An increasing number of young Australian men and women are now crossing over and converting to Islam.

A Current Affair takes you inside the family homes where everything is changing.

 

The Muslim community of Queensland is proud to be participating in the World's Greatest Shave! 

 

 

 

THE GOAL: $10,000

CURRENTLY RAISED: $1026

 

PLEASE SUPPORT US BY DONATING AT 

http://my.leukaemiafoundation.org.au/qldmuslims

 

Join us outside the Kuraby Mosque (1408 Beenleigh Rd, Kuraby) on Friday 14 March at 1:30pm and have your hair shaven or trimmed! 

 

Support various Muslim community representatives who will also have their hair shaven. 

 

You can also participate on the day! Donate any amount to the Leukaemia Foundation and have your hair shaven (or trimmed). Remember to bring along family and friends! 

 

FACT: According to the Leukaemia Foundation, more than 3200 people are expected to be diagnosed with a form of leukaemia this year - equivalent to eight people every day. 

 

We all know someone who has been affected by some form of cancer, and it is very important that we as an Ummah support any initiative that aims to improve the wellbeing of humanity. By donating to this worthy cause, we will be assisting with groundbreaking research that will hopefully lead to a viable cure for leukaemia, Insha Allah.

 

URGENT REQUEST: If any Community Representatives are willing to have their hair shaven or cut short on the day, please contact Muhammad Khatree on 0401 972 865.

 

For further information about this initiative, please contact Yusuf Khatree on 0401 246 228 or Muhammad Khatree on 0401 972 865.

 

PLEASE SUPPORT US BY DONATING AT

 

http://my.leukaemiafoundation.org.au/qldmuslims

The 40ft container, organized by Mr. Salah from Arabesque and packed with over 20 tons of goods, left the Gold Coast Mosque on Monday morning (10 February) headed for Syrian refugees in a Jordanian refugee camp.

 

The efforts of the Afghani youth, who worked relentlessly packing the container, was particularly acknowledged by the Islamic Society of Gold Coast.

 

Dr Mustafa Ally and Prof Shahjahan Khan of the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) were amongst the speakers at the Seminar on Peace, Inter-religious Dialogue and Culture held over Thursday and Friday at the University Toowoomba and hosted by the USQ Multicultural Centre.

 

Amongst the other speakers were Mr Wayne Briscoe, Executive Director, Cultural Diversity Queensland, Queensland Government, Cr Paul Antonio, Mayor, Toowoomba Regional Council, Dr Lucas Misseri, National University of Córdoba, Argentina, Most Rev Robert McGuckin DD MCL JCL, Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba, Dr Brian Adams, Director, Multi-faith Centre, Griffith University, Professor Robert Gascoigne, School of Theology, Australian Catholic University, Strathfield Campus (Mount Saint Mary), Venerable Wu Ping, Pure Land Learning College, Toowoomba, Mr Alan Grummitt, Consul General ad honorem of the Philippines, Dr Marcus Harmes, USQ, Mr Evan Reichelt, Chaplain Coordinator, USQ, Dr Krzysztof Batorowicz, Director, USQ Multicultural Centre, Emeritus Bishop William Morris, DD, Fr. Brian Sparksman, Chancellor, Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba, Professor Tracey Rowland, Dean, The John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family, Melbourne, Mr Brian Kilmartin, Honorary Council of the Republic of Poland, The Hon. Robert Cavallucci, MP, Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Rev. Gerard Hall, Associate Professor, School of Theology, Australian Catholic University, Dr Sandra Carroll, Australian Catholic University and Professor Sarva Daman Singh, Director, Institute of Asian Studies, Brisbane.

Ayaan Mohamed, 25, is set to undergo a facial reconstruction at Brisbane's Wesley Hospital. Photo: ednahospital.org

The long wait for a Somali woman left horribly disfigured when she was shot in the face as a child is almost over.

Ayaan Mohamed, now 25, suffered horrific facial injuries as a result of the attack during Somalia's brutal civil war.

In addition to cosmetic disfigurement, Ms Mohamed has difficulty eating and drinking and is unable to close her right eye.

She will arrive in Brisbane next week to undergo reconstructive surgery, thanks to the generosity of local Rotary clubs, donors and medical experts in the Queensland capital.

And she will be accompanied by the former foreign minister of the autonomous territory of Somaliland, Edna Adan Ismail.

Mrs Ismail founded the Edna Adan University Hospital to help combat infant and maternal mortality in her nation and has taken an active interest in Ms Mohamed's plight.

"(I sincerely appreciate) the medical treatment, which is being offered to this young woman who sustained this injury when she was two years old," she said.

Wesley Hospital medical services director Luis Prado said the hospital would cover the costs of Ms Mohamed's hospital stay, theatre and other costs.

“Mrs Ismail's tireless humanitarian work, the donations made and the community spirit shown by people here and overseas have combined to help achieve this outcome to bring Ms Mohamed to Brisbane,” Dr Prado said.

“Many of the Wesley's visiting medical specialists and staff are generously volunteering their time and skills to assist.”

Brisbane's High-Rise and Mitchelton Rotary clubs raised the money for Ms Mohamed's trip to Australia.

The surgery, expected to take place on February 22, has been a long time coming.

The Wesley Hospital and Rotary had offered to bring Ms Mohamed to Australia for the complicated surgery free of charge last year, but the then-Gillard government denied her a medical visa last March.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison finally approved the visa last month, after a second visa application was made in October.

Source: Brisbane Times

Leena Suleiman was surprised by people's reaction when she dressed like this

IT TOOK a while for Leena Suleiman to realise people were suddenly noticing her more. What had the Muslim woman done? She had covered her hijab with a hat and scarf. But what happened next surprised even her.

I took off my hijab. By adding more layers. A knit hat and scarf around my neck to be exact.

I didn’t understand what was happening at first. People started talking to me more. Women would speak to me like I knew them since forever.

Men looked at me like I was actually approachable. And I was made to feel like I was actually from this planet.

Maybe I was finally fitting in? Maybe I was no longer self conscious about my unique dress code and a face lacking makeup?

But then it became fishy. The Muslim taxi drivers who would almost always say “Assalamu Alaikum,” ask me where I’m from or if I’m single, or not allow me to pay for the fare became cold and dry. I would simply give the address, and the only dialogue thereafter was at time of payment. It was puzzling.

 

 

News.com

A father who allegedly let his 12-year-old daughter marry a man 14 years her senior believes he has done nothing wrong, a court has heard.

 

The father, who was arrested on Wednesday, is the third person to be charged in relation to the widely-condemned wedlock.

The 2013 marriage was allegedly between a 12-year-old girl and a 26-year-old man in the NSW Hunter region.

Police say the 26-year-old man became involved in an ongoing sexual relationship with the girl and this week charged him with 25 counts of sexual intercourse with a child between 10 and 14 years of age.

A bail application for the man was on Wednesday adjourned at Sydney's Burwood Local Court until February 24.

The girl's 61-year-old father was charged on Wednesday with procuring a child for unlawful sexual activity and being an accessory before the fact to sexual intercourse with a person between 10 and 14 years of age.

The Raymond Terrace Local Court, where the father unsuccessfully applied for bail, heard the man was of the belief he had done nothing wrong.

His solicitor told the court the man believed his daughter was a very mature and strong-willed woman.

He thought her partner was about 18 to 19-years-old, the court heard.

"He said `they're in love and it's a strong love' and at this point he's trying to be supportive of his children," the solicitor said.

The man is due to face Newcastle Local Court on April 9.

Meanwhile, the Islamic cleric who allegedly conducted the marriage has been stood down from his local mosque and had his visa sponsorship revoked.

Pakistani national Riaz Tasawar, 35, has been charged with solemnisation of a marriage by an unauthorised person.

The Islamic Centre of Newcastle, the mosque where Tasawar was the resident imam, on Wednesday said it had severed ties with the man.

"His employment has been dismissed, he is under strict bail conditions, he's not allowed to come to the mosque and he is going to appear in court," the centre's president Yunus Kara told AAP.

"So, the centre has got nothing to do with him," he said, adding that the mosque's management had decided to withdraw its sponsorship visa for the Pakistani cleric.

Mr Kara said the mosque and the Islamic community were shocked by the news of the marriage, which he says was done "very secretively" and without the knowledge of the centre's management.

He stressed the issue had been widely condemned by Australia's Muslim community as an "un-Islamic" act.

Mr Kara said he was concerned about the girl at the centre of the alleged marriage.

"What we worry about is the poor girl, a 12-year-old child, has gotten into such an unbearable situation," Mr Kara said.
 

Source: Nine MSN

 

THE Pakistani imam (pictured left) charged with conducting the alleged “marriage” of a 12-year-old girl to a 26-year-old man has been sacked from his mosque, an Islamic leader said.

Police arrested Riaz Tasawar, 35, on Monday outside Parramatta police station.

He was interviewed by police before becoming the first person in NSW charged with the solemnisation of a marriage by an unauthorised person since Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research records began in 1994.

The offence carries a maximum penalty of a $500 fine or six months’ jail.

Police allege Tasawar was the imam who proceeded over the “marriage” in the living room of the girl’s family home in the Hunter region on January 12. Tasawar had been the resident imam of a mosque in the region for the past four years but allegedly conducted the marriage in secret, without telling anyone from the mosque’s governing body, the Islamic Centre of Newcastle.

 

The centre’s president, who declined to be named, said while Tasawar remained “innocent until proven guilty”, his employment was terminated immediately.

Pakistan-born Tasawar was in Australia on an employment visa sponsored by the centre, which The Daily Telegraph understands is drafting a letter to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection over the matter.

Tasawar was bailed to appear in court on April 2.

It comes as the girl's Muslim convert father threw his support behind her “husband', who remains in custody facing 25 counts of having sexual intercourse with a child.

He said the only way the couple could be together — in the eyes of Allah —were if they were married and he respected his daughter's ``husband'' for not pursuing a relationship behind his back.

“They were in love, they were devoted to each other,'' he said.

Source: News.com

 

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The Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) issue the following press release on the subject (sic):

Australian National Imams council is distressed and expressed its dismay on the media reports alleging a 26 year old student had entered into a sexual relationship with a minor.

 

The Grand Mufti of Australia, Dr Ibrahim Salem expressed his shock and said ‘ that such behaviour is to be rejected and condemned from a legal and ethical prospective’ and any religion, school of thought or faith should not be held accountable for violations by its followers. Rather in reality it is individuals that commit those errors or violations of law so often. Therefore this matter should be dealt with by the proper authorities in a legal manner as with any other crime or transgression against the law.

 

ANIC would like to emphasis that many Muslim jurisdictions stipulate the age of majority as minimum age for marriage.

 

ANIC Media Spokesperson Sheikh Mohamdu SALEEM said ‘ In Lebanon Article 4 of the Family Rights Act which governs the Sunni personal status stipulates for the bridegroom to possess legal capacity for marriage to be at least 18 years old and for the bride to be 17’.

 

ANIC urges all Imams to exercise caution when dealing with foreign nationals approaching to marry the Australians.

I was born in Afghanistan.

From when I was very young my mother told me that we were at risk of being seriously harmed by the Pashtuns, because we are Hazara, and our way of practising Islam is different.

Each time the Taliban came to our village to recruit young men, I would see my father and brother flee to the mountains.

One day the Taliban came demanding our land.

They killed my father.

And we never found my brother.

My mother, my siblings and I fled to Pakistan.

I sold goods, like embroidered handkerchiefs, colourful scarves and ladies' purses on the streets of Quetta.

On several occasions I was beaten up by groups who target Hazara and other Shia.

I had no protection because I was an illegal.

The Pakistani police even stole the money I earned from my sales.

In 2010, just before Eid, I was on the street as many of my fellow Shia Muslims were returning from their prayers.

A bomb exploded.

I saw many dead Hazaras scattered on the street.

Every time I close my eyes that memory is forever etched in my mind.

I can still smell the burning flesh of the victims.

After that incident I had to get out.

I decided to make my way to Australia.

Much of the journey was terrifying.

I had to hide in the tropical jungles of Indonesia and ride on a rickety boat on the open sea.

When I finally arrived at Christmas Island I was confused.

I had no idea about the language, the food, the laws or how to dress in this place.

A group of us were interviewed and 15 days later I informed that I was successful.

Although I was accepted as a refugee, I felt I was part of the Australian society now.

I had a friend living in Shepparton.

He called me and encouraged me to come there.

I was excited, thinking most people would be of Afghan background.

I also knew there was a mosque there, so I could thank God for his mercy in allowing me to survive this far in my life.

However, when I arrived in Shepparton I was surprised how multicultural it was.

There were Australians, Sudanese, Italians, Greeks, Turks, Albanians, Afghans, New Zealanders and many more cultures, all living in the one area.

I have now adapted to life in Shepparton the "Food Bowl of Australia".

Now I am part of a multicultural soccer team; some are Christians while others are Muslims, and nobody cares about where you come from.

I feel like I belong here.

 

Source: Heywire ABC: Young regional Australians telling it like it is

 

Take a look at Ali's original Heywire entry here.

 

Keep up to date with MAA News

The next QPS/Muslim Community Reference Group meeting is this Thursday 20 February from 7.00pm- 8.30pm [after Maghrib prayers] at the Upper Mt Gravatt Police Station, 2132 Logan Road, Upper Mt Gravatt.

From Friday 14 to Saturday 22 February Voter Registration Centres will be open throughout Australia to allow Fijians to vote in the 2014 General Election

In order to register Fijians must produce a valid Fiji Passport. For amendments and alterations to existing registrations, the current EVR (Electronic Voter Registration) card must be produced.

Note that your immigration status does not matter for Fiji’s Voter Registration (i.e. even if your Australian visa has expired or you are on a Bridging Visa, you are still eligible to vote).

Registration teams may travel out to any sufficiently large community of Fiji Citizens wishing to register. Contact the Qld Registration Team on 0450 493 335 or visit the website on www.electionsfiji.gov.fj or the Fiji High Commission website www.fijihigh.com for further details.

The possibility of a registration centre at Darra Mosque is being investigated if there are sufficient number of people wanting to register here. Contact Mohammed Yusuf on 0413 038 610 by Monday 17 February if you wish to register here.

There are proportionally more female tech entrepreneurs in the Middle East than anywhere else in the world, according to a recent US study.

So why are so many Arab women getting into this field? Is it a sign of increasing gender equality or is it because careers in technology fit with traditional values?

Leana Hosea reports.

 

Myth No. 5: Muslim immigrants in the West hold the same backward views that Muslims do in the Middle East and Pakistan

Actually, Muslims change their cultural views dramatically when they emigrate. For example, 62% of American Muslims say that “a way can be found for the state of Israel to exist so that the rights of Palestinians are addressed” - - a rate barely lower than that of average Americans (67%), and vastly ahead of the miniscule response among Middle Eastern Muslims - - for whom between 20% and 40% agreed with that statement.

Similarly, 39% of American Muslims and 47% of German Muslims say they tolerate homosexuality, compared to single-figure responses in most Islamic countries – and those rates are rising with each immigrant generation. On these important questions, Muslim immigrants are converging with Western values fast. 
   

Next week: Myth No. 6

 

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

 

7. The Kharafi family $8.5bn ($8.6bn) Kuwait     
 

Kuwaiti family conglomerate the Kharafi Group, which has an annual turnover of around $5bn and is already active in 25 countries, is looking to Asia as its next target for investment, a senior family member told Arabian Business this year. “Asia is a growing market but it is high risk...

 

We are looking at a couple of opportunities there,” Bader Al Kharafi, a member of the executive council, told Arabian Business in an interview in the company’s headquarters in Kuwait City. “You can be an investor or run and manage the company.

 

We are looking at investments, maybe some private equity funds, those types of products where they have a good team... Transport, renewable energy and with what is happening in China we would definitely look at renewable energy. These are the sectors we think we could [invest].” The Kharafi Group has operations in 25 countries around the world, from Senegal to Botswana to Kazakhstan and The Maldives, and has more than 120,000 employees.

 

The family business has always had strong connections with Egypt, from power stations along the Nile Delta to contracts at Marsa Alam International Airport and the Red Sea’s Port Ghalib, one of the biggest marina resorts in the Middle East.

 

 

NEXT WEEK: The Number 8 richest Arab in the world.
 

Source: ArabianBusiness

 

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