Thirty four Imams from all over Australia will gather at the Darra Mosque today (Sunday) for their second Annual General Meeting.

The Australian Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) will elect a new Executive committee.

Mr. Bob Atkinson Commissioner of Police Queensland; Mr. Damian Carmichael State Director for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs; Mr. Garry Page Executive Director for Multicultural Affairs Queensland; Councillor Matthew Bourke representing the Lord Mayor of Brisbane; and Prof Toh-Sewee-Hin, Director of the Multifaith Centre Griffiths University will be some of the dignitaries attending the opening session.

 

(Centre) Yunus Solwa, winner of the competition, (Left) Osman Latif, runner-up and (Right) Shabir Elias, winner of "most gogoks"

A local 'Gogok' Social Card group held its annual awards night at the Runcorn Function Room in Gowan Road, Runcorn.

In an entertaining evening supported by the live Brisbane Babas Band of musicians, awards were made to the 2007-2008 winner, runner-up and in the 'most gogoks' category.

In a speech to the members and their wives and friends, incoming President Yacoob Bassa told his audience that they were an open club and anyone wanting to enroll as a member, or learn this uniquely Southern African card game or simply just wanting to hang out with the boys on a Friday night were most welcome to join.

Master of ceremonies for the night, Abdul Omar also offered to teach the ladies the card game, and said the Club would be more than happy to support the setting up of a ladies group if they wanted one.

The club meets every Friday night alternating venues between the Kuraby State Special School and the Bridge Club in Daw Road.

For more information contact Yahya Hashim on 0403 338 040.

Two Australian peace activists are currently abroad two ships that are attempting to break through Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Peace activists from 13 countries, including an Israeli professor and an American Holocaust survivor sailed from Cyprus to Gaza abroad the SS Free Gaza and the SS Liberty to deliver medical supplies to the Gaza Strip.

Following the delivery of medical supplies, the ship intends to return to Cyprus carrying exports from Gaza. Ultimately, the peace activists aim is to open Gaza's harbour so that the people of Gaza will be able to trade with the rest of the world without Israeli interference.

The main organizer behind this initiative is Melbourne based Michael Shaik.   Michael will be in Brisbane on Friday 19 September.   There is an Ifthar planned at a local Brisbane restaurant on the 19th where Michael will deliver a short lecture before tarawih prayers and then follow his talk up with an informal discussion soon after.   If you would like to attend this dinner and talk, email Mustafa Ally at ccn@crescentsofbrisbane.org as soon as possible as places are very limited.

The Australian International Islamic College (Durack) is holding its annual fete today (Sunday).

CCN caught up with Ms. Lisa Khalid, the recently appointed Principal of the School.

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[CCN] How do you see your new role and what are your expectations and teaching philosophies?

[Khalid] My appointment as a Principal at the Australian International Islamic College is a great challenge and experience.

As the School Principal, I would like to set high expectation on discipline.

Discipline is vital to every living being.

It is discipline that unites man to man, one society to another.

Discipline has to be observed in speech, in sport and in every kind of relationship.

Students should learn the right way of doing things even in ordinary actions like sitting, talking or reading. If discipline of the school improves, grades and test scores would increase.

Parents’ involvement and support is very essential too.

When parents are involved in children’s schools and education, children have higher grades, improved behavior at home and school, and better social skills and adaptation to school.

[CCN] Teaching seems to be more than just a job with you.

[Khalid] Yes, absolutely! Reflecting back at my childhood, I used to put on my mom’s heels, carry some books, pretending to be a teacher.

I used to teach my sister and helped her out with school work.

All my life, I’ve always been engrossed with teaching.

[CCN] You have been involved with teaching at every level of the business.

[Khalid] Yes. Two weeks after graduation, I was appointed a lecturer at a private college in Malaysia. It was my first experience into formal teaching.

I moved on from private colleges to an international school. At the International Islamic School, Kuala Lumpur, I was a teacher of both Primary and Secondary students.

I was also involved in some translation work for the school.

At the International Islamic School, I moved on from a teacher to Head of Humanities Department, then to the Vice Principal of Administration and later as Vice Principal of Academic.

My wide exposure in the area of communication has encouraged me to do a Masters programme in Corporate Communication.

A leading Malaysian university has designed a program that employs modern technology to help track the whereabouts of pilgrims during their soul-searching journey of hajj.

"The prototype was a big success," Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said announcing the program during the second "National Seminar on Hajj Best Practices" in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), one of the country's most prominent public universities, has been working on the Pilgrim Tracking Management System (PTMS) since last year.

The program, designed in cooperation with Umm-Al-Qura University (UQU) in Makkah, is instrumented to track the progress and the whereabouts of pilgrims during hajj.

"USM launched the PTMS prototype last year using the luggage of several local respondents performing the hajj," Ahmad said.

"A pilot study will be conducted during the coming Hajj season."

In the next stage, the minister added, USM researchers will use radio-frequency identification (RFID) to track the movement of pilgrims.

He said pilgrims from all over the world would be able to use the new technology once it proved successful.

The PTMS would be introduced into the market within the next five years.

 

"The Services in Mecca and Madinah need to be adapted to modern technology and USM is creating a system that can be used for the next 50 to 100 years, while also accounting for the needs of a growing number of pilgrims performing the Haj,”  Ahmad said.

When completed, the tracking system will include passport, health, baggage and pilgrim monitoring RFID tags that would be scanned at several locations in Makkah.

More than two million Muslims flock to Saudi Arabia every year to perform hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam.

Every able-bodied adult Muslim — who can financially afford the trip — must perform hajj once in their lifetime.
 

Malaysian officials say the USM program is meant to use modern technology to offer a better environment for pilgrims.

"USM is one of many institutions worldwide that has been given the task of developing products and services to create a better environment for pilgrims performing hajj," said Minister Ahmad.

He underlined the need to use technology to overcome movement difficulties facing pilgrims.
 

"The services in Makkah and Madinah need to be adapted to modern technology.

"USM is creating a system that can be used for the next 50 to 100 years, while also accounting for the needs of a growing number of pilgrims performing hajj."

Over the past few years, Saudi authorities have been working to employ modern technology to facilitate hajj rituals.

The Saudi Ministry of Hajj is working on a sophisticated broadcasting network and new safety standards for vehicle tunnels and pedestrian routes for the hajj season in November.

Last December, the kingdom announced plans to set up five monorails, a single rail serving as the track for a wheeled or magnetically levitating vehicle, to ease the movement of the faithful in the holy sites.

It also has a SR20-billion project to link Makkah and Madinah by a railway system.

Source

• Have you identified any specific needs that your group or organization would like to address through a project?
• Would you like to see your community group have better integration with the general community in Brisbane?
• Is your organization or group seeking funding for a Project or to undertake any cultural activities?

If you said YES to any or more of the above questions, then you need to go to the information session offered by the Multicultural Development Association (MDA) on the 14 August 2008.

You will find all the details about the session here.

If you followed the Beijing Opening Ceremony closely on Friday night you will have noticed a scene being played out in which the exploits of a certain Muslim Admiral was depicted.

CCN dug this bit of history regarding this man in question:

Decades before Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in search of a water route to Asia, the Chinese were exploring the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific with seven voyages of the "Treasure Fleet" that solidified Chinese control over much of Asia in the 15th century.

The Treasure Fleets were commanded by a powerful eunuch admiral named Cheng Ho. Cheng Ho was born around 1371 in China's southwestern Yunan Province (just north of Laos) with the name Ma Ho.

Ma Ho's father was a Muslim hajji (who had made a pilgrimage to Mecca) and the family name of Ma was used by Muslims in representation of the word Mohammed.

When Ma Ho was ten years old (around 1381), he was captured along with other children when the Chinese army invaded Yunan to take control over the region. At the age of 13 he was castrated, as were other young prisoners, and he was placed as a servant in the household of the Chinese Emperor's fourth son (out of twenty-six total sons), Prince Zhu Di.