The patron of Queensland Muslim Historical Society, Governor of Queensland, Penelope Wensley AO, has invited the Society to set up a historical display at her residence on 6 June as part of her Open Day celebrations of the 100 years of Government House.   The members of the QMHS extend an invitation to everyone to come over to Government House between 10am and 3pm and pay them a visit.

Anver Omar and daughter Adila with Olesya and Elena Nurgalieva, the Russian twins who have taken first and second places every year at the Comrades since 2003

 

 

 

The 89km South African Comrades Marathon takes off today (Sunday, 30 May) at 5.30am (1.30pm Sunday 30th May Brisbane time) from the City Hall in Pietermaritzburg and finishes off at 5.30pm (1.30am Monday 31st) at Sahara Stadium, Kingsmead in Durban.

 

As he has done in previous years, Brisbane's Flying Doctor, Anver Omar, will once again fly the Aussie flag as he tackles the gruelling route (after having only recently completed the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town).

 

This will be Anver's 5th Comrades and his best time is 9hr and 25mins.

 

He told CCN that he expected to knock off a few minutes off this time in this year's run and go for the Bill Rowan Medal (see below) for sub 9 hours.

 

Anver's training has been mostly done in Toowoomba with the most common training routine a 4 times-a-week steep 5.5 km descent and then a 5.5 km climb back up again against prevailing winds in about 55 mins with a weekend longer run of about 21 km.

 

You can catch all the action of the event live by tracking runners and watching live video streaming through the Comrades Marathon website: www.comrades.com.

 

 

 

 

 

BILL ROWAN MEDAL

2000, the millennium year, saw the introduction a new medal, the BILL ROWAN for those achieving a time from 7hrs 30min to sub 9hrs 00min, a medal with a bronze centre circled by a silver ring and named after Bill Rowan the winner of the first Comrades in 1921. His winning time being 8hrs 59min, therefore anyone winning a Bill Rowan would have complete the event faster than the winner of the first race.

 

 

PERTH: A Muslim woman has won $16,000 in compensation and a written apology after she and her friends were refused permission to go on water rides at Perth's Adventure World because of their religious clothing.

Pakeeza Shaikh won the money this month following a year-long court battle after her group was told they could not go on water rides because of inappropriate swimwear.

Ms Shaikh complained in a private conciliation at the Equal Opportunity Commission that the group had suffered discrimination, and had been humiliated about covering up their bodies in line with their religious beliefs.

The parties could not comment yesterday because of a confidentiality agreement, but it is understood the money has been divided between the five Islamic families visiting the park as a group in February last year. It is understood they had rejected earlier offers of financial compensation until a written apology was included.

Ms Shaikh told The West Australian last year the women in the group were told they were not allowed on the water slides because their three-quarter length pants and their long shirts were inappropriate.

She said they were told if they were to enter the water, chlorine levels would have to be raised to counter the unhygienic effect from their clothes.

They were told their clothing could cause injury because it could get caught in the joints of the water slides. One woman in a head scarf was told to leave the baby pool.

The group had asked to see the rules that proved their swimwear did not meet the park's standards. Management could not produce such a document and there were no signs to indicate the swimwear was inappropriate.

The Islamic Council of WA has applauded the result as a victory for common sense.

"We can never count victory in terms of dollars, but in terms of friendship and living harmoniously," spokesman Rahim Ghauri said.

Adventure World general manager Grant Laidlaw said in February last year staff had made the decision after interpreting Health Department guidelines. He was satisfied they had complied with safety procedures.

The Equal Opportunity Commission said it could not comment on the case, but confirmed a recreation park had apologised to an Islamic group and paid $16,000 in compensation.

The commission said the recreation park had agreed to review its clothing guidelines, offered free entry passes to the group, and arranged a special welcome to restore the relationship with the families.

 

The West Australian

 

 

Togged-up Twiggy in tent enduring freezing conditions in last year's successful bid for the Kilimanjaro summit

 

 

 

Following on from last week's appeal in CCN to support Muslim Hands in their efforts to raise funds for the children of Afghanistan by taking a team to the dizzy heights of Africa's Kilimanjaro, it must be pointed out that all monies raised go directly to the cause and that all other expenses are borne by the volunteer trekkers themselves.

 

If you would like to sponsor Twiggy in this worthy cause call him on 0411 172 786 or email him at twiggy@ecn.net.au.

 

or you can donate directly to Muslim Hands via virginmoneygiving.com (please include the donor number 389928 in the message box).

 

Note that interest/zakkat/lillah monies qualify as donations.

 

 

Direct payments can also be made using Muslims Hands' International banking details:

Bank Name :Natwest Bank
Account name : Muslim Hands
Account # 22820000
Sort code – 60-11-33
Swift Code : NWBKGB2I

 

John-Paul Flintoff

 

An increasing number of Britons are converting to Islam. Mosques are open to the public, so it is possible simply to wander in and try the religion for size?

 

London Central Mosque, near Lord’s cricket ground. I have passed it 1,000 times. Years ago, on the bus, I stared admiringly at the golden dome. More recently, pushing my daughter on the swings at nearby Regent's Park, I’ve noticed the gold needs touching up. But in the past few weeks I’ve been wondering whether I dared to step inside, as if it were a church, for a spot of peace and reflection.
 

Like many other people brought up in no particular religious tradition, I’ve dabbled - attended a wide variety of Christian churches, married into a substantially Jewish family and looked extensively into Buddhism. But I'd never tried Islam, although the Central Mosque is one of more than 1,500 in Britain, serving a fast-growing British Muslim community that already numbers some 2.4m people - rather more than the 1.7m Anglicans who attend church each week. And I am intrigued by the thought that there may be lessons I could learn. Like it or not, mosques are a part of our landscape that’s here to stay. And they're open to the public - so what stopped me before?

Despite thinking of myself as open-minded, I've come to believe that getting close to Islam can be dangerous. After all, extremists like Abu Hamza recruited through mosques such as Finsbury Park, and I've interviewed people who told me that went on at other mosques too. But one reformed extremist, Ed Husain, now runs a counter-extremist think-tank and strongly encouraged me to visit a mosque. Who knows, I might discover that the prayer mat and the pew have much in common.

And so, on a Friday in spring, I took myself to the Central Mosque for lunchtime prayers. A vast, largely male crowd gathered, like at football grounds. Inside the great hall, I sat on the carpet like everyone else, at the back. I admired the geometric design inside the domed roof and watched the men around me - poor Bengalis from nearby estates, prosperous Arabs up from Edgware Road, and assorted Kosovars and Bosnians. Here and there, small children rolled about quietly.

John-Paul Flintoff sticks his head out during prayer at his local mosque in Brent

After half an hour of Arabic, the imam spoke in English on the need to apologise after doing wrong. He addressed us as “dear brothers and sisters” - somewhere unseen, women were listening to him too.

Then the call to prayer began, and people behind me pushed forward to fill gaps. A few, having secured a place, turned and beckoned me to join them. But I was only here to observe, so I smiled and stayed where I was - until an angry-looking man stepped out of line and beckoned more forcefully. I meekly followed - only to find myself on a mat facing Mecca, bending at the hips as if to inspect my shoes, then dropping to my knees to rest my nose on the mat, bottom in the air, holes in socks for all to see, muttering “Allahu akbar” (God is great).
 

It wasn’t the most spiritual moment in my life. When it finished, I got up and joined 8,000 other people in a mad rush to retrieve shoes.

 

The past 15 years have seen a phenomenal growth of Islam within Britain’s indigenous and African-Caribbean communities, according to Batool Al-Toma, who runs the Leicestershire-based New Muslims Project. Born Mary Geraghty, she’s a former Catholic who embraced Islam three decades ago. She wears a headscarf and a long floral coat modestly buttoned up to her neck, but retains a feisty, bustling quality not uncommon in middle-aged Irishwomen.

Hundreds of people have come to Al-Toma’s office to convert to Islam, which involves no more than reciting the shahada (a conviction that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is his prophet). "People ask how many I’ve converted," she said. "They ask that all the time, as if I'm out there with my net." She told me she discourages would-be converts if she thinks that they - or their families and friends - are not ready. And that can take a very long time: her own children were born into Islam and have embraced it as adults but when she went to Ireland recently to visit family with her son, he was constantly rebuked for wearing a beard “to promote Islam”.

Sarah Joseph is the editor and CEO of a Muslim lifestyle magazine, emel. Like Al-Toma, she was brought up Catholic but converted 22 years ago after losing her faith. It was very painful.

 

A priest said, don’t worry, we all have doubts." Meanwhile, her brother married a Muslim and converted. Joseph looked into Islam and was surprised to find “intellectually satisfying answers". Like Al-Toma, she knows it can be hard to keep the support of friends and family. “Some families can feel a degree of bereavement,” she says. “It’s as if your child has given up on the right path, the middle-class dream. People think, ‘Oh my God, what have they become?’”

Another convert, Yahya (formerly Jonathan) Birt - son of the former BBC director-general John Birt - agrees that embracing Islam can cause upset. “Converts can be labelled traitors or, more kindly, eccentrics.” So why bother? What can possibly be the attraction?

Birt is reluctant to talk about his own conversion, in 1989, because to people who are cynical about religion it can sound deluded or pretentious. It's a personal matter, he stresses. His own interest arose after meeting somebody who seemed to embody the religious life at its best: “It took me over three years to get past my own lack of interest in all things religious to ask him about his faith. I was presented with no argument but simply with holiness, with the possibilities of contentment, integrity and wholeness that the religious life offers. Saintliness is its own argument.”

Impressed, I wondered if it might be possible to get some taste of Islam - but without actually converting. To practise, if you like, some kind of Islam-lite - like dipping into Christianity by trying the Alpha course.
 

 

TimesOnline

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If this is yours, email theteam@crescentsofbrisbane.org to claim it.

 

 

 

THE Peace Train may not make it Down Under if a south-west MP has his way.

Western Victoria MP Peter Kavanagh yesterday called on the federal government to deny British singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, entry into Australia because he allegedly supports an order to murder controversial author Salman Rushdie.

The singer courted controversy in 1989 when he was asked about the fatwa calling for the death of author of The Satanic Verses ?? considered blasphemous by Muslims. Mr Islam has subsequently denied any support for a fatwa against Mr Rushdie.

"Yusuf Islam, previously known as Cat Stevens, is due to give a concert tour later this month," Mr Kavanagh said.

"Although Yusuf now denies supporting attempts to murder Rushdie, he is on record at the time for stating that he wanted to see Mr Rushdie himself burn, not just an effigy of him, and he would like to have reported Mr Rushdie's whereabouts to those who were trying to murder him.''

Mr Kavanagh said the Peace Train singer should be denied entry into Australia because he did not support freedom of expression.

"Yusuf has evaded on this matter for years," he said. ''I call on the Minister for Immigration to deny Mr Yusuf a visa to enter Australia unless he publicly and categorically states that he does not and will not support the murder of any person for the expression of views, no matter how offensive."

Yusuf Islam is due to tour Australia next month ? the first time in 36 years that he has performed a concert in the country.

 

The Standard
 

 

In response to last week's CCN request, Mohammed Zakir, a Civil Engineer from Perth has volunteered to advise FAIR on Qatar working conditions and society having worked in the construction industry in Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai etc;

 

 

The reviews are out and critics say that it is racist and just plain bad.

The film, which is set in the United Arab Emirates, has been called "anti-Muslim" by the Hollywood Reporter website's Stephen Farber.

"....it is blatantly anti-Muslim, which means that it might confound liberal viewers," Farber wrote.

The Guardian newspaper's feature writer, Hadley Freeman, says the film is "borderline racist."

"Not since 1942's Arabian Nights has orientalism been portrayed so unironically," Freeman wrote.

"All Middle Eastern men are shot in a sparkly light with jingly jangly music just in case you didn't get that these dusky people are exotic and different."

In another scene, Muslim woman are seen throwing off their burqas to reveal trendy Western clothing.

Freeman added the movie is so bad it's like a kick in the face.

"I'm not asking for much. I just don't want to be sick in my mouth," she wrote.

The New York Magazine called it an "epic eyesore" while the New York Observer says "it is to movies what fried dough is to nutrition".

 

by Mohamad Abdalla

 

Alhamdulillah, the Saturday night lectures at Kuraby have been very successful.

The lectures for the month of June will be presented by convert brothers who will share with the community their inspirational stories of conversion.

 

Come and listen to how and when they accepted Islam, the motivations for doing so, the challenges that followed and their insightful advice to the community.

 

Make sure that you don't miss out on these unique lectures and make sure that you bring the entire family along.

 

Lectures run for 35-40 minutes only, followed by a scrumptious sausage sizzle and refreshments.

 

Don't miss out on this opportunity!
 

 

 

You can download podcasts of lectures from http://www.jamiat.com.au/jamiat-podcast/

 

 

The Islamic Council of NSW and the leader of the Catholic Church of Australia, Cardinal George Pell have joined Sydney Anglicans in their disapproval of the ethics trial in NSW primary schools.

Cardinal Pell has spoken out against the ethics course, which he believes is undermining the work done by the thousands of volunteers teaching SRE in schools around Sydney.

“I do think that we are suffering a bit of a push to radically diminish what is one of the glories of the Sydney Church,” he told a Sydney book launch.

On a recent episode of the SBS program, Insight, which aired May 25, parents, children and representatives of different religious organisations, voiced their opinions about the classes, touted as an option for children not attending Special Religious Education (SRE).
Mazen Fahme from the Islamic Council of NSW, and Ann Maree Whenman, a representative of the Australian Catholic Church, shared their organisations’ qualms with the course.

 

 

Sydney Anglican

Muslims Australia Press Release

 

The President of Muslims Australia AFIC and Chairman of Islamic School of Canberra board, Mr Ikebal Patel announced the relocation of the Islamic School of Canberra to its permanent site in Weston.

 

“Students at the Islamic School of Canberra commenced term two classes at the new home with enthusiasm and great excitement”, he said. Mr Patel expressed appreciation to the Chief Minister of ACT, Mr Jon Stanhope MLA for his inclusive vision and recognition of community needs.

 

In a statement made previously, Mr Stanhope had stated "The Islamic School of Canberra has made a positive contribution to the diversity and quality of education in the ACT."

 

Mr Patel reiterated the importance of education in Islam and the duty and responsibility of community leaders, teachers and parents to work in collaboration with local and federal governments to ensure all reasonable steps are taken to provide adequate facilities to achieve this important objective.

 

Mr Patel said, “At the Islamic School of Canberra we aim to provide our children the highest quality education within an Australian curriculum and we certainly expect to see valued Australian citizens contributing positively and putting back into this beautiful land - an enduring legacy”.
 

The outstanding results of the very first NAPLAN tests for the Islamic School of Canberra in 2009 is a testimony to the level of education provided at the school, added Mr Patel.

 

"All Canberran’s are welcome to send their children to the Islamic School of Canberra."

 

 

Brand NEW double storey house in Eight Mile Plains

• 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom
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• Balcony and covered patio
 

For more information or for a viewing, please contact Nazeera on 0411 045 021

 

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Inviting all expressions of interest by 16th June 2010.
 

Don’t kick yourself tomorrow, put your dreams into action and contact me today for more information on 0433 128 585 or Email sameer.gutta@raywhite.com.

 

Mr Ikebal Patel, President of Muslims Australia – AFIC expressed astonishment at Federal Opposition Party’s views in relation to refugees and people seeking asylum.

 

Mr Patel said, Mr Tony Abbotts remarks indicates a return to the draconian and inhumane policies of the Howard era when Australia lost it’s humanitarian standing internationally.

 

Mr Patel further stated, the Federal Opposition under the leadership of Tony Abbott is seeking to score political points in an election year. The question of people seeking refugee and asylum is a very emotive subject and the source of much un called for discrimination and fear mongering in the past.

 

Mr Patel agreed with former federal Liberal leader Dr John Hewson in a statement to Sky News: "To go back ... the Pacific solution, without the detail, it's trying to score a short-term political point, position the party policy to the right,".

 

Former Liberal Leader Mr Malcolm Fraser also expressed his dismay to his former party wanting to go back to the bad old days of the Howard Era.

 

Mr Patel said voters should not be “hood winked” into facades that distract from fair and just policy.

 

"As Australians we care about our international standing and obligations and with regards to the refugees and asylum seekers, peddling the same old fear as Tampa and the like will certainly sink Tony Abbott’s ambitions."

 

 

 

 

With the World Cup a few weeks away and many Australians making their way to South Africa, CCN will, over the next few weeks, bring readers, heading out to the Rainbow Nation, up to speed with world cup news, and the local politics, idiosyncrasies, personalities and culture of the country.

 

 

Visitors to South Africa are advised to become familiar with the local language:

 

A bathing suit is a "swimming costume".

A traffic light is a "robot".

An elevator is a "lift".

A car hood is a "bonnet".

A vehicle trunk is a "boot".

A pickup truck is known as a "bakkie'.

A Barbeque is fondly known as a "Braai".

"Now now" or "just now" can mean anything from a minute to a month.

"Takkies" are running shoes, trainers or sneakers.

 

 

 

WWW.ISLAMTV.COM.AU
 

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