years

For a long time, panic attacks with indistinguishable triggers

Three decades and six years of cognitive behavioural therapy later You’re finally ok

But you wish you could erase those memories

So, what’s the definition of “surviving” D.V.?

I am alive, I have learnt a lot about myself, for the better, insha Allah. But I can’t erase the painful memories

Only try to dull them down It never truly goes away.

Diet, cholesterol, and heart disease

tors include the insufficient consumption of fruits, nuts/seeds, vegetables, or high con sumption of saturated fats.

Dyslipidaemia is an ab normal level of choles terol and other lipids, also called fats, in the blood. It is divided up into primary and second ary types. Primary dys lipidaemia is inherited. Secondary dyslipidaemia is an acquired condition. That means it develops from other causes, such as diet, obesity or diabetes.

Lipids, such as cholesterol or triglycer ides, are absorbed from the intestines and are carried throughout the body via lipopro teins for energy, steroid production, or bile acid formation.

Major contributors to these pathways are cholesterol, low-densi ty lipoprotein cho lesterol (LDL-C), triglycerides, and high-den sity lipoprotein (HDL). An im balance of any of these factors, ei ther from organ ic or non-organic causes, can lead to dyslipidaemia.

High LDL levels and risk of heart disease:

Elevated LDL “the bad cholesterol” is a major cause of heart disease. LDL causes the build-up of fatty deposits within your arteries, reducing or blocking the flow of blood and oxygen your heart needs. This can lead to chest pain and heart attack.

High LDL and vascular disease:

Atherosclerosis, the medical term for “hardening of the arteries,” is not limited to heart arteries, it also occurs in arteries else where in your body, causing problems such as stroke, kidney failure and poor circula tion.

Causes of high cholesterol:

Several health behaviours can have ef fects and increase lipid levels. Examples in clude physical inactivity, nutrition, smoking and obesity. Specifically, nutrition risk fac

High cholesterol can be due to familial disorders. Autosomal dominant mutations cause most cases of familial hypercholester olemia in LDL receptors, which causes an elevation in LDL-C levels.

How to treat high cholesterol:

Initial management for dyslipidaemia involves lifestyle modifications. This ap proach should include a diet with an empha sis on the intake of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains within an appropriate calorie requirement.

Also, adults should participate in moder ate to vigorous aerobic physical activity 3-4 times a week for at least 40 minutes (150 to 300 minutes per week).

For those who do not have cardi ovascular disease, treat ment is determined by your individual risk for developing heart disease. That risk can be estimated using calculators which factor your age, sex, medical history, and other characteristics.

If your risk is high (7.5-10% risk of devel oping CVD over 10 years), your doctor may start you on treatment preventively. Firstline treatment for dyslipidaemia is statins therapy.

In summary: Prevent heart attack and stroke; do regular walk, healthy balance diet and weight loss. Medication if your risk is high.

Dr Ahmed Khan is an Australian-trained In terventional Cardiologist, who specialises in all aspects of interventional cardiology. His philosophy is one of constant refinement and excellence in all aspects of a patient’s cardiovascular care.

Dr Khan currently works as a Consult ant Interventional Cardiologist at Heart of Canberra, Deakin. He runs a charity (Healthy Heart International-not profit or ganisation) provides free medical services in Pakistan in the field of cardiovascular health and education.

Are you damaging your liver?

Dr Ghazala Kirmani

Popular belief is that ex cessive alcohol consump tion is the sole cause of liver damage, whereas it is only one of the reasons why liver function gets impaired.

Why is Liver a vital organ?

Liver is like a ”Powerhouse ” of our body as it stores fat, glycogen, iron, proteins and minerals. Whatever we eat and drink, after digestion goes into the Liver for processing of the nutrients. Liver can also be regard ed as the ”Garbage Truck” since it removes all the toxins from blood. Apart from this, it produces cholesterol and immune factors. Regulating the levels of sugar in the blood, regulating blood clotting and maintaining optimal levels of Hormones are also func tions of Liver.

Are you Damaging Your Liver?

Do you know that your lifestyle and hab

its can damage your Liver? Excessive con sumption of processed food that contains high amounts of trans-fats and sugars can be deleterious to liver. Leading a sedentary lifestyle with no physical activity results in being overweight and obese. The excess fat gets deposited on the liver and cause fatty liver. Taking over the counter pain killers frequently leads to impairment of liver func tion and ultimately damage the liver.

Symptoms of Liver Damage

Tiredness, weight loss, loss of appetite, nausea / vomiting, bloating, pain and swell

ing of stomach, swelling in the legs and an kles, itching, jaundice, confusion, irritability and tendency to bruise are the symptoms in dicating liver function is impaired.

How to find out if Liver function is im paired?

If you have any symptoms see your doc tor. You will be assessed by your doctor through a physical examination and doing certain tests. Apart from routine blood tests such as serum cholesterol and liver function test, specific tests can also be performed. Ul trasound, CT scan and MRI will detect the

size and any growth in the liver whereas a sophisticated test called Fibro scan can de tect liver damage and liver biopsy shows the extent of liver damage.

How can we Prevent Liver Damage?

Liver can be easily protected by improv ing our lifestyle such as eating healthy diet that contains low fat / low sugars and plenty of fruits and vegetables, exercising to main tain an ideal body weight. Managing risk factors by controlling high blood pressure and high blood sugar. Avoiding too many over the counter pain killers.

Foods Good for Liver

Apples, Grapes, Citrus, Blueberries, Av ocados, Beets, Carrots, Green leafy Vege tables, Fatty Fish, Olive Oil, Papaya, Aloe Vera, Turmeric, garlic, Walnuts and bever ages such as Tea, Coffee, Coconut Water and Lemon juice.

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

Mujde Selek

Dr Ahmed Khan

My elderly parents were sentto a concentration camp

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

END TRANSPLANT ABUSE IN CHINA

My name is Rayhangul Abliz, and I am an Aus tralian Uyghur who currently lives in Mel bourne. I came to Aus tralia in February 2010, and it has been 11 years since I have been living here. This testimony that I am giving regards my parents.

My father’s name is Abliz Tohti, he is 71 years old, and he is from Artush, Arghu. My dad was a long-term businessman however due to his old age and deteriorating health he decided to quit and instead rest at home.

My mother’s name is Aygul Heyit, and she is a 68-year-old housewife.

In 2016 both my parents travelled to Egypt for a holiday. Whilst they were in Egypt, they went to the Saudi consulate to try and apply for a visa, but the visa was denied, and they went back home after their holiday.

After they came back from Egypt, the Chinese police did not give them any rest.

Almost every day they would go to my par ent’s home and interrogate them about their holiday in Egypt.

A couple of times a week my parents were required to go to the local council and were forced to write a sworn statement, as well as statements praising Xi Jinping.

They were also oppressed in other ways, including being forced to deny their reli gion. During this time, it was very difficult for me to communicate with my parents.

In April 2018 I heard that my parents were detained in concentration camps. I lost all contact with my parents, relatives and friends. Because I had no contact with them anymore, I believed my parents were still in concentration camps.

No matter what I did I was unable to con

tact them and get any sort of information about their whereabouts and their well-be ing.

At the beginning of 2021 I reached out to the Australian Department of foreign affairs and trade ‘China Policy’ office to ask them for help in getting information for me about my parents.

After their correspondence with the Chi nese embassy, they contacted me in May and told me that since April 2018 both of my parents had been sentenced to 14 years in prison for supporting “terrorist activities”.

My father was a normal man, just trying to live his life in peace at home since he was unable to work as a businessman any more due to his worsening health conditions.

As for my mother, she was a simple lady who dedicated her whole life to looking after her kids and her home. To give out a prison sentence of 14 years to my father who is 71 years old and to my mother who is 68 years old is no different than sentencing them both to life in prison.

Putting the charge of “supporting terrorist activities” to the side, my parents don’t even know the meaning of the word terrorist.

The Chinese government is targeting in nocent, simple and kind-hearted Uyghurs, and they are pressing them. The genocide against Uyghurs continues and is getting worse and worse every day.

It’s not just my parents who have been detained; it’s millions of Uyghurs who are suffering and have been tortured in these concentration camps and prisons that were solely made to destroy our people.

In 2017 when the crackdown on the week has had begun, both my parents were de tained in concentration camps in May 2017.

During their detainment they got really scared, and due to the serious health condi tions, they suffered from hypertension and were then released on probation on house arrest.

During this time my parents were so scared that they cut off all their contact with

me and refuse to pick up my phone calls when I called them. Due to this reason, it was extremely difficult for me to get any proper information regarding their well-be ing.

Until now the world has been silent on this issue. Even if they heard about it or saw the evidence, they are acting like they hav en’t seen or heard anything.

It is the 21st century and genocide is hap pening right in front of everyone, yet the world is refusing to open its eyes.

What I am asking and hoping from the United Nations, the European Union and all the Democratic nations of the world, is to put an end to the Uyghur genocide, to help

the Uyghurs, and to prevent China from spreading its poison to the rest of the world. I also urge the people of the world to stand on the side of truth and justice.

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

Take the pledge: endtransplantabuse.org/pledge

Highly influential scholar, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, passed away

Continued from page 1

His critics called him names, and he never retaliated with anger. His enemies were after his life; he never sought intervention except from his Creator to seek protection, and his critics tried to accuse him, but he never hurt them back.

The author had the opportunity to spend two days with Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi when he visited in India in the 1970’s. The Ja mat-e-Islami assigned the author to take him around.

During the two days, we visited Delhi University and Jawahar Lal University. He did not mind riding the back seat of a Vespa scooter and eating lunch at the JNU street food store. He was straightforward and had a great sense of humor.

He led the mass funeral prayer in in 1979 at Lahore City Stadium, of his compatriot, Syed Abul Ala Maudoodi, the founder of a sister organisation of Muslim Brotherhood in South Asia, Jamaat-e-Islami.

Born on September 9, 1926, in a small village Saft Turab rural in the Nile Delta, now in Gharbia Governorate, Egypt, Yusuf al-Qaradawi lost his father when he was under two. His uncle raised him. The world population was 1.86 billion at that time.

When he left the world, a great majority of about two billion Muslims out of eight million people knew him through his works, particularly the Sharia and life and the and

the Permitted (Halal) and Prohibited (Har am) in Islam.

France and UUK denied him entry into their countries during the latter days of his life, but they could not stop his writing from reaching millions.

After his initial studies in Tanta, he stud ied Islamic Theology at the Al-Azhar Uni versity in Cairo, from which he graduated in 1953.

He earned a diploma in Arabic Language and Literature in 1958 at the Advanced Ara bic Studies Institute. After that, he enrolled in the graduate program in the Department of Quran and Sunnah Sciences of the Fac ulty of Religion’s Fundamentals (Usul alDin) and graduated with a master’s degree in Quranic Studies in 1960.

In 1962, Al-Azhar University sent him to Qatar to head the Qatari Secondary Insti tute of Religious Studies. He completed his Ph.D. thesis titled Zakah and its effect on solving social problems in 1973 with First Merit and was awarded his Ph.D. from AlAzhar.

He was in prison under King Farouq in 1949, then three more times during the term of President Gamal Abdul Nasser. Finally, he left Egypt for Qatar in 1961 and did not return until the overthrow of the military re gime by the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.

In 1977, he laid the foundation for the Faculty of Shari’ah and Islamic Studies at

the University of Qatar, became the facul ty’s dean, and founded the Centre of Seerah and Sunna Research.

In 1997, Al-Qaradawi helped found the European Council for Fatwa and Research, a council of important and influential Mus lim scholars dedicated to researching and writing fatwas in support of Western Mus lim minority communities based in Ireland, and he served as its head. He also served as the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) chairman.

In the wake of the 2011 Revolution, he re turned to Egypt for the first time since leav ing in 1961.

He opposed religious extremism of all kinds. However, in his dissertation on Is lamic awakening between Rejection and Extremism, he blames older Muslim gener ations for extremism among Muslims.

He advocated Sufism and practiced it also. He sought reconciliation between Shias and Sunnis and Muslims and non-Muslims.

Qaradawi wrote that Islam does not pro hibit Muslims from being kind and gener ous to people of other religions. However, Islam looks upon the People of the Book, Jews, and Christians; he advised Muslims to avoid approaches that may arouse hostility towards others.

He opposed punishment for apostasy and asked Muslims to guard the values of their religion. He was an ardent supporter of de

mocracy and advocated the establishment of city states with a religious background. He opposed theocracy.

He described Islam as the religion of tol erance that holds the human soul in high es teem and considers the attack on innocent human beings a grave sin. He opposed do mestic violence, niqab, female genital mu tilation, honor killing, and stoning by death.

Al-Qaradawi was born in Egypt but lived in Qatar. He had three sons and four daugh ters, three of whom hold doctorates from British Universities.

His daughter, Ilham Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, is an internationally recognized nuclear sci entist. His son, Abdulrahman Yusuf al-Qa radawi, is a poet and a political activist in Egypt.

Al-Qaradawi authored more than 120 books, and his academic style

Some consider his book Fiqh al-Zakat as the most comprehensive work in the area of Zakat. Abul Ala Maududi commented on it as “the book of this century in Islamic juris prudence (fiqh).”

His book Fiqh al-Jihad is the most pop ular one. The Guardian writes: Qaradawi encourages a “middle way” conception of jihad: “solidarity” with the Palestinians and others on the front line, rather than violence, is an obligatory form of jihad.

Rayhangul Abliz

Rayhangul’s elderly father Abliz Tohti and mother Aygul Heyit were detained by the Chinese government in 2018 and sent to concentration camps.

Zelenskyy: A role model for leadership

“The captain goes down with the ship” is a naval tradition; he will save those on board in an emergency or die with the sinking ship. Ukrain ian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy followed the naval tradition. He re fused the US proposal to rescue him soon after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, knowing well that it would be the end of his life.

Having the world’s state of art class think tanks and advisers, even the United States was afraid that Russia would occupy the capital Kyiv within a week of the invasion on 24 February 2022.

As Zelenskyy is the “prime target for Rus sian aggression”, the United States proposed to rescue him, but heroically he refused to run away. Instead, he asked Western leaders to help him with arms and ammunition to re sist the advancing Russian columns of tanks towards Kyiv.

A novice comedian turned politician set a standard for world leaders on how to defend the motherland against a superpower. He chose to stay with his fellow citizens and embrace the dire consequences. He deserves credit for his patriotic leadership.

Zelenskyy, along with his fellow citizens, dared to stand up to protect his motherland against mighty Russian forces. Zelenskyy, a babe in the woods, showed audacity against an authoritarian and war veteran, President Putin! That is how he proved himself to be a leader of people.

The world feared seeing a 40-mile-long Russian military convoy, composed of tanks, armored vehicles, and towed artillery, advancing towards Kyiv in the first week of March.

The Ukrainians are also supposed to dread seeing such a vast armada coming to attack. However, the Ukrainian soldiers successful ly intercepted the convoy and shattered Pu tin’s plan to seize Kyiv.

Most think tanks, including Western lead ers, criticized Zelenskyy for pushing its people to the Russian Cannons’ fodder, thus leaving the country devastated by the Rus sian military.

However, the support of Ukrainians gave him the moral courage to protect the country rather than run away. He did not follow the path of other cowardly leaders like in Af ghanistan, who fled as Taliban forces started to advance towards Kabul.

His leadership has been further tested through his courageous actions. He kept ap pearing on TV and social media; he contin ued tweeting to encourage his men and sol diers fighting on the war front. Even during heavy Russian bombardments, he came out of his bunker and started visiting battlefields and war-torn areas.

Ukrainian soldiers knew how tiny they were in front of the mighty Russian Army, even though they kept fighting with bravery and feared not embracing death for their be loved country. It was only possible when they knew their leader would not leave them and was ready to die with them.

US President Joe Biden said no American soldiers would go to Ukraine to fight against Russia. Knowing this, Zelenskyy requested the West to send him to help with arms and ammunition only, and the leadership said Ukrainian soldiers were ready to give their lives.

Needless to mention that after Zelenskyy’s request to the Australian Parliament on 31 March 2022, Australia sent military equip ment to Ukraine that included Bushmasters, armoured vehicles, demining equipment, etc. In support of Ukrainian leadership, Australian PM Anthony Albanese also visit ed the cities of Bucha, Irpin, and Kyiv in the first week of July 2022.

Zelenskyy became president in 2019 with

a vast margin of win in the election to fulfill the people’s mandate. His election agenda was to join the EU and NATO, which Putin did not like; as such, he invaded a sovereign country.

Whatever may be the geopolitical history, it is an unfortunate fate of a weak nation not to make an independent decision to fulfill people’s mandate because its big brother did not like it. Although these are the trends of today’s realpolitik and ground reality, how ever, Zelenskyy wanted to challenge that trend.

Even after seven months of the Russian invasion, the war of defending Ukraine has continued with vigour under the leadership of Zelenskyy. It is not a question of whether he wins or loses; President Zelenskyy has shown how a dedicated politician sets an example of high-quality leadership to be displayed in times of need.

With a remarkably short period of a polit ical career, he proved himself to be a leader in crisis, which most veteran leaders would fail in the present day.

Zelenskyy was not a born leader. He was a popular comedian and actor, born to a Jewish family in Ukraine. He should be judged for his patriotic actions without prej udice against religious faith, caste & creed.

Weak and small country’s leaders have many great things to learn from his leader ship and how he led the people to defend his country. He should be a role model for future leaders who want to do good for the world.

Kazi Haq is a retired Commodore from Bangladesh Navy and an electrical engi neer. He served as Director in Prime Minis ter’s Office, National Parliament, and Man aging Director of a dockyard. Kazi is the founding member of BIMRAD(Bangladesh Institute of Maritime Research and Devel opment). He is now based in Sydney.

Celebrating unity in diversity in NZ

Farid Ahmed

After the 15 March 2019 massacre in two Christchurch Masjids, New Zealanders came together unitedly to sup port Muslims, and the world followed with their support as well.

People from all walks of life felt for their fellow humans without ask ing about their faith, ethnicity, culture, lan guage, or color. A tragedy brought human feelings together, united them as a “Human family,” and brought them into the common ground of peace and harmony.

A group in Christchurch believes that rare unity should be celebrated with the remem brance of the tragedy, to encourage people to stay united on common grounds.

To celebrate the unity in diversity that 15 March tragedy brought, there was a Unity in Diversity event held in Christchurch on Sat urday 10 September 2022 attended by 300 guests from diverse backgrounds participat ed over dinner to celebrate, to acknowledge and to encourage one another to continue working on the unity among humans for the peace and prosperity.

The event started with a prayer from Muslim children and ended by a Dua by the Imam of Masjid An-Nur.

The main speakers were included Farid Ahmed, Mayors of Christchurch and Palm erston North, Ministers of Housing and Ethnic Communities, Ambassador of Neth erlands and the Cultural Attaché from US Embassy.

A timely tribute was paid to the late Queen Elizabeth II at the occasion.

Why do humans feel the pain of other humans? It is due to human love that the

Creator has placed in human hearts, as He brought out all humans from the same par ents Adam (a), and Eve (a).

When human hearts are obsessed with na tionality, culture, extreme faith, and selfish desires, then they divide one another with hate, and enmity.

Does God (Allah) guide people to fight, kill, hate, and destroy other people? Not at all. Allah guides humans towards righteous ness, human rights, fairness, kindness, and mercy towards one another.

Allah sent His last Messenger as mercy for the worlds (Rahmatullil A’alameen). Al

lah reminds it to the mankind in brief:

“O Mankind! WE have created you from a single (pair) of male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another (not that you hate each other.) Surely, the most honourable of you, in the Sight of Allah is (One who is) the most righteous of you.” [Quran 49:13]

How do I balance between my faith, and the human unity. Does it mean I have to compromise my faith? The answer is my faith will remain the same, and my actions will be righteous, but my human dealings will be with love, kindness, fairness, right

eousness and with respect.

Other people shall not force their faith on me, and I will not force on my faith on them. I shall remain Allah’s servant with high con fidence, with peaceful co-existence, and working towards harmony, peace, and pro gress.

That is called unity in diversity.

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

Farid Ahmed on screen, Hon Mayor of Christchurch Lianne Dalziel as speaker, and Ayesha Corner MC

Finding Jesus among Muslims: unifyingfaith in the one God

Dr Annette Tzavaras

There are many social issues that are imminent for our Australian na tion. My concerns are not for myself but for our descendants, yours and mine. Unifying faith in the one God in Australia is crucial because of our nations cultural and religious diversity.

How will our Nation look in the next 10 or 20 years? Who can we trust? Who will be our leaders? What implications will cross-cultural or cross-religious unions cre ate?

Cross cultural Research

Jordan Denari Duffner an American Catholic has studied in Jordon and declared, “finding Jesus among Muslims made me a better Catholic”. What does she mean by this statement?

I have witnessed Inter-religious Chris tian programs to date, offering portrayals of Islam. But I doubt a Christian or a Ro man Catholic can advise their congregations about being a Muslim in Australia.

My academic research was a qualitative first-hand study of the culture of Afghan Muslim women who came to Australia as

Women at Risk (Visa 204). While I was in Afghanistan doing preliminary field work, I witnessed a young religious student of Islam as he looked upwards, towards Allah, and began to sing.

With no understanding of the words, my heart was moved by the voice of a melodi ous angel, singing A cappella. Words are important but, listening paves the way to hear all the ways God or Allah speaks into the space of brothers and sisters. Unfamiliar as I was with followers of Islam, my lived experience recognised a common ecclesias tic advocate.

In a poverty-stricken country it occurred to me how war doesn’t merely kill thousands of men, women and children but, cultural and political conflict killed off something in the fabric of the Afghanistan nation that can never be brough back. Years of warfare characterised Afghan peoples to be viewed as the products of a backward nation, of un enlightened people whose religion promotes violence.

Despite all the counselling and cautions put forth about the dangers one might face in Afghanistan, without interaction with Af ghan people it would seem a correct state ment. There is no doubt that the country is deficient in many ways, in comparison to Australia.

Nonetheless, the Afghan people showed there was no difference at any level of per

Tribute to savior of humanity and mercyfor whole mankind

On 12th day Rabiul Aww al each year, (correspond ing to 8-9 October this year) more than 1.8 billion Muslims of the world cele brate birth anniversary of Islam’s last Prophet and Messenger Muhammad (s).

To these Muslims, irrespective of their sec tarian, cultural geographical and political dif ferences, Prophet Muhammad (s) is regarded as Allah’s greatest creation, noblest personal ity, savior of humanity and mercy for whole mankind.

These Muslims do not require any survey, research, credentials or certificates to arrive at this conclusion. It is a non-negotiable article of faith, firm and absolute belief that Muham mad (s) is the greatest and noblest personality among all humans.

This is the firm and absolute belief of Mus lims. What about non-Muslims?

It is fact that over the centuries ago, many eminent and renowned non-Muslim writers, historians, philosophers, intellectuals and po litical leaders have rated Muhammad (s) most highly personality and given him due recogni tion to his greatness and his noblest character.

Michael H Hart, a Christian American law yer and scientist, after extensive research, has published a biography of 100 most influential personalities of all time. He has ranked with explanations describing the careers of reli gious and political leaders, inven tors, writers, historians, philosophers, scien tists, artists etc.

From this research, which included most influential per sonalities such as Jesus Christ, Moses, Caesar, Wright brothers, Napoleon, Shakespeare, Colum bus etc., this author Michael H. Hart has rated Muhammad (s) as Number One.

Michael H. Hart, in his book

“The 100 – A ranking of the most influential persons in history”, gives his reason of choos ing Muhammad (s) as Number One in these words on page 33: “It is this unparalleled combination of secular and religious influ ence, which I feel entitles Muhammad to be considered the most influential single figure in human history. My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history, who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels

Almighty Allah, in the Holy Quarn, has giv en greatest tribute to Islam’s Last Messenger, as under:

“And We have not sent you, (O Messenger), but as a mercy for all the mankind.” (21:107)

“And verily, you (O Muhammad) are on an exalted standard of character.” (68:4)

“Certainly you have in the Messenger of Al lah, an excellent exemplar for him who hopes in Allah and the judgment day and remembers Allah much.” (33:21)

Prophet Muhammad (s) had delivered Khutba-tul-Widah (Last Sermon) on 9 Zilhajj 10 Hijra at Mount Arafat in Mecca. Khutbatul-Widah, even today, is considered as a doc ument of basic human rights.

Some important quotations from Khutabatul-Widah:

“Regard the lives and property of all amongst you as sacred.”

“You are each others’ brothers and are all equal. An Arab has no supremacy over a non-Arab. A non-Arab has no supremacy over an Arab. A white man has no suprem acy over a black man. A black man has no supremacy over a white man.”

“Follow Quran and my tradi tion, and you will never go astray.”

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

sonal intellectual interaction as they main tained their Islamic faith and accepted me as a Catholic woman. I believe I found Jesus among the Afghan people.

Research findings

Duffner cited 800 articles about Islam in Catholic media outlets, claiming that Catholics who read content from Catholic media have a negative view of Muslims. We all know that is racial vilification. Yet, Catholic media articles that mention the Roman Catholic leader, Pope Francis have a positive effect towards achieving Chris tian-Muslim solidarity.

Thankfully, Pope Francis finds Jesus amongst Muslims. Pope Francis believes in

a unified monolithic God. If I can find Jesus amongst Muslims, maybe you can find Je sus among Christians and together we can contribute towards a world of fraternity and peace urgently needed for our Australian Nation and the world.

Dr Annette Tzavaras, holds a Master’s in creative arts (Research)from the Universi ty of Wollongong. and a PhD from Western Sydney for her thesis on Intersectionality in the lives of Afghan women in Australia. She is a creative Sociologist with a focus on cross-cultural unity within the diverse cul tures and ethnicities of Australian contem porary society.

Making intentionsfor the sake of Allah

his good deeds: (https://tinyurl.com/yckyykpb):

• try to avoid others’ seeing or hearing;

We make intentions for our good deeds to be accepted and rewarded from Allah. Intention must be correct and from heart. Motives of sound intentions are seeking Allah’s pleasure, obeying Him and complying with His commands.

Allah says:

“Indeed, my prayer, my rites of sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds”. [Quran 6: 162]

Prophet Mohammad (s) said: “Actions are but by intentions and each person will have but that which he intended.” (al-Bukhari, 1 and Muslim, 1907).

Our intentions for any deeds should be sincerely for Allah. Intention should not be changed; nor diverted to something other than Allah, i.e., associate anything else or for worldly gains.

Intention for the Permissible Things:

It is preferable to make intention in per missible things for reward, hence, they would be acts of worship, such as eating, drinking and sleeping with the intention of strengthening oneself for worship. Making good intentions help getting rewards.

Prophet Mohammad said: “You will never spend anything that you spend for the sake of Allah, but you will be rewarded for it, even the morsel of food that you put in your wife’s mouth.” (al-Bukhari, 56).

Mu’adh (r) said: “I sleep and I get up (to pray at night), and I seek reward for my sleep as I seek reward for my getting up.” (al-Bukhari, 4088).

Things to be Considered for a Good In tention:

An intention is for Allah to please Him. Prophet (s) said: “Allah does not accept any deed except that which is done only for Him and to seek His Countenance.” (al-Nasaa’i, 3140; al-Silsilah al-Sahih, 52).

One can consider the followings in doing

• should not focus too much on people’s praise or criticism;

• cover one’s good deeds and keeping them secret;

• avoid situations to be famous, unless that serves a shariah interest;

• should not show-off;

• always think of falling short, should not attribute any good deeds to oneself;

• realise that all blessings come from Allah;

• pray for forgiveness after doing a deed be cause of falling short; and

• rejoice when Allah enables him to do righteous deeds.

Living in Australia:

As we live in Australia, we must make intentions for gaining Islamic knowledge and disseminating Allah’s messages to all. Muslims should be united here as Brothers. We should try to follow the Prophet’s foot steps, and we aim to reveal good examples for others.

Finally, we must remind ourselves that worship can only be acceptable to Allah if it meets two conditions:

i) it is done sincerely for Allah alone, and

ii) it follows the Sunnah of Prophet (s) and is in accordance with shariah. No good in tention is accepted if it goes against shariah and there is bidah in worshipping Allah.

Dr Misbah Khan is a Civil Engineer and is based in Sydney, Australia

Qasim Abbas

Dr Misbah Khan

Personal financial guide for money savings and budgeting

Manage Your Taxes

Personal Finance in cludes multiple catego ries and overarching themes such as. Money Management, Money Savings and Investing.

Taking a closer look, per sonal finance includes budgeting, banking, in surance, investments, mortgages, loans, retirement, taxes, estate planning, and more.

Your finances are entirely yours and de pend on your income, expenses, achieve ment of short-term and long-term financial goals, and lifestyle budget. Remember fol low your favourite brands on the coupon sites first to get the deals and discount codes.

Bookmark Revounts for almost all of the brands, whether it is food, entertainment, technology, fashion etc., you will find more than a thousand brands with the best pos sible price through coupons and discount codes which tend to help saving a huge amount of money.

Here are some more budgeting tips you can use to save yourself more

It’s Time To Know Where Your Money Goes, Learn To Budget!

After reading a few personal finance books, you’ll understand the importance of two rules that every personal financial advi sor repeats repeatedly. First, don’t let your expenses exceed your income and continu ously monitor where your money goes. The

best way to do this is to create a budget and a personal spending plan to track money coming in and going out.

Do Not Rely On Advice From Random People

Instead of relying on random advice from unqualified people, take responsibility for your financial future and read some basic personal finance books. But, then, don’t let it get you down, whether it’s a significant another sucking up your bank account or a friend who wants to burn a ton of cash each weekend.

Find Ways To Cut Spending

If you’re not saving as much as you’d like, it might be time to cut back on your spending. Identify unnecessary things you can spend less on, such as entertainment and eating out. Also, look for ways to save

on fixed monthly expenses such as car in surance or cell phone contracts. Other ideas for keeping your everyday costs in check include:

Find free activities; Find free or low-cost entertainment using resources such as com munity event listings.

Check recurring billing; Cancel unused subscriptions and memberships (especially if they auto-renew). Compare the cost of eating out and cooking at home.

Plan to make the most of your meals at home, and check out local restaurant deals on the nights you want to treat yourself.

Please Wait Before Buying

If you are tempted to make unnecessary purchases, wait a few days. Then, you may find that you wanted an item instead of needing it – and you can make a plan to save for it.

Before you get your first paycheck, it’s essential to understand how income taxes work. If your company offers you a starting salary, you need to calculate whether that salary is enough to pay you after taxes. You can also reach your savings and retirement goals with intelligent planning.

Finally, take the time to learn how to handle taxes yourself. If you don’t have a complicated financial situation, it’s not that difficult, and you don’t have to pay an ac countant. Tax software makes it much easier to produce your taxes than ever before. The software also allows you to file your decla ration online.

Save Automatically

Almost all banks offer automatic transfers between checking and savings accounts. You can choose when, how much, and where you want to send money, or even split direct deposits to send a portion of every paycheck directly to your savings account.

Wrap up

Review your budget and progress month ly. Not only can you protect your person al savings plan, but you can also quickly identify and solve problems. Understanding above tips to save money can also help you reach your goals faster.

Linda Hynes is a professional blogger. She loves to write on multiple niche topics such as: fashion, technology and business with many years of research, expertise and expe rience.

Digital transformation of SMEs: Business process automation as a starting point

nesses more efficiently.

In Australia, there are over 2.5 million trading businesses, according to 2022 data from the Aus tralian Bureau of Statis tics. Most of the business es are small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs).

The ABS defines a small business as one that employs 0-19 people. Medium-sized enterprises are those that have 20-199 employees. Whether an SME employs a few or tens, or more staff, it’s natural that business owners would want to run their busi

Miqdad Hassan is one business owner who is active in seeking better ways to run his busi nesses. For him, business process automation is key. Mr Hassan runs two companies, Ca reerDC Internships and Techyworks. He has applied business process automation in both organisations.

He says, “having an Engineering back ground, it’s natural for me to think of automa tion as a business asset. I look at the processes we have in place and analyse how we could tweak them and achieve the same or even bet ter results faster and with less manual input. In my mind, business process automation frees our time as individuals and as a team. We can use that time in other, more productive activ

ities.”

According to a global survey done by McK insey in October 2021, a majority of the busi nesses that have engaged in business process automation have gained positive outcomes. These include reduced expenses, improve ments in quality control, better employee ex perience and greater customer satisfaction.

These are improvements Mr Hassan has experienced in his businesses too. He says, “we have automated many of our processes. In some cases, we changed an existing method and learned to use our existing tools better. In other cases, we adopted new tools to get rid of duplication and made our processes faster with less manual input.”

Areas where a business can automate pro cesses, include client relations management, invoicing, and lead tracking, just to name a few. When done well, automation can trans form the business’s daily activities and make

them faster, more transparent and error-free.

According to Mr Hassan, he now has more time for strategy work and business develop ment. His team members have more oppor tunities to build relationships with customers and use their unique talents and experience at work. It all, Mr Hassan believes, keeps the team motivated and better able to contribute to the business.

“I’m convinced with the benefits of process automation,” says Mr Hassan, “which is why I founded Techyworks. Techyworks supports SMEs through digital transformation, includ ing business process automation.”

For more information visit www.techyworks.com.au.

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

Linda Hynes

Maria Nordenswan

Social Spotlights

The American Muslims

The 16-year-old girl “Kylie”, from Can ada, announced her conversion to Islam, with the encouragement of her non-Mus lim father and mother who welcomed her desire and conviction to enter Islam.

May Allah bless you

Auburn Gallipoli Mosque

@gallipolimosque

Earlier this week, we had the pleasure of hosting a Citizenship Ceremony with the Hon Andrew Giles MP, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs.

The ceremony was made even more special with a Welcome to Country by Dharug Elder Uncle Colin Locke.

The ceremony also saw a speech by Ibrahim Taha – 2019 NSW Premier’s Multicultural Youth Medal recipient.

We would like to congratulate those who were sworn in as citizens of our great country during the ceremony.

Special thanks to Ms Sneha Chatterjee - Regional Director NSW/ACT, Depart ment of Home Affairs and her team for organising such a fantastic event.

Jihad Dib MP

@JihadDibLakemba

Did you know that the first Afghans who migrated to Australia arrived mid the 19th century as cameleers. Afghan Austra lians have contributed to our Australian story over centuries. Maree Mosque, the first mosque in Australia was built by Afghan Cameleers, who’s job it was to help navigate and map central Australia. I think about this enduring connection we

have to Afghanistan a lot now that our relationship is so different and the chal lenges Afghanistan is experiencing.

On Friday, I joined Senator Fatima Payman, at the Afghanistan in Turbulent Transition event held at Parliament of NSW House. Even during the darkest times in Afghanistan, it is great to see the community come together to celebrate their culture. My friend Craig Foster, also in attendance, made an important reminder that we cannot let the world for get the humanitarian crisis affecting tens of millions in Afghanistan.

educAid Au

@isra.org.au

Head of Community, Tareq Ahmed, wrapped up facilitating the Standard Mental Health First Aid course yesterday afternoon with @linkedandconnect_cs There are now 9 new mental health first aiders in the organisation and in the local community Well done! My favourite part was being able to interact and have open, honest and respectful discussions with the group around difficult topics. It’s a testament to the work culture that the staff were engaged and immersed in the content constantly wanting to learn more.

Australian International Islamic College @aiicqld

AIIC Students Arrive in Makkah!

ALHAMDULILAH! After a long journey our students have arrived in Makkah and are preparing for the first round of the competition, in the compound of the Ha ram Shareef, and will be reciting today!

We request everyone’s Duas.

@TheAmericansMuslims

Supported By

WOMEN’S RETREAT Mind, Body & Soul

Facilitator: Princess R. Lakshman

A Self-Care event for women to gather, relax, foster friendships and feel empowered.

Gift Bags

Sunday 13 Nov 2022 | 11am - 3pm

Venue: Dar-ul-Islam 204-206 Humphries Rd, Bonnyrigg NSW

Women Only Event Register: seena5.eventbrite.com.au info@seena.org.au | www.seena.org.au