Bachar Houli with players involved in the competition that bears his name alongside Masterchef 2013 contestant, Samira El Khafir who performed her first celebrity engagement.

 

AS THE Bachar Houli Islamic Program was official acknowledged on the world stage on Wednesday, two Islamic based schools battled for the Bachar Houli Cup in Melbourne.

Coburg Australian International Academy (AIA) triumphed over Fawkner Darul Ulum College at JJ Holland Reserve in Kensington, winning the AFL 9s competition that has grown rapidly since being introduced in 2012.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday night in Philadelphia, the AFL and Bachar Houli Islamic Program were acknowledged at the Beyond Sport Summit.

The National Football League won the governing body of the year award, but Houli's program was shortlisted in the top five in the governing body category from 350 international nominations.
 

For me, being a footballer is about giving back to my community, and through my AFL multicultural programs I get to do just that.   Bachar Houli

The Bachar Houli Cup has been developed by the Richmond defender and the AFL's multicultural program, with AFL diversity programs manager Ali Fahour representing the League in Philadelphia.

The program, which aims to engage young Muslim men in Australian football, has become a national program in just 12 months after starting in Victorian schools.

The program aims to celebrate cultural diversity, provide the participants with a positive AFL and cultural role model, and identify potential AFL talent.

“Congratulations to AIA, and all of the participants of the Bachar Houli Program," Houli said.

"I really love being part of it, and meeting the students who I know love participating.

"For me, being a footballer is about giving back to my community, and through my AFL multicultural programs I get to do just that.”

Houli’s programs engage around 5000 students nationally, and his next project will be the Bachar Houli Academy, a five-day training program run at the ME Bank Centre at Punt Road Oval.

Some of the participants of the Academy will be selected from this year's Bachar Houli Cup.

The Bachar Houli Islamic Program currently engages 30 Islamic colleges nationally.

The Bachar Houli Cup is targeted at 14-17 year olds who play a round-robin football carnival against other Islamic colleges in their respective states.

Thirty Islamic students will be drafted into the Bachar Houli Academy where their skills will be fast-tracked in order to give them the best chance of breaking into the talented player pathway.
 

Source: AFL

In the ABC Compass series Geraldine Doogue invites Muslims, Jews and Christians to dinner to explore what they believe and why.

 

In Episode 1, Assad Karem, Maha Sukkar, Mohammed El-Ieissy, Noha Sayed and Susan Carland talk about what being a Muslim means to them, how their faith informs their lives and the challenges they face in a post 9/11 world.

 

 

The Muslim population on the Gold Coast is in need of a new mosque. Humera Haroon with her children Zikra Ilyas, 11, Zara Ilyas, 5, Hamza Ilyas, 13 months and Zaina Ilyas, 10. Pic: Brendan Radke

THE Gold Coast Islamic community is experiencing a baby boom and needs more mosques.

Religious leaders say there are between 6000 to 8000 Muslims on the Gold Coast, up as much as 4000 from the last Census in 2011.

The unprecedented growth is thanks to a high birth rate, not migration, with second generation Gold Coast families producing more children.

Leaders from the Islamic Society of Gold Coast say that the community's only mosque at Arundel is at capacity.

It operates daily from 5am to 9pm and takes in 1200 people each Friday for the community's main prayers, with prayers held five times a day.

The mosque is also a meeting place, is equipped with the burial material for funerals, is the venue for weddings and festivals and hosts 15 school tours annually.

Society secretary Hussain Baba said the boom meant the mosque was constantly in use and more facilities were needed to accommodate the growth.

He said the city was appealing for Islamic families from Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide thanks to its multicultural society, lifestyle and climate and facilities like Bond University and the Gold Coast University Hospital.

"Many come for a holiday and then want to move here," he said.

According to 2011 Census, there were about 4000 Muslims living on the Gold Coast with the largest portion under 34 years old.

Mr Baba said their evidence suggested that figure had swelled to more than 8000 people.

"Being a tourist town, there is acceptance of the Muslim religion as there are many Middle Eastern and Asian tourists who come here and practise Islam," he said.

Imam Imraan Husain -- the Gold Coast Mosque leader -- said Muslims born here were now having their own families.

"In the eight years I have been here, I have never done so many rites of passage birthing rituals," said Imam Imraan Husain.

In the eight years I have been here, I have never done so many rites of passage birthing rituals.   Imam Imraan Husain

"There are many people who live here and work in Brisbane because they like the lifestyle," he said.

"They also feel very welcome. We have more than 40 countries as part of our community and we don't have any skirmishes. Our community loves the atmosphere.

"We would like to see more in places to pray in Robina or Varsity Lakes to give people more options and ease. We need some more prayer rooms and facilities."

He said the community would look at providing more facilities, including prayer centres.

"We need the financial muscle, but having more facilities would make it easier for people living at the southern end of the Gold Coast and would cater for the growth."

According to the 2011 Census there were almost half a million people in Australia who identified as being Islamic -- the third largest identified religious group after Christianity and Buddhism.

Nationally, the Islamic population grew by around 135,000 from 2006 to 2011, up about 40 per cent compared with overall population growth of 8 per cent.

In NSW, combined variations of Muhammad last year made the top 100 baby names, figures from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages reveal.

In London, the combined spellings of Muhammad have made it the No. 1 baby name for boys.

 

Source: Goalcoast.com

BRISBANE: Chris Newman, a Springwood resident and secretary of the Neighbourhood Mosque Watch Committee, said Underwood was an "Australian community, not a Muslim community" but denied that his opposition was related to religious differences.
 

He believes Logan City Council should have rejected the redevelopment of the warehouse at 50 Parramatta Rd into a place of worship.
 

Council approved the development application in July which will transform the current building into a multipurpose hall with an office, washroom and burial facilities, with 50 car-parking spaces on site.
 

"The traffic will clog up that road. Why do we all have to carry the burden of these ill-conceived ideas?" Mr Newman said.
 

"It will upset the area's character, which is pretty mellow. It's a light-industry area and it's near residents and suddenly it will turn into a hub of frenetic Friday afternoon activity."
 

Director of the Islamic Shia Council of Queensland, Aun Ali Lakhani, said the new

Brisbane Islamic Centre would act as a community hub for 4000 Shia Muslims who currently had no place of worship.
 

The redevelopment, due to begin within weeks, will cost about $1.5 million, much of which has been donated from within the Islamic community.
 

Mr Lakhani said 95 per cent of activity would be after hours or on weekends and he welcomed any opponents to talk with him about their concerns.
 

He said he was unaware of any groups against the development of the mosque.
 

"Most simply, it's a place of prayer, like a church," Mr Lakhani said.
 

"This centre will be for all activities, including prayers and special services, wedding ceremonies, an indoor sports hall and it's going to have a multimedia library.
 

"Most of the community members are either refugees from Afghanistan or Iraq so it will be a support centre for those people coming out of detention when they don't know where to go."
 

Planning and Development committee chairwoman Cr Cherie Dalley said council officers were satisfied the development complied with the applicable legislation and, accordingly, the development had been approved with conditions.
 

There was no need for public consultation for the redevelopment because the land was already correctly zoned for a place of worship.

Source: Courier Mail

 

Comedian Nazeem Hussain is half of comedy duo Fear of a Brown Planet, but he's also on the board of the Islamic Council of Victoria and something of a cultural commentator, appearing on Q&A, acting as a spokesman for his community and, predictably, angering conservative newspaper columnists.
 

A ''moderate Muslim'', Hussain says he never set out to ''spread a message'', but he has made a career from political and race-based comedy - through stand-up, as a presenter on youth radio station Triple J, and on Foxtel's comedy Balls of Steel.
 

But I'm tipping it will be his new series, produced by Southern Star Entertainment, that will really get the conservatives frothing.
 

The 10-part Legally Brown might just be the best new comedy series on TV. There's little worse than being told a ''brave'' new comedy will be ''edgy'' and ''dangerous'', but Hussain's new vehicle genuinely does what it promises in the press release.
 

A mix of stand-up in front of a live studio audience and pre-recorded sketches and hidden-camera pranks, Legally Brown is at once sharp, funny and often uncomfortable - everything decent comedy should be.
 

Much of our political-based comedy can feel a touch undergraduate, but Hussain's approach to race, politics, and Western understanding - or misunderstanding - of Islam feels fresher and a lot bolder than, say, the comedy stylings of The Chaser.
 

This first episode sets the tone, with Hussain promising ''something light, something we can all laugh about - like people smugglers'', in a pre-recorded hidden-camera segment called ''Social Experiments'', in which he tries to deliver a truck full of 12 ''asylum seekers'' to various businesses.
 

The hidden-camera pranks recall the work of British comic Dom Joly's anarchic Trigger Happy TV, with serious social issues subtly addressed, rather than hammered loudly home.
 

Other skits include Hussain pretending to be an Indian guru counselling unsuspecting people apparently seeking genuine spiritual guidance (makes you wonder why these people sign release forms once they know the truth), and taxi driver turned prime ministerial candidate Uncle Sam, whose slogan is ''Make Australia Halal'' (a trailer of which has already prompted former 2UE radio host Michael Smith to rant on his blog), meeting members of the public in Sydney and promising to get rid of pubs and pork. This prompts some excellent unintentional comedy from appalled white Australians.
 

Then there's ''Muslim Shore'', a ''brown'' incarnation of reality horror Jersey Shore.
 

Future episodes promise Hussain taking to the streets dressed as ''ethnic'' celebrities such as Sachin Tendulkar, rapper will.i.am and even Jackie Chan (!), to see if anyone can spot the difference.
 

Parodies of race and politically sensitive subjects can easily veer into worthiness, but Hussain, who co-writes all the material, has a light touch, and even his most ''controversial'' gags are never earnest.
 

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

The Muslimah World contest is presented as an alternative to the traditional beauty pageant - yet it's no better. The reality is that both objectify and judge women, just in different ways. Credit: www.shutterstock.com

It's easy to disguise the insidiousness of pageantry.

 

Drenched in sponsorship, but with a philanthropic bent, the contestants get tested not only how well they rock a swimsuit, but also on how acute their minds are.

 

Unfortunately, as some of YouTube's greatest hits attest, contestants often falter during question time.

The issue with this sort of competition is its very nature as a contest - the attempt to judge unquantifiable beauty.

 

There's something unholy about how it feeds unrealistic body ideals and places importance on women's looks.

 

The talent and Q&A segments simply pay lip service to the naysayers of beauty pageants.

So it's no surprise that there has been an uproar over the Miss World competition being held in Indonesia, one of the world's most populous Muslim nations.

 

Originally scheduled to take place on the outskirts of Jakarta, it has since been moved to the popular tourist island of Bali (where the majority of the population is Hindu).

 

However, this has not been enough to appease some, with Islamic group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia protesting as recently as last Saturday in Java.

 

 

ABC Religion & Ethics

Sr. Mariam Kawi of Christmas Island who was presently based in Perth passed away on Tuesday.

 

Sr Mariam Kawi was one of the founders of the Islamic Council of Christmas Island and served as President for many years.

 

She was a pioneering figure in Australian Muslim affairs, serving as Executive Member of AFIC for a number of years and on AFIC School Boards.

 

Click here to donate to the cause

 

Al-Mustapha Institute of Brisbane will be hosting a fundraiser on Sunday 29 September.

10 pieces of Fried Chicken, Large Chips, Coleslaw & Bottle of Drink only $30

Pick up between 4pm and 7pm at 39 Bushmills Court, Hillcrest

Must pre-order by Thurs 26 Sept by SMS to 0432 712 546 or
0422 433 074. Please state your name & number of packs required.

Your support will help build the Masjid and future in Islamic education In’shaAllah.

During the Middle Ages, when Europe was plunged into the Dark Ages, Arab scholars and historians translated most of the works of the Greek scholars, thereby preserving some of the greatest intellectual achievements that are the cornerstone of Western civilization.

 

For the next few weeks CCN will offer an English word that has, as its origin, the Arabic language:

 

English	Arabic Origin	Arabic Meaning
alcove	al-qubba	A dome or arch