Crescents Community News wishes all our Readers and their Families and Friends

 

Statement From The Office Of His Eminence The Grand Mufti Of Australia

 

 

All praise is due to ALLAH, and may His peace and blessings be upon the final messenger.
 

Over the last few days, a number of respected scholars and imams that form the Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) gathered to adopt a unified position, and by the Grace of ALLAH SWT they have succeeded in agreeing on a methodology that unifies our position.

ANIC adopted a unified methodology for identifying the start of the month of Ramadan, which is the clear evidence of the birth of the new moon after the setting of the sun- rather than before or during the sunset-. So that methods of physically witnessing it are available if the conditions allow it, such as time of day, angle and clarity of the sky ... etc.

After many meetings and discussions in person and over the phone with the members of ANIC around Australia.

 

The following was decided:

• Firstly: It will be impossible to physically see the crescent on Friday the 27th of June 2014 AEST. This will also be the case for the majority of Muslim countries according the Islamic Crescent Observance Project this year. A definitive eyewitness account of the crescent cannot take place in Sydney during sunset on Friday. Therefore, Saturday the 28th of June 2014 will mark the end of Sha•baan, which makes Sunday the 29th of June 2014 the first day of the month of Ramadan for the Hijri year of 1435.

 

• Second ly: His Eminence the Grand Mufti, along with scholars and imams representing ANIC reiterate the importance of working side by side in the community, and to avoid involving people -and especially the youth in matters of contention even amongst scholars. It is not helpful and would only serve to exacerbate rather than remedy

• Thirdly: We assert our acknowledgement and appreciation of the positions of the scholars and imams who do not share our opinions, and respect their points of view. We remind that it is important to continue in this conversation concerning such dynamic issues which affect the future of our community. We believe dialogue is the only way forward. Through it, we can understand and appreciate each other until ALLAH SWT blesses us with complete agreement and unity in heart and mind. We pray that ALLAH SWT help us to better ourselves always.

My dear brothers and sisters:

Ramadan comes to us this year full of tragedies that weigh heavily on our hearts. We see the Arab Spring has not born the fruits of freedom and justice for which we had hoped. We see the powers of oppression and tyranny doing their best to keep their people from living freely. We see clear instigation towards division, sectarianism and tearing apart the fabric of unity that defines the Muslim Ummah .
 

Racism and double standards are applied against whole nations, while others are above the law, free to engage in horrific abuses of humanity without any accountability.
 

We see countries occupied and colonized for years and decades. Their people humiliated and kept from their rights to live freely and justly. Worse still, we are seeing those who would justify and defend this brutal oppression.

 

There are regimes launching all out wars on their own people, and what is even more gruesome is their allies support them militarily and politically to massacre innocent men women and children .
 

Therefore His eminence the Grand Mufti and the respected members of ANIC call on the Muslims of Australia to remember their fasting brothers and sisters in Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Burma, and all the lands and nations of the Muslims around the world, and to provide them with all the channels of support available to us here. We pray for them and remember them in our dua's, and ask ALLAH SWT to bless and protect our home, Australia, and all the countries of the world.

We wish you a blessed month and accepted prayers. Ramadan Mubarak.
 

Prof. Ibrahim Abu Mohamed
The Grand Mufti of Australia

Kuraby Mosque	MCF/MAA	Toowoomba Mosque	Gold Coast Mosque	UMB
Australian International Islamic College BRISBANE	Australian International Islamic College GOLD COAST	Algester Mosque	Al-Mustapha Institute	ISCQ
Email your calendar to ccn@crescentsofbrisbane.org for inclusion here

Ramadan Mubarak   I wish all members of our Queensland Muslim community a very peaceful and blessed Holy month of Ramadan. As Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Multicultural Affairs, I have had the honour of visiting most of Queensland’s Mosques. This has enabled me to appreciate the valuable contributions the Muslim community is delivering to Queensland, not least the economic, social and general community wellbeing. Queensland is a truly diverse society both culturally and religiously and is home to people who speak more than 220 languages, come from more than 220 countries or geographical locations, and hold more than 100 religious beliefs, including Islam. We are fortunate to live in a country that prides itself on freedom of religion as a crucial component of its democracy. May peace be with you during the Holy month of Ramadan, a time for reflection on what is important to you and your family through your faith. The Honourable Glen Elmes MP Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Multicultural Affairs Minister Assisting the Premier

Ramadan Mubarak   On behalf of my family and myself, I take this opportunity to wish all your readers, our Muslim friends and indeed the broader Muslim community, sincere greetings for the Holy month of Ramadan.   With Ramadan being the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, I fully appreciate how sacred this month is to you and your families. May peace be with you during Ramadan, a time that provides for reflection on what is important to you through the teaching of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).   I look forward to continuing our very positive friendship.   David Forde Independent Candidate for Stretton

A couple of simple rules that will make the Ramadan fast a little easier on your Muslim colleague.

by Asma Uddin

 

Around the world, Muslim observe Ramadan beginning this weekend with the sighting of the new crescent moon. The customs of the Islamic holy month are familiar to its faithful, but what do non-Muslims need to know about the month of fasting?

In the next few weeks, you may come into work and find your co-worker taking a power nap at 9:30am. At break time, you’ll notice she is missing in the discussion about Harry Potter over at the water cooler. At the staff meeting, you will be shocked when she is offered coffee and cookies and refuses! By lunch time, your concern about her missing at the water cooler compels you to investigate the situation.

Then you remember what she had mentioned last week over a delicious Sushi lunch. Flooded with relief, you go up to her desk, and proclaim with much gusto, “Ramadan Mubarak (Moo-baa-rak)!” Ramadan’s Blessings to you!

The month of Ramadan is a happy occasion; it is the month that the Muslim holy book, the Koran, was revealed to our Prophet Muhammad. Muslims are called by their religion to celebrate the month by coming together in worship, fasting each day for thirty days from dawn until sunset.

While this may seem like a tremendous feat, consider this: fasting while working is an even greater endeavour. Make it a little easier on your Muslim colleague by following a couple of simple rules:

The Greeting. The next time you find yourself in line for the copier with your Muslim colleague, feel free to wish him or her “Ramadan Mubarak” or “Ramadan Kareem” or simply “Happy Ramadan.” We absolutely love it when people acknowledge Ramadan and are happy about it.

Positive Reinforcement. Keep in mind that we’re fasting voluntarily and, actually, pretty joyously (despite the tired, sad look on our face). We’re not forced to fast. In fact, we wait for this month the whole year, so you don’t have to feel sorry for us. We are not trying to be rescued (other than by that ticking clock taking us closer to sunset!).

The Lunch Meeting. Most of us understand that life goes on, and so do lunch meetings, and if we are participating in them while fasting, don’t worry about eating in front of us. This is just part of the test. We appreciate your acknowledging our fast, but don’t feel the need to discuss it every time you show up in our line of sight holding food.

Just try not to eat smelly foods. . . and please ignore our stomach when it growls at your sandwich.

No Water. It’s true — we can’t drink water either. Again, this is part of the Ramadan test and our exercise of spiritual discipline. This is probably why you may not find your friend at the water cooler. Try switching the break time conversation to another location in the office. You should probably also let them skip their turn for the coffee run this time.

Halitosis. While God may tell us that the breath of the one fasting is like “fragrant musk” to Him, we know that you’re not God – and aren’t enjoying it. Understand why we’re standing a good foot away from you when speaking or simply using sign language to communicate.

Iftar Dinner. Consider holding a Ramadan Iftar dinner . Iftar is the Arabic word for the meal served at sunset when we break the fast (it’s literally our ‘breakfast’). This will be a nice gesture for Muslim coworkers and will give others the opportunity to learn about and partake in Ramadan festivities. Although there is no specific type of meal designated for iftars, it is is tradition to break the fast with a sweet and refreshing date before moving to a full-on dinner.

Fasting is not an excuse. Although energy levels might be low, the point of fasting is not to slack off from our other duties and responsibilities. We believe that we are rewarded for continuing to work and produce during our fasts. Fasting is not a reason to push meetings, clear schedules, or take a lighter load on projects.

That said — we don’t mind if you help work in a nap time for us!

Ramadan is a time for community and charity. There are iftar dinners held at mosques every night (you are welcome to join the fun – even if you’re not fasting!) and night time prayer vigils throughout the month. We give charity in abundance and make an extra effort to partake in community service. Throughout it all, we maintain an ambiance of joy and gratitude for all that God has blessed us with, and reflect on those in this world who have been given much less. This is a time for all of us–not just Muslims–to renew our spiritual intentions, increase our knowledge, and change ourselves for the better.
 

Source: onfaith

 

Muslims in Britain to fast 19 hours during the month of Ramadan. They will therefore only have five hours between Iftar (the breaking fast meal at sunset) and Suhour (the pre-dawn meal). Fasting hours in some European countries will be even longer than that of Britain. Dawn prayers in the Swedish capital of Stockholm are at 1:50 a.m. while sunset prayers are after 10:00 p.m. which means that fasting will exceed 20 hours there.

 

 

The Council of Imams Queensland has announced the programme of Islamic scholar from South Africa Shaykh Sulaiman Moola.

Shaykh Sulaiman Moola is a lecturer at the Darul Uloom Zakariya South Africa and will be at the Kuraby, Holland park, Darra and Gold Coast Mosques during his two-week stay in Australia.

First Taraweeh prayers in the new Mosque

 

As part of the monthly seminar series at the Garden City Mosque, Toowoomba on Sunday, 22 June 2014 a presentation was made on the Determination of Islamic Calender: Methods and Issues.

 

The main objective of the seminar was to educate the community on the issues related to the matter through presenting all associated aspects and the complexities while explaining the importance of unity of the Ummah.
 

Professor Shahjahan Khan, President of the Islamic Society of Toowoomba, delivered a PowerPoint presentation covering various practical methods of the determination of Islamic months providing relevant verses of the Qur’an and Ahadith. He discussed both the sighting of crescent and scientific calculation criteria along with the related debates, and complications in the process.
 

Imam Abdul Kader and other members of the community also participated in the discussions bringing various view points and raising different questions.
 

From the discussions, it was clear that there will be arguments on both sides of the debate, and some Ulema and scholars will have different views from the others. Since both the methods are endorsed by Ulema, none of the criterion will unite the Muslims.
 

As a practical way to achieve unity of the Ummah on this particular matter, a proposal to follow the decision of the Grand Mufti of Australia to ensure the unity of the Ummah was discussed.
 

It was questioned if the Mufti of Australia is using the scientific calculations as a guide to determine the Islamic months by allowing enough time after the occurrence of the new moon for the crescent to be matured enough to be potentially visible.
 

This was found to be a reasonable compromise to avoid division among the Muslims. It was agreed that the unity of Muslims within the community is more important than following one criterion or the other.
 

Visibility charts produced by the moonsighting.com website were presented to show the data on the moonsighting trajectories for the month of Ramadan throughout the world.
 

Like in the past, ifter and dinner will be provided in the Toowoomba Masjid during the month of Ramadan, and Tarawi prayers will be led by Hafiz Abdulatif Alammar and Imam Abdul Kader.

WOOLWORTHS is wishing some customers a “Happy Ramadan” — but not everybody is celebrating.

The supermarket giant has Ramadan promotions in 239 stores in areas with big Muslim populations.

At Sunshine’s Marketplace Woolworths, posters and a display of nuts and dried fruit greet customers.

The month-long Islamic religious festival involves fasting in daylight hours.

But some customers have complained the promotion is offensive and un-Australian.

On the supermarket’s Facebook page, one person accused the chain of “pandering to a minority”.

Another said: “I find this kind of advertising OFFENSIVE, as an Australian & as a female!!!”.

And another said the signs were offensive to her beliefs and she would boycott stores where they were displayed.

Woolworths spokesman Russell Mahoney said the promotion was running in 239 stores around Australia.

“We celebrate as many international festivities as possible to support the diverse population of Australia,” he said.

That included Diwali, Lunar New Year and Passover.

Islamic Council of Victoria secretary Ghaith Krayem welcomed Woolworths’ promotion and said people who opposed such initiatives did so out of ignorance and unsubstantiated fears.

“Ramadan is a time of reflection and renewal and maybe it is also a time for all of us to be inclusive rather than push each other away.”

This year more stores were involved in Ramadan than last year.

 

The annual distribution of dates by the Muslim Business Network took place at the Kuraby Mosque after the Friday prayers.

 

 

Click images to view the news clips

 

No Mosque in our neighbourhood - A Current Affair (Channel Nine)

 

FORMER radio presenter Michael Smith was at the centre of a religious storm yesterday after he asserted prophet Mohammad was a sexual predator during his regular 2GB chat show with Ben Fordham. His provocative comments caused such an angry response, Fordham apologised for the remarks.

In 2012, ex-2UE host Smith was cleared of “inciting hatred” by the Australian Communications and Media Authority over an on-air remark that the prophet Mohammad had “married a nine-year-old and consummated it when she was 11’’.
 

Source : The Daily Telegraph

 

Uthman Badar was scheduled to address the topic of "honour" killing at Sydney’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas in August.

 

During the week, festival joint founder and co-curator, Simon Longstaff, announced that the talk had been cancelled, due to "the level of public anger" over the title: Honour Killings are Morally Justified.

 

Badar had intended to "explain the world view that could lead people to assume that it was morally justified" to kill in the name of honour. Had the title been put in the form of a question, Longstaff conceded, members of the public might not have assumed that the speaker would condone the practice.

Badar tells the story differently. First, he categorically denies that he endorses "honour killings or any form of violence against women". He agreed to discuss the topic after the organisers provided the title.

In Badar’s view, posted on Facebook, there was no difference between his "dangerous idea" and the others the festival has aired.

"What is different is that I'm Muslim," he wrote, "one willing to intellectually challenge secular liberal ideology and mainstream values – and that says a lot about the true extent of freedom and equality in modern Western liberal democracies such as Australia."

 

The festival is certainly not shy of courting controversy or provoking outrage. One of this year's talks, by Lissa Nutting, is titled Women are Sexual Predators. A 2011 talk by Marc Theissen, former speechwriter to George W. Bush, was titled Is Torture Necessary? and argued that there are circumstances in which "enhanced interrogation techniques" are justifiable. Theissen's talk went ahead.

In Badar's case, however, organisers anticipated a "wall of hostility" if the event were to take place. Hence the cancellation.
 

Adapted from: The Guardian: Are 'honour' killings really too dangerous to be discussed in public?

 

In response to the controversy, Australian Islamic leaders called for an end to hatred and provocation, claiming radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir is tarnishing religion’s reputations.

 

They have demanded the group Hizb ut-Tahrir stop voicing its sermons in public which they claim are tarnishing the entire Muslim community.

 

“They send the wrong message about Islam and they should refrain and have better judgment about preaching a message of inflammatory nature,’’ said Imam Mohammadu Nawas, a spokesman for both the ANIC and the Grand Mufti of Australia, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed.

“The vast majority of Muslims in this country do not subscribe to anything what they say. We call on them, and any other organisation making inflammatory statements that can cause upset among the general public, to restrain. We want them to stop.’’

 

Muslim community organiser and political aspirant Keysar Trad also denounced the group, saying: “This organisation thrives on controversy and picks topics that will appeal to the disenfranchised.’’
 

Adapted from: news.com.au

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a long wait, the Islamic Society of Eight Mile Plains finally obtained approval to use the new Mosque building.

 

 

The first Friday Jummah prayer was preceded with a lecture by Dr Omer Spahic a professor at Islamic International University in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia.

 

The Bendigo Mosque: Exporting Hate to Regional Victoria

 

 

On January 11th, 2014, a Facebook page “Stop the Mosque in Bendigo” (id: 1409152012662221) was created to oppose plans for the construction of the first Mosque in the Victorian city of Bendigo. Over the last three month we’ve watched the page grow from 4,682 supporters to over 8,000. Recent media attention has given it a boost with around 800 new supporters joining in the last week. The page has become a rallying point for anti-Muslim haters from across Australia, and to some extent internationally.

 

Back in March we noticed how the page was coordinating a campaign of formal objections to the development. They were encouraging everyone, not just people from Bendigo, to file planning objections to the plans for the proposed Mosque and gave a catalogue of issues people should raise. The issues were carefully chosen to be relevant to planning considerations and people warned away from naked expressions of racism and hatred as that would undermine the objective. The tactic is similar to that used in the UK by a lawyer linked to the far-right English Defence League.

 

Despite the orchestrated manipulation of the planning process, the local council approved plans for the Mosque to be built on June 18th. Outside the council chamber Councillor Mark Weragoda received abuse linked to his Sri Lankan heritage with one spectator yelling ‘we don’t want you here’. His home and work have also been targeted with black balloons. Councillor Weragoda came to Australia as a 14 year old child in 1975 and grew up in the area. He is a local businessman, former President of the local Rotary club, and a well respected member of the local community.

 

On the other hand, the Age has reported that community leaders in Bendigo believe much of the opposition at the meeting came from outsiders associated with anti-Muslim groups who travelled to Bendigo specifically to cause trouble. Locals have also has concerns about anti-Islamic groups “hijacking” meetings that were supposed to discuss planning concerns. The “stop the Bendigo Mosque” page promotes the common racist idea that Muslims pose a threat to “our way of life”.

 

At the same time it tried to present itself as being “non-bigoted” and explicitly warns supporters not to call “all Muslims animals” or “incite violence against Muslims in general”. The level of bigotry in evidence, in a post seeking to rationalise why they should not be considered bigoted, is astounding.

 

 

THE ONLINE HATE PREVENTION UNIT

 

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Coloured balloons challenge Bendigo anti-mosque protests

 

 

A Victorian woman has launched a peaceful counter-protest to a fierce campaign raging against the development of a mosque in the regional city of Bendigo.

 

Elise Snashall-Woodhams, 25, rallied a small army of people to put up hundreds of multi-coloured balloons, to send a message that ‘everyone is welcome in Bendigo’.

She says she hopes others will see the balloons and join in.

Black balloons started appearing across Bendigo on Friday, including outside the homes of city councillors, after council approved plans to build the city’s first mosque.

Ms Snashall-Woodhams told SBS she posted a call out on social media, because she wanted to show that not everyone was against the plans.

“People are commenting on articles that Bendigo is just a town of red-necks, which is totally not true,” she said.

“I’d hate for a vocal minority to dictate what people feel, when I think the majority of people in Bendigo are quite welcoming.”

Councillors voted 7-2 on Wednesday night to approve building, amid heckling from protestors.

The council received more than 400 letters of objection to the $3 million development, which will be funded by the Australian Islamic Mission.

Council documents show the majority of complaints related to concerns over the influence of Islam, citing the threat of terrorism and the introduction of Sharia law.

Snashall-Woodhams says she believes much of the opposition comes down to people’s fear of the unknown.

“It’s just breaking down those barriers and showing that every person is just a person. Everyone should be free to practice their culture, whether that’s in a church, a synagogue or in a mosque,” she said.

Separately, a petition on Change.org to ‘show support for multiculturalism and diversity in Bendigo’ has gathered more than 600 supporters.

Snashall-Woodhams says she hopes the colourful balloons don’t further inflate the tempers of anti-mosque campaigners.

“I think people are concerned about how they can show their support without coming under the wrath of these people so we just thought this would be a nice first step,” she said.

 

Source: SBS

Imam Burhaan Mehtar with visitors from Saudi Arabia Ahmed, Haroon and Ismail Malik

PERTH: A NEW mosque in Southern River will provide Muslim communities in Perth’s southeastern suburbs with a long-awaited place of worship.

Last Saturday the purpose- built mosque Masjid Ibrahim was officially opened by WA Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural interests Mike Nahan.

The opening was attended by City of Gosnells mayor Dave Griffiths, Gosnells MLA Chris Tallentire, spokeswoman for citizenship and multicultural interests Margaret Quirk, Southern River MLA Peter Abetz, Islamic scholar Sheikh Abdul Hafeez Malik Al-Makki, guests from Saudi Arabia and community members.

Spokesman for the Islamic Association of Southern Districts Imam Burhaan Mehtar said for the past five years the Muslim community had been working with the City of Gosnells to establish a mosque in the area and the opening was “a very happy occasion”.

“The aim of the centre is to build bridges with the wider community,” he said.

“As Australian Muslims we feel it is important to give back to society and to show the peaceful, loving, harmonious side of Islam.”

Materials from the mosque, which took a year and half to build, were sourced from all over the world.

The dome was shipped in eight separate pieces from Malaysia and includes Arabesque (Islamic art).

The carpets in the prayer room are based on an Ottoman-style design, the mosaic tiles in the mehrabb (design in a mosque showing the direction of Mecca) are from South Africa, while jarrah from a former house at the site has been made into a pulpit.
 

Source:  In My Community

THEY are a group of “concerned citizens”, but are very hesitant to say who they really are. If you want to go to one of their meetings, you have to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

 

Their only address is a PO Box in suburban Melbourne. They won’t say exactly where their money comes from and say they never will.

 

And they are very opposed to Islam in Australia.

 

The secretive organisation known as the Q Society has this week been linked to a noisy campaign to stop the construction of a mosque in Bendigo, Victoria.

 

Over the past few weeks, some of the town’s businesses and residents have awoken to find black balloons tied up outside their premises as a way of protesting the proposed place of worship.

 

The $3 million development was approved last week at a raucous council meeting. There were reports indicating the Q Society was a “key force” behind the Bendigo campaign (the organisation says it only held a public meeting and was “not a protest organisation”).

 

So who exactly are they and what are they doing?

 

The Q Society — named because the group was founded at a 2010 meeting in the upper class Melbourne suburb of Kew — claims to have members across the country.

 

‘Education group’: Debbie Robinson, left, and Andrew Horwood

Its mission is about “educating” people about Islam, spokesman Andrew Horwood said, rather than leading the protests.

 

They describe themselves as “Islam-critical”, are avowed opponents of sharia law and have published a book Getting Through: How To Talk To Non Muslims About The Disturbing Nature of Islam and produced YouTube videos including “How to stop a mosque”.

 

It has few public faces except for its president, Debbie Robinson, and Mr Horwood. “We’re purely educational,” he told news.com.au.

 Keysar Trad, from the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, said the group spreads “disturbing, baseless Islamophobia”.

 

“I think most Australians would normally treat them as a joke but because there’s not enough information out there, not enough good information ... about Islam, some people unfortunately subscribe to their message.”

 

The group is affiliated with an global organisation known as Stop The Islamisation of Nations (SION) — which, as the name suggests, is vehemently anti-Islamic.

 

The society has been in the headlines several times over the past few years due to its involvement in bringing right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders to speak in Australia.

 

Mr Wilders has faced accusations of racial vilification after branding Islam as a violent religion and likening the Koran to Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

 

More than 20 venues he was to speak at last year withdrew their support after a firestorm over his visit.

 

According to Mr Horwood, that’s a sign that Australia has been stifled by political correctness.

 

“You have to question in 2013 in Australia are people already scared to talk about Islam?” he said. “Are they fearful about what would happen if they discuss Islam?

 

“You have the riots in Sydney only 18 months ago. Actions like that make people fear (discussing) it.”

 

 Mr Horwood said members’ security was one reason why the organisation employed secretive measures, such as refusing to name its supporters and nondisclosure agreements for members who attend meetings.

 

“It’s important in our industry that we understand who is actually there,” Mr Horwood said.

 

“I’m sure you’re aware of what’s happening overseas with people under 24-hour armed guard. “We like to have an understanding of who’s attending our meetings.”

 

But Mr Trad said the Q Society was just paranoid.

 

“The secrecy behind their message is an indication of paranoia. People should realise this is not a message they should take very seriously. It’s a message they should throw in the bin.”

 

Source:  news.com.au

Join the biggest EID celebration EVER!

 

Celebrating the end of fasting in the holy month of Ramadan.

The most important festival on the Islamic calendar. EID AL FITR 1435 (Hijiri). 28th or 29th July depending on moon sighting. Fun resumes Saturday 2nd August 2014.

Million dollar rides straight from Italy will make their Australian debut! Come join the celebration! Bring your family! Bring your friends!

Fun for the kids,teens, and adults young and old.

Prizes to be won for the cake and colouring in competitions!

Don't miss out! Waller Park, corner of Waller and Browns Plains roads, Browns Plains!

EID salat starts at 8:00 am sharp!

 

Few Australians are aware that the country's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples had regular contact with foreign Muslims long before the arrival of Christian colonisers. And Islam continues to exercise an appeal for some Aboriginal peoples today, writes Janak Rogers.

The white lines are faint but unmistakable. Small sailing boats, picked out in white and yellow pigment on the red rocks of the Wellington Range in Arnhem Land, northern Australia, tell a different story from the one most Australians accept as the history of their nation.

They are traditional Indonesian boats known as praus and they brought Muslim fishermen from the flourishing trading city of Makassar in search of trepang, or sea cucumbers.

Exactly when the Makassans first arrived is uncertain.

Some historians say it was in the 1750s, but radiocarbon dating of beeswax figures superimposed on the cave paintings suggests that it was much earlier - one of the figures appears to have been made before 1664, perhaps as early as the 1500s.

They apparently made annual trips to gather the sea cucumbers, which fetched a high price because of their important role in Chinese medicine and cuisine.

The Makasssans represent Australia's first attempt at international relations, according to anthropologist John Bradley from Melbourne's Monash University - and it was a success. "They traded together. It was fair - there was no racial judgement, no race policy," he says.

Quite a contrast to the British. Britain designated the country terra nullius - land belonging to no-one - and therefore colonised the country without a treaty or any recognition of the rights of indigenous people to their land.

Some Makassan cucumber traders stayed, married Aboriginal women and left a lasting religious and cultural legacy in Australia. Alongside the cave paintings and other Aboriginal art, Islamic beliefs influenced Aboriginal mythology.

"If you go to north-east Arnhem Land there is [a trace of Islam] in song, it is there in painting, it is there in dance, it is there in funeral rituals," says Bradley. "It is patently obvious that there are borrowed items. With linguistic analysis as well, you're hearing hymns to Allah, or at least certain prayers to Allah."
 

One example of this is a figure called Walitha'walitha, which is worshipped by a clan of the Yolngu people on Elcho Island, off the northern coast of Arnhem Land. The name derives from the Arabic phrase "Allah ta'ala", meaning "God, the exalted". Walitha'walitha is closely associated with funeral rituals, which can include other Islamic elements like facing west during prayers - roughly the direction of Mecca - and ritual prostration reminiscent of the Muslim sujood.

Raymond Satour

"I think it would be hugely oversimplifying to suggest that this figure is Allah as the 'one true God'," says Howard Morphy, an anthropologist at Australian National University. It's more the case of the Yolngu people adopting an Allah-like figure into their cosmology, he suggests.
 

The Makassan sea cucumber trade with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples ended in 1906, killed off by heavy taxation and a government policy that restricted non-white commerce. More than a century later, the shared history between Aboriginal peoples and Makassans is still celebrated by Aboriginal communities in northern Australia as period of mutual trust and respect - in spite of some historical evidence that this wasn't always the case.

 

"I'm a historian and I know that the Makassans, when they came to Arnhem Land, they had cannons, they were armed, there were violent incidents," says Regina Ganter at Griffith University in Brisbane. But many in the Yolngu community are wedded to a view of the sea cucumber trade as an alternative to colonialism, she says, and even consider the Makassans long-lost relatives. When she mentioned the Makassans' cannons to one elder in the tribe, he dismissed it. "He really wanted to tell this story as a story of successful cultural contact, which is so different to people coming and taking your land and taking your women and establishing themselves as superior."

This wasn't the only contact between Muslims and Aboriginal peoples. In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, the pearl-shelling industry brought so-called "Malays" from south-east Asia to work as indentured labourers in Broome on the north-west coast of Australia. Much like the Makassans, Malays intermarried with local Aboriginal people and brought with them Islamic religious and cultural practices. Today, plenty of families in Northern Australia have names that bear the mark of these interactions, like Doolah, Hassan and Khan.

Meanwhile, the forbidding deserts of central Australia gave rise to a separate Muslim influx.
 

In a quiet suburb of Alice Springs, a town of 26,000 people in the heart of central Australia, there sits an unlikely building: a mosque. Its minaret rises against the backdrop of the craggy rock and red dirt of the MacDonnell Ranges.

It is called the "Afghan Mosque", and for a reason. Between 1860 and 1930 up to 4,000 cameleers came to Australia, bringing their camels with them. Many were indeed from Afghanistan, but they also came from India and present-day Pakistan
 

They played a key role in opening up the deserts, providing supplies to remote mission stations, and helping to lay crucial national infrastructure like the Overland Telegraph Line and the Ghan Railway line, which still runs today, crossing the Australian desert from north to south. "Ghan" derives from "Afghan", as the train's logo of a cameleer makes plain.

"My grandfather's father, he was a camel driver," says 62-year-old Raymond Satour. "They had their own camels, over 40 camels," he says. "On the camel train itself, that's when they met the Aboriginal people that were camping out in the bush, and they got connected then - that's how we are connected to Aboriginals."

Far from their homes on the sub-continent, Afghan cameleers built makeshift mosques throughout central Australia, and many intermarried with Aboriginal peoples.

 

The work of the Afghan cameleers dried up in the 1930s, when motorised vehicles began to remove the need for the animals. Today, the Afghan Mosque in Alice is mostly filled with first-generation immigrants from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. But worshippers from the mosque regularly visit the homes of some of the Afghan-Aboriginal descendants, including that of Raymond Satour. "The brothers come and hold prayer ceremonies and teachings," he says. "We're learning, and it's helping us keep alive our connection to Islam and the old Afghans."

These historical contacts have an echo in the present day, as a steadily growing number of Aboriginal people convert to Islam. According to Australia's 2011 census, 1,140 people identify as Aboriginal Muslims. That's still less than 1% of the country's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population - and it should be said that Aboriginals are also becoming born-again Christians - but it's still almost double the number of Aboriginal Muslims recorded in the 2001 census.
 

Raymond Satour's great-grandparents

Anthony Mundine, a former two-time WBA super middleweight champion and an IBO middleweight champion boxer, is perhaps the most high-profile Aboriginal Muslim convert. He takes inspiration from the American Black Power movement, especially from civil rights activist Malcolm X, a former leader of the Nation of Islam.
 

"Malcolm's journey was unbelievable," agrees Justin Agale, who is of mixed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent and converted to Islam 15 years ago. "Here was a man who was interested in social justice and in furthering the cause of his people but he was also interested in his own spiritual journey to truth."

Agale is one of a number of Aboriginal people who, fairly or unfairly, have come to associate Christianity with the racism of colonial Australia.

"One of the things that the colonialists were very successful in Australia in doing was teaching the indigenous people that God hated us, and that we were unwanted children, that we were being punished for being savages," he says.

By contrast, he sees Islam as a "continuation" of his Aboriginal cultural beliefs. Agale's ancestors in the Torres Strait, the Meriam people, observed something they called Malo's Law, which he says was "in favour of oneness and harmony", and he sees parallels in Islam. "Islam - especially the Sufi tradition - has clear ideas of fitra and of tawhid, that each individual's nature is part of a greater whole, and that we should live in a balanced way within nature."
 

This sense of the compatibility of Aboriginal and Islamic beliefs is not uncommon, says Peta Stephenson, a sociologist at Victoria University. Shared practices include male circumcision, arranged or promised marriages and polygamy, and similar cultural attitudes like respect for land and resources, and respecting one's elders.

 

"Many Aboriginal people I spoke with explained these cultural synergies often by quoting the well-known phrase from the Koran that 124,000 prophets had been sent to the Earth," says Stephenson. "They argued that some of these prophets must have visited Aboriginal communities and shared their knowledge."

For some Aboriginal converts, however, the appeal of Islam is not one of continuity, but a fresh start. Mohammed - not his real name - was once homeless and an alcoholic, but he found the Islamic doctrines of regular prayer, self-respect, avoidance of alcohol, drugs and gambling all helped him battle his addictions. He has now been sober for six years and holds down a steady, professional job.

"When I found Islam it was the first time in my life that I felt like a human," he says. "Prior to that I had divided up into 'half this, quarter that'. You're never a complete, whole thing."

Mohammed rejects the criticism that has been levelled at him by some Aboriginal people that he turned his back on his traditional way of life. He believes Aboriginal culture was destroyed by colonialism.

"Where is my culture?" he asks. "That was cut off from me two generations ago. One of the attractive things about Islam for me was that I found something that was unbroken.

"Do you go for something that is going to take you out of the gutter and become a better husband and father and neighbour? Or do you search for something that you probably never had any hope of ever finding?"

 

 

Source:  BBC

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Source: Huffington Post   Next week in CCN: Another of the 10 Muslim Women you Have To Know

Fatima al-Fihri (Morocco, unknown-880 C.E.) Fatima was the founder of the oldest degree-granting university in the world.   After inheriting a large fortune, she wanted to devote her money to pious work that would benefit the community.   Thus, with her wealth she built the Al Qarawiyyin mosque. From the 10th to 12th century, the mosque developed into a university -- Al Qarawiyyin University.   Today, the Guinness Book of World Records and UNESCO recognize this university to be the oldest continuously operating institution of higher education in the world.

 

Ayman Hariri $1.95bn ($2.15bn) Saudi Arabia (left in photo)                  
 

The third son of Rafiq Hariri to make our list, Ayman Hariri is one of the drivers behind Saudi construction giant Saudi Oger.

 

Hariri has played an important role in leading his multidisciplinary specialists to provide the talent, expertise and positive attitude that advance the company's reputation for excellence.

 

His passionate and visionary style has helped Saudi Oger prosper in a variety of geographical regions and demanding business environments.

 

He is currently handling the construction and facilities management of several multi-billion dollar mega projects such Princess Noura Bint Abdulrahman University for Women; King Abdullah Financial District; King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture and many others.

 

His direct involvement and dedication helped in the execution and handing over the state-of-the-art academic and administration buildings of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in record time.
 

Source: ArabianBusiness