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Teachers at the Australian International Islamic College show their support and solidarity with Muslim women who wear the hijab as part of the WISH - Women in Solidarity with Hijabis (WISH).

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In his ongoing spat with Fox News personalities, British comedian Russell Brand risked arrest to seek entrance into the cable news network’s New York headquarters to address Sean Hannity, who had cancelled a scheduled appearance by Brand on his Fox show.

During the latest episode of ‘The Trews’ - Brand’s webcast that has become his vehicle for criticizing the likes of Hannity and fellow Fox News host Bill O’Reilly for content on their respective shows - the British comedian started by excoriating O’Reilly for “helping us become more Islamophobic.”

Source: RT

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VS

Islam, Muslims and the cheap politics of fear

Prime Minister Tony Abbott's dog-whistle politics have once more brought the "question" of Hizb ut-Tahrir to the table of public debate.

It is unfortunate that discussion about Islam and Muslims only finds traction when politicians decide to use them in the cheap politics of fear. The result is that discussion about these matters only seriously takes place in the context of terrorism and security.

This is the modern manifestation of an age-old European Orientalism which only ever treated the Muslim as an object of fear and interrogation. A threat to be spoken about, not spoken to. A threat to be managed and contained.

The same defines the modern "war on terror" discourse, in which bigotry and tolerance work together to discriminate against Muslims. The bigoted view characterises the Muslim as an existential threat to be expunged. The tolerant view takes the idea of Muslim as threat as the starting point (thus reinforcing it) to then argue: "no, they're not that bad, we can tolerate them."

Clive Williams ('Banning Hizb ut-Tahrir in Australia') provides one such "tolerant" view. Starting from the question (and all associated premises and assumptions that give rise to the question) of whether Hizb ut-Tahrir should be banned. He claims to tread the informed path, concluding that it should not.

First, Hizb ut-Tahrir has not encouraged anyone to go and join ISIS. Second, no member of Hizb ut-Tahrir has been involved in any acts of terrorism anywhere in the world. Indeed, it is remarkable how claims as grave as these can be made so flippantly and without any evidence.

Third, we do not face any issue of "outspoken individuals" hijacking our public face. Only appointed spokespeople speak in Hizb ut-Tahrir's name and none of them have said anything that contravenes Hizb ut-Tahrir's view.

Fourth, we can be, and have been, critical of ISIS actions on Islamic grounds, long before, I should add, western politicians decided to use ISIS as the latest bogeyman by which to justify intervention in Muslim communities locally and abroad.

With that said, we reject the notion that we need to distance ourselves from other Muslims who do the wrong thing. Do secular liberal academics, journalists and commentators distance themselves from the crimes of secular liberal states?

And if they don't feel the need to distance themselves from elected policymakers, by what logic are Muslims being asked to distance themselves from groups who represent no one but themselves?

If Williams is the tolerant view, we saw its intolerant twin in Emma Alberici's interview with Wassim Doureihi on Lateline last week.

Having invited Doureihi on the show, she simply did not afford him an opportunity to speak. The first interruption came a (world record?) four seconds into the substantive part of his response to the very first question. The justification for this tabloid journalism was that Doureihi was not providing direct "yes" or "no" answers to the questions, as if an interviewee can only be allowed to speak if they provide answers that accord with what the interviewer wants to hear.

Alberici required that Doureihi condemn ISIS first before having the right to speak. The façade of a higher morality behind which she was posturing was exposed when she refused to condemn the far greater crimes of western states by conveniently running out of time.

The reality is that questions about banning Muslim groups are based on the myth that Muslims represent a threat. It is a myth because it is not Muslims who occupy western lands. It is not Muslims who have hundreds of military bases littered across the western world. It is not Muslims who regularly go to war for political and economic benefit at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and the destruction of entire countries.

Indeed, the opposite is true. The question, thus, is not what is to be done about this Muslim group or that. The question is what is to be done of western secular liberal states, who after having led humanity for over three centuries have failed it miserably.

This is attested to by global poverty statistics, ever-increasing wealth distribution inequalities, ever-present conflict on every continent, rampant and ingrained corruption and tyranny in the developing world and social breakdown in the developed world and the commercialisation and consequent corruption of areas such as politics, media, education.

Discussion about Islam should be elevated to a serious and considered discourse that critically discusses the alternative real solutions Islam provides to the real problems of modernity. For this, we are willing and ready to engage.

As for being used to simply reinforce prevailing problematic discourses and paradigms, we're simply not in that business. Those who know us know that well, including the Prime Minister.

Source: The Age

Lateline and the Anatomy of An Islamophobic Stunt

The clusterfuck of racism, hatred, and hysteria that embodies Islamophobia is still brewing in Australia and day-by-day is taken to newer heights. The past few weeks alone have seen anti-Muslim attacks even more rampant and growing, a plan to cage Muslim women in glass boxes in a horrifying level of racialised misogyny that is frankly dystopian, and one of the biggest newspapers in the country linking Hitler, a white, European, supporter of the Church, with Islam in a new ploy to demonise Muslims.

Amidst the toxic flames of racist hysteria, ABC’s Lateline decided to make their own contribution to the national Islamophobic frenzy. For those unaware, Lateline is a current-affairs program on Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC. It claims to be “challenging, intelligent, and provocative.”

Last Thursday, the host Emma Alberici decided to interview Wassim Doureihi, a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir. Now, I know absolutely nothing about Doureihi, nor Hizb ut-Tahrir, and nor am I accusing Lateline of being the sole purveyors of Islamophobia in this country. But in this Lateline episode, Alberici delivered an absolute masterclass on how to stage a classic dog-whistling Islamophobic stunt. It had every possible ingredient you would expect in an anti-Muslim spectacle: racism, orientalism, condescension, and outright contempt, delivered in the only ways mainstream white Australian “journalists” know how: smearing, obfuscating, and demonising.

From the onset of the interview, Alberici treated Doureihi with a truly exceptional level of hostility and condescension. Even for those who have regularly watched Alberici’s interviews with politicians, the hostility was stunning. The tone was set. It was clear what this was going to be: a staged set-up designed with the sole purpose to demonise.

It was clear that Alberici knew the value of playing the white woman standing up to the Scary Brown Man™ and it was beyond obvious that this was the narrative she was seeking to create for her White Australian audience, and thus, she was playing it hard.

The first half of the interview was dominated by her attempts to make Doureihi condemn the actions of ISIS. She pursued this line with a truly extraordinary level of pig-headedness, getting visibly animated in her determination to make Doureihi take her bait and condemn the group. Here we see Alberici peddling the pervasive “logic” that Muslims have some special responsibility to condemn ISIS. The argument of Alberici, and all those who peddle this claim, is predicated on the idea that Muslims are all by default inherent supporters of terrorism, unless they jump through hoops to prove otherwise to white people. Alberici pursued this racist narrative head-on, steely determined to push it onto Doureihi. The ferocious determination with which she pursues it is really something to behold.

Visibly furious that Doureihi refuses to play into her gutter game and be cornered by her, Alberici decides to change tack and deliberately attempts to work him up into the racist stereotype of the Angry Brown Man™ she knows White Australia all came to see her “take to task”. Alberici is determined to make this a spectacle and play the part that White Australia will go crazy for. To do this, she employs the type of contempt, condescension, and callous, wilful ignorance that all people of colour are all too familiar with receiving from white people.

See, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m angry. I’m angry because it was the sheer, brazen, and unremitting contempt that got to me about Alberici’s behaviour and that really hit home for me, because that is the type of contempt that I and other nonwhite people have to endure daily from White Australia. Unrelenting racism and gaslighting abounded throughout the segment. When Doureihi rightfully refused to accept the bait that he must condemn ISIS, her response was not to hear out why it was a racist question, but to push it even more belligerently. When he brought up Islamophobia, she dismissed it as “a so-called phobia”. When he tried to answer a question, she rolled her eyes dismissively, one of multiple times. And when he tried to bring up the fact of the Western invasion that slaughtered up to a million people in Iraq, she replied, “I don’t want to talk about context.” That said everything.

Context is the last thing that professional jingoistic race-baiters like Emma Alberici want because it upturns their agenda completely. To take context into account would ruin the agendas of those like Alberici who seek to demonise Muslims and Islam as the sole, unique purveyors of violence. To take into account the reality of constant Western atrocities wrought against the non-Western world for the last thousand years hinders those who desire more war, and more imperialism. And to take context into account means having to acknowledge blame and responsibility instead of shifting it onto others, namely, Muslims. It was clear Alberici was nowhere near ready to do that, and indeed when asked why she didn’t condemn Western atrocities, she comically, nervously declared “ok, we’re out of time”. You simply couldn’t make up something so self-satirising if you tried.

The thing about Alberici’s episode was that she was not only ready to have a Muslim on her show to treat him with utter contempt, but she was determined to make a spectacle out of it for the voyeuristic viewing pleasure of White Australia, for frothing-at-the-mouth bigots around the country, the types that have been terrorizing Muslim women on the streets. To watch a white woman try and put a Scary Non-White Man™ in his place on TV is simply racist pornography for racists, and Alberici knew it, and she was working hard at it. The next day proved her efforts. Despite it being clear from the interview that Alberici was the one taken to task, she became an overnight sensation in White Australia’s eyes, having given them the White Woman vs. Mean Non-White Man™ story they go crazy for. Media framing portrayed Alberici as a hero for treating a nonwhite person with the contempt we apparently so deserve.

However, not content with the smug, self-congratulatory spectacle of racism and Islamophobia she had staged in that interview, Alberici had this galling statement to make the next day:

“In his caliphate, in his ideal Islamic state would I, as a woman, have the opportunity to sit opposite him as an equal and engage in a robust discussion about these issues on the public broadcaster?”

Alberici realised that no Islamophobic stunt is complete without pulling out that well-known racist line that Muslims are inherently misogynists. Here in the West, and here in Australia, where rape culture abounds, where I and every other female I know have stories of harassment by men on the street, and where an even more alarming number of women have stories of sexual violence, according to these racist faux-feminists, it is apparently Muslims who are the real misogynists. In Australia, where the biggest risk to a woman is her own partner, it is apparently Islamic culture that is uniquely misogynistic. And here in Australia, where one woman is killed every week by her own male partner, apparently the Islamic world is the true bulwark of misogyny. If there was one single sentence that encapsulated so completely the cartoonishly simplistic and breathtakingly bigoted worldviews of Western media puppets like Alberici, this would be it, and they should all be ashamed. There are truly no real differences between these “elite” poseurs and the average raving bigot on the street that the white middle class loves to admonish for a sense of superiority.

This Lateline episode didn’t only embody every classic element of anti-Muslim propaganda; it also embodied everything that is wrong with mainstream media. Instead of being a mechanism for speaking truth to power, it is all too eager to be a cheerleader for power. See, Lateline has built up a reputation for itself in this regard. Five years ago, Lateline decided to smear Australian Aboriginal men, and more specifically, the Aboriginal community of Mutitjulu in the most grotesquely racist way imaginable, and in doing so, did PR for the racist abomination known as the Northern Territory Intervention. Since then, it has never apologised for the reprehensible manner I which it smeared Aboriginal men based on entirely fabricated and unsubstantiated reports.

Lateline has developed a pattern of perpetuating racism and refusing to be accountable for it, and for this reason, I am not holding my breath waiting for either the ABC, Lateline, or Emma Alberici herself to grow a spine, take responsibility, and apologise for spouting reprehensible bigotry. It is all part of their agenda.

In the same way that Lateline smeared Indigenous people to sell a racist government policy, Lateline again deployed racism against Muslims to cheer on the new Australian bombing of Iraq. And for this, Alberici has earned a pat on the head from Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

I hope Alberici enjoys her 15 minutes of fame while us non-white folk remain dealing with the frenzy of racist hysteria running rampant in the nation. In the meantime, I hope she one day finds it in herself to apply the same level of intense scrutiny to white politicians as she did to Doureihi. Wishful thinking, perhaps.
 

Source: Somayya Shaazia

Loaded questions behind Lateline blowup
 

The power to ask questions is the power to produce particular kinds of answers. A trick every parent knows well. Don't ask your fussy toddler, "Would you like to eat your vegetables tonight?" Ask them, "What would you like to eat first, peas or carrots?" Coercion disguised as question: victory to the parent!

Politicians are no less familiar with this tactic. Think back to the Australian republic referendum of 1999. The question wasn't, "Would you like to become a republic?" It was a carefully worded proposal that divided voters into two not quite polar-opposite groups, where even the most devout republic supporters had to think twice before ticking yes.

But that's parents and politicians, and we all know what conniving buggers they can be. (Or perhaps have to be). When journalists employ similar tactics, we lament the loss of impartiality.

On Wednesday night, the very capable and usually quite patient host of Lateline, Emma Alberici, did what many of us parents have, in our darkest hours, fantasised about doing: she lost her cool, grabbed hold of the child's head and attempted to force those damn vegetables in there any way she could.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the whole thing started with guest Wassim Doureihi's refusal to answer Alberici's "simple opening question": "Do you support the murderous campaign being waged by Islamic State fighters in Iraq?" Instead of answering yes or no, Doureihi used the platform to air a slightly different set of grievances, or, in his words, "[to do] the public a great favour by refocusing this discussion where it needs to be" (namely, the Western occupation of Middle Eastern countries and the killing of innocent Muslims). To say the two went back and forth on this point for the rest of the segment would be incorrect, since most of the time they were going right over the top of one another. In the end, however, no amount of "Open wide, the plane's coming into the hangar" could convince Alberici's guest to eat up.

Watching, I was disheartened by both Alberici's "feisty" style (credit Tony Abbott for this descriptor) and Doureihi's refusal to condemn the actions of those thugs in the Middle East operating under the banner of Islamic State. (To be fair here, there are thugs in the Middle East operating under all sorts of banners these days). The obstinacy shown by both parties illustrates the kind of problems we should expect to counter as we settle into this latest military conflict. Forget ideology; it seems we can't even work through the structural incongruities.
 

REPLAY: If you missed the ABC Interview....

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Right now a percentage of the population, many who don't know the correct name for it, are calling for the Niqab to be banned. Comedian Omar J. Sakr, however, reminds us that we live in Australia and there are just SO MANY better things to be terrified of here than what someone's wearing

Hoo-boy, it sure has been a crazy few weeks in Islamastralia! Man, just three weeks ago I was in Sydney, Australia, home to about 300,000 Muslims out of a population of 23,000,000+. Then I decided to go on holiday, and everything went to hell. Now, I’m not saying that my actions led to some Twilight Zone shenanigans that turned Australia into a majority Muslim country practicing Sharia law… I’m just saying I’m having difficulty envisioning anything else because near as I can tell, someone slammed on the “HOLY CRAP, BROWN PEOPLE ARE SCARY” button and other people went bat-shit crazy, acting as if that is the case.

It’s not, though, so I’m taking a break from watching Doctor Who just to tell everyone to calm down – they’re starting to make Americans look good. I’ve always enjoyed being able to point and laugh at their insane Republicans and Tea Partiers saying incredibly backward, horribly racist/sexist/homophobic things. Now I’m struggling to regain that sense of superiority because we have people like Cory Bernardi and Jacqui Lambi, both of whom, I feel, have the intellectual capacity of a doughnut, stirring the racist pot and screeching about them Muslims womens with their scary scarves.

That’s to say nothing of the Prime Minister – the Minister for Women, no less, dear sweet zombie lord, don’t forget that – saying publicly that what some women wear makes him uncomfortable. I’ll tell you what makes me uncomfortable: having a man as Minister for Women, for starters.

With that said, I’m a helpful guy, so I thought I’d list some things (we’re all about the listicles still, right? #YOLO, etc.) that we should all be way more frightened about than what a tiny fraction of women are wearing for religious and cultural reasons, or just because they bloody well feel like it. Ready? Here we go.
 

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In the weeks since anti terror raids across Sydney, there have been dozens of recorded attacks against women wearing the hijab - and police suspect many more cases have gone unreported.

Now, social media is being used to document these incidents. Lydia Shelly, a lawyer who helped set up the 'Islamophobia register', spoke to News Breakfast.

Watch the social experiment discussed by Lydia Shelly on YouTube
 

Source: ABC News

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Skaters who made a stand against racism meet people from the Newcastle Muslim Association people at Newcastle Mosque in Wallsend. From left, Patrick Burgess, Sheikh Mohamed Khamis and Justin Lanz. Picture Ryan Osland

THE men who took a stand against an alleged act of bigotry last week in Newcastle have been formally thanked by members of the city’s Muslim association.

Patrick Burgess and Justin Lanz visited Newcastle Mosque on Saturday where they were also invited to a community open day that will be held at the mosque, which is located in Wallsend, this upcoming Sunday from 10am to 3pm.

The men were skating with four other friends last Monday when they came to the aid of a Muslim mother and daughter who were being attacked in an alleged bigoted tirade on Smith Street, in Newcastle West.

The incident occurred at a time of increasing community unrest and concern Australia’s mission against Islamic State in Iraq is fuelling attacks on Muslims in Australia.

On Saturday a man was charged for allegedly shouting offensive comments and throwing cement bags at a mosque in Sydney’s south-west.

Newcastle Muslim Association vice-president Diana Rah said the group’s ‘‘quick response’’ was appreciated.

“It took a lot of courage to do what they did,” she said.

“We will be giving them a certificate on Wednesday when all six of them can visit us.
“For the open day we’re having a sausage sizzle, we’ve got an exhibition on Islam and Muslims and we’ve got a lot of different fun things planned.

Skaters who made a stand against racism meet people from the Newcastle Muslim Association people at Newcastle Mosque in Wallsend. From left, Diana Rah, Tariq Ahmed, Justin Lanz, Patrick Burgess, Shahriar Ahnaf. Picture Ryan Osland

“Everyone is invited; it’s about people getting to know us and us them.”

Mr Burgess said they had really enjoyed meeting everyone at the mosque, which is on Metcalfe Street.

“We were just doing what any normal person would do,” he said of the group’s role in helping stop the attack.

Mr Burgess said that they had received a lot of support and kind messages from people after speaking to the Newcastle Herald last week.

“I think it shows the majority of people in the community are good and that the extremists who are doing these attacks are in the minority,” he said.
 

Source: The Newcastle Herald

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Interview under discussion

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After Maher-Affleck, We Need an Honest—and Calm—Dialogue on Islam

Team Affleck needs to acknowledge that some criticisms are valid. Team Maher needs to stop stereotyping. And both teams: cool it down. It’s been one week since the epic brawl between Bill Maher and Ben Affleck on HBO’s “Real Time.” This fight was like something we typically see in reality shows, complete with name calling and screaming. But as opposed to the donnybrooks we’ve seen on “The Kardishians” over issues like “why are you looking at my man?!”, this battle was about a faith of approximately 1.5 billion people.

So now that tempers have calmed somewhat on both sides of this skirmish, the question that must be asked is: Can we have an honest and reasonable discussion about Islam? As a Muslim, I not only say yes, but I say we need to. There’s simply too much misinformation – some intentionally distributed (I’m looking at you Fox News and certain GOP officials), and some by people simply repeating half-truths or lies they have picked up along the way.

From Islamophobia to Islamysteria

Muslim and non-Muslim Australia are once again at odds. Fear and suspicion have grown. Security is again at the fore. But new polling gives a glimmer of hope that it doesn't have to be this way, writes David Hardaker. We may have a sense that there is fear and loathing in Australia because of the much vaunted "terror threat" stemming from the ISIS "death cult".

But now the figures are in to prove it: close to half of all Australians say they feel more personally at risk of a domestic terrorist attack than they did six months ago, before the ISIS crisis began and before large-scale police raids on alleged terrorist conspirators. So it seems that government security claims of a "lone wolf" threat and media misrepresentations about an alleged plot to behead someone have, indeed, inspired fear.

The figures paint a picture of an uncertain Australia, confused and unsure about aspects of the Federal Government's moves, especially the prospect of joining a ground operation in Iraq. And while endorsing tougher new security laws, many more oppose (42 per cent) than support (30 per cent) the idea of gaoling whistleblowers and journalists for revealing what happens if/when these powers are abused.

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And among His Signs is this, that heaven and earth stand by
His Command: then when He calls you, by a single call, from the earth, behold, you (straightway) come forth.

Surah Ar-Rum 30:25

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  "War may sometimes be a necessary evil.

But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good.

We will not learn to how to live together in peace by killing each other's children."

~ Jimmy Carter

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Date

Day

Event

(Click on link)

Organizer

Venue

Contact

Time

18/25 October

Saturdays

Kuraby Mosque OPEN DAYS

Kuraby Mosque

0402 575 410

1.30pm to 4pm

19 October

Sunday

Wisdom College Open Day

Wisdom College

97 Formby St, CALAMVALE

3711 9821 

All day

23 October

Thursday

Pink Hijab Day

Logan Women

Darra Mosque, 219 Douglas St. OXLEY

3808 9233 

11am to 1.30pm

24 October

Friday

Sunshine Coast Mosque Fund Raiser Dinner

Sunshine Coast Mosque Organizing Committee

Islamic College of Brisbane, KARAWATHA

0438 396 549

7pm

25 October

Saturday

Mosque OPEN DAY

Islamic Society of Logan

260 Third Ave. MARSDEN 

0406 914 831 

All day

25 October

Saturday

1^st Muharram 1436 (Islamic New Year)

26 October

Sunday

Soccer Unity Cup

FAMSY, Islamic Appeal & Youth of Brisbane

Griffith Uni Nathan Campus 

0431 800 414 

9am to 4pm

3 November

Monday

Day of Aashooraa (10th day of Muharram)

23 November

Saturday

Fund Rasing Dinner for Slackscreek Mosque Sounds of Da'Wah

Slackscreek Mosque Organizing Committee

45 Acacia Road, Karawatha

3841 3645 

2.30pm to 4.30pm

TBA

Prophet’s Birthday 12th Rabi-ul Awwal 1436

15 March 2015

Sunday

2nd Toowoomba International Food Festival

Islamic Society of Toowoomba

0421 081 048

10am to 5pm

7 June 2015

Sunday

ICB Annual School Fete

Islamic College of Brisbane

0402 794 253

All day

25 July 2015

Saturday

Eidfest

Eidfest QLD

0418 722 353

All day

26 Sept. 2015

Saturday

Eidfest

Eidfest @ Dreamworld

0418 722 353

Evening

Holland Park Mosque

Taleem Programe at Kuraby Mosque

Every Thursdays  10.30-11.30am

Bald Hills Mosque Weekly Tafseer

The Tafseer gets recorded and uploaded on to our website end of each week, please visit our website to download these recordings at www.masjidtaqwa.org.au.
 

The Tuesday and Thursdays Dars Nizame program is in Urdu, these sessions too are recorded as well as webcasted live. For webcast details please contact us via our website “contact us” page. The recordings are sent via a download link, if you are interested please again contact us via our website “contact us” page.
 

Queensland Police Service/Muslim Community Consultative Group

Meeting Dates & Times

Thursday 20 November 2014 Mt Gravatt Police Station, 2132 Logan Road, Upper Mt Gravatt
 

Commencing at 7.00pm (Times may change throughout the year pending salat)

ALL WELCOME

For more information and RSVP:

Sergeant Jim Bellos at Bellos.Dimitrios@police.qld.gov.au

Tafsir & Islamic History Classes
 

VENUE: Al-Mustapha Institute of Brisbane, 39 Bushmills Court, Hillcrest
 

Every Monday & Wednesday
7pm - 8:15pm
 

All Brothers & Sisters are welcome.
 

For further information please contact Moulana Noor 0432 712 546.