Only 7 Days Left!

Then Sharif Deen one of the finalist in The Biggest Loser show on TV will be the special guest at CresWalk this year. Sharif will lead the warm up exercises at the start and and get the run underway. Come and meet Sharif and marvel at his amazing 72kg weight loss. Sharif went onto the show at 178kg and came in third place by losing 33% of his body weight. The Channel Ten show was a three month weigh loss journey where contestants are shown how to exercise and eat healthily. Now Sharif was sometimes training for up to 7 hours a day, and the show has left him with a new lease on life. This year the show was made up of couples and Sharif went with a work mate of his, Theresa, who lost 39kg. Both Sharif and Theresa will be at CresWalk and they look forward to discussing their weight loss journey.     What else is on at this year's CresWalk?   You can look forward to a fabulous day out with:   a sumptuous CresWalk breakfast finisher's gift rock climbing tug-of-war and loads of random draw prizes that include a weekend holiday for two, several $100 shopping and movies vouchers and MUCH MUCH MORE!     So if you, your family and your friends have not registered yet, do so RIGHT NOW!   There's a race category for every age and ability - from the toddlers to the pram pushers   And bring along your chairs and picnic rug and enjoy the morning out along our Brisbane River.

Sunday 17 May 2009 Orleigh Park, West End Register online   Flyer   Registration form

 
It has been brought to our attention that some CCN readers have not been receiving their weekly email notifications for some weeks now. We apologize for this.

We have identified the source of the problem and have repaired it, inshaAllah

However, please note, for future reference, that the latest and past issues of CCN are directly accessible from www.crescentsofbrisbane.org at all times.

 
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (May 6) - Sukaina al-Zayer is an unlikely beauty queen hopeful. She covers her face and body in black robes and an Islamic veil, so no one can tell what she looks like. She also admits she's a little on the plump side.
 

But at Saudi Arabia's only beauty pageant, the judges don't care about a perfect figure or face. What they're looking for in the quest for "Miss Beautiful Morals" is the contestant who shows the most devotion and respect for her parents.

"The idea of the pageant is to measure the contestants' commitment to Islamic morals... It's an alternative to the calls for decadence in the other beauty contests that only take into account a woman's body and looks," said pageant founder Khadra al-Mubarak.

"The winner won't necessarily be pretty," she added. "We care about the beauty of the soul and the morals."
So after the pageant opens Saturday, the nearly 200 contestants will spend the next 10 weeks attending classes and being quizzed on themes including "Discovering your inner strength," "The making of leaders" and "Mom, paradise is at your feet" — a saying attributed to Islam's Prophet Muhammad to underline that respect for parents is among the faith's most important tenets.

Pageant hopefuls will also spend a day at a country house with their mothers, where they will be observed by female judges and graded on how they interact with their mothers, al-Mubarak said. Since the pageant is not televised and no men are involved, contestants can take off the veils and black figure-hiding abayas they always wear in public.

The Miss Beautiful Morals pageant is the latest example of conservative Muslims co-opting Western-style formats to spread their message in the face of the onslaught of foreign influences flooding the region through the Internet and satellite television.

Read the rest......
 

 
ABC's Q and A program on Thursday 7 May had as panelists: Senator Mark Arbib, Parliamentary Secretary for Government Service Delivery; Sharman Stone, shadow immigration minister; Greg Sheridan, Foreign Editor, The Australian; Guy Rundle, author and Crikey.com.au blogger; Randa Abdel-Fattah, author and lawyer.
 

After a wide-ranging discussion that included audience questions about student poverty during the recession, the subject changed to torture. Jinho Choi raised the possibility of prosecution for US officials involved in torture during the Bush administration, while Emily Heath asked whether the Howard government was also morally complicit in illicit actions that occurred at Guantanamo Bay.

Thomas Greenhalgh raised the difficult issue of the growing power of the Taliban in nuclear-armed Pakistan, and asked whether it was in Australia's interest to prevent the Pakistan Government from failing. A video question from Yasmin Zarebski, from Castle Hill in Sydney, maintained the Taliban focus by asking about the oppression of women in Muslim countries. After a question from Maha Istanbouly about peace in the Middle East, and critics of Israel being cast as anti-Semites, the Israel-Palestine conflict sparked a passionate discussion that was still raging when time ran out and the show had to end.

Randa Abdel-Fattah was born in Sydney in 1979. She is a Muslim of Palestinian and Egyptian heritage. She grew up in Melbourne and attended a Catholic primary school and Islamic secondary college where she obtained an International Baccalaureate. She studied Arts/Law at Melbourne University during which time she was the Media Liaison Officer at the Islamic Council of Victoria. She now works as a lawyer specialising in commercial and property litigation. Randa has written books for young audiences, including Does my head look big in this?, Ten Things I Hate About Me and Where The Streets Had A Name. Her writing has received acclaim around the world and in 2008 she was awarded the Kathleen Mitchell Award, a biennial literary award that acknowledges excellence in writers under 30. Her most recent novel, Where The Streets Had A Name, was recently listed as a Notable Book by the Children's Book Council. Randa is also a regular guest at schools around Australia addressing students about her books and the social justice issues they raise. She is also a human rights advocate and stood in the 1996 Federal election as a member of the Unity Party-Say No To Hanson. Randa is a member of various inter-faith networks. She has also volunteered with different human rights and migrant resource organisations. Randa has contributed to various publications, including The Australian, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Canberra times, New Matilda, Le Monde (France). She is currently living in Sydney with her husband and two children aged 3 ½ and 10 months where she is working on her fourth book.

You can listen to Randa's response to the Palestinian issue and the rights of women in Islam midway through the programme here:

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s2557567.htm

 
A fun night out for Muslims searching for marriage partners.

“Speed Intros for Muslims” has adopted the concept of “speed-dating”, and has arranged an event to assist single Muslim males and females to meet one another. Applicants will be age–categorised and will have the opportunity for a five minute “interview” with potential partners.

The event will be in a supervised and safe environment. Attendees may then choose to provide each other with their contact details, or alternatively this can be facilitated by “Speed Intros for Muslims”, with the consent of each person involved.

“Speed Intros for Muslims” hopes that this will be an enjoyable and successful evening for all involved, Insha-Allah.

Event Details

Email MuslimIntros@hotmail.com

All proceeds are donated to charity.

MBN invites members and non-members to an evening with Professor Michael E. Drew on Tuesday 19 May 2009 at 7.30pm.

The Professor will look at some of the origins of the current crisis and explore the impact on investment risk in various asset classes.  The presentation will also consider some of the issues facing investors in today's climate.

If you want to know where Australia is heading in the next year, how this impacts your business/profession and where to invest in the current market, then this evening is a must for you. The professor will take questions at the end of his presentation.

Depending on time, Iqbal Lambat will provide a brief overview of the federal budget.

The cost of attending the evening is $10 per person. It will be held at Springwood Towers on 19 May at 7pm. Light refreshments will be provided.

Places are strictly limited. Confirm your attendance on the MBN website, send an email to us at secretary@mbn.net.au or contact Farida Lambat on 0417 460 200; Iqbal Lambat on 0410 786 227; or Bilal Rauf on 0411 625 462.

About the speaker:
Professor Michael E. Drew is currently the Discipline Head of Finance and Financial Planning, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Griffith Business School.  He joined the Griffith Business School, Griffith University as Professor of Finance in 2008.  Prior to this post, Michael was head of the Investment Services division at QSuper, one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, with 470,000 members and in excess of $23 billion in funds under management.

Sheikh Habib Umar (seen receiving a gift from Professor Toh Swee-Hin) spoke at the Griffith University Multi-Faith Centre on Tuesday and answered, through his interpreter, a number of questions posed to him from a very mixed audience of Muslims and non-Muslims.

He followed his talk with a lecture at the Kuraby Mosque that evening.

 
Letter to PM regarding Anti-Racism Conference in Geneva

Report by Yahya Hasham

 
The Algester Masjid held a fundraiser on Sunday the 25th of April at the Logan-west Community Hall in Hillcrest as part of its ongoing fundraising campaign for the construction of a new masjid at 48 Learoyd Road, Algester.

The world-famous Quran Reciter Qari Sayyid Sadaqat Ali of Pakistan was the main guest of honour. The Qari drowned the audience in the ocean of Allah Ta'ala's words.

Local-based Qaris also participated, among others were Qari Mehboob-ul- Haq (ex-Quran teacher at Holland Park Mosque) as well as the well-known Shaikh Qari Ahmed Abu Ghazaleh.

After the Asr Salaah, an auction took place where the auctioneer Br. Zafar Iqubal really exhausted the pockets of the people to donate to the masjid.

This beautiful and very successful programme ended at just before Maghrib with the recital of Qaseedah Al-Burdah and Dua by Qari Sayyid Sadaqat Ali.
 

 
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia
 

“Any qualified individual, no matter what his color, no matter where from, will have a chance to be a leader, for his good and The king is trying to tell everybody that he wants to rule this land as one nation, with no racism and no segregation.” SHEIK ADIL KALBANI

TWO years ago, Sheik Adil Kalbani dreamed that he had become an imam at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.

Waking up, he dismissed the dream as a temptation to vanity. Although he is known for his fine voice, Sheik Adil is black, and the son of a poor immigrant from the Persian Gulf. Leading prayers at the Grand Mosque is an extraordinary honor, usually reserved for pure-blooded Arabs from the Saudi heartland.

So he was taken aback when the phone rang last September and a voice told him that King Abdullah had chosen him as the first black man to lead prayers in Mecca. Days later Sheik Adil’s unmistakably African features and his deep baritone voice, echoing musically through the Grand Mosque, were broadcast by satellite TV to hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world.

Since then, Sheik Adil has been half-jokingly dubbed the “Saudi Obama.” Prominent imams are celebrities in this deeply religious country, and many have hailed his selection as more evidence of King Abdullah’s cautious efforts to move Saudi Arabia toward greater openness and tolerance in the past few years.

“The king is trying to tell everybody that he wants to rule this land as one nation, with no racism and no segregation,” said Sheik Adil, a heavyset and long-bearded man of 49 who has been an imam at a Riyadh mosque for 20 years. “Any qualified individual, no matter what his color, no matter where from, will have a chance to be a leader, for his good and his country’s good.”

Officially, it was his skill at reciting the Koran that won him the position, which he carries out — like the Grand Mosque’s eight other prayer leaders — only during the holy month of Ramadan. But the racial significance of the king’s gesture was unmistakable.

Sheik Adil, like most Saudis, is quick to caution that any racism here is not the fault of Islam, which preaches egalitarianism. The Prophet Muhammad himself, who founded the religion here 1,400 years ago, had black companions.

“Our Islamic history has so many famous black people,” said the imam, as he sat leaning his arm on a cushion in the reception room of his home. “It is not like the West.”

It is also true that Saudi Arabia is far more ethnically diverse than most Westerners realize. Saudis with Malaysian or African features are a common sight along the kingdom’s west coast, the descendants of pilgrims who came here over the centuries and ended up staying. Many have prospered and even attained high positions through links to the royal family. Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi ambassador to the United States, is the son of Prince Sultan and a dark-skinned concubine from southern Saudi Arabia.

But slavery was practiced here too, and was abolished only in 1962. Many traditional Arabs from Nejd, the central Saudi heartland, used to refer to all outsiders as “tarsh al bahr” — vomit from the sea. People of African descent still face some discrimination, as do most immigrants, even from other Arab countries. Many Saudis complain that the kingdom is still far too dominated by Nejd, the homeland of the royal family. There are nonracial forms of discrimination too, and many Shiite Muslims, a substantial minority, say they are not treated fairly.

“The prophet told us that social classes will remain, because of human nature,” Sheik Adil said gravely. “These are part of the pre-Islamic practices that persist.”

BLACK skin is not the only social obstacle Sheik Adil has overcome. His father came to Saudi Arabia in the 1950s from Ras al Khaima, in what is now the United Arab Emirates, and obtained a job as a low-level government clerk. The family had little money, and after finishing high school, Adil took a job with Saudi Arabian Airlines while attending night classes at King Saud University.

Only later did he study religion, laboriously memorizing the Koran and studying Islamic jurisprudence. In 1984 he passed the government exam to become an imam, and worked briefly at the mosque in the Riyadh airport. Four years later he won a more prominent position as the imam of the King Khalid mosque, a tall white building that is not far from one of the Intelligence Ministry’s offices.

Theologically, Sheik Adil reflects the general evolution of Saudi thinking over the last two decades. During the 1980s he met Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam, a leader of the jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan. He initially sympathized with their radical position and anger toward the West. Later, he said, he began to find their views narrow, especially after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Now he speaks warmly of King Abdullah’s new initiatives, which include efforts to moderate the power of the hard-line religious establishment and to modernize Saudi Arabia’s judiciary and educational establishment. He reads Al Watan, a liberal newspaper.

“Some people in this country want everyone to be a carbon copy,” Sheik Adil said. “This is not my way of thinking. You can learn from the person who is willing to criticize, to give a different point of view.”

His life, like that of most imams, follows a rigid routine: he leads prayers five times a day at the mosque, then walks across the parking lot to his home, which he shares with two wives and 12 children. On Fridays, he gives a sermon as well.

HE expected it to continue that way for the rest of his life. Then in early September he woke up to hear his cellphone and land line, both ringing continuously. Stirring from bed, he heard the administrator of the Grand Mosque leaving a message. He picked up one of the phones, and heard the news that the king had selected him.

Two days later he walked into a grand reception room where he was greeted by Prince Khalid al-Faisal, the governor of Mecca Province. Sheik Adil tried to introduce himself, but the prince cut him off with a smile: “You are known,” he said.

Next, Sheik Adil was led to a table where he sat with King Abdullah and other ministers. He was too shy to address the king directly, but as he left the room he thanked him and kissed him on the nose, a traditional sign of deference.

Remembering the moment, Sheik Adil smiled and went silent. Then he pulled out his laptop and showed a visitor a YouTube clip of him reciting the Koran at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

“To recite before thousands of people, this is no problem for me,” he said. “But the place, its holiness, is so different from praying anywhere else. In that shrine, there are kings, presidents and ordinary people, all being led in prayer by you as imam. It gives you a feeling of honor, and a fear of almighty God.”

Source
 

 
Do you find it scary to speak in front of a group? Most people do! Having your say is vitally important - at school, at uni, and in working life.

Now find out how you can overcome these fears.

Have your say on www.ccnforum.ning.com