Issue 113

MUSLIM

AUSTRALASIAN

Multimedia News & Views

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Print edition published Monthly on first Friday with Website updates

Double Standards at Sydney

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Understanding the Muslim Mind

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National recognition for Muslim high achievers

News .................................1 - 2 • Muslim Achievement Award • Jihad Dib Wins seat of Lakemba Boomerang ..................... 3 - 5 • Editorial: Cycle of Violence • New Data Retention Laws Community ..................... 6 - 8 • Nourishing the Body, Mind & Soul • Help Omar Get a Wheelchair Van

Zia Ahmad Gala dinner events were held in three cities of Australia last month to award Muslim high achievers who completed Year 12 at the end of 2014 academic year.

The events held in Sydney on Friday 20 March, in Adelaide on Saturday 21 March and in Melbourne on Sunday 22 March were attended by invited students and their parents as well as community leaders, teachers and politicians.

The selection criteria was based so as to award students who achieved an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank, ATAR of 90 or more during the final Year 12 exam in 2014. The 106 students who registered were awarded with a certificate and a gift of tablet notebook computer.

There were a large number of awarded students who achieved an ATAR in the nineties and more than a dozen who obtained ATAR’s above 99.

The Annual Year 12 Muslim Achievement Awards are organized by Human Appeal International, a humanitarian aid organization

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Australia ......................... 9 - 10 • Muslims Feel Under Siege Lifestyle ...................... 11 - 13 • International Love • Modest Street Fashion Ummah ........................ 14 - 16 • Media Scan • Western Intervention Education ..................... 17 - 19 • Attributes of Allah - Part 8 Travel .................................. 20 • #SarahGoesToIndia Social .................................. 21 • 10 Reasons Zayn Malik Left 1D

Young Muslim men and women who have received a Muslim Achievement Award from the Human Appeal event in Melbourne. with offices based in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. HAI has been organizing such events in Melbourne for the last 7 years and it was the first time that they decided to ex-

pand the programme to include Sydney and Adelaide.

The Sydney-based director of Human Appeal, Mr Bashar Al-Jamal said: “Education

Business ..................... 22 - 23 • Top 80 Richest People in the World is the most powerful means by which to empower communities and thereby sustain growth and development.”

Continues on page 2

NSW Elections: Jihad Dib is new MP for Lakemba Alex Lewis The former principal of Punchbowl Boys High School Jihad Dib has won the state seat of Lakemba for the Labor Party claiming more than 70% of votes at the election held last Saturday 28 March.

Lakemba is now one of the safest Labor seats in Sydney and the entire state of NSW. Last Saturday saw a big 14.5% swing towards Labor over the Liberal candidate Rashid Bhuiyan.

“This drives me to work harder,” Jihad says. “These numbers mean people are sending a message, whether it’s because they don’t want to see the sale of electricity or it’s because they’re sick of seeing cuts to TAFEs, schools and hospitals. I know they’re giving me the responsibility to be a voice for them, and that’s what I have to be.”

“Our campaign slogan is ‘make a difference’ and I’d often ask my team if we were making a difference that day. It’s something that motivated us as a team to always do better, and I’ll be asking myself the same when I’m in parliament, just as a reminder, and that will motivate me,” Jihad said.

Despite the unconventional way in which Jihad was made Labor’s candidate, his campaign relied solely on grassroots activism and support.

His electorate of Lakemba, which stretches from Greenacre and Chullora in the north, to Riverwood and Narwee in the south, with Mt Lewis, Punchbowl, Wiley Park and Lakemba in between, is now one of the safest Labor seats in Sydney.

Although, as Jihad says, “I want to make sure we don’t take this electorate Joyous celebration all round as Jihad and his wife, Erin applauded by his supporters. for granted” and this “I can’t thank my volunteers enough, we effort was reflected in the methods of his a mix of both party and non- party membershave been leafleting at train stations, holdhonestly would not have achieved as much campaign activities. without them. Many were giving up their During the last 6 months, Jihad and his ing street stalls and door knocking every team of dedicated volunteers- who make up weekend.

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NEWS NSW Elections: Jihad Dib National recognition for is new MP for Lakemba Muslim high achievers NEWS 1-2

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Saturdays to help out and do four or five hours of door-knocking. And the community appreciated it too, we had a lot of positive feedback just from door-knocking,” Jihad said.

During this time, Jihad has chatted with hundreds of people, listening to their concerns and taking on their advice for what they’d like to see in their representative. As the then- current Labor MP for Lakemba, Robert Furolo was widely known, Jihad was a relative new comer on the political scene.

While Jihad already had a high profile in the community, known for his work as the Principal of Punchbowl Boys’ High School, he operated on the assumption that nobody knew who he was.

This meant that people meeting Jihad for the first time would be able to take him at face value, and to cast their vote accordingly. This wasn’t always easy. Jihad’s name already fills the newspapers for all the wrong reasons, and having to explain to people the meaning of his name and its place in his family’s history is something no other candidate had to do.

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Young Muslim men and women who have received a Muslim Achievement from the Human Appeal event in Sydney.

Jihad Dib with his parents after winning the seat of Lakemba

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“It is for this reason that we invest heavily in supporting education and proudly celebrate academic excellence.” Mr Al-Jamal said.

The awards were sponsored by local businesses, organisations and institutions in the respective cities.

“These businesses and organisations appreciate the value of rewarding hard work and are happy to assist with these awards.

We thank them for partnering with Human Appeal to honour the excellent achievements of students with the support of their families,” said Mr Al-Jamal.

The Sydney event held in Bankstown was attended by a large number of students and their proud parents who were invited to the stage for the awards and photos.

The invited chief guest Hon Tony Burke MP, federal NSW member for Watson said: “I want to honour all the families, not just the students themselves, but the parents and everybody involved in the achievements tonight. To the students, I actually believe you quite personally are uniquely positioned in our community, our country and the world to be people who can make a difference,” The speakers also included Ms Maffaz Al-Safi, Deputy Principal, Australian International Academy, Dr Zachariah Matthews, Deen Academy, Mr Mohammad El-Moulhy, Halal Certification Authority and Ms Aya Al-Salti (ATAR 99.6) who has commenced a double degree of BSc and Masters in Nutrition and Dietettics at the University of Sydney.

The Sydney event was also attended by the Mayor of Canterbury Brian Robson, Canterbury Councillor Khodr Saleh, Labor candidate for Bankstown Tania Mihailuk, Labor candidate (now MP) for Lakemba Jihad Dib and other community leaders.

The Melbourne event was attended by guests including Moreland Mayor Meghan Hopper, executive director of community languages Stefan Romaniw OAM and David Warner from the Western Institute of Technology while the Adelaide event was addressed by Danny Broderick representing the Mayor of West Torrens council.

Established in 1984 and operating in Australia since 1991, Human Appeal International, in addition to their humanitarian programmes internationally, also organizes Sounds of Light, Islamic entertainment events to raise funds for orphans on an annual basis.

HAI works for a number of charitable causes, specialising in areas from Social and Educational Development to Health Care and Emergency Relief. HAI’s worldwide reputation is reinforced by the fact that it holds consultative status (Category II) in the United Nations Social and Economic Council, maintains an observer capacity in IFAD (International Fund for Agriculture Development), and is a member of the International Council for Voluntary Associations (ICVA).

Zia Ahmad is the Managing Editor of the Australasian Muslim Times based in Sydney.

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Young Muslim men and women who have received a Muslim Achievement from the Human Appeal event in Adelaide.

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What will the new Data Retention Laws mean Lydia Shelly

What is it?

The Data Retention Bill is currently being debated in the Senate, which is the final hurdle before it will be likely passed and made into law.

The Bill will pass and become law because the Australian Labor Party has failed to oppose any piece of legislation that relates to “national security”, including the Data Retention Bill. This is despite hundreds of submissions opposing the Data Retention Bill being submitted by legal experts and civil liberty organisations, to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. The Greens are the only major political party opposing Data Retention, along with a handful of independents.

The Data Retention laws will force Telecommunication companies to keep your data for a period of two years. This means that any “ enforcement agency” can access metadata, without a warrant, and for any investigative purpose. “Enforcement agencies is not limited to the police, but can include agencies such as your local council, the RSPCA, Workcover NSW or the Office of State revenue to name a few. There is no restriction that access to the data be undertaken only when investigating serious crime.

Your data may not only be accessed by the police because you’re a terrorist suspect, but it may be subpoenaed, for example, in family or civil litigation proceedings.

What is wrong with Data Retention?

There has been no evidence presented to justify the need or proportionality of the data retention laws, as well as finalising exactly how much this mandatory data retention regime will cost. It has been estimated that the regime will cost at least $300 million, which taxpayers are likely to have to foot the bill.

We will be paying for the pleasure of being under surveillance. Australia is bucking the international trend of data retention and we will become only the second country in the world to have a data retention period of 2 years. Research shows that data retention does not make countries safer from acts of terrorism or serious crime.

The Australian Federal Police has already admitted that they have accessed the data of journalists in order to find out who their sources were. The data retention regime, even with the amendments proposed by the Australian Labor Party, will not have sufficient safeguards for journalists or whistle blowers. “The warrant system being proposed will be completely ineffective because it means that the journalist or the media organisation will not have an opportunity to appear before the person issuing the warrant to argue their case in the public interest, “In-

dependent Senator Mr Nick Xenophon said.

“Unless you have an American-style system, our closest ally, where journalists and media organisations have the right to appear before the attorney-general and his office in order to argue the case for the public interest – then journalists, as a profession, will be stuffed when it comes to protecting their sources.”

What does it mean for everyday Australians?

The proposed data retention laws are the most frightening and undemocratic laws to be passed by the Abbott Government. Mass surveillance on every single Australian will be permitted, regardless of whether they have committed a crime, with the costs of this surveillance being pushed onto the general public. This is a clear invasion of privacy, as every “foot you step with your mobile in your hand can be tracked, from the living room, to the bathroom, to the kitchen, to the mailbox. He will know when you ring your mother, text your spouse or send a photo to your kids”. To say that Meta Data includes only “the envelope and not the contents inside the envelope” as Attorney General George Brandis stated on Sky News last year, is wrong. Your Meta Data, generated by your smartphone or internet usage, can be incredibly revealing. It can include websites you have visited, emails you have sent or received, your location, any purchases you have made online or any online searches you have made. If you made a phone call as you walked past a brothel or a hotel, or you took a sick day off work but you were actually in Melbourne watching the Cricket, your data will show your “location”. Your “electronic existence” reveals a lot about where you were, who you were talking to and for how long. Now imagine that being subpoenaed for a family law or civil litigation matter.

There will also be a chilling effect on our public discourse and on press freedoms, both of which are fundamental for a healthy democracy and key to being informed about domestic and international issues.

What can you do?

Hold both the Liberal Party and the Australian Labor Party accountable for supporting such a gross invasion of privacy, which will not make us any safer against serious crimes. Whether that is through your vote in the upcoming state election, or by contacting the Leader of the Australian Labor Party, the honourable Bill Shorten on (02) 6277 4022. You can also support organisations such as the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties, who continue to oppose any curtailing of privacy. .

Lydia Shelly is a Sydney based lawyer and community advocate.

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Multimedia News & Views

Issue # 113 Friday 3 April 2015;

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13 Jamaadiyul Ukhraa 1436

Cycle of Violence leading to the fragmentation of the Ummah

The Middle East is undergoing yet an- ly assassinating the Hizbullah leadership other cycle of escalating violence feeding at its will whenever the opportunity arose. on each other and as a result of tit for tat The easy flow of money and arms from between various alliances based on reli- the gulf countries and advance weaponry gious, political, sectarian and tribal dif- and training from the West has worked ferences. like fuel on fire, leading to the emergence Unprecedented atrocities are being com- of the Islamic State of Iraq & Levant (Lemitted against both combatants as well vant means Shaam or greater Syria), as civilians, human rights are being ISIL. abused with exponential growth in ISIL with its hatred of Shias EDITORIAL inherited by Al-Qaida, further hatred and feuds that is fragmentAssalamu ing the Ummah with potentially fuelled by atrocities committed global effects. by the Syrian regime as well as Alaikum In the aftermath of the second abuses committed by Shia miGreetings gulf war and invasion of Iraq, first litias in Iraq, used the trinity of of Peace it was the indiscriminate bombopportunistic slogans of Islamic ings allegedly by Al-Qaida speState, Caliphate and Sharia to atcially targeting Mosques and shrines tract a large number of naive young belonging to the Shia community. This people to passionately fight for Islam unresulted in the Maliki government of Iraq der its banner. However after commitincreasingly isolated into its Shia cocoon ting unprecedented level of atrocities and with the rise of Shia militia, firstly to de- cruelty, they have been finally exposed as fend against Al-Qaida, but later safeguard- harbinger of murder and mayhem in the ing Shia interests against those of Sunni’s in Middle East.

Iraq and in the process committing human There are significant number of Shias rights abuses. living in Gulf countries ,which are absoTaking inspiration from the phenomenon lute monarchies, who have been marginalof the Arab spring the Syrians rose against ized as a minority community over a long their Baathist dictator initially in peaceful period of time. After the Islamic Revolumass protests. But after the heavy handed tion in 1979, Iran has been careful not to suppression of the protests and the atrocities champion the cause of Shia minority and committed by the Syrian police and mili- portray itself as a sectarian regime and tary, it turned into an armed conflict. jeopardise its relationship with the global The Syrian Baathist regime in effect has Ummah. not been any way different than the BaaAfter the establishment of the Iraqi govthist regime of Saddam Hussain. But this ernment dominated by Shias and with the is where Iran has consistently shown dou- advent of the Arab Spring, the Shia comble standards, being against the latter, but munity in the Gulf countries has been flexsupporting the former. The excuse given for ing its muscles and demanding its rights Iranian support to Syria was that it was a and share in governance. This movement front line state against Israel. has been brutally suppressed specially in Soon the opposition against the Syrian re- Bahrain and to some extent in Saudi Aragime was hijacked on one side by Western bia. powers led by US promoting its own interWith the wedge between Shia and Sunests and on the other hand by the absolute ni being drawn in the theatres of war in monarchies led by Saudi Arabia who want Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, this divide has to prolong their absolute power and riches now reached Yemen. The blanket bombover their people for as long as possible. ing by Gulf countries led by Saudi Arabia Instead of using wisdom to safeguard the as saviours of Sunnis against exaggerated interests of the Ummah as a whole, follow- threat of Shia taking over has the potential ing the policy “ my enemy’s enemy is my of open warfare between Iran and other friend”, Iran and Hizbullah openly support- Muslim countries with suffering of comed the Syrian dictator, thus giving the im- mon Muslims in the Middle East and dire pression of a Sunni against Shia proxy war affects on the unity of the global Ummah. in Syria.

The main beneficiary of this escalation Hizbullah, the only fighting force amongst are the Israelis relaxing in their bunkers Arabs that has gained some success to the and the Arab dictators feeling more comIsraeli fighting machine, was now fighting fortable in their palaces while the Muslim against the Syrian opposition. Thus while masses suffer from pain, hunger, illiteracy both enemies of Israel were happily elimi- and dis-empowerment to bring about any nating each other, Israel has been proactive- change to their miserable condition.

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Letters to the editor AMUST

Re: The Fallacy of Rising an- everywhere, for what is done in their name, riod compared to the previous year. and in the name of Islam itself, by avowDenying or minimising antisemitism, ti-Semitism Uri Avnery’s article, “The Fallacy of Rising anti-Semitism” (AMUST, 5 March), must be seen through the prism of Israeli domestic politics. Avnery, an Israeli citizen, wrote his piece as a long-standing critic of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and in the context of Israel’s impending election. Avnery berates Netanyahu’s call for European Jews to immigrate to Israel as a mere scare campaign.

But Avnery goes too far when he attempts to minimise antisemitism, and even to justify and legitimise violent attacks against diaspora Jews by Muslims. Avnery’s excuse is that the motivation for these attacks is anti-Israel, not anti-Jewish.

This “analysis”, which is often unthinkingly embraced by Muslims living in western societies, is dangerously short-sighted.

If it is acceptable to attack Jews, anywhere and everywhere, for the real or imagined wrongs of Israel, then it is equally acceptable to attack Muslims, anywhere and

edly Islamic groups or by Muslim-majority states. It is simply not credible to condemn Islamophobia while attempting to rationalise antisemitism.

Contrary to Avnery’s assertions, antisemitic incidents are on the rise, and the perpetrators make no distinction between Jews and Israelis. Often their avowed motivations have nothing to do with Israel.

All the data from the police services of European countries, the FBI, and others who monitor hate incidents, show that antisemitic incidents are increasingly prevalent, violent and murderous. In Britain, antisemitic incidents more than doubled in 2014 from the 2013 figures. In France, Jews comprise only 1% of the population, yet 50% of racist attacks are against Jews. In the USA, for the past ten-year period, attacks against Jews comprise 60-70% in the religious hate category. Even in Australia, there was a 35% increase in antisemitic incidents, including harassment and assault, during the 2014 pe-

does not help Jews, Arabs, Muslims, Israelis, or Palestinians. The end result is the undermining of all genuine efforts at countering acts of bigotry and hatred of any kind.

Julie Nathan, Research Officer, Executive Council of Australian Jewry

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An open letter to the Premier of Queensland You may be aware of the story on an initiative to bring the issue of banning Mosques in Queensland.

Member for Buderim, Mr Steve Dickson is the only state MP who is likely to bring the proposal to ban Mosques in Queensland in the State Parliament.

This is worrying, even though the proposal has no merit, and I strongly believe that the matured politicians in Queensland Parliament will reject the matter unanimously.

Strangely, the group behind the move wants to make a difference between a place of worship and a Mosque.

It is a universally accepted fact that a Mosque is a place of worship - no more, no less.

Clearly the Sunshine Coast group behind the move to ban Mosques in Queensland is deliberately pretending to be ignorant or out of touch with the reality and most likely motivated by Islamophobia. These people may be a part of a group who includes a man who drove 4 hours to Gold Coast to protest against a proposed Mosque in Gold Coast last year under the pretext of perceived local traffic problem in the neighbourhood.

If you have seen the website of Reclaim Australia http://www.reclaimaustralia.net/ you could not have missed the following: “this makes all western government noth-

ing more than a cult surrounding the false religion it created with its own unjust law because this law has become a vain substitute and an affront to Yahweh’s Law found in the bible.”

The group is equally wrong about blaming ‘halal certification’ and ‘shariah law’ for lots of problems in Australia. Beyond doubt they don’t know anything about these issue, let alone understand them.

Last month one Toowoomba resident and one of the organisers of the so called Reclaim Australia rally to be held in the Laurel Bank Park in Toowoomba on 4 April 2015 came to see me. After an hour long discussions he was convinced that he should not proceed with the rally and later he decided to withdraw himself from the group.

But other organisers are determined to organise the rally. The venue is too close to the Mosque (only two blocks) and I am afraid if some participants take extreme move to march to the Mosque to attack the worshippers and the complex.

As you know that Islamic Society of Toowoomba is happy to engage and have dialogue with anyone in the community to remove the ignorance and misunderstanding and stop spreading the false and fabricated information and unfounded rumours about Islam and Muslims. We have been organis-

Website comments

ISIS same as Khmer Rouge Abbas Alvi

6 March, 2015 Very well written article . I above placed the on FB. Probably the next researched article on this should be ” Who is benefitted with the birth & existence of ISIS ” ?

The fallacy of rising Anti-Semitism Gazza

6 March, 2015 The biggest driver of hatred of Jews is Benjamin Netanyshu who claims to speak for all Jews. Most people regard that claim as ridiculous yet they are willing to accept that ISIS supported by about 0.00025% of Muslims speaks for all Muslims.

Undermining an Inclusive Democracy Raytrek

13 March, 2015 Popularity and profit are not inherit measures of righteousness, not all people know that…or even care.

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Anti-Halal hysteria: extremist threat to a major Australian industry Raytrek

13 March, 2015 Tradition is important, I respect that, but traditions are founded on principle guidelines, those principle guidelines are more important than the tradition. What I mean is that if our ability to better represent the principle guideline is discovered then being true to the principle should over-ride the tradition.

As time goes by humanity innovates; technology and the sum of knowledge increases in ways that reveal new solutions to old problems, we seem to encounter conflict between the Authority of the Prophets and new ways to interpret or express the principle, but the truth is that the Prophets recommended the best practice available at the time to serve the principle, it doesn’t mean that new and more effective ways to serve the principle will not be revealed.

In essence; the Law doesn’t have to change but how it is enforced definitely should, for example: if the Law states “Do not steal” then doing so is punishable by Law and there may be a traditional punishment, but

Australasian Muslim Times

ing Open Day in the Garden City Mosque in Toowoomba and the next Open Day is on Sunday, 19 April 2015.

I am sure you are able speak from your own experience about what a Mosque does and how Muslims contribute to peace, harmony and economic development in the community. I request you to talk your parliamentary colleagues to stop all kind of unfair attacks on Muslims and Islam in our great state of Queensland.

The Muslim community is very thankful for your personal support, but I believe this is about time for the political leaders to issue public statements so that the wider community could know about it and the misinformed people could get much needed guidance.

The politicians may reinforce that Muslims are like any other group of citizens who are contributing to the peace, harmony and development of the state. Any attempt to divide the community based on difference of any sort is unacceptable and detrimental to the harmonious mosaic of Queensland.

Professor Shahjahan Khan Vice President of Islamic Council of Queensland Founding President of Islamic Society of Toowoomba in time you may find ways to prevent theft and you may find more proportionate and effective ways to punish the crime.

No one can dispute that Allah is just; as humans we obey his wisdom and righteousness, if we fail we should welcome punishment to absolve us from failure equal or greater than what Allah would deliver, better to face the wrath of man than the wrath of Allah, but the problem is if we as a society punish a criminal in a way excessive to what Allah would then we take the excess unto ourselves and will face that Judgement before Allah.

So it is better for society to punish crime less and leave the difference up to Allah. We also know that some people escape punishment by society altogether and these are the most unfortunate, for when they face Allah they will feel the fullness of his wrath.

But our job as society is to deliver the most equitable punishment suiting the crime, but to remember that justice is the prevention of crime from happening or happening again, a victim deserves compensation but an offender needs redemption and a society has a duty to protect its citizens, to balance these three principles requires wisdom and righteousness, not impulse or emotion, not popularity or price.

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AMUST Team

Managing Editor: Zia Ahmad Graphic Designer: Rubinah Ahmad Chief Adviser: Dr Qazi Ashfaq Ahmad Journalist: Mobinah Ahmad Columnist: Dr Abul Jalaluddin (Finance) Columnist: Bilal Cleland (Victoria) Columnist: Manarul Islam (ACT) Columnist: Lydia Shelly (Sydney) Columnist: Anne Fairbairn (Sydney) Promotion: Dr Wali Bokhari Web Developer: Shadow Approved Multimedia: iMoby Productions Printers: Spotpress Pty Ltd Distributers: Wrapaway Transport Pty Ltd Distributers: Abul Fateh Siddiqui, Shujaat Siddiqui, Usaid Khalil, Aamir Ahmad, Ibrahim Khalil, Usman Siddiqui, Zahid Alam

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

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Terror and Propaganda Bilal Cleland

A valuable addition to the favourites list of every enemy of bigotry and racism, is the American website loonwatch.com.

It describes itself in the following terms; “ Loonwatch.com is a blogzine run by a motley group of hate-allergic bloggers to monitor and expose the web’s plethora of anti-Muslim loons, wackos, and conspiracy theorists.

While we find the sheer stupidity and outrageousness of the loons to be a source of invaluable comedy, we also recognize the seriousness of the danger they represent as dedicated hatemongers. And so, while our style reflects our bemusement, our content is fact checked and our sources well vetted making sure loonwatch.com is a reliable educational – if entertaining – resource on the rambunctious underworld of Muslim-bashing.”

As it reports in an article from 20n January 2010: “If one follows the cable news networks, it seems as if all terrorists are Muslims. It has even become axiomatic in some circles to chant: “Not all Muslims are terrorists, but nearly all terrorists are Muslims.” Muslims and their “leftist dhimmi allies” respond feebly, mentioning Waco as the one counter example, unwittingly affirming the belief that “nearly all terrorists are Muslims.”

It is worth referring to the website of the FBI of the United States : www.fbi. gov/stats-services/publications/terrorism-2002-2005 which presents a table of terrorist incidents in the USA from 1980 to 2005. Presented as a pie chart, this is the picture: The Loonwatch article puts it very clearly: “The Islamophobes claim that Islam is

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intrinsically a terrorist religion. The proof?

Well, just about every terrorist attack is Islamic, they retort. Unfortunately for them, that’s not quite true. More like six percent.

Using their defunct logic, these right wingers ought now to conclude that nearly all acts of terrorism are committed by Latinos (or Jews). Let them dare say it…they couldn’t; it would be political and social suicide to say such a thing. Most Americans would shut down such talk as bigoted; yet, similar statements continue to be said of Islam, without any repercussions.”

Terrorism in Australia Section 100.1 of the Criminal Code defines a terrorist act as ‘an action or threat of action’ which is done or made with the intention of: • advancing a political, religious or ideological cause; and • coercing, or influencing by intimidation, the government of the Commonwealth, State or Territory or the government of a foreign country or intimidating the public or a section of the public.

Action will only be defined as a terrorist act if it: • causes serious physical harm or death; • seriously damages property; • endangers a person’s life; • creates a serious risk to public health or safety; or • seriously interferes with, seriously disrupts, or destroys, an electronic system.

A useful reference is the following website: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/human-rights-guide-australias-counter-terrorism-laws#3_1 “There is no such thing as Islamic terrorism, but there have always been Muslim terrorists. Today there are many alienated extremists who rely on their own resort to violence in protest against perceived injustice, rather than relying on the jihads of

akbar, saghrir, and kabir, with the help of Allah and ecumenical cooperation in peacefully building a better world. In effect, these extremists rely on and worship themselves.

They are exhibiting the most serious crime condemned in the Qur’an, which is the root of almost all the other crimes, namely, arrogance. They are committing the crime of hirabah, which is the attack on the very roots of civilization, and justifying it in the name of Islam. There can be no greater evil and no greater sin. If there is to be a clash of civilizations, a major cause will be the muharibun, those who commit inter-civilizational

hirabah.

There is only one effective cure for such hirabah. This is cooperation by the heretofore silent majority of both Muslims and those of other faiths in a jihad to marginalize extremism by putting their own houses in order through the pursuit of peace through justice. “Hirabah versus Jihad. Dr. Robert D. Crane , President The Islamic Institute for Strategic Studies. Director, Legal Division at the American Muslim Council. [ http:// www.irfi.org/articles/articles_301_350/hirabah_versus_jihad.htm]

Double standards at Sydney Fahad Ali Michael Spence, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Sydney, recently reminded students that the University is committed to a campus where “even the most contentious topics can be debated in a way that shows tolerance and respect”. Dr. Spence was not referring to some of the great intellectual debates of the day, like euthanasia, data retention, and the role of social welfare; he was referring to the Israel-Palestine divide and the legitimacy of protest against apartheid and occupation.

The suggestion was implicit: Palestinians and their supporters must be neutered in their response to Israeli war crimes.

On March 11, students at the University held a peaceful protest at a public talk given

by Richard Kemp, a former British army officer. Kemp, a keynote speaker of the United Israel Appeal, is an outspoken defender of Israel’s military record and has frequently asserted, as he did in a 2009 submission to the UNHCR, that “the Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in the combat zones than any other army in the history of warfare.”

Kemp’s talk was thinly veiled propaganda that attempted to justify war crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip last year, which claimed the lives of over 1,500 civilians, including 539 children. Human rights organisations, including those within Israel, have been unanimous: Israel committed war

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crimes and violations of international humanitarian law.

There is no debate to be had; this cannot be justified. This is not an issue of controversy, nor one of difference of opinion. This is a matter of genocide.

Genocide, because it meets the legal criteria laid out in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Genocide, because a high-ranking Israeli lawmaker has called for Palestinian mothers to be killed before they give birth to “little snakes”. Genocide, because the Times of Israel can publish a piece (now retracted) entitled “When Genocide is Permissible” without thinking twice.

Freedom of expression is widely regarded to have limits; people are not free to defend the Holocaust, the Atlantic slave trade, or apartheid in South Africa. So why should they be free to defend the actions of the Israeli military when it has resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths and has left nearly 400,000 children in need of immediate psychosocial support? Is there something to defend? Is this the sort of thing we should welcome on campus?

It is clear that the University doesn’t even believe itself. In 2013, when the University attempted to shut down a talk by the Dalai Lama, we heard nothing about “tolerance and respect”. And last year, when Brother Uthman Badar was banned from speaking at a Q&A event at Islamic Awareness Week, we saw no insistence on welcoming “contentious topics”. The University, it seems, is happy to advocate for free and full expression of freedom, except when the Daily Telegraph is involved.

The University’s decision to welcome Richard Kemp is simply at odds with its record. Despite the University’s proclamations on institutional neutrality and freedom of expression, the differential treatment of Richard Kemp and the Dalai Lama indicates that the University has taken a political stance.

Students for Justice in Palestine and Sydney Staff for BDS must now face an almost McCarthyite investigation into anti-Semitism. It Protesters at Richard Kemp lecture at Sydney Uni seemed to legitimise these baseless accusais allegedly anti-Semitic to protest against the crimes of the Israeli state. tions well in advance of any conclusion of a One University professor, Suzanne Rutland, formal investigation, he has been completeinsisted: “’Free Palestine’ [...] means geno- ly silent on the topic of Islamophobia on cide against Israel’s Jewish population.” It campus. When Honi Soit last year reported is absurd that the same people demanding that a Muslim woman on campus was told freedom of expression for the defence of war to take off her hijab and “hang [herself] with crimes are using the charge of anti-Semitism it”, the Vice Chancellor neglected to urge in an attempt to restrict our freedom of ex- tolerance and combat anti-Muslim sentipression to say that Palestine should be free ment.

There is a power dynamic at work. Palfrom occupation.

Most prominently, Associate Professor estinian solidarity groups are not as large Jake Lynch, the Director of the Centre for or well-resourced as Zionist organisations, Peace and Conflict Studies, has been ac- nor can we call upon the conservative press cused of waving money in the face of Jew- to promote our viewpoint. The University, ish students. Although the evidence indi- it appears, is more fearful of Zionist backcates otherwise, Professor Lynch is in real lash than it is of peaceful, humanitarian danger of having his employment terminat- opposition. Nonetheless, a resounding fact ed because of his principled support for the remains: truth and the course of justice are on our side.

Palestinian people.

Fahad Ali is the President of Students for Alarmingly, although the Vice Chancellor saw fit to send out an all-student email that Justice in Palestine at the University of Sydney.

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NEWS 1-2

BOOMERANG 3-5

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AUSTRALIA 9 - 10

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Aspiring leaders Umrah tour AMUST

Zachariah Matthews Human Appeal International Australia (HAIA) in coordination with Deen Academy (DA) hosted a group of young Muslim Australians on an Umrah leadership development tour of five cities - Mecca, Medina, Amman, Istanbul and Dubai. The Tour took place from 10 to 26 February 2015, comprising fifteen participants from Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra.

The group of young university student leaders were led and mentored on the trip

by Bashar Al-Jamal, director of HAIA and Dr Zac Matthews, principal instructor with DA. The journey commenced with undertaking the minor pilgrimage (umrah) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Very little equates to the spiritual enrichment gained from umrah.

Worshippers dressed in ceremonial plain white cloth visiting Islam’s holiest mosque, the Kaba, performing rituals of worship as performed by Prophet Abraham and taught by the last and final Prophet of God, Muhammad (peace be upon him). Tour members spent valuable moments connecting with the Almighty and reconciling their own personal affairs with the Sublime.

The City of Light – Medina – the Prophet’s city, where his mosque and grave are located was the second phase of the journey.

Being present at the very place where a profound message flourished left an indelible mark on all. Several museums were visited in both historical cities – Assalaamu-alayka Ayyuhan-Nabiy (The Prophet’s Project), the Holy Mosques, Ninety-Nine Names of God, Taiba, etc. The group also visited the Quran printing complex as well as the historical

sites of Arafat, Mina, Quba, and Qiblatain.

After renewing and recharging spiritual and emotional connections at Islam’s holiest of places, the tour then moved on to the city of Amman in Jordan. It was here on Wednesday 18th February that the group visited an aid distribution centre for Syrian refugees.

They personally assisted with HAIA’s Winter Aid Appeal handing out heaters, blankets and food packs to more than fifty Syrian families. The food packs and gas heaters were estimated to last about 3 weeks in the cold winter. Witnessing first-hand the dire plight of refugees was gut-wrenching and moved several members to donate cash.

Jordan currently has more than 600,000 Syrian refugees - approximately 80 percent live in urban areas in the north, while the remaining 20 percent live in refugee camps.

The group also participated in an awards ceremony at an Orphan Centre, met with the board of the Conservation of the Holy Quran Society in Amman and visited historical ruins at Jarash, Um Qais and others. At least two important lessons were reiterated to participants: the need to care for others and the essential requirement to study the Noble Quran.

Escaping, by the Grace of God, a snow storm in Amman the group travelled to Istanbul, the city of the Ottoman Empire.

Istanbul was equally rich in history and seemed to amalgamate the meeting of East and West. The group’s first stop was to pray at the famous Fatih mosque, followed by visits to Topkapi museum, Sultan Ahmet and other significant places. The tour also included a breath-taking ferry ride on the Bosphorus River, shopping at the Grand Bazaar and eating delicious beans outside the Suleimaniyeh mosque. One particular highlight was joining the program of Quran reading and remembrance after the dawn prayer at the Beyazit mosque led by Imam Suat Goztok.

Umrah tour members from Sydney and Melbourne.

From Istanbul the tour moved to Dubai where HAI has its headquarters. Group members were honoured to meet with His Highness Sheikh Humaid Bin Rashid Al Nuaimi, Member of the Supreme Council UAE and Ruler of Ajman. Sheikh Nuaimi emphasised to the young leaders the need to support education of the underprivileged.

The group then visited the headquarters of HAI in Ajman where presentations about the orphan program and the various humanitarian projects were observed. The group also participated in a workshop on leadership, followed by lunch in the desert and quad biking on the hot sand dunes of Dubai.

The overwhelming feedback from participants was “a trip of a life time,” one that

they would never forget. Special acknowledgment goes to Our World Travel in Wollongong for their stellar service and hotel upgrade in Mecca.

Tour members: Sydney (Moustafa Afyouni, Omar Al-Jamal, Yusuf Assem, Omer Elgun, Mohamed Omran, Mohammad Qasim, Abdullah Rafik, Ziyad Serhan), Melbourne (Oussama Abou-Zeid, Omar Dennaoui, Omran Omer, Youssef Toutounji), Adelaide (Simon Kwan, David Perrotta), Canberra (Salahuddin Omari).

Zachariah Matthews, activist, speaker and trainer is the Executive Director of Sydney based Deen Academy with the aim of “Inspiring profound understanding”.

International Women’s Day: Make It Happen Mobinah Ahmad The Muslim Women’s Welfare of Australia (MWWA) honoured senior migrant women within South West Sydney at their International Women’s Day event. These women’s commitment, support and devotion, made it happen for their children to succeed in life.

Many migrants started their life in Australia facing many obstacles including language barriers, low income and little or no family networks. The International Women’s Day event highlighted how much strength, perseverance and courage migrant women have in raising their families as mothers, carers, workers and as women.

Those attending included Charishma Kaliyanda, Labor candidate for Holsworthy, Thida Yang, Community Relations Advisor, Faten El Dana OAM, MWWA President, Melanie Gibbons, Member for Menai and the Chief Superintendent Peter Gillam, Liverpool Local Area Command A message from the Minister for Women, Pru Goward was read out where she said “This year’s International Women’s Day of ‘Make It Happen’ is all about looking at what actions we can take to increase the advancement and recognition of women in our society.” She said “I am very encouraged by events like yours today. It’s so important that women come together to create real change in society.”

International Women’s Day is a renowned opportunity to remember, reflect on, and recognize the incredible accomplishments demonstrated by generations of women.

With that came an emotion stirring gathering led by the Muslim Women’s Welfare of Australia that shined a vivacious light on regular women who have played a superb role within the confines of their families,

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communities and even countries.

This year on International Women’s Day, celebrated the acts of courage and determination by women who, individually and collectively, ‘made it happen’ which was the wholehearted theme for this year’s event.

Whether it was the stay at home mother who ensures her family is safe and happy, or the wife who put her education on hold to be a full time carer for her terminally ill husband, or the senior woman who always lends a helping hand to the community, every woman who attended, exemplified a living proof that our women continue to make important, lasting, and positive contributions to society.

The President of the Muslim Women Welfare of Australia Mrs. Faten El-Dana OAM was extremely pleased to be hosting the event that loudly recognized the accomplishments of women past and present.

“Usually on International Women’s Day we hear about women who receive awards as a symbol of appreciation for their social political or economic achievements. Today MWWA would like to congratulate all the women who are receiving recognition today for such achievements. However, and by not taking away from those women, MWWA would like to make a special mention of a special class of women who tend to be forgotten as they are the achievers who ‘make it happen’ silently.”

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Services with special responsibility for Multicultural Affairs, Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells conveyed a message of support to the event through a video message “As parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Social Services with special responsibility to Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services and as a daughter of a migrant myself, it gives me great pleasure to see this event take place.”

Australasian Muslim Times

Honoured migrant women attending the event.

Although MWWA honored all women males; Iman and Khadijah Farrar. The song in one way or another, the senior women embodied very meaningful lyrics regarding were given particular recognition for their the value of the hijab among which are achievements that have had a monumental ‘This hijab, impact on the lives of so many and embodThis mark of piety, ied the clarion call of this year’s InternationIs an act of faith, a symbol, al Women’s Day theme ‘make it happen’.

For all the world to see.’

Charishma Kaliyanda, Labor candidate The event also featured a heartwarming for Holsworthy said “When I first received performance with embracing tunes and the invitation, I really connected with it be- emotive words about the importance and cause it described the contribution of senior value of mothers performed by Iyouch Abbwomen within the community due to the mi- dallah. During the performance, the womgrant experience, the overcoming struggles. en reflected on their own mothers and the It may not have been an obvious contribu- valued and dignified contributions they have tion that you have made, but it is a signifi- made to their families. cant contribution nonetheless.”

With a gathering that celebrated women All senior attendees also received a spe- sharing hope, vision and solidarity, there cial token from MWWA which was a fresh was plenty for women to be inspired by. pink rose as a gesture of their thanks and The value of this event was deeply reflected gratitude. in our ability to integrate the voices of those Everyone was also deeply moved by the who ‘make it happen’ and find the threads impassioned Malaysian choir performance that weave us together giving us hope to beautifully sung by two young talented fe- look towards the future.

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April 2015

UMMAH 14 - 16

EDUCATION 17 - 19

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Food Faith – Nourishing the Body, Mind & Soul Mobinah Ahmad Food Faith is a worldfirst Australian initiative, bringing together two of our most vital life sustaining forces: Food and Faith. Interfaith religious leaders, academics and sustainability groups were invited to discuss the latest food sustainability issues and strategies.

In the light of the current environmental tensions in our community, Food Faith is a positive demonstration of looking for “fertile common ground” amongst different religions. The initiative is a response to the increasing issues of climate change, hunger, loss of biodiversity, water restrictions and other environmental crises.

In today’s current climate, there is an incredible amount of mass consumption in first world western countries. Interfaith leaders spoke about looking upon shared values and working with one another to prevail

negative views perpetuated by the media.

Leaders explained the guidance their faith has given towards food and consumption, through teachings so as not to be wasteful and appreciative.

Heather Fagan from the Islamic Sciences and Research Academy spoke “In the West our intake of meat is high, yet if Muslims followed the example of Prophet Muhammad pbuh, we would eat meat once every 40 days. The Qur’an doesn’t view animals as mere resources but describes them as “communities like you” (6:38). By referring to them as communities, it demonstrates that they deserve respect and fair treatment.”

She said, “Any meat Muslims eat must be slaughtered using the least pain for the animal, which includes not slaughtering any animal in front of another one to avoid unnecessary distress.”

The key points of the Food Faith initiative looked at: limiting food waste, eating less meat and more vegetables to reduce our personal carbon footprint, sharing excess food with organisations who can benefit, linking up with local farmers through community supported agriculture, and advising against

Group photo of interfaith leaders representing Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and indigenous Australians.

or banning the use of ingredients from endangered plants and animals in food and traditional medicines.

ISF researcher Judith Friedlander said FoodFaith was a platform for different religious groups to come together on fundamental issues of faith and humanity.”Every faith celebrates food as a spiritual gift and every faith has something powerful to say about our role in protecting the natural world,” She said “Our choices of what, when and how we eat have a huge impact upon the Earth, our fellow human beings and other living creatures.”

Rabbi Zalman Kastel, from Together for Humanity, spoke about how food plays a pivotal part in Judaism’s culture and beliefs – from the laws of Kashrut (kosher) to the mandate that the Shabbat day is a day of rest and joyous meals with family and friends. “Jewish tradition requires daily ongoing provision to feed the poor, to rest the land one year in seven and to treat animals consistently well. It demands we not eat thoughtlessly, and to make a bracha, or a blessing, both before and after eating.”

He said “The Torah forbids the destruction of fruit trees. This prohibition, known to me as a young child as “baal tashchis” was applied to wasting food more generally. It was particularly positive to have representatives of many faiths coming together for a shared cause which has the added benefit of fostering interfaith harmony.”

Imam Ahmed Abdo from the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils said the “Prophet Muhammad pbuh said that when we eat we should fill one third of our stomach with food, one third of our stomach with water and one third with air.”

FoodFaith is a wonderful initiative to the table the specific traditions of the major faiths that nurture our world and encourages interfaith dialogue and actions surrounding food sustainability.

Those that attended included Jacqui Remond, Director of Catholic Earthcare Australia, Imam Ahmed Abdo of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Rabbi Zalman Kastel of Together for Humanity, Sr Elizabeth Delaney, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches Australia, Dr Miriam Pepper of Uniting Earthweb, Vijai

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Imam Ahmed Abdo, Rabbi Zalman Kastel and Reverend John Buchanan Singhal, of the Hindu Council of Australia, Clarence Slockee, Education Co-ordinator, Aboriginal Programs at Botanic Gardens & Centennial Parklands Sydney, and Kim Lee from Tzu Chi Buddhist Sydney and ABC Radio National’s Dr Rachael Kohn, presenter of The Spirit of Things.

To read fascinating information about the importance of food in different faiths, visit www.foodfaith.com.au.

The event was organised by Judith Friedlander from the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney. The Food Faith initiative is supported

by Meat Free Week, Australian Religious Response to Climate Change and the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney.

Mobinah Ahmad is a multimedia journalist for the Australasian Muslim Times. She is a digital communication professional.

“I am Muslim” Bunga Event at UNSW Nur Farah Binti Latep A public Lecture with the title “I am Muslim” was organized last Friday, 27 March by the Islamic Society of UNSW in collaboration with Malaysian Student Association, Kelab UMNO Australia NSW (KUANSW).

The speaker was well known Sydney identity Associate Professor Mehmet Ozalp from Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilization, Charles Sturt University.

This event is the first component of an ongoing program called BUNGA “Bidadari Penghuni Syurga” (Angel of Heaven), organized by the Malaysian Organization, initiated by Spiritual Bureau of KUANSW, Munirah Jamaludin as the project manager.

This whole program aims to reinforce back Muslim spirit to continue adhering strongly to the Sharia of Islam.

The two hours talk was about building confidence among Muslim in order to gain strength in facing Islamophobia and oth-

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er challenges specially in countries where Muslims form a minority.

The speaker emphasized the importance of knowing clearly the difference between peaceful action to defend the sanctity of Islam against acts associated with terrorism.

The turnouts for the event was quite overwhelming with more than 100 attendees from all backgrounds, both males and females.

“It is hoped that this kind of collaboration shall continue in the future to give more benefits in dunya & akhirat to more people InshaAllah” said Khalil Mokhti, the president of KUANSW 2014/2015.

Nur Farah Binti Latep is a final year student of Chemical of Engineering at UNSW

Speaker A/Prof Mehmet Ozalp amongst the audience at the “I am a Muslim” public lecture at the University of New South Wales.

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Australasian Muslim Times

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COMMUNITY

NEWS 1-2

Saturday 4 April, 2015 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM PCYC Bankstown - 55 Meredith St, Bankstown, NSW www.facebook.com/ events/863594953682007/ Free Free Free!

That is the theme of our market with a variety of stalls to be released and activities to do for the kids. It’s the best way to spend the long weekend with the whole family with great stalls great activities and great food where could you go wrong

Affinity Lecture Series: Michael Ebeid of SBS Thursday 9 April, 2015 12:00 PM - 01:30 PM Suite 502, Level 5 51 – 57 Pitt St Sydney NSW http://affinity.org.au/events/ This is a free event though places are limited and will be prioritize to early RSVPs.

Halal Food Festival Sunday 12 April, 2015 10:00 AM - 09:00 PM Fairfield Showground, Smithfield Rd, Prairiewood, NSW www.halalfoodexhibition.com It’s healthy as it is HALAL Eat Halal – Buy Halal – Promote Halal.

Halal Food Expo is the first event of its kind Australia. It is an open family event for all ages where there will be variety of halal food stalls of different Islamic ethnic restaurants, halal products manufactures & retail suppliers, entertainment, amusements, rides, games, sports competition, and much more.

Jashne Buzurg (Elders Festival) Sunday 12 April, 2015 12:00 PM - 03:00 PM BOWMAN HALL Campbell Street, Blacktown, NSW www.samaa.org.au We will celebrate the lives of our elders for their life long contribution. We will seek support from the community helping us to achieve the task.

The guests will enjoy South Asian cuisine and breathtaking entertainment.

Please book your seat early by ringing 0468 409 786

Asia Pacific Awqaf Congress

Manarul Islam

Wednesday 15 April, 2015 08:30 AM - 05:00 PM Sydney Law School, USYD and LMA Hall, Lakemba, NSW www.apawqaf.eventbrite. com.au Symposium 15th – 16th April, at Sydney Law School, Law School Building (F10), University of Sydney 8:30am – 5:00pm, Community Day – Friday 17th April, at Lebanese Muslim Association Hall, LMA Building, 71-755 Wangee Rd, Lakemba. 11:30am – 5:00pm.

Free online registration www. apawqaf.eventbrite.com.au

Introduction to the Science of Tajweed Sunday 19 April, 2015 09:30 AM - 04:00 PM ISRA Centre, Level 3, 128-132 South Parade, Auburn, NSW

AUSTRALIA 9 - 10

LIFESTYLE 11 - 13

The Islamic School of Canberra, based in Weston, ACT, seems to have finally turned the corner after struggling to establish itself in the ACT Muslim community.

Initially established in Watson in north Canberra, the school, owned by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC), moved to a former CIT site in Weston in 2010.

Whilst the new premises gave the school much needed room and a vision for expansion, there was still some challenges in attracting and retaining students and teachers.

In 2014 however with the engagement of Susan Christiansen as principal and active involvement of School Board member Mohammed Berjaoui and dedicated teachers, the school started to stabilise with the overwhelming majority of teachers continuing on to the new year and an increase in the number of enrolments.

The school is now planning to grow through the commencement of building

of additional classrooms as well as a multi-purpose hall.

In the meantime, the school is looking at how better it can use its current facilities.

With the coordination of the Parents and Friends Association (PFA-ISC), a cleanup day saw a healthy turn out on Saturday 14 March to tidy, mop and reinvigorate a large unused building on the site known as BLOCK E. The active involvement of the PFA-ISC in the life of the school has created synergy between the management, staff and parents of the school.

The PFA-ISC met on 20 March for its Annual General Meeting, electing Kalim Khan as its President for the next year.

Under this new leadership there are plans for further engagement and coordination to enhance school life for staff, students and parents. There are still challenges ahead the school is applying for establishing Year 8 in the near future and needs community support.

For further information, contact the school on ISCACT@bigpond.net.au.

The Parents and Friends Association can be contacted on mail@pfa-isc.org.au

www.isra.org.au Uplift your faith and connection with your Creator, Allah (set) by gaining valuable knowledge on how to read improve your Quran recitation and appreciation.

Free course (includes material), complimentary light lunch and tea/ coffee

Welcome refugees rally: Close Manus & Nauru.

Peace, no racism Sunday 19 April, 2015 01:00 PM - 03:00 PM Belmore Park Hay Street, Sydney, NSW www.facebook.com/ events/1416537418647398/ The momentum for change is growing. Last year’s Palm Sunday demonstrations were the largest for refugee rights since the Howard years.

Over 200 groups signed a statement against children in detention following the Human Rights Commission report. Christian leaders have staged actions at MP’s offices around the country as part of the “Love makes a way” campaign. We hope that this rally in April can be a broad and powerful statement of opposition to government policies and of support for refugees.

Game Changer: Yasmin Mogahed in Sydney 2015 Tuesday 21 April, 2015 06:30 PM - 10:00 PM 3 New St East Lidcombe, NSW www.trybooking.com/HDGY For more information, please contact: E: events@whiteflame.com

See more events and submit your own at www.amust.com.au/calendar

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COMMUNITY 6-8

Islamic School goes from strength to strength

Events Calendar Family Boutique Markets

BOOMERANG 3-5

Australasian Muslim Times

Parents, teachers and friends get together to clean up ISC buildings and grounds

Please help Omar receive a wheelchair van AMUST Media Omar is a special needs child. His mother, Ida Haddara has appealed to the community to help and raise funds for a wheelchair van which costs $60, 000.

Omar was diagnosed with Spastic Quadriplegia and Cerebral Palsy at birth, also suffers from vision impairment, intellectual disability, chronic lung disease and is oxygen dependent. He is a tall boy and weighs 26 kg’s and continues to grow making his care needs increasingly harder for his mother to manage.

A wheelchair accessible vehicle will enable Omar to be safely supported whilst travelling and will also enable him to attend medical appointments, give him greater access to the community and to prevent social isolation.

His mother Ida said “I have suffered significant trauma over the past year, having to face the possibility that Omar’s condition has the potential to deteriorate quite quickly and without warning. I do my best with balancing the needs of my other children against the extremely high needs of Omar’s.

Omar is a joyful boy, he smiles and giggles all the time, even when he becomes ill. He loves watching cartoons, interaction from his siblings, racing in his gravity chair, being read to, painting (with help) and being pushed in the disability swing. Omar has filled our house with love and happiness.

Unfortunately he has been unable to attend school regularly due to the fragility of his health and attendance outside the home remains limited. Transporting Omar in a Taxi

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Omar Haddara presents significant risk due to his low immunity.”

The Prophet peace be upon him said: “Whoever relieves a believer of distress in this world, Allah will relieve him of some of the distress of the day of Judgement. Whoever makes things easy for those who are in difficulty, Allah will make things easy for him in this world and in the next.”

To read more of Omars heart touching story and make a pledge, Go to www.eoplepledge.com.au/b/omarhaddara/. So far, $15 000 has been raised, however another $45000 is needed. This online fundraiser will end on 27 of April. Any donation will be greatly appreciated by this family. Please donate and share to encourage others. Every dollar counts.

Donate Commonwealth bank, Omar Haddara, Bsb: 06-3994, Acc:1005159 Contact: ida.haddara@bigpond.com

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EDUCATION 17 - 19

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SOCIAL 21

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BUSINESS 22 - 23

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Glimpses from 2015 Intergenerational Report FINANCE Dr Abul Jalaluddin The Intergenerational Report, released on 5 March 2015, is an Australian social mirror between generations: parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren and each other. This social mirror reflects around demographic, productivity and economic growth aspects of our lives.

It is the Will of Allah SWT that Australians including Muslims will live longer and continue to have one of the longest life expectancies in the world. This projected long life is an opportunity for Australian Muslims to perform good deeds and accomplish great goals for social and economic well-being of all Australians.

The Intergenerational report is a projection of Australian population, employment participation, productivity, economic outlook and implications for Federal budgets over the next 40 years to 30 June 2055. It sets out what we need to do if we are to maintain and improve our standard of living for all Australians.

Population and Life Expectancy In 2054-55, the life expectancy is projected to be 95.1 years for men and 96.6 years for women, compared to the current 91.5 years and 93.6 years respectively. In the same year, there will be 40,000 Australians

aged over 100, compared to only 122 people of this age group in 1974-75. The proportion of population aged 65 and over is projected to be more than double in 2054-55, compared to the current level of people in this age. In 1974-75, less than 1% or 80,000 of the population was aged 85 and over which will grow to 4.9% of the population or nearly 2 million people in 2054-55. Australian fertility rate is assumed to be 1.9 births per woman in 2054-55 which remained to be relatively steady since 1970s. Taking into consideration the patterns of migration, fertility and mortality, Australian population is projected to grow at 1.3% per year in the next 40 years. On the migration front, this assumes a net overseas migration of 215,000 per year in the next 40 years. With this trend, Australian population is projected to grow to almost 40 million in 205455, compared to 23.9 million in 2014-15.

Participation in Workforce Participation refers to the proportion of the population aged 15 and over who are actively engaged in the workforce. Due to ageing population, the rate of the participation will decline in the next 40 years which will result in a lower rate of economic growth in Australia. By the financial year to be ended 30 June 2055, the participation rate for Australians aged 15 and over is projected to fall to 62.4%, compared to 64.6% in 201415. Female participation rate will increase

strongly, to around 70% in 2054-55. In 17475, only 46% of women aged 15 and over were employed, compared to around 66% in 2014-15. As the population ages, the participation rate for older Australians will grow rapidly to 17.3% in 2054-55 which is 12.9% today.

Productivity of Australian Workforce Productivity is defined as working more efficiently or producing more or better quality of goods or services with the same level of resources. The level of productivity has been high in Australia which contributed to growth in incomes and high living standards for all Australians. Today average Australians produce twice as many goods and services in every hour they work compared to early 1970s which has broadly doubled the average income per person during this period. Technology is the prime driver in improving productivity which is changing the face of business, markets, governments and social media in Australia. During 1990s, Australia experienced relatively high productivity growth, estimated to be 2.2% per year which is widely attributed to microeconomic reforms undertaken during 1980s and 1990s. The level of productivity has declined in 2000s, estimated to be an average of 1.5% per year.

Australia needs to harness future opportunities to support innovation, adopt new technologies, facilitate foreign trade and foster competition to uplift productivity. The aver-

age productivity is also projected to be 1.5% in the next 40 years.

Economic Growth and Growth in Personal Incomes Due to declining participation rate and slightly lower population growth, Australian economic growth is projected to be lower over the next 40 years than over the past 40 years. The annual growth of real gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to be 2.8% over the next 40 years, compared to 3.1% over the past 40 years. The share of GDP per person is projected to be 1.5% over the next 40 years, compared to 1.7% over the past 40 years. In terms of personal share of national income, the real gross national income (GNI) is projected to grow at 1.4% over the next 40 years, compared to 1.9% over the past 40 years. This presents an evidence that Australians in the next 40 years will be poorer than those in the past 40 years.

Concluding Remarks There are significant changes occurring over the next 40 years and beyond. Economic events and business cycles in real time may impact on the current projections but trends in the Intergenerational Report are expected to remain on the ball. An ongoing improvement in the Australian living standards over the next 40 years will be contingent on continuous improvements around population growth, rate of workforce participation and productivity.

Community backlash leaves nation exposed in fight against terrorism Adrian Cherney and Kristina Murphy The majority of Muslims in Australia condemn terrorism and extremism. But they also feel that counter-terrorism policing and laws unfairly target their community. This has generated a community backlash.

This is a key finding of research we have completed on the impact of counter-terrorism responses on Muslim communities in Australia. Preliminary findings from this research were reported in The Conversation.

The report reveals full results that shine a light on the negative and unintended consequences of counter-terrorism activities on Muslim communities. The findings also show us what authorities can do to minimise these impacts.

The research has involved 14 focus groups, totalling 104 participants, and a survey of 800 Muslims living in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

Muslims feel under siege Key findings from the focus groups were that the Muslim community feels under siege due to the social and political responses to terrorism. For instance, participants felt under constant attack and scrutiny, both politically and in the media. Respondents believed the media spread misinformation about Islamic principles (for example in relation to sharia, jihad, halal).

Participants stressed that Islamist terrorist groups were not true Muslims and distorted the meaning of Islamic principles. However, they said that they felt reluctant to publicly voice an opinion about Islam, foreign policy issues, terrorism or counter-terrorism activity out of fear they would be labelled extremists. These views were particularly strong among young participants.

A key concern was that police could “do whatever they wanted” when using counter-terrorism laws. When it came to efforts to combat terrorism, participants disliked

April 2015

the use of the term “moderate” Muslim to delineate between what might be regarded as a more acceptable form of Islam, or Muslims who opposed the use of Islam to justify terrorist acts.

Consultation promotes co-operation In the focus groups, participants discussed the merits of different police and legal efforts to combat terrorism or radicalisation.

Consultative approaches, such as engagement with Muslim leaders (Imams) and community members, were regarded as more reasonable and effective.

Even here respondents were not unanimous in supporting community engagement efforts. Some stated that it carried risks in being judged as illegitimate by community members (youth in particular) because leaders were seen as “selling out” by “joining forces” with police. This was seen as only further dividing the Muslim community.

Participants said that police needed to learn more about the Islamic religion and needed to engage with Muslims in a way that respected religious practices. One example cited was the need for police to remove their shoes when entering a mosque or a Muslim home.

Results from the survey showed that many Muslims trust the police (88% of the sample) and are proud to be Australian (84% of the sample). More than 50% of the sample reported they had changed certain practices (for example changing the way they dressed in public) as a result of terrorism-related police scrutiny.

The results also show that few Muslims think that police considered the views of their community when it comes to making decisions about how to tackle terrorism or deal with radicalisation.

War on terror falls into ‘us and them’ trap In particular, the survey results highlight the unintended consequences of the “war on terror”. That is, Muslim respondents who re-

ported they felt more under siege (they feel under more scrutiny by police and authorities because of their faith; they fear being accused of terrorists acts because of their faith) were less likely to identify with Australia, less trusting of police and less willing to co-operate with police.

We also found some interesting results across the states surveyed. Sydney Muslims were significantly more likely to feel under siege. They were less trusting of counter-terrorism policing and significantly more likely than Muslims in Brisbane or Melbourne to believe terrorists have valid grievances.

Our analysis also shows that if Muslim respondents felt the police used procedural justice (that is, treated Muslims with respect, impartially, in a trustworthy manner and provided an opportunity to have a say) in counter-terrorism policing, they were

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more likely to trust police, less likely to feel under siege and more willing to co-operate with police. This is important because police do have direct control over how they treat and interact with Muslims.

These findings show that any efforts by authorities to engage Muslim communities will be difficult given the sense of siege they are experiencing. If these feelings are dismissed, ignored or overlooked, then generating community cooperation with counter-terrorism strategies becomes all the more difficult.

Adrian Cherney is the Senior Lecturer, Criminology Head of Discipline at The University of Queensland Kristina Murphy is an Associate Professor, School of Criminology at Griffith University.

Australasian Muslim Times

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AUSTRALIA

NEWS 1-2

BOOMERANG 3-5

COMMUNITY 6-8

AUSTRALIA 9 - 10

LIFESTYLE 11 - 13

Remittance lifelines cut off by Aussie banks AMUST

Matt Khoury

Westpac will be the last Australian bank to close its remittance services on March 31, following an extension to a Sydney-based group of remitters who undertook a class action in the Federal Court.

Remittance providers that were not involved in the action had their ACCOUNTS closed on December 24, when the court action was settled.

Australian banks have shied away from the remittance sector as tighter money laundering and terrorism FINANCING regulations, which aim to prevent money being sent overseas from falling into the hands of terrorist organisations, have increased the risk of banks of being fined.

A spokeperson for the Federal Attorney General’s Department explained that “banks’ decisions reflect their own and, in some instances, their international partnering banks’ assessment of the money laundering and terrorist FINANCING risks, or the potential for breaches of Australian or foreign sanction laws associated with remittance service providers”.

The closures will affect communities with families abroad who are dependent on remittances. The Somali community in Australia has been particularly vocal, saying that Somalia does not have established banking networks or modern forms of electronic FUNDS transfers.

Commonwealth Bank was first to opt out

of the $435m global remittance industry two years ago, followed by ANZ and National Australia Bank. “All the remitters moved to Westpac, but finally they (too) decided it was too hard,” said Dr Hussein Horaco, of the Somali Remittance Action Group, which was not involved in the industry-led court action.

“Somali-Australians, often sending just $50 or $100 from their hard EARNEDsavings, send back a combined total at least $10.5million each year to Somalia - more than two-thirds of the amount of aid the Australian Government has sent to Somalia this year,” Dr Haraco said.

Cutting off remittance services could spell humanitarian disaster, he said.

Internationally, the Twitter hashtags #IFundFoodNotTerror and #Somali4Remittances have gathered traction after US banks decided to no longer allow remittance services to Somalia.

The newly formed Australian Remittance and Currency Providers Association estimates 6.5 million Australians with family or friends overseas rely on MONEY TRANSFER services.

“The remittance sector has been identified globally as being vulnerable to misuse for money laundering and terrorism financing purposes.”

– John Schmidt, acting chief executive of AUSTRAC Westpac said in a statement, “We are continuing to work closely with the government, regulators and our customers to see what longer-term solutions may be possible to support and help make such payments in the future.”

Remittance action group Working Group meetings are underway, chaired by the Attorney-General’s Department and including the Somali Remittance Action Group, remitter groups and representatives from Department of Foreign Affairs and Australia’s international money transfer watchdog, AUSTRAC. A spokesperson for the Attorney-General’s Department said the meetings have tackled issues including “discussing practical measures that remitters could undertake to make their businesses more likely to fit within the acceptable risk tolerance of banks. The work of the group is ongoing.”

These meetings, both in person and by phone conference, have been productive, according to Dr Horaco. “Before March 31, we’re optimistic about reaching a solution.”

Otherwise, he said, “Black market remitters will be charging 20 percent, but we’ll have no option but to pay the money.”

Somali remitters are currently charging five percent for transactions, which is among the lowest charged by remitters. An Indian proposal that was accepted at the recent G20 meeting suggested remitter fees be capped at this rate.

Already, tighter regulations have forced the price of remittance services upwards.

The Somali community are exploring all their options as the remittance deadline looms. “(We could) take the money in a bag to Dubai and do the transfer there... (But) we need security, cash is dangerous to carry,” Dr Horaco said, adding that the airline ticket was an added expense.

In the 2012-13 FINANCIAL year, more than $30 billion was transferred into and out

of Australia through alternative remitters, according to the Australian Crime Commission-led Taskforce Eligo.

AUSTRAC’s fund-tracking operations receive about 20,000 reports a day of suspicious transactions, CASH transactions over $10,000 or electronic TRANSFERS. There are more than 5,000 registered remitters in Australia, and AUSTRAC have cancelled REGISTRATIONS of those that didn’t abide by strict financial guidelines, including Lakemba-based Bisotel Rieh, run by relatives of Australian ISIS foreign fighter Khaled Sharrouff, which failed to disclose where a $21 million transfer was going.

At the time, the acting chief executive of AUSTRAC, John Schmidt, said the business “may involve a significant FINANCING of terrorism risk.”

“The remittance sector has been identified globally as being vulnerable to misuse for money laundering and terrorism FINANCING purposes,” Mr Schmidt said.

As part of Operation Appleby, law enforcement authorities have arrested Australians suspected of FUNDING terrorist organisations abroad.

“Providing funding is equally criminal as actually travelling to participate and we will use all our resources to cut off the supply of FUNDS to terrorists,” AFP assistant commissioner Neil Gaughan said. .

Matt Khoury is the editor of the Point Magazine (www.thepointmagazine.com.au), published by Multicultural NSW.

Asia Pacific Awqaf Congress in Sydney Zia Ahmad

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The Asia Pacific Awqaf (Islamic Endowment) Congress will be held in Sydney from 15 to 17 April 2015 attended by delegates from overseas as well as other states in Australia.

The Congress is being organized and hosted by Awqaf Australia and the University of Sydney Law School.

A two day Asia Pacific Awqaf Development Training Symposium will be held from Wednesday 15 to 16 April at the Law School, The university of Sydney while a Community Day event will be held at the LMA Building, Wangee Rd, Lakemba in collaboration with Lebanese Muslim Association.

The Symposium presenters include Devina Levy from Cambridge Muslim College, Dr Wasif Shehzad, Indus Hospital, Pakistan, Zeinul Cajee, Awqaf South Africa, Prof Adi Setia CASIS, UTM, Malaysia, Dr Hisham Dafterdar Awqaf Australia and Dr Mohamed Abdullah from Griffith University, Queensland.

A number of universities, awqaf agencies

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and health institutions from the Asia Pacific region will be sending delegates to the Congress.

The Congress is sponsored by Government of Dubai, Muslim Aid Australia, Lebanise Muslim Association, Islamic Council of NSW, Religion of Peace (Australia), NSW Muslim Guild and Basmala AUS. For further information and registration for the congress visit: http://apawqaf. eventbrite.com.au; Email: awqafcongress@ gmail.com

April 2015

UMMAH 14 - 16

EDUCATION 17 - 19

TRAVEL 20

SOCIAL 21

LIFESTYLE

BUSINESS 22 - 23

International Love

Zeynab Gamieldien

‘If I get really desperate, I’ll just go to Lebanon/ Pakistan/insert-country-here and find someone’.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard that statement, I’d be writing this from the Bahamas instead of my suburban couch. It’s terribly clichéd to say it, but I’ll say it anyway: increasingly, we are living in a global bubble. I often feel like there are so few degrees of separation between people that it’s all a bit claustrophobic. Social media gives us the sense, even if it’s not entirely accurate, that we have a portal to different countries, with those portals often being people we’ve never even met.

Even as we ‘connect’, the simultaneous sense of loneliness can fester. Routine and repetition can render us prone to the belief that we know everyone in our own city and that if there was anyone to meet, we’d have met them already. Put this sense of boredom together with the belief in global portals of discovery and we have some pretty interesting possibilities arising. We can talk to people in different countries and on different continents and see if there’s the potential of a shared life together, wherever that may be.

But it seems not all countries were created equal. There is often a marked difference in how people raised in Western countries view the idea of marrying someone raised in another Western country as opposed to marrying someone from their parents’ country of origin. This means someone in Australia may be perfectly fine with talking to someone in Canada, but they may not be as open to talking to someone born and raised in Iraq.

Much of this may be explained by language barriers. If someone doesn’t speak a language other than English fluently, they will naturally experience communication issues with someone whose English isn’t fluent. But it’s more than that. Many people refer to ways of being particular to the ‘third culture generation’: those who were raised in a Western country to migrant parents, negotiating their way through different modes of existence and forming their own mishmash of an identity. Those with a very strong sense of cultural identity may feel they relate well to people from their parents’ country of origin, and as such are very open to marrying someone who was raised there.

But even so, a kind of stigma is often attached to these unions. People whisper behind their hands, well, they clearly gave up and couldn’t find someone here. The perception exists that it’s easier to find someone to marry overseas, perhaps grounded in suspicion of the motives of those who don’t

hold Western passports. It’s a common perception that many people are just after visas or green cards and will marry anyone to get it. ‘Fobs’ are the butt of many jokes, with everything from their broken English to their way of dressing becoming the subject of derision.

I find it all very interesting, especially from where I stand as a person whose parents and relatives overseas speak English as their main language. I’ve certainly never had anyone show any interest whatsoever in my Australian passport when I go to South Africa, and so part of me feels sceptical when friends talk about dangling their passport in front of people overseas and watching the hordes run in. I also know many people who’ve simply met someone overseas and hit it off with them, just as they would with someone here, and so I hate to think that their relationship would be attributed to a mere visa hunt by the overseas party.

I also wonder just how similar the experiences and outlooks of Muslims in different Western countries are. How different is the Canadian Muslim experience to the British Muslim experience to the Australian Muslim experience? Of course, migration patterns differ between these countries, which results in different demographic mixes and community dynamics. For example, the migrant US Muslim community is known to be particularly affluent and well-educated.

Friends I know who’ve mingled extensively with people from the US Muslim community comment that they seem more ‘liberal’ than people in Australia when it comes to relations with the opposite sex, which

makes for interesting international love conundrums. Even here in Australia much is made of the distinction between Muslims in Sydney and Melbourne, and within cities all kinds of different communities and sub-communities exist.

Where is this all going to go? What kinds of identities will the children of Muslim Australian-US-Indian-Somali parents ascribe to? Will these apps and sites, created to foster country-wide and global connections, achieve their aims? I’m not sure. There are too many variables involved, too many factors at play. All I know is that the world for me has simultaneously contracted and expanded as I’ve gotten older. I’m more conscious than ever of all that lies beyond the city of my birth, but am also more conscious of how modernity and globalisation is condensing and eroding culture and difference into one soupy hot mess. I wonder about all the people who are getting left behind as people like me, the privileged, well-travelled, well-educated elite, continue to do our global dances from retreats to conventions to conferences, meeting more and more people just like us.

Would you marry someone from another country? Would it matter which country they were from?

Zeynab is an Australian lawyer, social inquirer, traveller and chronic human observer. She created Love Haqtually as a space for Muslims (and anyone interested) to discuss relationships, love, the weirdness of being a Muslim in the 21st century.

AMUST

Marriage Bureau -

Seeker & Sought For An initiative by the Islamic Foundation for Education and Welfare (IFEW)

Seekers M20153: Male, 32, Sri Lankan Australian, Engineer. I’m an engineer and revert to Islam (I’ve done a lot of research to come to this point).

This is my second year as a practicing Muslim. I have high emaan. My hobbies are fitness, reading, learning arabic, engineering, modern history, cafés and restaurants, innovation. I’m looking for a devout practicing Muslim (Sunni) sister from any cultural background. Ideally a sister with very high emaan.

M20152: Male, 33, Indian Australian, Financial Analyst. I’m a revert to Islam, and I work as a financial analyst in a multi-national IT company seeking an educated Muslim woman from a cultured family.

M20151: Male, 34, Sri Lankan, Self-Employed. I have been living in Sydney for the past three years. I’ve been brought with traditional Islamic culture and am seeking to find a life partner in a halal way. I pray five times a day and read Quran every day.

I am a very religious person, and I am looking to marry a religious Muslim woman.

Seeker & Sought For is a new initiative that provides an opportunity to look for a life partner! Don’t be shy!

Let us know who you are and what you’re looking for.

Parents and friends are welcome to write in as well.

Placing a notice

The Announcement Soap Box

If you would like to place a notice, fill out the matrimonial form at: www.amust.com.au/marriage-bureau

Sana Gillani & Abdul Hadi Shah Idil celebrate their first wedding anniversary.

All notices will be allocated a unique number and relevant personal information kept on file. Such information will remain confidential and will not appear on the notice.

“From why, to when, to where, and the questions of love remain a mystery to be answered solely by the secrets of the heart. Not one but the hearts of two souls that were destined to meet in the middle of the cosmos of chaos. “ - Yousaf Seyal

All notices must be sent through the form

Responding to a notice

Share the celebration of your engagement, wedding, anniversary or birthday with the rest of the community!

If you would like to respond to a notice, email seeker@amust.com.au with the notice number, your name and response and it will be emailed to them along with your email address.

Send an email with your information (photo optional) to seeker@amust. com.au

It will be up to that person to respond to your correspondence.

April 2015

All information is held in strict confidence

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Australasian Muslim Times

11

LIFESTYLE

NEWS 1-2

BOOMERANG 3-5

COMMUNITY 6-8

AUSTRALIA 9 - 10

LIFESTYLE 11 - 13

Mother courage: A story of M AMUST

At 11 years of age, I can still read her mind just by looking at her face. I see her futile struggle to pull down a composed mask like It was after reading yet a roller-door over her guilt for an indiscreanother Facebook uption. I can tell from four streets away what date by a friend saying she’s feeling and thinking. Even now, she she had been spat on by climbs into my bed when she is frightened a stranger in public that at night and fits herself to the arch of my something inside me spine, the delicate, powerful bones of our shrivelled down on itself. backs curving together like a cupping hand I closed that tab and and realigning like they did when she was opened a new one for my in utero and I was out utero, yet we were email. In a stream of hot tears and hot words, in the same place. How did the cosmos not I emailed my daughter’s teacher. I used combust with the metaphysical magnitude words like ‘terror’, ‘safety’, ‘attacks’ and of two souls existing in one body? How did ‘alarming’. Sharp words that cut through such a feat not cause a rip in the space–time space and cut through my heart. I cried as I continuum? typed an email asking my daughter’s teacher The tearing of a mother when she gives to keep her safe when I wasn’t there. birth is the tearing of the fabric of the uniWhen I was overdue with my first child— verse, and as we become mothers we tumble the daughter at the centre of this piece—I down a wormhole to a new way of being. went to the hospital for a check-up. After A way that is new for us, but is as old as some tests, the midwife informed me that life itself. As we flounder on our new-born my baby was lying in a posterior position, mother legs, we are walking on the bones meaning her spine was pressing into my of the billions of mothers who came before spine and causing the terrible agony I felt us. Our stories are different, but we all write in my back. She also said that much of my them with the same ink. My unique tale is baby’s amniotic fluid had drained out. The just the same as yours. My mothering is a liquid life that had surrounded her had slow- new existence that, in some ways, is so ly trickled away and I had not even noticed. laughingly like the old I wonder why it has How could I not notice? My baby was al- a special name. ready slipping through my fingers, unobFood is still eaten, bills still need to be served. paid, friends are still embraced and clouds The midwife insisted my baby was very still glide across the sky. And yet, it is also ready to be born. She needed to be born, a completely different existence. Not only and quickly, for both our sakes. And yet my have routines changed and priorities shifted, body didn’t want to push her out and she ap- but my emotions seem rawer. I now can be peared in no hurry to leave. We both seemed reduced to tears at the prospect of anyone’s to want to stay attached, even if it hurt us. suffering—living or dead, true or fictional, But in honour of survival, I pushed my human or animal. My empathy knob has daughter through a ring of fire and into gone from a tolerable, everyday five, to sitthe world when I was just 23 years old—a ting permanently at 900. Eleven years after young mother by modern standards. I cried giving birth to my daughter (with a beauwith delight when the nurse placed her on tiful son being born a few years later) and my still-gasping chest and told me she was a I still cry about baby animals being sepagirl; I had so desperately wanted a girl. rated from their mothers, or foster parents I fumbled and struggled through those stretching themselves thin to the point of early minutes and years like every first-time transparency for the kids in their care. My parent does, but no matter how much time empathy manifests itself as protectiveness stretches between her leaving my body and for anything that seems vulnerable: I feel the current day, we remain attached. genuine concern and agitation when my five-year-old doesn’t feed the pretend dog on the Nintendo DS. So when it is my own small children, obliviously skipping out into a world that seems to want to hurt them? This is a hard situation to mother.

I do not want to mother from a place of fear. Fear is a clenched fist that is closed to possibility and wonder. I want to parent with a hand flung wide open, to accept and embrace and welcome what comes my way.

To show my children that the world is intriguing and good and will rise up to meet their curious enthusiasm. That the world has a stretched open hand, too.

But as a Muslim mother, I have had my share of fearful parenting. I’ve had people speak abuse to me while I push my small child in the shopping trolley, and in that situation, my first concern is, “Did she hear that? Did my daughter’s tiny ears hear This essay can be found in Mother Morphosis, a collection what they said to me and does she realise of stories by Australian writers about motherhood.

Susan Carland

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Australasian Muslim Times

what it means?” Out of a desire to shield my toddler daughter from the hateful words of strangers, I have smiled and nodded at people who said vile things to me, hoping that my behaviour would make her think she had misunderstood what they said. I have smiled and nodded in agreement when people insulted me so she would not know.

In the symphony of motherhood, I am a living dissonance, the high notes that detract her attention from the punching bass line. If I had been alone, perhaps I would have said something back, but my instinct was to try to minimise the damage, to metaphysically cut off my own arm and throw it to the snarling dogs so we could get away, and my daughter be none the wiser. But repeated interactions like that start to gnaw away at you like a hungry mutt. And I fear that one day I will look down and see that I’ve hacked off everything about myself to try to shield my children and there is nothing left of me except bleeding stumps. Anger will make me hard, fear will make me brittle, and my life and the lives of my children will shrink in on themselves. And inevitably, this will impact on my mothering in ways I don’t like.

But to respond to such situations with Pollyanna-like joviality seems unhinged.

When she was five years old and in her first year of school, my daughter came home and announced she wanted to wear a hijab (Muslim woman’s headscarf) to school, the local public primary school in which she was the only Muslim child in a community of hundreds. I froze. I asked her why she wanted to do that. “Because I want to,” came the reasonable reply. I tried to change the subject, hoping she would forget. She didn’t forget. And the next day, she brought it up again.

I didn’t know how to answer her. And I hated myself for not knowing. I wanted my daughter to be proud of her faith and embrace it as a part of her identity. But at five, she had no idea how her wearing a hijab would be interpreted by others. I could guess what the teachers and principal would think, and I felt sick about it. I did not want to guess what the other parents would think.

I had never introduced her to the concept that other people might not like her being Muslim: how do you teach the idea of impersonal yet pointed hate to a five-year-old?

She had no idea of the potential reactions that awaited her if she suddenly outed herself as a Muslim.

I silently tossed handfuls of questions to the kitchen ceiling and watched them scatter. Should I tell her she couldn’t wear her hijab to school? If so, why? What reason would I give her? And more importantly, what would she internalise from whatever I said? That her religion was shameful? That she needed to change, or at least hide, who she was to make other people accept her?

That other people were to be feared? If I allowed it, was I being not just foolish, but a bad mother?

I had experienced enough rancour and open discrimination because of my hijab to know how public perception tilted. And I was a grown woman; she was a small child.

In the end, I agreed, as I had no reason I could give her not to wear it. I remained nonchalant as we walked to school, my daughter skipping along, merrily oblivious, me feeling like I was sending my tiny five-year-old out to the wolves. She had no idea that the massive weight of 1400 years of religious history—and non-Muslim reaction to that history—had just settled on her skinny shoulders along with the fabric of her headscarf.

We entered the school grounds and I saw one mother’s eyes widen as she noticed my child. I kissed my daughter goodbye and left. I cried the whole way home. Every awful experience—every time a stranger shouted an insult at me on the street, every time someone told me they wouldn’t hire me because of my hijab, every time I had received hate mail, every time someone threatened me—came flooding back to me.

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Susan with her husband, Waleed Aly, and their These were all situations I thought hadn’t bothered me that much at the time. I’d often laughed them off. Now that my daughter might face them, they weren’t so funny. My empathy valve went into overdrive. I wanted to mother well in that situation. I wanted to mother with an open hand, but I could feel my hands snapping shut in fear and anger, and I did not want that for my children.

I wanted to mother with patience and compassion and fearlessness. I realised I could not mother from a place I did not inhabit.

All day I worried about my daughter.

When I was finally able to pick her up from school, she was standing in the middle of the playground, crying and hijab-less. Inside, my feelings began building towards nuclear level. I ran to her, asked her what happened, was she all right, tell me, what is the matter?

“I didn’t get the class beaaaaar,” she wailed.

“Sorry, what?”

“The teacher gave the class bear to someone else to look after! Waahhhh!”

Upon further probing, I discovered she had stuffed her hijab in her bag around lunchtime and that no one had really said anything about it and that what she really wanted to talk about was the travesty of the class soft toy being given to someone else for the weekend. Her childish naivety about the significance of what she had done was, unlike the hijab on her head, still in place. I knew then that this was just the beginning for my mothering and guiding my daughter on what it means to be a Muslim female in Australia.

It is easy to talk about an extravagant, crazy desire to see the best in the world despite what it throws at me when I am the one on the battle-front, my hijab the fluttering flag of my army. But I struggle to preach this pacifist war-cry to my vulnerable children.

Not when I know a little too acutely that doing so can lead to them getting punched in the face and having graffiti sprayed on their homes.

We are travelling overseas when Muslims become a headline and a hashtag once more in Australia, and the likelihood of being attacked for being Muslim becomes higher than ever. There are terror raids and suggested burqa bans and a boy is shot and police stabbed and it seems the world cannot stop talking about us and what is wrong with us.

My husband and I keep our conversations on the topic to hushed whispers, trying to shield our kids from what is happening; at eleven and seven, our children only see their faith as something beautiful and sensible.

It is the true north on their moral compass.

To hear people talking about it in ugly ways would be devastating and confusing.

I start to get messages from friends at home telling me their Muslim kids are crying themselves to sleep each night over what is happening. Other women don’t want to

April 2015

UMMAH 14 - 16

EDUCATION 17 - 19

TRAVEL 20

SOCIAL 21

LIFESTYLE

BUSINESS 22 - 23

Muslim parenting in Australia

r family. leave their homes. A friend and her baby in his stroller are kicked. My social media feed is choked with the reports of Australian female Muslim friends and the abuse—physical and verbal—they are receiving. Some commentators say we’re making it up, so not only are we victims, we are liars. One night we sardine into a cramped hotel room.

I am packing our suitcases and BBC news is on in the background. I don’t realise until my daughter asks me what is happening that she has heard some of a news report about ISIS and attacks on Muslims in Australia. I fumble for an answer. Desperately searching to understand how she is processing this,

I ask her what she thinks.

“I feel sad. I feel sad for the people who ISIS are hurting, and don’t know why Muslims would act like that. I also feel sad for the Muslims in Australia who are getting hurt by people. It reminds me of what happened before World War Two.” The year before, we travelled to Amsterdam and took our children to Anne Frank’s house, and to Israel where we visited the Holocaust museum. My daughter was deeply struck by what had happened in Germany before the war started—the way stereotypes of the Jews were actively circulated to help create an attitude of widespread anti-Semitism.

“Surely people remember what happened with World War Two and the dangerous things that can happen when you negatively stereotype a whole group of people? Why would they want to do that again?”

“I don’t know,” I say honestly.

Becoming a mother has been a beautiful, difficult journey, but the blistering experience of becoming a good Muslim mother in 21st century Australia has often felt like I’ve tripped into the blacksmith’s fire. Initially, it just seems painful and destructive. But the heat is there only because that is what makes the materials malleable enough to be formed into something useful. Without the high temperature, the material will remain an ineffectual piece of metal; it is the fire that transforms it into something effective. I can see this fire as harmful or I can see it as transformative. So I choose to see this fire that I walk through as having one purpose: to shape me into what I need to be. And that includes becoming a better mother than I would otherwise have been.

In the 13 years since September 11, I’ve never had to write an email like the one I wrote to my daughter’s grade five teacher.

And I never expected that I would have to.

The blaze has flared up again in Australia, but experience has told me it will soon enough die down to embers that only smoulder when kicked. It would be easy just to hide behind the couch and wait for it all to end. But the pressure of this heat has made me channel my empathy into ensuring my children are more empathetic towards others.

“Becoming a mother has been a beautiful, difficult journey, but the blistering experience of becoming a good Muslim mother in 21st century Australia has often felt like I’ve tripped into the blacksmith’s fire.” Photo: Supplied.

We constantly talk about kindness to others, considering the feelings of others, helping others. All the experiences I have had of people pushing hate my way have taught me that the only response to a lack of compassion is fierce, unrelenting compassion to all.

It is the only empowering position we can take.

I realise that if I am only mothering my children through fear and anger in this area, I am mothering half-dead. I want to teach my children to truly live, and that involves vulnerability. Fear cannot be completely eradicated and, sadly, there are times when fear is the sensible response. But there is more reason to trust our fellow humans than not, and the greatest antidote to fear isn’t bravery but service to others.

I want to teach my children that a life of service is a life truly lived. It is when we are most vulnerable, as I was during that first pregnancy, that we trickle unnoticed into the support of others. Far from being a loss, this is how we give birth to our own lives.

I haven’t yet told you my daughter’s name. It is Aisha. It means ‘alive’.

AMUST

Susan Carland is a Muslim sociologist who converted to Islam at the age of 19. She was named Australian Muslim of the Year in 2004, is completing her PHD at Monash University’s School of Social Inquiry and is the presenter of upcoming ABC Radio National series, Assumptions. Susan lives in Melbourne with her husband, TV presenter and author Waleed Aly, and their two children.

This essay by Susan Carland appears in a new anthology, Mothermorphosis, edited by Monica Dux, published by MUP. mup.com.au. Available now. RRP $27.99, eBook $14.99.

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Modest Street Fashion Photography by Benny Baharuddin

The Modest Street Fashion series will capture the diversity of expression and style. This series explores Sydney’s emerging modest fashion market.

Kulsoom, 21, Student Scarf – bought in China, Sweater from South Korea.

Pants – from yesstyle “I like comfortable, baggy clothes that don’t make me look like a bag.”

April 2015

Rima, 18, Student Scarf – I don’t usually wear a light coloured scarf but it goes with my dress, it’s easy to wrap and I stole it off my sister.

Dress – this is one of the first dresses I like with a good length. Nike black bag – because I like Nike.

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Sarah, 18, Student Kimono/Cape and Scarf from Vail of Faith.

Bag is from Colette.

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Book Review: Understanding the Muslim Mind by Rajmohan Gandhi Aijaz Zaka Syed Who was really responsible for the Partition?

Jinnah and his Muslim League, the Congress led

by Nehru and Patel, or the retreating British?

Could the catastrophic carnage that followed the violent separation have been averted if the leaders on both sides had demonstrated greater maturity and flexibility? Did the Quaid-e-Azam, as he came to be known, really want a homeland for Muslims or was the demand merely a bargaining chip to protect the future of the ‘qaum?’

These are questions that have been visited and revisited ad infinitum by south Asian and international scholars and historians since 1947.

Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan (1817-1898) Yet the questions and the larger issues that they raise about the troubled legacy of the Partition and its continuing shadow over the present and future of the region remain as riveting as ever. And when they are raised and addressed by the grandson of Gandhi, the man who successfully steered the freedom movement and had been at the heart of all the action, they lead to a book as fascinating as ‘Understanding the Muslim Mind.’

I cannot thank my friend enough who gifted this invaluable book by Rajmohan Gandhi, originally published in 1986 by Roli Books and later by Penguin and the State University of New York Press.

As the author puts it, this is a personal quest to understand the Hindu-Muslim question, “which has broken hopes, hearts and India’s unity,” and an exercise undertaken with the hope that it might “inform us of times when the other side too was large-hearted, and of other times when our side also was small-minded.”

He chooses an unusual approach to explore the psyche of the south Asian Muslim

Fazlul Haq (1873-1962) and the larger question of Hindu-Muslim relations. ‘Understanding the Muslim Mind’ examines the lives of eight Muslim leaders and intellectuals who did not merely leave an indelible imprint on their followers, they have been responsible for the way things have turned out for the region, at least for its nearly 600 million Muslims.

Gandhi aptly begins his pen sketches with Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan (1817-1898), perhaps the earliest and most influential of political and social reformers in India and the pioneer of the Aligarh movement. Although a firm believer in Hindu-Muslim amity, Sir Sayyid opposed the Congress in its nascent stage, fearing as Jinnah and others did later

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Mohammad Ali Jinnah (1876 - 1948) that it would lead to a majoritarian polity.

No wonder many in the Pakistan movement identified with Sir Sayyid.

Next in the spotlight is the legacy of the incomparable Muhammad Iqbal (1876-1938), seen by many as the ideological architect of Pakistan although the poet philosopher did not believe in the concept of nation state or man-made borders. A passionate believer in pan-Islamism, he died long before the idea of Pakistan acquired a distinct, tangible shape.

However, the bard who sang the soul-stirring ‘Saare Jahan Se Accha Hindustan Hamara’ did in 1930 talk of a single Muslim state comprising the Punjab, Northwest Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan.

Gandhi devotes considerable time and space to Iqbal and rightly so. The poet’s influence on Muslims of the subcontinent and beyond remains formidable.

Also judiciously handled are Muhammad Ali Jauhar (1878-1931), the champion of the Khilafat movement and Hindu-Muslim unity, Bengal tiger Fazlul Haq (1873-1962), Congress leader and India’s first education

Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1876-1938) minister Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958), Pakistan’s first premier Liaqat Ali Khan (18951951) and the educationist responsible for the success of Jamia Millia Islamia and later Indian president Zakir Hussain (18771969). However, it is Jinnah who remains at the center-stage throughout the book even when other dramatis personae are being profiled. The founder of Pakistan is dealt with in exhaustive detail offering interesting insight into his strong personality, leadership and existential struggle for the idea of Pakistan that eventually became a reality against great odds and at a colossal cost.

Interestingly, what is common among the eight luminaries is the fact that they had all been great believers in India’s syncretic heritage and diversity. At least, they began as such. Sir Sayyid, the founder of Aligarh Muslim University, described by Sir Hamilton Gibb as the first modernist institution in the Islamic world, who would describe Hindus and Muslims as the two eyes of the beautiful bride that is India, had come to despair of their peaceful coexistence in his

Dr Zakir Hussain (1877-1969)

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twilight years.

Mohammed Ali Jauhar, who had been among the first leaders to welcome and embrace Gandhi on his return from South Africa and who traveled the length and breadth of the country with the Mahatma as part of the freedom struggle and Khilafat movement that saw Hindu-Muslim amity at its peak, died a bitter man far away from India, in Jerusalem.

Even Jinnah, the man routinely panned as the architect of the Partition, had been, in the words of Sarojini Naidu, the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity. Indeed, he had been the tallest leader of the Congress before Gandhi arrived on the scene. However, with the exception of Azad and Zakir Hussain, nearly all of them abandoned their hope and faith in the common destiny of Hindus and Muslims. The question is why.

The answer, not simple or straight by any means, stares you in the face throughout the eminently readable book. Rajmohan Gandhi blames the arrogance and partisanship of the Congress, overt and covert exploitation of religion and the increasing insecurity of the Muslims in addition to personality clashes

Muhammad Ali Jauhar (1878-1931) between leaders like Gandhi and Jinnah for the conflict and eventual rift. He cites the “ungenerous” attitude of the Congress to accommodate and share power with Muslim League in provinces in 1937 and inflexibility of Jinnah as the defining turning point that paved the way for the Partition.

A liberal like Nehru, later the first prime minister of India, refused to accept even two Muslims in the coalition eventually forcing the League out and strengthening its demand for Pakistan. To be fair to Gandhi, he does not shy away from shining the light on the failings of the Congress leadership, including his own grandfather that drove Jinnah out of the Congress and alienated a significant population of Muslims, including their top leaders like Mohammad Ali. “In May 1937, when it was plain that

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958) Congress had scored huge victories, Jinnah sent a private verbal message to Gandhi; the communication urged Gandhi to take the lead in forging ‘Hindu-Muslim unity,” writes the Mahatma’s grandson, suggesting that Jinnah had in mind a Congress-League settlement involving, among other things, power-sharing. In response, the Mahatma wrote: “I wish I could do something but I am utterly helpless. My faith in unity is bright as ever; only I see no daylight…”

The author goes on to note that “it is the view of many scholars and public figures alike that the Congress’s failure in 1937 to share power with the League turned the ‘qaum’ in the direction of Pakistan. Pyarelal, Gandhi’s secretary and biographer, calls it a ‘tactical error of the first magnitude’.” He

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Rajmohan Gandhi quotes veteran journalist Frank Moraes who noted that “had the Congress handled the League more tactfully after the 1937 elections, Pakistan might never have come into being.” Penderel Moon, a Briton who served the ICS before and after Independence, describes the Congress’s failure to cooperate with the League in 1937 as the ‘prime cause for the creation of Pakistan.’ He is equally forthright in assessing the Muslim leadership and its many flaws and narrowness of the vision. He notes with amusement how Muslim leaders remained obsessed with the Caliphate and Ottoman Empire when it was being rejected by Turkey’s new leadership like Mustafa Kemal. Or how in demanding and settling for a ‘moth-eaten’ Pakistan, the League leadership which claimed to speak on behalf of the subcontinent’s Muslims ignored the fate of the vast population of Muslims left behind in India, accounting for more than 40 percent. Indeed, as one has argued before, Indian Muslims have been the biggest losers in this battle of egos and game of one-upmanship between great men.

If the subcontinent’s tragedy can be summed up in one word, it’s selfishness.

Almost every fabled giant is exposed to

Liaqat Ali Khan (1895-1951) have the feet of clay. Tunnel vision was the characteristic of the time. A little magnanimity by leaders on either side would have perhaps averted the all-consuming madness that marked the eventual parting of ways after nearly a thousand year of co-existence. What’s more, the violent split in 1947 continues to eclipse the region even today as the nuclear neighbors remain locked in a perpetual duel.

All said and done, the Partition is a reality.

What really matters today is what India, Pakistan and Bangladesh can do to ensure that their future is better than their past.

Citing the Congress-League tussle and the convenient use of religion and religious discourse that led to the split, Gandhi calls for a ‘national idiom’ to be developed in India, to tolerate the other man’s beliefs and convictions.

The advice is indeed valid for both India and Pakistan, beset by rising intolerance.

The same should apply to the India-Pakistan equation as well. Today, more than ever, the neighbors need to listen to each other and be more tolerant of each other’s perspective.

They need to learn from history, not remain handcuffed to it forever.

Aijaz Zaka Syed is from Hyderabad, India and writes for international dailies like Arab News, Middle East Times, Palestine Chronicle, The Turkish Daily News, Dawn, New Nation, the Sunday Times, Radiance.

(Courtesy Arab News)

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Jewish community Pro-Palestinian ad reopening of campaign takes over welcomes synagogue walls of US cities AMUST Media

Alex Shams BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Commuters in cities across the United States were surprised this month to find their daily trips to WORK adorned with posters and banners calling on their government to end military support to Israel.

The posters were rolled out in seven cities for the entire month of March, and are part of a broader awareness campaign by the US-based Palestine Advocacy Project, an activist group also known as Ads Against Apartheid focused on raising awareness about American complicity in the Israeli occupation.

Messages decrying Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes, its incarceration policies targeting Palestinian children, and its construction of Jewish-only settlements in the West BANK and East Jerusalem are among the themes tackled by the ad campaign, whose launch was timed to coincide with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the country earlier this month.

“American tax DOLLARS help the Israeli government maintain a brutal military occupation of Palestinian territory, which has denied Palestinians their basic rights for decades. These ads show what Israel’s occupation and apartheid really look like, and it is important for Americans to see that,” project board member Jake Chase-Lubitz said in a statement released by the group.

The campaign is part of a broader push to ensure that Palestine remains on the radar of the US public, particularly as attention has shifted following the end of Israel’s massive assault on Gaza LAST summer.

By TARGETING Americans with the messages in public spaces, the group is hoping to expose ordinary people to the reality of US support for Israel and what it means for Palestinians.

“The media in the United States generally presents Palestinians as Israel’s problem rather than presenting Israel as a problem for Palestinians. But Israel is an omnipresent problem for Palestinians — it negatively impacts almost every part of their lives — and we think it is important for the public discussion to reflect that,” Chase-Lubitz told Ma’an in an email interview.

The posters will be hosted in subway stations as well as on trucks, buses, and billboards, ensuring tens of thousands will be reached in the cities targeted, namely Los Angeles, NEW York, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. The campaign, however, is not without controversy, and the group’s earlier poster blitzes across US cities have been met with vandalism and even lawsuits.

The group was forced to pull down ads in Boston after what Chase-Lubitz deemed “political pressure from well-established and well-funded Zionist organizations”

April 2015

against the local transit agency. Billboards in Los Angeles, meanwhile, were vandalized.

This month the campaign had been met yet again by attacks, and the group said that on March 9, the DRIVER of a truck emblazoned with the poster was confronted at gunpoint in Los Angeles by an individual angered by the message.

“To suggest that it is actually the Israelis who are wrong and the Palestinians who are victims is to suggest that maybe we are wrong, and that some of the people we ‘defend ourselves’ against our victims.

That is uncomfortable for a lot of people,” Chase-Lubitz told Ma’an, commenting on the pushback the campaign has faced.

Indeed, in a world where pro-Palestinian sentiment is SHARED widely across continents and pressure against Israel to end the occupation has racketed up quickly in recent years, the United States stands out as one of the few overwhelmingly pro-Israeli countries on Earth.

A Gallup poll of the US public in February showed that around 62 percent of respondents said they favored Israel while only 16 percent said they favored Palestine.

Pro-Israel support tends to be much higher among older White Americans and Evangelicals, however, while young people and people of color are increasingly leaning toward Palestine.

The Palestine Advocacy Project believes that a broader shift in public opinion is underway, buoyed by activist WORK across the country dedicated to exposing the realities of Israeli control over Palestinian life.

The latest ad campaign was rolled out with the help of half of a dozen local partners, including Northern California Friends of Sabeel, American Muslims for Palestine, Bay Area Jewish Voice for Peace, LA Jews for Peace, Jewish Voice for Peace — San Diego, and San Antonio for Justice in Palestine. The organizations involved reflect the diversity of the growing pro-Palestinian movement across the United States.

“We are a very small part of a movement that is centered in Palestine. That movement has grown significantly over the past five to ten years in the United States because of the inspiring WORK of young Palestinian-Americans who are sick of their friends and families being attacked, Jews who are disgusted with what has been done in their names, and other people of conscience who fight for what is right,” Chase-Lubitz told Ma’an.

(Courtesy of Ma’an News Agency)

The reopening of the Great Synagogue in Edirne was hailed by Turkey’s Jewish community, which flocked to the opening of the historic temple Renovated over a four-year period and funded by the government, Kal Kadoş ha Gadol Synagogue was reopened on Thursday. It will serve as both a museum and as a place of worship as a part of Turkey’s latest efforts to win back the hearts and minds of minorities that long suffered from suppressive policies in the past.

For the government, the synagogue is a symbol of peaceful coexistence of different faiths and cultures, which the country has long been synonymous for except occasional ultranationalist riots.

For Jews, it is a restoration of tolerance. İshak İbrahimzadeh, head of Turkey’s Jewish community, praised the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for “making a change” for the community. İbrahimzadeh said Turks and Jews had shared the same country and fate but were “divided and alienated” over time. “Now we see the headlines that tolerance was rebuilt,” he said. İbrahimzadeh stressed that Jews were subject to unfair accusations and branded as sinister people plotting against the state in the past. “We always felt obliged to defend ourselves against a discourse of hatred depicting us as enemies and traitors, and we repeatedly underscored that we were loyal citizens of this country. We were forced to isolate ourselves in time and lost our hope for a better future. Today, the opening of this synagogue and this ceremony is the best response by the state against the dividing discourse targeting Jews. This is a turning point for us. Our state eliminated prejudice toward minorities by returning their rights, their properties.

We have a long way to go, but we appreciate that we at least have a way to move forward,” he said. İbrahimzadeh said that he spoke to Erdoğan while he was prime minister five years ago. “While speaking on minorities’ rights, [Erdoğan] said, ‘We have to give everyone their rights,’ and I thought it was the usual political statement. Yet, it was also he who pioneered the return of rights to our community, return of properties and extra rights in education , things that once

Media Scan Ainullah

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seemed impossible to be returned. Mr. President, you created this change, and we thank you for this,” he said.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said Turks and Jews coexisted in Anatolia in peace for centuries.

Arınç said Turkey has accelerated its democratization in recent years and that communities of different faiths and cultures live freely. He also said that Turkey both restored historic places of worship and returned properties to minorities.

On the strained relations between Turkey and Israel, Arınç said it was different than relations between communities. “Our relations with Jews did not start with Israel’s foundation. Our country has always been a haven for Jews from around the world, be them those fleeing Spain 500 years ago or those fleeing the Nazi regime in Germany in the 1930s. They adopted Turkey as their home, became an inseparable part of our culture and made great contributions to our country,” he said. Arınç highlighted Turkey’s efforts to fight anti-Semitism and said Turkey contributed to the Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and projects in the initiative to fight anti-Semitism. He also stressed that Turkey also made a significant donation to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland. He wrapped up his speech with a call to the Jewish Diaspora around the world. “We have a population of 78 million ready to embrace you if you want to live here,” he said.

The restoration of the synagogue is part of the government’s efforts of democratization that focuses on the return of rights to neglected minorities, from Jews to Greeks.

Many properties have been returned to these minorities decades after their forceful confiscation by the state, while the government also pursues a policy of restoring abandoned historical buildings such as the synagogue in Edirne.

(Courtesy of Daily Sabah)

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AUSTRALIA 9 - 10

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Western interventions in Middle East: Objectives and Failures?

Javed Jamil When recently, the news of Tikrit having been recaptured by Iraqi army surfaced, the international media did not show the kind of enthusiasm in its coverage, which would otherwise be expected considering the vociferous nature of propaganda against ISIS that has been dominating the news for about a year.

Soon the reason of this lacklustre coverage became clear. In the success in Tikrit operation, Iran had played the crucial role.

Once the successes were guaranteed, the US government put the condition of the withdrawal of Shia militia from Tikrit for the continuation of its support to the Iraqi army.

And the news is now coming that Saudi Government has launched a big offensive against Houthis with the participation of several countries including Pakistan, the offer of support from Egypt and of course the tacit support from the US. The Houthis are known to have the backing of Iran, and this again is the chief reason of the American intervention.

The duplicity of Western approach can be seen in almost every intervention they make in the region. In Syria and Libya, the West supported the rebels, in Yemen and Egypt, they supported the Governments.

Even in Iraq, they had used the ISIS push in that country to get rid of Maliki who was considered soft towards Iran. The humanity and justice are no criteria in support or opposition. The only criterion is the political expediency. Come what may, the American puppets in the region must survive and the opponents must go.

During last four decades the Middle East has been the centre of various interventions

by America and Rusisia, with almost everyone failing to achieve the stated objectives, and a few mass movements that emerge through social, political and ideological campaigns. Such movements can fail, but they have certainly the greater chances of success. The Islamic Revolution of Iran, the rise of Hamas and Hezbollah and the Ikhwan Movement in some Arab countries are movements that have achieved mixed successes. The militant movements, even if their concerns and grievances are genuine, tend to fail often resulting in hugely disastrous consequences for the people as well as their active members. Still more unfortunate is the truth that the global forces of hegemony use them for their own ends. They would initially support them, and when their mission is accomplished, they would abandon

them or in case they turn rebels would destroy them. This happened with al-Qaeda, which was created and used by West against the erstwhile Soviet Union. The Soviet Empire disintegrated, and America did no longer need al-Qaeda. When the Movement started expanding their reach in countries which were of economically or politically strategic importance for West, they invented or found a pretext to destroy them. In the process, tens of thousands of innocent Afghans lost their lives.

ISIS was not a terrorist organisation in the eyes of West when it was fighting the Syrian Government. A substantial percentage of the fighters that joined ISIS came from Europe.

Once the West-backed Civil War in Syria failed to topple Bashar-al Assad, and ISIS entered Iraq, the scenario changed. There too, ISIS was initially used by America and its regional allies, especially Saudi Arab, to weaken the position of Nurul Maliki, the leader of the democratically elected party in Iraq because his growing closeness to Iran was not acceptable. The total failure of West in Syria had unnerved the West. A stretch of land from Iran to Lebanon (including Syria, Iraq and Palestine) along with an increasingly Islamic Turkey nearby could spell doom for Israel.

The rise of ISIS was therefore initially not as unwelcome as it subsequently became.

Its stupendous successes were attributed to the discrimination against Sunnis by Maliki government. Maliki was soon replaced. One major part of the mission was achieved. But in the meantime, ISIS started threatening the cities that were important to West. The ISIS was meant in Western plans to challenge the opponents, not for taking reins in their own hands. Their expansionist campaigns worried the neighbouring countries. Suddenly they became big villains, of the Muslim world as well as West. Sunni-Shia talk ceased.

Few videos showing beheading of journalists, whose authenticity like similar Taliban videos was never proved, were enough to turn them into despicable devils. The international media came into action. Obama turned furious. A coalition was soon assembled primarily involving “Sunni” states.

Sunnis fighting Sunnis will help America avoid suspicions of larger aims. The truth however is that ISIS is only a villain for public consumption. Internally, at best, it remains a friendly enemy.

Thanks to the US-Israel interventions, the Middle East is much more Islamised now than it used to be about four decades back, even much more than it was a decade back.

The hostility towards West is the ultimate result. More attacks by America, and there will be greater hostility. It appears that both the US and Middle East, the rulers if not the

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people, enjoy the engagement.

What an irony that for last several years, West has been trying to foment Sunni-Shia hatred to the hilt to achieve its grand objectives, and has instead ended in pitting Sunnis against Sunnis. What a wonderful demonstration of the wisdom on the part of the Sunni World!

The Arab kingdoms have learnt the art of keeping the clerics all over the world in good humour through lucrative grants, and they continue to rule without much trouble. If America is on their side, they believe, and the clerics, their kingdoms are safe. Even if a “Spring” succeeds for the time being, they feel, the US will restore them. Now, with Yemen front heating up, there is a renewed fear of the escalation of Sunni-Shia divide. If Saudis and Iranians can come to the table and cooperate instead of fearing each other, the Muslim World can successfully thwart the troubles.

Today the Europe is confronted with the problem of “terrorists” returning from Syria and Iraq, which number in thousands. But they are refusing to admit that these “terrorists” were in fact fighters they sent or let go with deliberate tacitness to Syria because the Europe at that time considered them “freedom fighters” against Syrian regime, which they loathed.

Without the support of European governments, these thousands could never have travelled to Syria and Iraq, and could not have amassed the kind of weaponry they possess. The war in Syria was being openly financed by Western countries, and the “fighters” killing the Syrian army personnel and civilians were being hailed in no uncertain terms. Bashar-al Assad was the villain then and he had to be removed, even if his removal resulted in deaths of hundreds of thousands of human beings.

To their surprise, Assad proved too much for them, and defeated West-sponsored rebellion in a decisive manner. Squarely defeated, ISIS entered Iraq, and the European fighters started going back to their countries of origin. Perhaps the Western governments believed that these would not return live, but they did. Coming from the midst of violence, and realizing their folly in becoming pawns in the hands of their own governments, they were filled with hatred. Most of them controlled their anger, but some could not, and it is these few who might have become involved in using the West-supplied weapons against their own countrymen.

The most unfortunate part of the whole scenario is that instead of realizing its own faults, and instead of trying to win back the Muslims through offers of reconciliation, they are engaged in spreading Islamophobia to the hilt. Instead of counting the dead they killed in Muslim countries, they are simply counting the few the Muslim “terrorists” have killed. Instead of trying to find out the weaknesses of their own ideologies, concepts and policies in bringing real peace to humanity, they are busy in telling Muslim World about the “weaknesses” in their Islamic beliefs. They cannot understand the simple fact that Islamic laws may appear to be harsh in method but are harbingers of peace in effect, while on the other hand, Western ways look benign in methodology but are highly dangerous in results.

Only a moron would condone ISIS. But how can the crimes of ISIS be compared with the carnages, massacres and genocides

by America, Israel and their allies? The

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whole world is being made to believe, with renewed vigour, that people claiming to be the followers of Islam, are indulging in terrorism posing threat to the whole mankind.

And through this propaganda they make all the Muslims suspicious. But there is no one to tell the truth that if “Muslim” terrorists have killed a few thousand Westerners, West has killed more than 2 million innocent Muslims.

Should Muslims also start becoming suspicious about every Westerner? Fortunately, their religion has taught them to differentiate between the perpetrators and the ordinary people. Most of them have so far been true to their faith. Some have gone astray, but their misdeeds are only an immoral reflection of their genuine grievances and anger.

Let West also understand that violence breeds violence, and ultimately it is the amount of violence which determines which is crueller than the rest. War is much bigger terror than “terror”.

Let them understand fast that through sustained hostility they cannot win peace.

Peace with Muslims can be achieved only through proper understanding of their ideological positions on various issues and their genuine grievances and finding solutions on the basis of mutual respect. Once they are ready to accept the facts, they will be able to understand that enforcement of false ideologies for economic ends through bombs cannot bring true peace and comfort to mankind.

Let the international media focus with the same intensity on crimes by West and their allies against Muslims as they do on the crimes by ISIS! Let the media visit the homes of the Palestinian and children that were bombarded into everlasting silence by the bombs of Israel, which had the stamp of the US! Let the global community hold memorials for the dead of Afghanistan and Iraq the way they hold for the victims of 9/11!

Let the international organisations focus on the role of America and its allies rather than the “terrorists” in killing humans! Let them give a daily account of how many have been killed by “terror” and how many by the “war against terror”!

Let us stop categorising violence on the basis of our interests! Let every act of violence be condemned, whatever the pretext, whoever the victim, whoever the perpetrator, whichever the place!

Dr Javed Jamil is India based thinker and writer with over a dozen books including his latest, “Quranic Paradigms of Sciences & Society” (First Vol: Health), “Muslims Most Civilised, Yet Not Enough” and “Muslim Vision of Secular India: Destination & Road-map”. Other works include “The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism”, “The Essence of the Divine Verses”, “The Killer Sex”, “Islam means Peace” and “Rediscovering the Universe”. He can be contacted at doctorforu123@yahoo.com

April 2015

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EDUCATION 17 - 19

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The 99 Divine attributes of Allah Part 8 - Attributes 43-44 of Allah BEYOND THE BOX Dr Q Ashfaq Ahmad This issue continues the series exclusive to AMUST on the 99 divine attributes of Allah.

Read previous parts at www.goo.gl/L1wvP2 43. Al-Raqīb – The All Watchful “O people! Be mindful of your Rabb1 (The Sustainer) who created all from a single person2 and from him, He created his mate and from the two both He created countless men and women. And have the full consciousness of Allah3 through whom you demand your mutual rights and (do not terminate the relation of) the womb (kinship). Indeed Allah is ever4 All-Watchful (43)5 over all of you.”

(An-Nisa, 4:1) The two Arabic words Rabb and Allah – as used in the above verse - are generally translated in English as God for Allah and Lord for Rabb respectively.

These are two very deep and meaningful attributes of the Supreme Being. Rabb has been used for the non-material Creator of all the world as well as the material humans.

The book has been revealed to direct the living of the humans by the Creator. In order to know your relationship with the non-material Creator you have to understand yourself the nature of how and why you were created as revealed by the Creator.

Here Allah (God) is giving the directive to the humans to abide by two important facts of life. Firstly Allah is the Creator, Controller and Caretaker of all the humans both in this life and then also in the life hereafter.

Secondly all the humans have to believe in the true concept that the first woman to give birth by having sexual relation with the first man is also a part of the first man. Thus all the humans are actually children of the one male human named as Adam by Allah.

So the important ideas mentioned by the words marked by numbers are explained below: 1, 2 & 3.

All humans are one and the same by birth.

That the woman (Hawwah) came into being from the first man (Adam) enables all human beings to be the children of one man as his original parents (father and mother). This fact makes it necessary for all humans, in spite of having many differences in customs and manners of living differently, to deal with fairness and good will as they are members of one global (very large single extended) family.

This information also then directs that everyone is governed by the Great Almighty God (Allah), who as the reckoner of one and all, will decide the eternal future of the humans in the Hereafter (life after death). Hence every human has to undergo accounting of their plans and actions in this world being declared to Allah for the recompense. Thus the dealings of one person with the other also influence the destiny of humans in the next life.

4. Allah (God) is the one who controls and manages all the living and non-living created by Him. He regulates and manages with the perfect planning. So from this point of view Allah gives another directive in this clause that humans shall have the full consciousness of the Supreme Almighty God (Allah) to follow and act upon His directives.

5. The attribute Al-Raqīb clearly indicates that He always was, is and will be watchful over all the humans consistently.

Hence all humans should also in every period, passed and present, undergo full

April 2015

submission to Him and follow His directives in the life in this world to get a nice recompense in the next eternal life. The word ‘ever’ is actually the translation of the Arabic word ‘kana’ which indicates this divine characteristic of Allah in every time past, present and future.

44. Al- Mujīb – The Answerer “And to the Thamud (We sent) their brother Sāleh (as) he said, ‘O my people, worship Allah! You have no deity other than Him. He is the One who brought you into being from the earth and settled you here1 so ask forgiveness of Him and then turn to Him in repentance2. Indeed my Rabb is very close (to you) and the Answerer (Accepter) of your forgiveness (44)3.’

“They said, ‘O Sāleh!. You were among us a person before for having great hopes from you4. Do you (now) forbid us to worship what our fathers worshipped5 so indeed we are in great doubt and we are having suspicion concerning that to which you call us6.”

(Hūd, 11:61&62) 1. The proof for ‘worship Allah! You have no deity other than Him’, is the polytheists themselves also accept that Allah is their Creator. Taking this as the reality, Saleh uses it as an agreement that Allah is the One who has bestowed upon the humans their existence composed of the non-living material molecules. Moreover Allah is the only One who provided you the means and facilities to settle in this world with this proof. Saleh directs his people to consider only Allah as their one deity. No one else has any reason to have the right of being considered as the deity of the heavens and the universe.

2. Hence for the great offence that you have been committing until now of worshipping and submitting yourselves to other than Allah, now you have to ask forgiveness from Allah.

3. This last part of the verse no. 61 is the refutation of the great misconception of the polytheists. They wrongly consider Allah just like theirs kings, rulers and the top human authorities that ordinary public person cannot approach. Hence for the Supreme Being God (Allah), according to their misunderstanding, they establish intermediaries to approach the highest ruling personality - God. This misunderstanding has been strengthened by the preaching of the pseudo-religious people who thrive on such a hierarchy.

The Prophet Saleh shatters this ignorance of the polytheists through two sound ideas. Firstly that Allah is QARĪB (very close) so that even every ordinary person can approach Him very easily. Secondly the same Allah is MUJĪB (The Answerer), no. 43 who listens to every sincere repentance and forgives all the past follies, mistakes and sins provided the person repents and is determined not to commit them again.

4. The people in response objected to Saleh in a peculiar way. Let us express their satirical objection in their way of thinking.

They say, “Observing your intelligence, wisdom and pleasant dealings with us gives us great hope that we may consider you as our benefactor and well-wisher.

We expect that you would assist us in our wealth earning, property, material achievements, happiness and contentment in comparison to people of other groups but by your insistence on this new issue about the Oneness of God and the Resurrection we have become utterly disappointed. Alas now we have changed our opinion about you.”

The people express this type response in every era when a person admonishes the

wrong practice of the people and advises them to perform the virtuous right things.

This was also the style of thinking of the people of the Quraysh about the Prophet Muhammad when he commenced the deliverance of the message of Allah to them.

5. Their reaction still goes on; “Moreover it is a great evil that you stop us for our holy pious and spiritual practice of worshipping and respecting our ancestors.

We are very satisfied and happy to follow their noble and pious religion and you are directing us to leave this practice.”

So this logic is used as to argue their case of being on the right track and for Prophet Saleh being wrong.

6. They further expressed their annoyance: “We are now very confused.” They express the points of doubt or suspicion.

The reason is that the people have a very different concept. They had their own different rituals and practices, which were going to be abolished if the advice of Saleh was accepted. Let us know the reason for their worries when the message of Allah is revealed to the human beings.

It is a fact that the human nature contains

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both virtuous as well as evil components as revealed by Allah in the Quran: “And by the soul and He who proportioned (balanced and reformed it). Then He inspired the soul (with inception of) its wickedness and its righteousness. The one who purifies it will indeed be successful and the one who corrupted is to fail.”

(As-Shams, 91:7-10) Therefore every human being, however far they may be from the correct thinking, commonly feels uneasiness or restlessness, though their feelings in detail are different among themselves. Having the invitation, either through a right person or through the divine scripture, compels all the humans to have some throbbing in their hearts. It all depends upon the comparative personality, behaviour, conduct and way of living in this world that the understanding of truthful ideas should be very high for the people who are capable to admire, appreciate, respect and act upon such advice while others still have worries and confusion.

Continued in AMUST issue #114 May

Australasian Muslim Times

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AMUST

EDUCATION

NEWS 1-2

BOOMERANG 3-5

COMMUNITY 6-8

AUSTRALIA 9 - 10

LIFESTYLE 11 - 13

The Enlightenment - Islamic Ideas, Constitutional Monarchy and Religious Tolerance

Bilal Cleland

One of the recurring themes we constantly encounter in attacks upon the Muslim community or upon Islam itself, is the accusation that somehow, the Muslim World has missed out on that essential component of western civilization, the “Enlightenment”. While no-one would deny that this is what helped civilizing Europe and bringing it out of its dark, intolerant past, we need to examine that phenomenon more closely.

The Enlightenment, which for the English speaking world stretched from the early 1600s until the early 1800s, was a period during which the old traditions and superstitions of Europe were overthrown. Scientific thinking developed, untrammeled by clerical considerations, executive government became subject to law and the will of the people, the Established Church could no longer claim total obedience.

Since the time of the Emperor Theodosius and the imposition of the Christianity defined by the Nicene Creed, heresy or deviation from official church teaching was a crime punishable by death. Rebellion against the emperor also merited death.

The twin pillars of Christian civilization for over a thousand years were a divinely instituted church which could not be questioned, alongside the divinely appointed ruler who had absolute authority over his subjects. The Protestant Reformation began in 1517 when Luther challenged the authority of the Roman Pope and survived. Before this heretics had been burnt alive, but this one was protected by political allies and his ideas spread. In the following decades new ideas, facilitated by the spread of books from the new printing press, meant old ideas were challenged, as were styles of political control.

In England, where the determination of Parliament to resist the claims of Charles II to rule by divine right led to the English Civil War, the influx of new ideas was world shattering. The king was executed in 1649, a republic was established, and a religious revolution occurred. Religious radicals of the time looked around for possible blueprints for a future English society which would not be as bloody as their past.

While the collapse of the republic and the return of Charles II put a hold on much of this ferment, the radical ideas did not disap-

pear. For example, Henry Stubbe, who had been a soldier of the republic then became a member of the Royal Court and wrote propaganda for the king, was also writing the very radical “The Originall and Progress of Mahometanism”. This remained in handwritten form as its ideas were so dangerously advanced for the time, but it had a profound effect upon political development in England over the next 100 years. It was apparently circulated hand to hand over that period.

Once his thinking had been freed from the restrictions of the time, he examined Christian teaching with a fresh mind. He found that much of what was being taught as “Christian” had in fact no relation to the message of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament. The book begins with a chapter demonstrating how the message of Jesus Christ has been perverted by the Church. He regarded the sacraments as pagan rituals introduced many years after Jesus and he said of the disciples of Jesus : “They did never believe Christ to be the natural Son of God, by eternal Generation, or any tenet depending thereon, or prayed unto him, or believed the Holy Ghost, or the Trinity of persons in one Deity.”

All Euro-Christian commentators up until Stubbe had written in a hostile and oppositional manner about Islam and Prophet Muhammad. He was the first serious scholar to move away from the old anti-Muslim sources then current, to Arabic histories and chronicles in Latin translation. Although these sources were available to others, it was only Stubbe who studied them in depth and who used them to establish a clear picture of Islam and its founder. Garcia argues “ that the beginnings of the Enlightenment in England can be traced, in some measure, to Stubbe and his views on Islam”.

Garcia writes that according to Stubbe, Muhammad “was a virtuous republican who promoted the seven Noahetic precepts, the Mosaic law, and Christ’s word. Stubbe’s account offers a reassuring message for English nonconformists: in an age dominated by Trinitarian persecution, only Islam’s tolerant principles can guarantee a constitutional republicanism that would allow them to become citizens equally entitled to rights, property, and privilege. “ A whole movement developed in England which undermined the ancient twin pillars of absolute church and absolute monarch.

The radicals who espoused this cause were

known at the time as the “Protestant Mahometans” the ‘Mahometans’ being the old name for Muslims. At this time the Exclusionist struggle began. The Exclusionists aimed to prevent James II, the successor to Charles II, from taking the throne. As he was a Roman Catholic and an advocate of despotic divine right rule, he was understood to threaten both religious freedom and political liberty.

The Protestant Mahometans, as they were called, were strong advocates of a limited Protestant monarchy, which would be subject to parliament and the law. They also openly advocated freedom of religion, based on the Islamic model. The Tories, supporters of James II , used an islamophobic assault similar to that used by Islamophobes today.

They accused supporters of constitutional monarchy and religious toleration of links to foreign Protestant subversives who were, at the time fighting alongside the Ottomans against the Austrian monarchy which was trying to take Hungary.

Count Teckely had aligned himself and the Protestants of Hungary with the Ottomans in the struggle against the Catholic Hapsburgs of Austria. They knew that they would be wiped out by the Hapsburgs but would be protected by the Ottomans under

the millet system. In an attempt to associate the English reformers and religious radicals with this subversive alliance of Protestants and Turks, they were called Teckelites . The Tories tried to portray the notion of constitutional monarchy as an Islamic innovation, foreign to Christian tradition. Garcia writes that they claimed “…these infidels plan to overthrow Christendom, renew the English Civil War, and welcome an Ottoman invasion.”

In fact, their ideas prevailed and today we have the constitutional monarchy, since the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and we have freedom of religion. These were the fruits of the English Enlightenment and they were in no small part due to the examples taken from Islam by the reformers of the time.

Garcia argues that the Exclusionist Crisis and the Glorious Revolution of the 1680s shaped British history for many centuries to come. “…the “Whig Triumph” of 1688 was an Islamic-inspired event that prevented the counter-reformation from spreading into England.” (Garcia p.58) It also prevented the restoration of Divine Right monarchy.

Those thinkers, then called the “Protestant Mahometans” , brought about a revolution in western political and religious thought.

The Kul Sharif Mosque, Kazan Kremlin, Russia AMUST Media The Kul Sharif Mosque, located in Kazan Kremlin, is one of the largest Mosques in Russia.

Originally, the Mosque was built in the Kazan Kremlin in the 16th century. It was named after Qolşärif, who served there.

Qolşärif died with his numerous students while defending Kazan from Russian forces in 1552. It is believed that the building featured minarets, both in the form of cupolas and tents. Its design was traditional for Volga Bulgaria, although elements of early Renaissance and Ottoman architecture could have been used as well. In 1552, during the storming of Kazan it was destroyed by Ivan The Terrible.

Tatar scholars speculate as to whether some elements of Kul Sharif Mosque can

18

be seen in Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow (8 minarets, a central cupola, not typical for Russian architecture). Since 1996 the Mosque has been rebuilt in Kazan Kremlin, although its look is decisively modern. Its inauguration on July 24, 2005 marked the beginning of celebrations dedicated to the Millennium of Kazan. It can accommodate 6,000 worshipers.

Several countries contributed to the fund that was set up to rebuild Kul Sharif Mosque, namely Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. Kul Sharif is considered to be one of the most important symbols of Tatar aspirations. Nowadays the Mosque predominantly serves as a museum of Islam. At the same time during the major Muslim celebrations thousands of people gather there to pray.

(Courtesy: Mosques around the World)

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EDUCATION 17 - 19

TRAVEL 20

SOCIAL 21

EDUCATION

BUSINESS 22 - 23

How Islam spread in India Firas Alkhateeb

Today, there are over 500 million Muslims throughout the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh), making it one of the largest population centers of Muslims in the world. Since Islam first entered India, it has contributed greatly to the area and its people. Today, numerous theories about how India came to be such a largely Muslim land exist. Politically, some (such as the Hindutva movement in India) try to make Islam seem foreign to India, by insisting it only exists because of invasions by Arab and Persian Muslims. The truth, however, is far from that.

The Earliest Muslim Indians Even before the life of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) in the 600s, Arab traders were in contact with India. Merchants would regularly sail to the west coast of India to trade goods such as spices, gold, and African goods. Naturally, when the Arabs began to convert to Islam, they carried their new religion to the shores of India. The first mosque of India, the Cheraman Juma Masjid, was built in 629 (during the life of Prophet Muhammad) in Kerala, by the first Muslim from India, Cheraman Perumal Bhaskara Ravi Varma. Through continued trade between Arab Muslims and Indians, Islam continued to spread in coastal Indian cities and towns, both through immigration and conversion.

Muhammad bin Qasim The first great expansion of Islam into India came during the Umayyad Dynasty of caliphs, who were based in Damascus. In 711, the Umayyads appointed a young 17 year mujahid from Ta’if to extend Umayyad control into Sindh: Muhammad bin Qasim.

Sindh is the land around the Indus River in the Northwestern part of the subcontinent, in present-day Pakistan. Muhammad bin Qasim led his army of 6,000 soldiers to the far eastern reaches of Persia, Makran.

He encountered little resistance as he made his way into India. When he reached the city of Nerun, on the banks of the Indus River, he was welcomed into the city by the Buddhist monks that controlled it. Most cities along the Indus thus voluntarily came under Muslim control, with no fighting. In

AMUST

some cases, oppressed Buddhist minorities reached out to the Muslim armies for protection against Hindu governors.

Despite the support and approval of much of the population, the Raja of Sindh, Dahir, opposed the Muslim expansion and mobilized his army against Muhammad bin Qasim. In 712, the two armies met, with a decisive victory for the Muslims. With the victory, all of Sindh came under Muslim control.

It is important to note, however, that the population of Sindh was not forced to convert to Islam at all. In fact, for almost everyone, there was no change in day-to-day life.

Muhammad bin Qasim promised security and religious freedom to all Hindus and Buddhists under his control. For example, the Brahman caste continued their jobs as tax collectors and Buddhists monks continued to maintain their monasteries. Due to his religious tolerance and justice, many cities regularly greeted him and his armies with people dancing and music.

Patterns of Conversion The successive waves of Muslim armies penetrating into India followed much the same pattern. Leaders such as Mahmud of Ghazni and Muhammad Tughluq expanded Muslim political domains without altering the religious or social fabric of Indian society.

Because pre-Islamic India was entirely based on a caste system in which society was broken into separate parts, conversion to Islam happened in a step-bystep process.

Often, entire castes would convert to Islam at a time.

This would happen for many different reasons. Often, however, The Taj Mahal, Agra, India the equality Islam provided was more attractive than the caste system’s organized racism. In the caste system, who you are born to determines your position in society. There was no opportunity for social mobility or to achieve

The Cheraman Juma Masjid, Kerala, India greater than what your parents achieved. By converting to Islam, people had the opportunity to move up in society, and no longer were subservient to the Brahman caste.

Buddhism, which was once very popular in the subcontinent, slowly died out under Muslim rule. Traditionally, when people wanted to escape the caste system, they would move to the major population centers and convert to Buddhism. When Islam became an option , however, people began to convert to Islam instead of Buddhism, while still leaving the caste system. The myths of Islam violently destroying Buddhism in India are simply false. Buddhists were tolerated under Muslim rule and no evidence exists

that shows forced conversions or violence against them.

Wandering teachers also had a major role in bringing Islam to the masses. Muslim scholars traveled throughout India, making it their goal to educate people about Islam.

Many of them preached Sufi ideas, a more mystical approach to Islam that appealed to the people. These teachers had a major role in bringing Islam to the masses in the countryside, not just the upper classes around the Muslim rulers.

Did Islam Spread by Force?

While some claim that Islam’s huge population in India is a result of violence and forced conversion, the evidence does not back up this idea at all. Although Muslim leaders replaced Hindu kings in most areas, society was left as is. Stories of forced conversion are very few and often not credible enough to warrant academic discussion.

If Islam spread through violence and warfare, the Muslim community today in India would exist only in the areas closest to the rest of the Muslim world. Thus only the western part of the subcontinent would have any Muslim population at all. What we see instead is pockets of Islam throughout the subcontinent. For example, Bangladesh and its 150 million Muslims are in the far east, separated from other Muslim-majority areas by Hindu lands in India. Isolated communities of Muslims exist also exist in western Myanmar, central India, and eastern Sri Lanka. These communities of Muslims are proof of Islam spreading peacefully throughout India, regardless of whether or not a Muslim government existed there. If Islam spread by force as some claim, these communities of Muslims would not exist.

Conclusion Islam is an integral part of India and its history. As the Indian subcontinent remains today a multi-ethnic and multi-religious place, it is important to understand the position Islam has in the region. The political claims regarding Islam as if it is an invading religion and foreign to the people of India need to be defied with the truth of Islam’s peaceful spread throughout India.

Firas Alkhateeb is an Islamic History teacher at Universal School in Bridgeview, Illinois. He has a bachelor’s degree in History with a concentration in Islamic History from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

He currently studies and teaches at Darul Qasim in Glendale Heights, Illinois.

(Courtesy Lost Islamic History: http://lostislamichistory.com/how-islam-spread-inindia/ )

The Jama Masjid in Delhi, India

April 2015

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AMUST

TRAVEL

NEWS 1-2

BOOMERANG 3-5

COMMUNITY 6-8

AUSTRALIA 9 - 10

LIFESTYLE 11 - 13

Insta-journey #SarahGoesToIndia Photography by Sarah Chaabo

Sarah, a seasoned traveller wanders over to India for the first time. She documents her journey, as she goes off the beaten track. She meets with locals, school children, crashes a wedding and has fallen in love with the histories of India. “When coming to India, the real joys beyond the forts and palaces are the people of India.” Follow her Instagram account @Sarah_and_the_City #SarahGoesToIndia. Part 1 of 2.

The excitement of travel and the preparation for a totally new experience even for this travel veteran, I’ve packed a charger that’ll cover me for 6 charges (thank you @birksun ) to ensure I won’t miss a street photography opportunity. Plenty of travel meds, accessories and all my harem pants and Kaftans. This is my third reading of Shantaram, My first reading cemented India as part of my travel destinations, years later fate caught up with my Plans. INDIA, I hope you’re ready for me.

Today we decided to stop in Phandarej, for no reason other than we could make out a school there. We wanted to meet the students. The students all spoke English, in Rajasthan the free government schools teach them English in their primary years. The children are all from the area and their families are considered to be living below the poverty line. They get a free meal every day to encourage the parents to keep the kids in school. The kids loved the attention and all wanted to be in our photos.

Beautiful Jaalis (latticed windows).

The mandatory staring up at the Hawa Mahal from the road trying not to get hit by a car/rickshaw/cow in the process.

Amber Fort in Jaipur.

Outside of prayer times, mosque courtyard is a public space where I saw families, people napping in the shade and kids chasing pigeons. It reminded me of the great mosque i frequented in Tripoli with the way people always felt at home in a house of Allah. I really love this mosque and Old Delhi so much more than the ‘new Delhi’

We visited a 300 year old temple, I couldn’t help myself with this shalwar kamees given to me by my dear friend back in Sydney.

Jal Mahal

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April 2015

UMMAH 14 - 16

EDUCATION 17 - 19

TRAVEL 20

SOCIAL 21

BUSINESS 22 - 23

#SOCIAL

10 reasons Zayn Malik left One Direction that only Muslims get

AMUST

Zeynab Gamieldien

While the world cries over Zayn’s shock exit from One Direction, Muslims knew this day was coming (inshaAllah) from the time their very first track was released. The clues were there, if only you knew where to look. I know, I know, maybe you’re not as familiar with 1D’s back catalogue as I and my fellow Zayn Malik fangirls.

For the uninformed, I’ll lay it out for you here: 1. He finally figured out that the song ‘Kiss You’ wasn’t referring to the private life of a married man and woman in the confines of their house and ran the other way in embarrassment.

2. The song ‘Midnight Memories’ wasn’t about praying Tahajjud-the only thing any good Muslim would be creating memories of at midnight.

3. He was bored because he already knew the answer to ‘Where Do Broken Hearts Go’(straight to the masjid, of COURSE.) 4. He noticed that the song ‘You and I’ had the lyrics ‘not even the Gods above can separate the two of us’. (Polytheism AND blasphemy combined, astaghs.)

5. ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ didn’t have a SINGLE reference to hijab, niqab or burqa.

6. The ‘Little Black Dress’ in question was just a bit too little for his liking.

(Only floor-length abayas do it for Mr Malik.)

7. ‘Steal My Girl’ just didn’t make any sense to him. Ain’t no need to steal anyone’s girl when you can have four wives of your very own waiting at home.

8. The ‘One Thing’ in question was something other Allah.

9. The dance to the ‘Best Song Ever’ wasn’t a dabke to the dulcet tunes of Sami Yusuf or Maher Zain.

10. He didn’t want to ‘Live While We’re Young’, he wanted to ‘Give While We’re Young’. Zakat, that is.

This may be a sad day for many people, but for us Muslims, it’s a day of great celebration. Zayn, your creeping Sharia days may be over for now, but I have no doubt that your many talents will be put to good use, like single-handedly increasing attendance rates at your local masjid by about 5000%. Welcome home, brother.

Zeynab is an Australian lawyer, social inquirer, traveller and chronic human observer. She created Love Haqtually (www.lovehaqtually.com) as a space for Muslims (and anyone interested) to discuss relationships, love, the weirdness of being a Muslim in the 21st century.

April 2015

Where were you when you found out Zayn was leaving One Direction?

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BUSINESS

NEWS 1-2

BOOMERANG 3-5

COMMUNITY 6-8

AUSTRALIA 9 - 10

LIFESTYLE 11 - 13

Meet the 80 people who are as rich as half the world AMUST

Mona Chalabi

Eighty people hold the same amount of wealth as the world’s 3.6 billion poorest people, according to an analysis just released from Oxfam. The report from the global anti-poverty organization finds that since 2009, the wealth of those 80 richest has doubled in nominal terms — while the wealth of the poorest 50 percent of the world’s population has fallen.

To see how much wealth the richest 1 percent and the poorest 50 percent hold, Oxfam used research from Credit Suisse, a Swiss FINANCIAL services company, and Forbes’s annual billionaires list. Oxfam then looked at how many of the world’s richest people would need to pool their resources to have as much wealth as the poorest 50 percent — and as of March 2014, it was just

80 people.

Four years earlier, 388 billionaires together held as much wealth as the poorest 50 percent of the world.

Thirty-five of the 80 richest people in the world are U.S. citizens, with combined wealth of $941 billion in 2014. Together in second place are Germany and Russia, with seven mega-rich individuals apiece. The entire list is dominated by one gender, though — 70 of the 80 richest people are men. And 68 of the people on the list are 50 or older.

If those 80 individuals were to bump into each on Svenborgia, what might they talk about? Retail could be a good conversation starter — 14 of the 80 got their wealth that way. Or they could discuss “extractives” (industries like oil, gas and mining, to which 11 of them owe their fortunes), FINANCE (also 11 of them) or tech (10 of them).

There might be some quiet voices in the

2014 WEALTH SELF(BILLIONS) COUNTRY MADE?

Gina Rineheart, ranked 46.

Rupert Murdoch, ranked 79.

room, though, because 11 of the wealthiest people on the planet were simply born into their MONEY (19 others inherited their wealth and then made it grow). The remaining 50 names on the list, according to Forbes, are self-made billionaires.

Oxfam notes that global wealth inequality is increasing while the rich get richer. If

trends CONTINUE , the organization projects that the richest 1 percent of people will have more wealth than the remaining 99 percent by 2016.

Here’s the list of the 80 people with as much wealth as the world’s poorest 3.6 billion people:

41

Mukesh Ambani

$19

India

Extractives

SECTOR

42

Masayoshi Son

$18

Japan

43

Michael Otto

$18

Germany

44

Phil Knight

$18

USA

Yes

Retail

45

Tadashi Yanai

$18

Japan

Yes

Retail

RANK

NAME

1

Bill Gates

$76

USA

Yes

Tech

2

Carlos Slim Helu

$72

Mexico

Yes

Telecom

3

Amancio Ortega

$64

Spain

Yes

Retail

4

Warren Buffett

$58

USA

Yes

Finance

46

Gina Rinehart

$18

Australia

5

Larry Ellison

$48

USA

Yes

Tech

47

Mikhail Fridman

$18

Russia

Yes

Extractives

6

Charles Koch

$40

USA

Diversified

48

Michael Dell

$18

USA

Yes

Tech

7

David Koch

$40

USA

Diversified

49

Susanne Klatten

$17

Germany

Cars

8

Sheldon Adelson

$38

USA

Entertainment

50

Abigail Johnson

$17

USA

Finance

9

Christy Walton

$37

USA

Retail

51

Viktor Vekselberg

$17

Russia

10

Jim Walton

$35

USA

Retail

52

Lakshmi Mittal

$17

India

11

Liliane Bettencourt

$35

France

Product

53

Vladimir Lisin

$17

Russia

Yes

Transport

12

Stefan Persson

$34

Sweden

Retail

54

Cheng Yu-tung

$16

Hong Kong

Yes

Diversified

13

Alice Walton

$34

USA

Retail

55

Joseph Safra

$16

Brazil

Yes

Finance

14

S. Robson Walton

$34

USA

Retail

56

Paul Allen

$16

USA

Yes

Tech

15

Bernard Arnault

$34

France

Luxury

57

Leonid Mikhelson

$16

Russia

Yes

Extractives

16

Michael Bloomberg

$33

USA

Yes

Finance

58

Anne Cox Chambers

$16

USA

17

Larry Page

$32

USA

Yes

Tech

59

Francois Pinault

$16

France

18

Jeff Bezos

$32

USA

Yes

Retail

60

Iris Fontbona

$16

Chile

Extractives

19

Sergey Brin

$32

USA

Yes

Tech

61

Azim Premji

$15

India

Tech

20

Li Ka-shing

$31

Hong Kong

Yes

Diversified

21

Mark Zuckerberg

$29

USA

Yes

Tech

62

Mohammed Al Amoudi

$15

Saudi Arabia

Yes

Extractives

22

Michele Ferrero

$27

Italy

Food

63

Gennady Timchenko

$15

Russia

Yes

Extractives

23

Aliko Dangote

$25

Nigeria

Yes

Commodities

64

Wang Jianlin

$15

China

Yes

Real Estate

24

Karl Albrecht

$25

Germany

Yes

Retail

65

Charles Ergen

$15

USA

Yes

Telecom

25

Carl Icahn

$25

USA

Yes

Finance

66

Stefan Quandt

$15

Germany

Cars

26

George Soros

$23

USA

Yes

Finance

27

David Thomson

$23

Canada

67

Germán Larrea Mota Velasco

$15

Mexico

Extractives

28

Lui Che Woo

$22

Hong Kong

68

Harold Hamm

$15

USA

Yes

Extractives

29

Dieter Schwarz

$21

Germany

69

Ray Dalio

$14

USA

Yes

Finance

70

Donald Bren

$14

USA

Yes

Real Estate

Finance

71

Georg Schaeffler

$14

Germany

Yes

Media Yes

Entertainment Retail

Yes

Telecom Retail

Extractives

Yes

Metals Metals

Media Yes

Retail

30

Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud

$20

Saudi Arabia

31

Forrest Mars Jr.

$20

USA

Food

72

Luis Carlos Sarmiento

$14

Colombia

Yes

Finance

32

Jacqueline Mars

$20

USA

Food

73

Ronald Perelman

$14

USA

Yes

Finance

33

John Mars

$20

USA

Food

74

Laurene Powell Jobs

$14

USA

Entertainment

34

Jorge Paulo Lemann

$20

Brazil

Yes

Drinks

75

Serge Dassault

$14

France

Aviation

35

Lee Shau Kee

$20

Hong Kong

Yes

Diversified

76

John Fredriksen

$14

Cyprus

Yes

Transport

36

Steve Ballmer

$19

USA

Yes

Tech

77

Vagit Alekperov

$14

Russia

Yes

Extractives

37

Theo Albrecht Jr.

$19

Germany

Retail

78

John Paulson

$14

USA

38

Leonardo Del Vecchio

$19

Italy

Yes

Luxury

79

Rupert Murdoch

$14

USA

Yes

Media

39

Len Blavatnik

$19

USA

Yes

Diversified

80

Ma Huateng

$13

China

Yes

Tech

40

Alisher Usmanov

$19

Russia

Yes

Extractives

22

Australasian Muslim Times

Yes

Product

Finance

Source: Forbes, Oxfam.

www.amust.com.au

April 2015

UMMAH 14 - 16

EDUCATION 17 - 19

TRAVEL 20

SOCIAL 21

BUSINESS

BUSINESS 22 - 23

AMUST Classifieds Charity Organisations

Human Appeal International Human Appeal International (HAI) works on a number of charitable causes, specialising in areas from Social and Educational Development to Health Care and Emergency Relief.

Phone: 1300 760 155 Website: www.humanappeal.org.au Islamic Help Islamic Help was able to play a significant role in the delivery of aid and assistance after major crises like the Pacific Ocean Tsunami, the Bam Earthquake and the Pakistan Earthquake.

Phone: +61 (0) 2 9750 0596 Website: www.islamichelp.org.au Islamic Relief Australia Islamic Relief Australia promotes sustainable economic and social development by working with local communities to eradicate poverty, illiteracy and disease.

Phone: 1300 308 554 Website: www.islamic-relief.com.au Australians for Revive Kashmir We are a part of a global initiative, aimed at providing help and support to the people in Kashmir - to contribute towards rebuilding and rehabilitation.

Phone: 0457 766 425 Website: www.kashmir.org.au

Education Australian Nasheed & Arts Academy Performing and Creative Arts for children & teenagers 3 - 16 years old. ANAA seeks to encourage, support and teach children the power of expression through arts.

Phone: 0423 084 806 Website: www.nasheedarts.org.au/wp/ HikmahWay Institute HikmahWay offers Islamic educational courses to equip Muslims of today with the knowledge, understanding and wisdom to lead balanced, wholesome and beneficial lives.

Website: www.hikmahway.com Islamic Foundation for Education & Welfare The Islamic Foundation for Education & Welfare (IFEW) was founded in 1987 and operates from Sydney, Australia. Its aims are to address current issues through education, information dissemination and welfare projects.

Phone: (02) 9823 2063 Website: www.ifew.com

April 2015

ISRA Australia ISRA is a point of reference for Islamic education, resources and information services. ISRA conducts pioneering research on social and religious issues of relevance to the Australian society and international community.

Phone: (02) 9649 9040 Website: www.isra.org.au Ummayn Quran Institute Abdulrahman and Asma at Ummayn specialise in helping you learn to read Quran with a balanced pace, rhythm and tune to make your reading more pleasing.

Phone: 0402 501 883 Website: www.facebook.com/ummayn

Buy/Sell/Trade

Halal Food

Hygienic Spray (for toilet) Shattaf Tahara Spray. Stainless steel hose.

Including free installation with diverter/ connector. Long distance charges apply Phone: 0418 204 251 Email: sasdqi@gmail.com

Fujiyama Japanese cuisine 100% Halal Japanese made by chefs with 12 years experience in Japan. Contact our team today for catering enquiries big or small.

Phone: 0490 402 164 Website: www.facebook.com/ FujiyamaJapaneseCuisine

Multicultural Eid Festival & Fair MEFF provides stallholders the opportunity to sell or promote to the Muslim community. Stall bookings open on Monday 20 April 2015 Phone: (02) 9823 2063 Website: www.meff.com.au

ADVERTISE HERE

Homebush Halal Meats A halal butcher in Ashfield, provides you with the best and freshest halal meats in the area. We stock lamb, beef, goat, poultry and game meat.

Phone: (02) 9799 7049 Website: www.homebushhalalmeats.com.au

(Minimum 5 words)

Email advertising@amust.com.au

iMoby Productions Photography / Filming.

Female Photographer. Weddings and engagements, birthday parties, festivals, corporate events, filming and producing.

Phone: 0432 608 350 Website: www.imobyproductions.com MCCA Commitment and service to Australian Muslims by offering quality financial solutions that are profitable, sustainable, convenient, and Shariah compliant.

Phone: 1300 724 734 Website: www.mcca.com.au Morning Star Migration Services Do you need a visa to Live, Work or Holiday in Australia? We help you with your application for all types of visas.

Phone: 0478 173 474 Website: www.morningstarmigration.com.au

SAMAA South Asian Muslim Association of Australia (SAMAA) is a non-profitable incorporated association which aims to provide care to the elderly of South Asian Muslim Community.

Phone: (02) 9543 9769 Website: www.samaa.org.au Shadow Approved We provide strategic design services that enable our clients to increase sales, build brand awareness and increase customer reliability www.facebook.com/shadowapproved Website: www.shadowapproved.com UAK Design Design and construction. Architectural & structural plans, DA & CC Approval, Renovation & Extensions, Project Management, Duplex, Granny Flat.

Phone: 0411 081 624 Email: info@uakdesign.com.au

www.amust.com.au

Great Wall Kitchen Great Wall Kitchen makes great Indian style Halal Chinese food. We are located at 154 Haldon Street, NSW. Phone: (02) 9759 9531 Website: www.facebook.com/gwkhalal Halal Square Australia’s favourite online guide to restaurants and eateries offering halal food, halal groceries and restaurant reviews.

Covering all major capital cities in Australia Website: www.halalsquare.com.au

Promote your business, sell your products.

Only $2 per word

Services

AMUST

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Australasian Muslim Times

23

SPORT

NEWS 1-2

BOOMERANG 3-5

COMMUNITY 6-8

AUSTRALIA 9 - 10

LIFESTYLE 11 - 13

Australia wins Cricket World Cup on home ground AMUST

Reflections on Phil Hughes demise Hasan Fazeel Australia won the ICC World Cup by comprehensively beating New Zealand at the final match at the MCG last Sunday.

This is the fifth time Australia has won the World Cup and has cemented its position as the premier cricket nation.

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 has been a highly successful record breaking event with two double-centuries, seven scores in excess of 150 and 38 centuries and 28 four-wicket hauls, including two hattricks.

24

Broadcast by 44 media organisations, in seven languages across 220 countries, the India versus Pakistan group match drew an approximate television audience of more than 288 million in India alone, while the Australia versus England match was watched by 2.1 million people in Australia. Those following the tournament on new media, the website attracted 26.25 million unique visitors accumulating an incredible 227 million page views.

I made a pilgrimage to Adelaide to watch the highly charged up match between India and Pakistan during the preliminaries. But for me the most emotional moment was not watching Pakistan losing to India from the

Australasian Muslim Times

stands; instead the Phil Hughes memorial plaque took me on that bright afternoon on an emotional journey.

“I have been called in again, now is the time to avail my chance – aah! This is a short one, lets play one of my signature shots. Bang!!! Why can’t I stand on my feet, …”

Was that all going through Phil’s mind?

Take a moment from your life, close your eyes, take a deep breath and imagine what was going through Phil’s mind in last few seconds of his consciousness when he was hit by the ball under his ear. You might get chills through your spine.

Death of Phil Hughes have struck me the most amongst the incidents I have encountered in recent history around the globe. I was in shock even after the week of his final burial ceremony, like most of cricket lovers.

This incident actually took me to a zone where I was forced to think the priceless question WHY – Why was I born? What is the purpose of my life? What am I doing here? What is everyone in my surroundings doing? Why, why and why?

Phil was young, super fit, famous, rich and on top of that was loved by his family, friends and fans, one of the most eligible bachelors if not in the world but surely in the country. He had dreams, his family’s dreams, his plans for himself, selector’s plans for him and then all it took was a fraction of a second to end this all - dreams, relationships, money, struggle and hopes for a brighter future. I don’t even have the cour-

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age to think or imagine what Phil’s family went through when they saw him getting hit; the pain they went through.

All the emotions aside , being a young professional, sportsman, with a young family, future plans, dreams and hopes - I started to think how I have lead my life so far and how I am going to lead it now. Working hard for money, name, respect, fame, house, kids, car, spouse etc… and my hard thinking cleared some clouds and myself being a Muslim I started to believe that myself and my life is nothing if it is not for Allah and if it is not for how Allah wants us to live. This is my purpose of life.

Hasan Fazeel is a Sydney based IT professional and cricketer.

April 2015