......a sometimes self-deprecating and occasional tongue-in-cheek look at ourselves and the world around us ......

Sunday, 4 October 2009

 .Newsletter 0256

News you won't find on CNN!

Arwa El-Masri, in typical female style, made sure her outfit for the NRL's recent Dally M Awards was perfect from top to toe.

There were the stilletos, Leiela designer gown - and for the devout Muslim, mother and wife of Bulldogs star Hazem El Masri, a couture veil tailored to complement the outfit.

She was aware it was not the usual outfit seen on the WAGs of the red carpet.

Along with the scarf, the gown was altered with longer sleeves and a higher neckline, in line with her requirements for creating an elegant but modest look.

"If I am going to dress in an alluring way I want to dress that way just for my husband," she said.

Mrs El Masri was happy to explain why she adopted the veil as a Muslim woman.

"It is a way that I can control how I represent myself and it provides protection from objectionable attention," she said.
 

She decided to attend her first Dally M Awards, at the State Theatre, not just to celebrate with her husband but also bring more positive attention to the game.

In particular she is upset by the bad rap most league players have received because of the actions of a few.

"There are plenty of men who treat women with dignity," she said.

Hazem el-Masri, the highest point scorer in NRL history, and wife Arwa were interviewed on Channel 9's Today programme.

See the interview here.

* Wives And Girlfriends of Football stars

 
The month of October is synonymous with Breast Cancer, the most invasive cancer among Australian women.
 

Did you know that:
* the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer in Australia increased from 5,373 in 1983 to 12,170 in 2005
* breast cancer is expected to grow by 311 cases per year between 2006-2010
* the average age of first diagnosis was 60 years for a woman
* the risk of breast cancer increases with age;
* breast cancer and lung cancer are the 2 leading causes of cancer-related death in Australian women
* there were 2618 female deaths from breast cancer in 2006

Over the past two years, Crescents of Brisbane has dedicated the month of October towards the breast cancer cause.
 

In 2007, the Crescents Breast Cancer Awareness Workshop hosted 200 ladies and in 2008 the Crescents Pink Ribbon Pamper Brunch raised over $2500 for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

This year Crescents of Brisbane will be hosting a ladies fundraising luncheon, a day to honour women...the "Celebration of Being A Woman".
 

Funds raised from this year's event will be donated to Mummy's Wish - a not-for-profit charity focusing on supporting mothers diagnosed with cancer while either pregnant or with young children in South East Queensland.

In addition to the scrumptious two-course meal, the program for the day promises to be fun, informative and inspirational!
 

Speakers include a Life Coach, Body Image Consultant and Fitness Expert.
 

All those attending will also be given the opportunity to enjoy mini-facials, mini-makeovers, personalised demonstrations and advice from Galvanic Spa, Larissa Bright Cosmetics and Beauty Spells Mineral Makeup.
 

Lucky draw prizes will be plentiful and everyone gets to take home a special memento from the day.

For more information or to reserve a ticket, contact Saalihah Seedat on 0404 296297 or email theteam@crescentsofbrisbane.org

 

Crescents of Brisbane team members help plant some of the 450 trees under the Gateway Arterial on Beenleigh road

AFIC Press Release 
Mr Ikebal Patel, President of Muslims Australia expressed sadness and condolences at the loss of life and tragedy as a result of the devastating earthquake and the resulting tsunami that hit Samoa and the surrounding Pacific islands and the quake that struck Sumatra this morning.
 

Mr Patel said the destruction of homes, amenities and basic resources will require an enormous relief and reconstruction effort.

Mr Patel further stated that Muslims Australia is engaged in a fund raising effort to alleviate the suffering and ease the conditions of those in dire need.
 

Mr Patel also expressed sadness at the loss of life associated with cyclone Ketsana, which is barrelling towards Laos after leaving a trail of destruction and death across Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia.
 

Mr Patel indicated that Muslims Australia in consultation with its State Islamic Councils will be arranging relief aid as a matter of urgency for the victims across the Pacific and South Asia.

 
GOLD COAST: A group of Keebra Park State High School students are trying to turn the tide on the number of people from Arab nations drowning on Australian beaches.
 

The girls took part in a multicultural swimming program at Southport yesterday, with Gold Coast lifeguards teaching them about swimming, sun, signs and surf safety.
 

Over two days the six girls learned a combination of skills in the pool and in the surf, and trialled a new line of swimwear made locally to help, rather than hinder, Muslim women in the water.
 

Year 10 student Yennifer Carnero had little swimming experience until she completed the program and said she learned a range of skills that would be useful next time she went to the beach.
 

"We learned swim safety, freestyle, safety jumps, floating, breathing and dolphining," said the 14-year-old. "I had a target to dive under 10 waves and I did that, even though the water was cold. After a while you got used to it."
 

The day of learning was part of the Aqua English Project, which was started in 2006 as a result of international tourist drownings on the Gold Coast.
 

A partnership with the Gold Coast City Council Get Active & Healthy Program and the Aqua English S'women Program, participants involved have come from Afghanistan, India, Iran, Denmark, South Africa, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea and Taiwan.
 

Aqua English Project manager Sarah Palaubaum said they sought to solve a fundamental misunderstanding between international cultures and Australian culture when it came to the water.
 

"We were approached by women from Saudi Arabia looking for a culturally sensitive place to swim, and participate in the iconic Australian
aquatic culture," she said.
 

"The most exciting development for the program has been the design of Islamic swimwear, exclusively made on the Gold Coast."
 

Ms Palaubaum said the innovative swimwear would be supplied to all female Muslim students of Milperra High School, Brisbane. In a report released by the Royal Life Saving Society last week, people from Arab nations are among the most at risk in the Australian surf.
 

Information in the 15th annual report urged Arabic-speaking communities to take water safety classes.
 

Across Australia 302 people drowned, up by 41 on the previous year, with anecdotal evidence highlighting an increase in drownings of people from Arab nations.

Source: Gold Coast Bulletin Wednesday 30/9/2009

 

Latest releases from Audio Islam are available for immediate download. 1. Ml Ismail Abdur Razzaq - 2 lectures in 1 - Aquisition of Knowledge & Imaan Mufassal. Listen to a sample here: (((listen))) 2. Ml Sulaimaan Mulla - 5 Great Women. Listen to a sample here: (((listen))) 3. Ml Sulaimaan Kattani - Heart-beat for Allah. Listen to a sample here: (((listen))) 4. Urdu Nazams - Collection 4 Listen to a sample here: (((listen)))

The MBN Dinner kicked off early in the afternoon last Sunday at the RNA Showground where some 450 diners were entertained to nasheeds, naats and qira'ats and lucky draw prizes that saw winners walk away with a television set and airplane tickets to Malaysia.

Courier Mail 25 September 2009

BRISBANE'S Muslim community leaders came face to face with guide dogs in training, as part of a campaign to convince them the animals are not "unclean''.

The education forum at the Bald Hills guide dog training facility followed controversy over some cab drivers refusing to carry blind and disabled passengers with guide dogs.

"Quite a few cab drivers are Muslims and many of them are reluctant to have dogs sitting in the cabs because there's a belief that if their saliva gets on to stuff it becomes unclean,'' said Guide Dogs Queensland board director Rasheed A Ali.

"But they need to be educated that things have moved on. These are not ordinary dogs. They are working dogs providing a service to the community.''
 

Imam Mohammed Akram Buksh, from Kuraby Mosque south of Brisbane, agreed, saying Islam permitted the use of dogs for specific purposes.

"These dogs are very special dogs in the sense that they are trained for a specific purpose to guide people through their daily life, which of course Islam permits,'' Imam Buksh said.

"The dogs are tremendous and are doing a wonderful job, and there's definitely something amazing about the dog being so smart to be able to do certain duties which other animals cannot do.''

 

Mr Ali said Guide Dogs Queensland hoped the education forum could lead to a formal religious edict, or fatwa, governing the interaction between Australian Muslims and guide dogs.

Imam Buksh said other mosques had made arrangements for vision-impaired members of their congregations, and the same could happen in Australia.

"It is our job to accommodate them - we have to make arrangements where to keep the dogs, and I'm sure we will organise special facilities with them,'' he said.

 
The Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland (ECCQ) will be hosting its annual Multicultural Summit at the State Library of Queensland on October 26 and 27.

Multicultural Affairs Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk will deliver the opening address, Jason Yat-Sen Li flies in from Beijing for the Day 1 keynote address; Phillip Adams will be the Day 2 keynote speaker and moderator for the Great Debate (on the panel are Prof Hurriyet Babacan, Prof Ken Wiltshire, Jill Lang from QCOSS, Susan Booth from the ADCQ and The Courier-Mail’s Margaret Wenham) and plenary speakers include Andrew Metcalf, Secretary of the Department of Immigration & Citizenship; Garry Page, Executive Director of MAQ; and former Senator Andrew Bartlett, now ECCQ’s Policy & Advocacy Advisor.

Ian Muil, ECCQ Manager, told CCN: "This year's programme will make this an exciting Summit which we believe will stand out for a number of reasons, just one being the development of a Summit Declaration at a time that the issue of multiculturalism is under the microscope at both national and federal levels."

You can download the registration form or register online.

Study the Soundvision online guide if you are preparing for Hajj.

It features a glossary of terms and general and specific information about this pillar of Islam.

CCN has made pdf versions for your ease of use:

Hajj Handbook00; Hajj Handbook01; Hajj Handbook02; Hajj Handbook03; Hajj Handbook04; Hajj Handbook05; Hajj Handbook06; Hajj Handbook07; Hajj Handbook08

By Haroon Khan

I have been playing indoor soccer at West End and now at Acacia Ridge for 6 seasons with the MatchFixers team. We’re had a pretty close team and the core of the original team still plays together on Tuesday nights.

I saw a competition on Foxtel to win a trip to the UK to meet Tim Cahill. So I submitted an entry with a video of our first season triumph.

This video was put together by one of our ex-players who doesn’t play for us anymore due to injury, Shadab Aizaz.
 

I ended up being one of winners of this competition and decided to take along with me my close friend Sohail Asghar to his surprise as he had no idea I had entered such a competition.

We flew out to London Friday 18th September. Landed in Heathrow where we were met up with the other winners plus ex-Socceroo Robbie Slater who was going to be our guide on tour. We got on a bus and drove up the M4 up to Liverpool.

At our hotel we were surprised to find that the Blackburn Football Team was also staying at our hotel. Thanks to Robbie Slater, we managed to mingle with Socceroos Brett Emerton and Vince Grella and get some happy snaps and gear signed.

The next day we met up with Australian captain and Everton’s latest signing Lucas Neil, who we also got some photos and signed some gear. We then went for a tour of the famous Anfield stadium. Later, Tim Cahill had arranged some tickets for us to watch the Everton-Blackburn match at Goodison Park, which was a great experience especially as Everton won 3-0.

Next morning was our special meeting with Tim Cahill.

We arrived at the Everton training ground in Finch Farm early in the morning for our meeting. As we were getting off our bus we saw Tim Cahill zoom past us in his Lamborghini. He greeted us all and made us all feel really comfortable around him. He was obviously in a much happier mood as they had just won the day before. He spent about an hour and a half with us answering our questions and giving us a personal tour of the Everton Training ground.

He showed us their dressing rooms (he passed around his boots which have an Australian flag on them and the names of his two girls, their gym (where we saw some of the Everton boys), their outdoor field (where a few of the boys were training including Lucas Neil for the first time), their indoor field (for when it rains which is does a lot), their kit room, their store. He spoke to us about how professional the players are.

They train three times a day. They don’t drink and they have a strict eating regime. Their every movement on the pitch is monitored and at the end of the game they get statistics to tell them how many metres they covered, how many passes them made/lost, etc.

They have tough times when things aren’t going well and they are struggling for form, but they keep working harder to improve. They get paid well but they have to work hard to get there and maintain that high level. But he loves it and is passionate about it.

We spoke about the Aussies preparation for the World Cup in South Africa and he truly feels that the Aussie team could do something really special this world cup, but for now he wants to concentrate on his club Everton and to help them get up the Premier League ladder.

He came across as just a regular guy and really down to earth, no arrogance at all. He was real generous to give us such a tour, as apparently he has only done something like this once before and that was for charity.

After saying our goodbyes to Tim and wishing him all the best for the season and the World Cup next year, we headed off to Manchester for a flight down to Plymouth.

Near Plymouth Sony had arranged a 4 a side football game at a picturesque location amongst the ruins of King Arthur’s Tintagel Castle. We cheered on as the Australian team captained by Robbie Slater beat a Brazilian team 10-6.

The last day was a free day which we spent touring around London and catching sights such as Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square and the London Eye.

We arrived back on Saturday 26th September very jetlagged but still in a buzz after an unbelievable trip of a lifetime.

Murad Wilfried Hofmann born in Germany in 1931 studied law both at Harvard and Munich Law School. For 33 years he worked in the German Foreign Service and was Ambassador to Algeria and Morocco. In 1980, he embraced Islam and became a (Sunni) Muslim. He has written many articles on Islamic topics in leading magazines and has authored a number of books that include Diary of a German Muslim, Islam: The Alternative, Voyage to Mecca, Islam 2000, Religion on the Rise-Islam in the Third Millennium. Presently Dr. Hofmann lives in Bonn (Germany), giving lectures on Islam in many parts of the world.
 

“Live as if your were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." Gandhi (1869-1948)

CCN's book of the week is

Dear Ahmedbhai, Dear Zuleikhabehn: The letters of Zuleikha Mayat and Ahhmed Kathrada 1979-1989

compiled by

Goolam Vahed and Thembisa Waetjen

Extraordinary stories can sometimes be found in ordinary letters. This is the discovery that awaits readers of this gentle and beautifully written correspondence between a political prisoner and a self-described housewife during apartheid’s last decade.

The circumstances of loss prompting Rivonia trialist Ahmed Kathrada to write a letter of sympathy to a former flat-mate Abdulhak “Bis” Bismillah are met with an unexpected reply from Bis’s sister. Zuleikha Mayat, a Durban community organizer and editor of the best-selling cookbook Indian Delights, initiates a correspondence with Kathrada that continues until his release ten years later. Virtual strangers, they have in common their small-town Transvaal childhoods in Muslim shops in the early 20th century; and they find much to explore in their different approaches to questions of culture, politics and religion. The letters are written with wit and style, as they discuss both the issues of the day and the sustenance found in memory.

These letters tell the story, all the more powerful for its ephemeral character, of a developing epistolary friendship between two people to whom history has brought different gains and losses. The collection is rich not merely in historical content and stylistic interest, but in the experience it offers to the reader of an unfolding conversation, reflecting both the immediate worlds of its authors and a tumultuous period of South African history.

This compilation of letters is an apt celebration of Ahmed Kathrada’s 80th birthday this year (see CCN251 for a coverage of the celebrations), and presents a rewarding portrait of Zuleikha Mayat, a woman who is a household name, as the ‘Betty Crocker’ of South African Indian cuisine.

About the Authors
Goolam Vahed (no stranger to Brisbane) and Thembisa Waejen teach history at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban.
 

Would you like to see the cover of your favourite book on our book shelves below?

Then simply email the title and author to thebookclub@crescentsofbrisbane.org

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Baba Gounush

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Send in your favourite recipe to ccn@crescentsofbrisbane.org and be our "guest chef" for the week.

Jalalludin, a strong young man, was bragging that he could outdo anyone in a feat of strength.

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