It was the "gangster feel" of Muslim outreach organisation Ummah United that caught the eye of Tayyab Khan.

The young Logan man liked its ideals of brotherhood, sticking up for each other no matter what, and its image, the menacing black hoodies and T-shirts with their crossed-swords emblem.

Deliberately pitched to attract disaffected young men who might slip into the grip of street gangs, it was a high-risk strategy on the part of Ummah United.

"That attracted me," Mr Khan said.

"Yeah. That aggressive feeling."

Rather than reinforce what he calls his previous "bad habits", Mr Khan says Ummah United steered him away from the street gang lifestyle he once had.

"It's the same as hanging out with my boys from back in the day, but it's clean, it's a clean environment," he said, surrounded by other men from the group who have met to share snacks and gossip at a Lebanese cafe.

"We speak about religion, we speak about good things, different topics, the same as hanging out, like we're doing here.

It's the same as hanging out with my boys from back in the day, but it's clean, it's a clean environment     Tayyab Khan

"I would have done the same with my friends. But it would have led to something else that wouldn't have been good for us."

 

Robbie, who did not want to give his full name, is an older man with even more of a chequered past, darkened by substance abuse, relationship breakdowns and run-ins with the law.

He once had a good job working for Centrelink, but then got involved with drugs while working as a bouncer in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley nightclub precinct.

"Within six months, I'd racked up pages of charges," he says.

He credits Ummah United - and his conversion to Islam - with keeping him out of trouble.

"I was hanging out with other Aussies ... our culture is to go out and get pissed in the pub, you know; if you don't have a beer there's something wrong with you," he says.

"So for me to walk away from that lifestyle completely, I needed to surround myself in a clean environment. Islam is a clean environment.

"Ummah United has given me a more intimate family within Islam."

Sharing a sense of alienation

Mirways Sayed, who set up Ummah United in 2012, can relate to the young men who attend the centre, their frustrations and sense of alienation.

He came to Australia as an Afghan refugee in the late 1970s and used to drift around and get up to no good on Brisbane's Southbank, before it was redeveloped. He still sometimes struggles with his English.

Mr Sayed says his idea was for a community centre with its doors open to everyone, Muslim and non-Muslim, to "get them off drugs, street violence, jail, and encourage them to become a better person".

However, the organisation's idealistic open-door policy has come at a price.

David Toalei, who has been linked to the Bandidos, was an Ummah member.

He made the news in June when he was Tasered and batoned into submission by police on the Gold Coast after a rampage in which it is alleged he fired a shotgun inside a taxi and tried to hijack a milk float.

If that was not bad press enough, Ummah made the news again in September after it emerged that people who had attended Ummah meetings included the brothers of a Brisbane man suspected to have carried out a suicide bombing in Syria.

The ABC knows the man's full name but has chosen not to publish it.

It cannot be verified that the man, whose nom de guerre was Abu Asmaa, was involved in the attack on an airport in the east of Syria on September 11.

The only publicly available source material indicating Abu Asmaa was Australian are tweets in Arabic from Jihadi social media commentators including one called Abu Hasan, who claimed he had helped the man's bereaved family financially by buying his car.

The incident is a touchy subject for the close-knit community in Logan, many of whose members know the man simply as "Junior".

One Ummah United member who is close to the family interrupted 7.30's interview with Mr Sayed, saying the ABC was making too many assumptions about the man's involvement.

The group's potential links to radical Islam have excited the interest of the authorities, with Mr Sayed reporting multiple visits to the centre from the Australian Federal Police and ASIO officers.

The ABC asked Mr Sayed if officers had presented any evidence of wrongdoing. He said they had not.

 

'Robbie' says having the support network of a Muslim youth organisation in Queensland has helped 'encourage the best in him' and overcome substance abuse.

ASIO visits give centre a bad rep

Some of the younger men privately complained to the ABC of frequent unannounced visits from ASIO at their homes.

The increasing attention has Mr Sayed worried that the pressure from the authorities has put the centre's future at risk.

"ASIO going to parents and going behind our backs and going to parents and asking questions ... people are a bit, you know, worried," Mr Sayed says.

"People are stopping their kids coming here and the place is getting emptier and emptier.

"Maybe if the authorities keep pressuring us like that, maybe this place will be closed."

According to Mr Sayed, if kids were not at the centre, "they'd probably be on the streets...in shopping centres, after the shopping centre's closed they're probably God knows where, in the city, outside, breaking and entering, stealing, all sorts of things".

 

 

A bridge back from radicalisation

Imam Uzair Akbar, from nearby Holland Park mosque, sees Ummah United not just as an alternative to the enticements of crime but, more importantly, as a fragile bridge between the mainstream and the radical fringe.

Appointed the group's spiritual adviser, the Imam aims his weekly religious talks at disaffected young men – and maybe even the women listening hidden in an upstairs gallery - who might be tempted to drift towards Jihad.

He acknowledges that he knows of young people "who are disturbed by what is happening in the Middle East".

The Imam is fighting a powerful force: radicalisation via the Internet. It was agreed early on that there should be no computers in the centre.

 

If any person has any thoughts that can damage the fabric of this country, the beautiful fabric of this country, we will be the first to highlight that. We will not keep it behind closed doors.   Imam Uzair Akbar

"If we do not occupy the youth, give them a purpose in life, then there is a possibility they may go to sites that incite hatred," he says.

"This centre will negate that. If people come to this centre on a regular basis, they will become part of the mainstream."

If the Imam is right, breaking Ummah United's link to the underground could be doubly counterproductive for the authorities, with the risk of shutting off a source of intelligence.

Says Imam Akbar: "If any person has any thoughts that can damage the fabric of this country, the beautiful fabric of this country, we will be the first to highlight that. We will not keep it behind closed doors."

Source: ABC News

 

RELATED VIDEO: http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/80257863

The following correction to the article 'Some NANDOS are no longer Halal' in last week's CCN based on information submitted to CCN by the Islamic Council of Queensland (ICQ) has been sent to us by a representative of the Directors of Nandos Festival Towers and Nandos Calamvale Central:

Nandos Calamvale is still Halal, still sources it's products from ABD Poultry, does NOT serve Bacon and is still Muslim owned. This is true for Nandos Festival Towers as well. Both stores will remain so until the 29th of January 2014.

------

 

The president of ICQ issued a press release this week:

Further to the article in CCN last Sunday, ICQ wishes to clarify that although the halal certification for Nandos at Calamvale for the year 2014 has not been renewed we have been advised that they will continue to operate as halal until the end of this month.

M Yusuf
President, ICQ

------

 

Mr Osman Rane, Managing Director of ABD Poultry, told CCN:

ABD Poultry will continue to supply chicken to all its Nandos stores up to and including 3.2.2014. Many stores with long term leases will continue to be Halaal with chicken supplied by Steggles and if Muslim owned will not have bacon or alcohol in them. Some other stores may not also have bacon.

------

 

The Nandos in Toowoomba stated: The chicken in Nandos Toowoomba Plaza is from Bioda/Inghum and there is no pork menu here. It is run by Khan & Sons Pvt Ltd and Certified by ICQ.

The Islamic Society of Algester will be holding it’s annual Melaad-un-Nabi function on 2 February at the Islamic College of Brisbane in Karawatha.

Beginning at 3pm, the programme will run through to Maghrib Salaah with dinner provided thereafter.

"The Society extends a warm welcome to all, so please bring your family and friends along to partake in this blessed gathering," a spokesperson for the society said.

An exhibition on the life of the Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallim) was held by the Society recently which "was a huge success". For those who were unable to attend and wish to view the exhibition, it will be on display before the Melaad-un-Nabi programme from 2-3pm.

"If you haven’t watched the original video by Jaclyn Glenn – Don’t watch it!!

I originally was going to ignore her video based on the prophetic and quranic tradition to ignore the ignorant. The Prophet Muhammad pbuh doesn’t need to be defended either as Allah has already honoured him beyond a level of any other creation – but then I realised that this is a perfect opportunity to insha’Allah highlight the perfect attributes of Muhammad pbuh and his beautiful characteristics.

These videos cannot beautify Muhammad pbuh – rather his name is what beautifies these videos. May Allah make us of those who truly love the Final Messenger of Allah – Muhammad pbuh."

Al-Mustapha Institute of Brisbane would like to invite you and your family to commemorate the blessed Mawlid of our Beloved Prophet (Sallalahu Alaihi Wasallam).

Date: Sunday, 26 January

Time: 4:30pm

Venue: Logan West Community Centre, 2 Wineglass Drive, Hillcrest 4118

International Guest: Qari Syed Sadaqat Ali

Nasheed Group: Ahbab Al-Mustafa (Sydney) (Nasheeds with Duff)

Along with many other renowned shuyukhs.

The Brisbane programme for Shaykh Zulfiqar Ahmad is as follows (see details about the Shaykh in last week's CCN No. 480):

Kuraby Mosque between Maghreb and Esha - Tuesday 28th Jan
Men and women both - In English

Darra between Maghreb and Esha - Wednesday 29th Jan
Men and women both - In Urdu

Holland Park Mosque between Maghreb and Esha - Thursday 30th Jan
Men and women both - In English

Jummah khutbaa - Friday - 31st Jan
Holland Park Mosque - In English

1st ladies program - Wednesday 29th Jan
Kuraby Mosque - 11:00am - 12:00am

2nd ladies program - Thursday 30th Jan
Holland Park Mosque - 11:00am - 12:00am

Myth No. 2: Immigrants from Muslim countries are going to swamp us

People look at the huge families of many new Muslim immigrants and imagine them multiplying at exponential rates. But this is a bit of an illusion - -as are many of the figures suggesting that Muslim immigrants have fertility rates higher than in their homelands.

 

This is because most new immigrants have most of their children in the years immediately after their arrival. The way we calculate Total Fertility Rate - - the measure of average family size - - is by taking the total number of births a woman has had and extrapolating it across her fertile life. As a result, immigrants appear to have more children than they really do.

In reality, the family sizes of Muslim immigrant groups are converging fast with those of average Westerners - - faster, it seems, than either Jewish or Catholic immigrants did in their time. Muslims in France and Germany are now having only 2.2 children per family, barely above the national average.

 

And while Pakistani immigrants in Britain have 3.5 children each, their British-born daughers have only 2.5. Across Europe, the difference between the Muslim and non-Muslim fertility rate has fallen from 0.7 to 0.4, and is headed toward a continent-wide convergence.


Next week: Myth No. 3

 

(Sourced from Doug Saunders' The Myth of the Muslim Tide)

 

3. The Olayan family $12.5bn ($12.9bn) Saudi Arabia  

In third place this year is the Olayan family. This year marked the family business' 66th year of operations.

 

It has come a long way since the summer of 1947 when Suleiman S. Olayan launched his first business in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

 

While still private and closely held, the group he founded has blossomed over the decades into a multinational enterprise with offices on three continents, and 50,000 people employed by 50 affiliated companies.

 

Its main investment portfolio covers public and private equities, real estate, fixed income securities and other specialised assets. Suleiman is survived by his son Khaled and his three daughters - Hayat, Hutham and Lubna. This year, the group has partnered with the world's largest snack food company, Mondelez International to distribute its products in the kingdom.

 

 

NEXT WEEK: The Number 4 richest Arab in the world.
 

Source: ArabianBusiness

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
sugar	sukkar	sugar