BACK ISSUES

When you look at Muslim scholar Dalia Mogahed, what do you see: a woman of faith? a scholar, a mom, a sister? or an oppressed, brainwashed, potential terrorist?

In this personal, powerful talk, Mogahed asks us, in this polarizing time, to fight negative perceptions of her faith in the media — and to choose empathy over prejudice.

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In an unprecedented show of unity, the entire Muslim community of Queensland has rallied to stand in solidarity with the individuals and families affected by cyclone Winston. Cyclone Winston has been recorded as the strongest tropical cyclone to ever hit Fiji.

The death toll has risen to 42 and is expected to climb in the upcoming days. Many towns have been destroyed and the local sugar cane industry has been decimated. International aid has begun to arrive and the clean-up operation has begun however, the devastation is widespread and additional emergency aid is needed.

The following mosques and organisations have rallied to collect funds into the Muslim Charitable Foundation Emergency Account over the following days: Council of Imams Queensland, Currumbin Mosque, Islamic College of Brisbane, Redbank Islamic Centre, Worongary Mosque, Australian International Islamic College, Logan Mosque, Islamic Society of Holland Park, Mackay Mosque, Rochdale Mosque, Cairns Mosque, Queensland Association of Fiji Muslims, Islamic Society of Queensland, Mareeba Mosque, Crescents of Brisbane, Islamic Society of Bald Hills, Islamic Society of West End, Islamic Council of Queensland, Islamic Society of Algester, Islamic Society of Ipswich, Islamic Society of Gold Coast, Al Mustapha Academy Australia, Islamic Society of Lutwyche, Masjid Ur Rahman - Slacks Creek Mosque, Islamic Society of Darra, Al-Imdaad Foundation, Al-Huda, Qld Association of Fiji Muslims, Kuraby Mosque - Masjid Al Farooq.

The Muslim Charitable Foundation will be working with it's partners Muslim Aid Australia and Al-Imdaad Foundation to provide the aid to those affected on the ground in Fiji. Distribution will be carried out in a clear, transparent system with all usual checks and balances in place. A

An MCF spokesman said, "We are very happy with how the entire Muslim Community of Queensland has come together in solidarity with affected Fijians. The organisations involved have shown the organisational agility needed to remove the duplication of work we so often see. Working as one, we can deliver relief to more affected people than if we work separately."
 

The affected individuals and families of cyclone Winston need your help! please donate generously using the account details below:
Muslim Charitable Foundation Emergency Account
BSB: 124 155
A/C: 2089 7395

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A tissue of lies: Paul Sheehan and “Louise”

The most perfunctory of checks would have shown Paul Sheehan’s allegations were almost certainly untrue. But he couldn’t help himself.

“When she gave me verifiable facts, they were verified,” wrote Paul Sheehan, in the article that was teased on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday morning.

His column, called “The story of Louise: we’ll never know the scale of the rape epidemic in Sydney”, now carries this correction online: “Many details originally contained in this story were unable to be corroborated to Fairfax Media’s satisfaction. These details, including untested aspersions against an ethnic group and untested allegations of inaction against the NSW Police, have been removed from this story.”

I don’t remember ever seeing a correction quite like this one. Isn’t that corroboration supposed to happen before publication? And what are the “details”, anyway? According to Sheehan, “Louise” was the victim of a horrific crime in 2002. A nurse from St Vincent’s Hospital, she fell asleep in her car after a shift, still wearing her uniform. She was then attacked by a group of six Arab-speaking men, who broke her bones in 79 places, raped her (orally, vaginally and anally), cut her throat, urinated in her mouth, knocked her teeth out and left her for dead. Finally, a group of homeless men (one of whom described the attackers as “Middle Eastern Raping Cunts” at a later date) somehow got her help.

Police then failed to interview “Louise” in hospital, or collect any evidence. Even though she was conscious, they did no subsequent investigation into the gang rape and attempted murder. The hospital did nothing either. She was admitted as a “Jane Doe” (terminology not used in Australian hospitals) and apparently never identified during her stay. On release, she was sent to a women’s shelter and then became homeless. Months later, she subsequently tried to report the assault at a Sydney police station, and was turned away by a duty officer with a bad attitude.

This story, as presented, would be one of the most extreme failures of public services ever seen in Australia. The New South Wales health service failing to identify one of its own traumatised employees in a major hospital? Police not investigating a gang rape and attempted murder? These things seemed scarcely believable to anyone familiar with protocols around violence. Still, Sheehan stressed the credibility of “Louise”. “She says she has a degree in psychology,” he wrote.

Many people read this story with a growing sense of incredulity. For a select few, that incredulity was especially deep. They had heard this story before. Even those who hadn’t known “Louise” for long had already heard many variations of it, and it seemed to become more distorted with each telling.

“Louise” even made a variant of these claims at a Sydney Reclaim Australia rally in April last year. The event was filmed. She was a last-minute inclusion in the speaking order. Her speech recounted the attack, this time claiming she was in hospital for four and a half months. She also described carloads of Muslim men setting homeless people on fire, and “black brothels”, where stolen children are prostituted. Attendees at the rally were initially sympathetic and befriended her, but then found her claims increasingly difficult to believe.

She would change details, or add a kidnapping. Sometimes the kidnapping happened in 2005, sometimes in 2007. During this ordeal, “Louise” said she was held for four days in a room with children, that she escaped but was unable to rescue them. Police were not informed of this incident either. “Louise” also told her new friends about her degree in psychology. She mentioned degrees in nursing, accountancy and criminology as well. When confronted, she was unable to account for discrepancies in her stories. Reclaim Australia members regret putting her on stage. “I wouldn’t give her a microphone in a karaoke booth,” one says now.

The “googling” Paul Sheehan claims to have carried out would have shown that “Louise” had previously told her kidnapping story to another journalist from the Herald Sun, in 2014. It would have uncovered her Facebook page, which details altercations with Muslim men that occur with unusual frequency. It would have shown that she operates a multitude of different online personas, several of which have repeatedly tried to engage the attention of the media. It would have shown that she also claims to be suffering from leukaemia.

I was not surprised, then, when one of the media staff at St Vincent’s hospital told me he had never heard of an attack like this on any of their nurses, and found it very difficult to accept that it could occur as described with no media attention or police follow-up.

I was not surprised by the conversation that I had with “Louise”, though I was intrigued. She had definitely spoken to Paul Sheehan, except they weren’t speaking any more. “I think that Paul Sheehan wrote that story of Louise with a little bit of self-service,” she told me. “He’s writing a book. And what better way than to try and advertise it with a story like this. Anyway, I’m angry with him now.” She is also writing a book. She says she has witnessed murders.

I was not surprised that when I pressed “Louise” for any detail that could verify her story, she ended the conversation. So far, my lines of enquiry with the police and Sydney hospitals have not produced any corroboration for any part of her story. I would like to know, for example, what happened to the car left abandoned next to a bloodstained crime-scene outside St Mary’s cathedral.

But I am surprised that a story like this got anywhere near the front page of a newspaper like the Sydney Morning Herald. Because when I read that piece, I suspected it should never have been published, and I wasn’t alone. And after 15 minutes of investigation, I was sure it should never have been published. And after an afternoon of research, its publication now seems unbelievably negligent. Negligent to Louise, to the hospitals named, to the police. Negligent to rape victims. And above all, negligent to every Muslim subjected to this inflammatory canard and its consequences.

It’s no secret that regular columnists get scant editorial attention. But they are examined much more carefully when their columns are moved to page one. And it was exactly the sensationalist and – let’s be clear – racist nature of its content that had it bumped to the front of the paper. Senior eyes, considered eyes, made that decision. They made it relying on the journalistic integrity of an agenda-soaked writer who believes in magical water, and the word of a woman who would have been cast into extreme doubt by just a Google search or a single phone call.

“In the story recounted to me by Louise,” wrote Sheehan amid the litter of excuses in the mea culpa he published last night, “she made insulting references to rapes committed by Middle Eastern men. I had wrongly amplified this insult by including her words in the column.”

Source: The Monthly

The pervasive and systemic extent of Islamophobia

by Randa Abdel-Fattah

A woman alleges she was raped in August 2002 in the city of Sydney. The alleged perpetrators spoke Arabic. Apparently ‘for years’ men were raping prostitutes in Kings Cross earning them the name: MERCs. Middle Eastern raping c----. There were a series of gang-rapes in Sydney in the early 2000s in South-West Sydney. Some of the perpetrators were Australians of Middle Eastern descent. Sexual assault is one of the least reported crimes.

This woman's sexual assault took place within the time range of these gang rapes. It was not reported. It was based on this constellation of ‘facts’ and unsubstantiated claims that Paul Sheehan wrote a column connecting Louise’s claim of sexual assault to a rape ‘epidemic’ in Sydney in the early 2000s.

The thread that Sheehan uses to stitch together his story is a racist, matter-of-fact, common doxa that constructs a taken-for-granted figure of the Muslim/Middle Eastern/brown man as rapist. This figure reifies a racialised discourse that stigmatises and maligns Muslim men wholesale via the rhetoric of criminalisation.

And it works. Because these have become the acceptable terms of how the media presents any story connected (even wrongly) to Muslims. And they are acceptable to a readership that largely takes their truth value for granted.

Police speak to a group of men in Kings Cross

The production of this image of the Muslim man to be feared depends on what Goldsmiths' academic Sara Ahmed calls ‘past histories of association’. The label rapist becomes a metonym that slides between words, remakes connections and stirs a history of Islamophobic narratives.

According to Sheehan's article (both the original and ‘corrected’ versions), as well as his poor excuse of a clarification, sexual assault is foreclosed as a Muslim/Middle Eastern crime. It fits into a context where the image of the deviant, criminal, hyper-sexualised male Arab/Muslim has been firmly embedded by the media, commentators and certain politicians in the national psyche.

And this is the devastating and sobering reality Australian Muslims must contend with. The story had purchase, and was published and accepted as credible, because it speaks to an enduring and prevalent racialised stereotype of Muslim men. For example, Sheehan offers a general proposition: "Sexual assault is one of the least- reported crimes, and for years the NSW Police contributed to this phenomenon by pretending it did not exist".

Just in case readers were to make the mistake of assuming that this is a problem without an ‘ethnicity’, Sheehan then adds: "This was a root cause of the Cronulla riots." Cronulla works like Velcro to stick ‘sexual assault’ to Muslim/Arab male. In this sticking process, Sheehan also manages to hail the narrative that the Cronulla riots were a justified civilising mission.

Five thousand mostly Anglo-background young men who descended on Cronulla beach and attacked anyone ‘of Middle Eastern appearance’ were, according to this logic, provoked. All it takes is one short statement to form an assemblage of myths and tropes. There is no risk of ambiguity here. The message resonates because the myths and tropes endure.

What is at stake here is not Louise’s story, but the logic that underpins Sheehan’s original and ‘corrected’ story, and subsequent ‘clarification’. The only ‘evidence’ for associating the gang rapes of the early 2000s to Louise’s assault was that Louise did not report the rape. This was the “context” for Sheehan’s “thinking”.

Even now that he admits that her story "had been carefully constructed on a foundation of embellishments, false memories and fabrications", the connection that builds the algorithm remains. And it is an algorithm that has wider purchase because of a decade of cumulative and persistent images and narratives around the deviant Muslim male.

That this kind of reasoning process commands centre stage of the opinion page of one of the most important newspapers in the nation, speaks to the pervasive and systemic extent of Islamophobia. When it comes to Muslims, professional practice, critical faculties, editorial checks and journalistic integrity are suspended.

Muslim and brown men who have been maligned by association, stuck with the image of rapists, are merely offered a ‘correction’. Apparently, then, the problem is not the logic that empowers somebody like Sheehan to write such a piece. The problem is in the details: uncorroborated facts, “untested aspersions against an ethnic group”.

This, then, is racism’s invisible and quiet power. Cumulative, sustained, unaccountable practices of racialisation which adhere like superglue to real bodies and lives are to be forgotten because, regrettably, they were ‘untested’. The premise underlying the aspersions are not fundamentally racist. They are simply ‘untested’.

This racist stereotype becomes their essence. Who they are in reality is utterly irrelevant. Stereotype becomes fact. What follows them through life is the haunting and exhausting work of proving themselves as the ‘not rapist’, ‘not misogynist.’

While Sheehan has apologised to the NSW Police, he has not apologised to Muslim/Middle Eastern men. And why would he? The enduring figure of the bad Muslim male does not need to be ‘tested’. For Sheehan, and many of his readers, it is fact, actual facts aside.

About the Author

Randa Abdel-Fattah is the author of ten books and a doctoral candidate at Macquarie University.
 

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

There's a lot written about young Muslim men in Australia, hardly anything written by them
By Omar Bensaidi
 

Stereotypes about Muslim men peddled by the likes of Paul Sheehan are hard to counter – and they have painful and damaging consequences

Everyday racial encounters have come to define my life as a young Muslim male in Australia. Whether it is the lady clutching her purse as I stand behind her at the supermarket counter or security keeping a close eye on me as I walk into the store. Or whether it is yet another Islamophobic article that endeavours to fashion us as sexually violent maniacs.

There is a lot written about young Muslim men, hardly anything written by young Muslim men.

Paul Sheehan’s story on “Louise” is a purposefully reckless attempt at perpetuating a constant stereotype about Muslim men. That we are sexually violent predators. The careless verification by Sheehan about an alleged vicious attack on a white woman by a gang of “Arabic-speaking” men has painful consequences for victims and survivors of sexual assaults. And, personally, it has damaging effects on how I and other young Muslim men are perceived in Australian society.

My friends and I cannot walk the streets of certain suburbs without receiving subtle gazes from suspicious onlookers. At times glaring at us anxiously, as if our presence is an indication of an oncoming assault. What inevitably follows is the convenient arrival of police officers that immediately question our purpose for being “there”. Having lunch or shopping is not a satisfactory answer for our threatening presence. As if our intentions are more sinister than simply having an afternoon meal.

Stereotypes pedalled by the like of Sheehan are much more powerful than any answer I can provide. No amount of reasoning can combat such potent stereotypes that essentially remove my ability to articulate. Any attempt at explaining myself has already been defined by the stereotypes that circulate around me.

It’s difficult moving in a world that strictly positions you in light of your potential to commit violence. I remember a pair of police officers stopping me and three other friends because we looked like “gangsters”. No gang-affiliated tattoos. Not even gang insignia on our clothing. Plain jumpers and jeans were sufficient indicators of a supposed gang affiliation.

“Everyone around here is pretty much wearing the same kind of clothing, officer,” as I attempted to defend ourselves. “They may dress the same. But they don’t look like you guys,” he said.

I didn’t know what he meant then. I do now.

We weren’t simply four friends hanging out. We became a gang. And of course a group of more than three Arab-looking males is a gang rape waiting to happen.

When words like “terror” and “violence” stick to the identity of young Muslim men, in due course it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We begin to realise that we are only heard when we commit violence. At other times our voices are completely restrained. Beyond violence we are provided no other means of expression.

Even using my position as a law student as a means of expression has been ridiculed countless times. As if the designated role of a young Muslim man is either that of a “terrorist” or a “thug”. While people like Paul Sheehan are provided far-reaching platforms to speak about us, it has effects. There are consequences. Real-life barriers are constructed that inhibit our agency.

In a heightened climate of Islamophobia, and in the midst of a “war on terror” targeting radicalised youth, life for a young Muslim male has become difficult. And Paul Sheehan’s misguided attempt at storytelling will not make our lives any easier.

About the Author

Omar Bensaidi is a Political Philosophy and Law student at Western Sydney University.

 

Source: The Guardian

Paul Sheehan owes a proper apology to sexual assault survivors and the Muslim community

When I read Sydney Morning Herald columnist Paul Sheehan's story about "Louise" on Monday, the woman who he claimed had been gang-raped and violated, I believed it. I really believed it.

Actually, I more than believed it. I cried all the way through it. He has always been a really powerful writer, and the story gave me goosebumps. I read the comments about the alleged perpetrators in context and I imagined that was what really happened. I can't stand the way Sheehan writes about the Muslim community, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt because this was meant to be reporting. I assumed he had behaved like a reporter. I'm also imagining this is what the editors of the Sydney Morning Herald thought too. Paul Sheehan, senior journalist. He knows what he's talking about.

And – sucked in me – Sheehan used the word verified.

Here's where he convinced me in the original story:

"As for her credibility, I interviewed her for several hours. She has 11 exercise books filled with diaries. She has extensive medical records. She was consistent in her answers. When she gave me verifiable facts, they were verified. Her years working as a nurse in the inner city gave her extensive contact with prostitutes and the homeless. She has a degree in psychology."

Now it turns out, as Sheehan explained in a subsequent column published on Wednesday, that the story was mostly based on an invention. (Had he done actual research work on the claims, he would have quite easily found videos of "Louise" at Reclaim Australia rallies)

Now Sheehan apologised for the story. Kind of.

First, he explained he gave "Louise" the benefit of the doubt but now he knew that he was "wrong to do so".

Oh those women, always with the stories.

"Second, I had not considered the possibility that her story had been carefully constructed on a foundation of embellishments, false memories and fabrications."

Third, he owed the NSW Police force an apology.

Yes, he owes readers an apology.

But he also owes all those women who never reported their rapes an apology, too.

Because women really do have trouble reporting their rapes. They are afraid and ashamed and you have made it harder for them to come out.

As Lisa Pryor, former lawyer and Sydney Morning Herald reporter, now a doctor, says: "It is simultaneously true that rape is common, underreported and under punished, and that a small number of individuals have emotional/mental/personality problems which make them lie about all kinds of things, including things like this."

Big lies all over.

Now there is another – vital -- group of people to whom he must also apologise. They don't read Sheehan any more because they are too hurt and too damaged by his endless attack on them. They are the members of the Muslim community of Australia. (I'm pleased and relieved to recognise that it's unlikely anyone overseas would ever read his anti-Muslim sentiment).

Shakira Hussein says it's noteworthy that Sheehan has apologised to the police but not to her community and not to survivors of sexual assault.

Yes, he has only apologised to those with authority.

But the rest of us have moral authority in this instance and he has none. I doubt I will ever read another piece by Paul Sheehan with any belief. It will always be with bitter cynicism. More fool me. I love journalism so much and Sheehan betrayed that, betrayed the readers, all of us, whether Muslim, Catholic, Jewish, atheist, all of us.

For the last few years, Mariam Veiszadeh has been campaigning against Islamophobia. She does a brilliant job but she's overwhelmed.

"This is not something the Australian Muslim community can battle alone."

And Hussein reminds us that this is the week we farewelled the author of To Kill A Mockingbird.

"The week that we farewell Harper Lee and there is still nothing more incendiary that the story of a white woman being raped by a non-white man."

Paul, a word to you now.

If only you could sit in a room with Mariam and Shakira and Sara Saleh and all the other Muslim women and men who are devastated every time you write about Muslims.

If you were really sorry, you'd apologise to them, and to us.

And give your time to a group of Australians who need support and love. Prove how sorry you are. Help reclaim Australia from racists and bigots.
 

Source: Daily Life

Paul Sheehan apologises for failing to check story of gang-rape by Arabic-speaking men
 

Sydney Morning Herald columnist says he regrets writing incendiary column based on the ‘false memories and fabrications’ of a woman he called Louise

An Australian journalist has admitted he regrets and did not sufficiently check the facts of an incendiary column reporting a Sydney woman’s claim that she was gang-raped by six Arabic-speaking men.

Paul Sheehan, a conservative columnist at the Sydney Morning Herald, wrote on Monday about a woman he called “Louise” who claimed she had been dragged from her car near St Mary’s cathedral and brutally raped, beaten and urinated on after finishing a nursing shift at a hospital in August 2002.

She was quoted in extensive and graphic detail, describing the attack and saying sex attacks by Arab men “had been going on for years and [were] so frequent [they] had a name: MERCs. Middle Eastern raping cunts”.

Louise said police had repeatedly spurned her attempts to report the alleged crime, the effects of which she said she was still suffering 14 years later.

Sheehan published a substantial correction on Wednesday acknowledging that after subsequent conversations with Louise he now doubted the veracity of her story. “I had not considered the possibility that her story had been carefully constructed on a foundation of embellishments, false memories and fabrications,” he said.

“Nobody but her knows what happened, and although I was given a considerable number of details about her experience that were credible, I acknowledge that there was not enough definite information to justify writing the story.

“Prior to writing the column I had Googled her name, and checked our files, and found no red flags. Now all I could see were flashing red lights, barriers and sirens.”
Sheehan said in his Wednesday piece that he learned after the publication of his original column that a woman had made “very similar claims” at a rally for Reclaim Australia, a rightwing anti-Muslim movement.

A video from the rally seen by the Guardian shows a woman telling a story with very similar details to the crowd of about 200, who respond with cries of “scum” and “fucking Muslims”.

Guardian Australia cannot verify whether the woman in the video is Sheehan’s source.

The person in the video says that in the months after her alleged rape she continued to be terrorised by Muslim men. “I witnessed carloads of Muslim men – yes, I identified them by their headwear, their beards and their dress – who would set fire to the homeless men, who would kick the shit out of us just because we were on the streets,” she said.
She also railed against halal certification of food, claimed to have regularly witnessed as a nurse “the female castration of nine-year-olds” and said Australia was under threat from sharia, or Islamic, law.

After the column’s publication Louise was given the opportunity to report the crime to police but declined. Sheehan apologised to the New South Wales police for giving the impression they were indifferent to the alleged crime.

Louise has claimed in other media reports she was held hostage for four days.

The Sydney Morning Herald has issued a correction and removed details of the alleged rape from the original column, which was shared or liked more than 12,000 times on Facebook.

According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies the true rate of false rape accusations is difficult to ascertain but are thought to be very uncommon.
 

Source: The Guardian

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Ashley-Kate is a Runcorn resident who has been selected to represent Australia at the World Down Syndrome Swimming Championships in Florence, Italy.

The self-funded trip will cost around $13 000 and Ashley-Kate and her mum have been trying to raise the money themselves. In mid-January, Ashley-Kate’s charity tin was stolen from the counter of the Coffee Club at Calamvale.
 

The Muslim Charitable Foundation (MCF) approached MP Graham Perrett's office to try to assist. A donation of a $1000 was made at the "Dunlop Park Memorial Park Swimming Pool".

Barb, the mother of Asley-Kate and Craig Tobin, her coach where overwhelmed with this donation and thanked the Muslim Community for their generosity.

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Addressing a symposium at Griffith University hosted by the Canadian Government this month, Dr Angela Workman-Stark, from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said police need to listen to the communities they serve to protect.

The two day symposium in Brisbane brought together police, academic experts, and community members to debate different approaches to countering violent extremism. The role of police was the ‘hot topic’ of the conference, with many delegates pointing to the community backlash generated by high profile counter terrorism operations.

Workman-Stark said there is a space for police to operate more in the social aspect of countering violent extremism.

“The reactive part is the easy part. It’s the front end, it’s the prevention and community engagement that we need to be good at”, she said.

Inspector Michael Crowley, from the Queensland Police Security and Counter-Terrorism Group , echoed the Canadian approach.

Crowley told the symposium it was imperative for police to understand the communities they are serving.

“In our command, we organised training for our frontline officers so they better understand the communities, the cultural and religious sensitivities in order for us to better understand them and improve our relationship with them”, he said.

Crowley acknowledged that police have faced backlash from communities and the broader public on the issue of countering violent extremism.

“We are scrutinised by the media and by communities. Media messaging, misinformation, and misrepresentation further attributes to community tensions,” he said.

Keynote speaker Phil Gurski worked as a strategic analyst in the Canadian intelligence community for over 30 years before joining the private sector. He told The Point Magazine the aim of countering violent extremism is to reduce the need for police responses.

“Radicalisation and violence (are) not going to end in my lifetime or your lifetime, I’m sorry to say. So what we have to do is deal with the problems that pose a threat to national security, using the full force of the law. I have no problem with that whatsoever. But, if we want to create fewer problems that reach the full force of the law, we must have adequate countering violent extremism intervention strategies. So let’s deal with that so then that results in fewer arrests and less deaths.”

Gurski said open dialogue between government and communities is key.

“Be open to learning and be open to dialogue. We all have preconceived notions in general, we all have preconceived assumptions, but to the best of your ability check those at the door and simply listen. Listen first and take action second. Let’s share more and let’s keep the dialogue going. There’s a lot we can learn from each other’s experiences.”

Negative media coverage of Muslim communities is a part of the problem, and Muslim communities push for better representation, according to Gurski.

“Get your own stories up. Not stories about people who join Daesh (ISIS), but stories who help with food banks, Muslims who help inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue. Those are the stories that have to be told. Those are the stories that mainstream media have to pick up on.”

Dr Clarke Jones, from the Australian National University’s Intervention Support Hub, said there was no silver bullet solution to violent extremism.

“It’s all about true and genuine relationships and partnerships that empower people and communities. In countering violent extremism it should always be healthy to question, test and re-test our intervention strategies,” he said.

Workman-Stark said police are learning from past mistakes.

“Our initial response was about violence, and now that we consult with the community we understand how we need to improve our strategy and how we can better listen to communities’ concerns.”

Jones was critical of some police tactics. “Our focus is all about risk and it appears to be done to the detriment of a young person and this has to change,” he said.

He told the symposium that part of the solution was to understand violent extremism in terms of a broader range of social issues facing communities today.

“Our policies are often criticised, there seems to be a lack of connection to actual problems experienced by young people, their families and communities. We need to build those relationships to continue to develop better strategies.”

About the Author

Widyan Fares is a staff reporter for The Point Magazine. She was formerly a broadcast journalist at SBS. Widyan covers a wide range of issues including countering violent extremism, community affairs and politics.
 

Source: The Point Magazine

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'Go stop real crime': Bemused reaction on social media to the arrest of the internet pranksters the Jalal brothers by the counter-terrorism police
 

The arrest of three notorious pranksters by counter terrorism officers has prompted some to question whether it was an 'overreaction' and 'waste of police time'.

Hundreds have taken to social media to criticise Victoria Police over the decision to take Max, 20, Arman, 18, and a 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, into custody for questioning.

But others have supported police over the early morning raid of the two Jalal brother's home in South Morang, Melbourne, with many calling for the 'comedians' to be charged and sent to jail.

The boys, who dress up in traditional Arab robes and fake terror attacks to try and scare unsuspecting bystanders, surrendered themselves to police on Thursday morning.
 

Thomas Woods wrote on Facebook: 'Seriously the police investigating the Jalals surely have better things to be doing.'

Gul N Mehmet Tan tweeted: 'Why Dont The Police catch the real criminals (sic)'

Dragan Ubiparipovic said: 'Go stop real crime, taking this to far.'

Zaky Mallah said: 'A police search warrant to raid the Jalal brothers home? What are the Vic police searching for? The fake golden gun? Or the Muslim robes?'

Kevin Farrugia said: 'All you guys saying well done vic pol, send them away, they're just some teens trying to make people laugh, doesn't need all this publicity. disappointing vic pol...'

Kane GaryTurtels said: 'Well done Victoria police. I can now sleep at night knowing you have saved the community from these crazy kids.'

Mary B said: 'What an overreaction from police!!! #Jalals'
 

Others questioned why it had taken the police so long to take action, as the first 'extreme' suicide bomber hoax video aired in December.

Vivian said: 'Why have they been allowed to continue with this behaviour for so long?'

Michael L tweeted: 'About time Victoria Police.'

Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther from Victoria Police told media that the response has been 'driven by the changing nature of these posts and the escalation in terms of content'.

'We believe the tipping point has been reached where the content is completely unacceptable and it is in fact criminal. And that is how we will be proceeding with it,' he said.

'They have caused some significant alarm in our community when we already have heightened security.

'The videos portray terrorists in a certain way and it causes anxiety and problematic behaviours within the community.

'It is problematic for police attending incidents like this as there is potential for serious injury and that is of concern to us. This behaviour is not okay.'

He said the counter terrorism unit is involved because the videos create fear in the community and promote criminal behaviour.

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Education department says school did not record where commonwealth funding was being spent and pooled funding with other revenue

A phantom loan, mystery payments and undeclared conflicts of interest are among the issues identified by a federal government investigation into Australia’s largest Islamic school, which faces closure after being stripped of $19m federal funding.

The full extent of the alleged mismanagement at Malek Fahd Islamic school (MFIS) is laid out in a proposed Department of Education decision sent to school administrators in November, obtained and published in full by Guardian Australia on Wednesday.

It includes a number of allegations that commonwealth funding was not entirely being spent on the school and that hundreds of thousands of dollars were instead paid to senior administrators and the school’s parent organisation, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (Afic).

In one example, a former business manager of the school, Agim Garana, earned more than $500,000 since 2012, including annual leave loadings that were inconsistent with his salary, and payments that either predated his contract or were not included in any agreement.

“The contract with Mr Garana, the payments to Mr Garana and the lack of identification of the services provided demonstrates to me that money of MFISL is being distributed to Mr Garana,” a Department of Education delegate said in the breach notice.

Another key former Afic figure, Amjad Mehboob, was engaged in 2013 to provide capital management services at a cost of more than $481,500 since 2013, though he also received payments that predated his contract.

“There is inadequate information to identify what services were provided for the $481,500,” the department said.

It argued that Mehboob, the head of Muslims NSW, took a key managerial role in the school but there was “no evidence to support the adequacy of the experience and expertise of Mr Mehboob in providing those services”.

“I consider that Mr Mehboob does not have sufficient experience and expertise in administering a school,” the breach notice said.

Garana and Mehboob were both sacked from the school in October after falling out with its chairman, Hafez Kassem, who is also the president of Afic. Emails obtained by Guardian Australia indicate the pair are now among those leading the push to oust Kassem at a special Afic congress organised for 6 March.

The investigation found the school did not record where commonwealth funding was being spent and pooled the funding in its accounts with other sources of revenue.

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Federal LNP member for Dawson (Queensland), George Christensen (pictured left), is trying to set up a website called the War on Radical Islam. The website features violent imagery including a knife and a gun scope.

He has said that the website will "feature articles critical on radical Islam as well solutions to the issue such as a reformation to Islam, and support for moderate Muslims seeking to reform their faith".

Mr Graham Perrett MP, Member for Moreton, told CCN: "Violent extremism is not countered with juvenile and divisive websites from Government MPs. Inflammatory remarks undermine efforts to build social cohesion and mutual respect and should be condemned by political and community leaders".

"Malcolm Turnbull must pull George Christensen into line and if he does not it is further sign he has lost control of his Government to the right wing of his party,” said Mr Perrett.

Muneeb Khan, Secretary of the
Islamic Society of Mackay (ISOM) said in response to the website:

"We believe that such websites invariably end up being a tool to spread fear and vilifying the whole Muslim community. That is mostly because the commentary is by people with very little understanding of Islam or radicalisation. In many occasions the statements made on such websites and by people like George are simply wrong or exaggerated. These websites like other extremists websites spread hatred and vilifies the whole community. We are always open to dialogue of communication and are open to all members of community who may have any concerns. This website will be of no benefit rather it will end up being a tool to further divide our communities and create a climate of hatred and fear"

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At 21, Yassmin Abdel-Magied found herself working on a remote Australian oil and gas rig.

She was the only woman and certainly the only Sudanese-Egyptian-Australian background Muslim woman.

With her hijab quickly christened a 'tea cosy' there could not be a more unlikely place on earth for a young Muslim woman to want to be. In her new book, Yassmin's Story, Yassmin tells the story of how she got there, where she is going, and how she wants the world to change.

Yassmin is frank, fearless, funny, articulate, and inspirational, and she was kind enough to answer our questions so we could get to know her a little better.

1. What was your favourite book growing up and why?
This is an incredibly difficult question! I don’t know if I can narrow it down to any one particular book. If I had to pick favourites, I would say Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was my favourite of the Harry Potter series, Red Rachkam’s Treasure (the favourite of the Tintin series, in which Professor Calculus was introduced!) and Alanna The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce.  I would also have to mention Hercule Poirot generally, as I devoured almost all the Agatha Christie books before I hit high school!
 
2. If you could invite three fictional characters to dinner, who would you pick?
Alanna of Trebond from the Tamora Pierce Series, Professor Calculus from the Tintin series for the laughs and Kvothe from the Name of the Wind series by Patrick Rothfuss (such a good series!). Strong fantasy theme, as you can tell!
 
3. What is your favourite opening sentence of a book?
Technically the prologue, but I remember reading this sentence and thinking ‘oh, I am going to love this book’.

“It was night again.  The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts.”

A silence of three parts?! What does that even mean, how does one even describe a silence? This was the opening line of The Name of the Wind, and the beginning of one of the richest novels I have ever read.
 
4. Is there another author’s book that you wish you’d written?
Not quite. I’ve never thought of writing in that way – I appreciate each individual voice for what it is. There are books perhaps whose impact I covet – the Lean In’s of the world – but I think many an author would like their book to have impact.  Part of it is timing, part of it is the power of the message, part of it, I have little doubt, includes an element of luck.  That being said, I enjoy reading a well crafted story and in those situations, part of me hopes to one day have that level of skill… and part of me revels in the joy of simply losing myself in the tale.
 
5. What would you like to tell your 18 year-old self?
“Yassmin. Stop freaking out about having to do it all at once. I know you think you are going to die young and so you have to do everything you want to RIGHT NOW, but slow down. You have at least 6 years ahead of you that I know of, and they are years full of learning and growth that you can’t even imagine yet. Be open to the opportunities that you haven’t planned. Be kinder to your family! Stop speeding so much, you will end up spending way too much money on fines… and don’t buy the Alfa Romeo. It will be cool for about a year, then sap you of your savings for the next four.  Enjoy your metabolism while you can! Oh and keep laughing. People will tell you to quieten down, but haters gon’ hate!”
 
6. Who inspires you? (Doesn’t have to be limited to other writers.)
My mother inspires me and always will (you will learn a lot about my mother in my book!), but by and large I find inspiration in the every day actions of the people around me. The kindness of strangers, friends who will go an extra mile for others, the video about a teenager schooling their teacher on privilege. I also have an amazing group of friends who are chasing their passions and doing amazing things in their own space, whether it is an ironman or working for Richard Branson, and that keeps me going.

Source: Dymocks

Yassmin will be speaking Riverbend Books, Oxford St, Bulimba on Wednesday, March 2, at 7am. Tickets to Breakfast with Yassmin Abdel-Magied cost $40 and include breakfast prepared by Riverbend Cafe.

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20 Non-Muslims of diverse religious and cultural backgrounds living in a Muslim country were asked about their experience with Muslims. Here's what they had to say...

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The rise of Tinder and Tinder-esque apps clearly demonstrates that we’re still trying to answer the age-old question: how on earth do I meet someone when I’m busy, permanently glued to my phone and more adept at a Facebook stalk than a real-life conversation? Of course, being part of any minority group compounds the issue, so it was only a matter of time before Muslims jumped on the app bandwagon and got cracking with their own versions.

I’ve spoken to people in Australia about whether they would use these apps and responses have been mixed. Some people are open to it, seeing it as convenient and discreet. But others feel that swiping left or right to meet a partner cheapens the process of meeting a partner, that it erodes the seriousness and sanctity of getting to know someone within a Muslim framework.

Others feel like it’d be too awkward to use an app like this because the chances of them having a cyber run-in with an ex or unwanted acquaintance are just too high. The Muslim community in Sydney particularly is like a squishy anthill, so I don’t blame them.

Whatever your feelings are on these apps, the demand for them is undeniable. I decided to head straight to the source and had a chat with Khalil Jessa, the creator of Salaam Swipe, and Hamid Saify, the creator of the Crescent app. While both are based in North America, they anticipate that their apps will have global reach across Muslim diaspora communities.

Jessa experienced these issues first-hand as a young Muslim in Canada and felt that “it is just too difficult to meet one another within our communities”, citing lack of opportunity and space to meet people as a key issue for Muslims.

Saify echoed this, saying that “[y]ou either know all the Muslims in your community, or you live in a city without many options to explore the potential of love.” He noted that there were few “inclusive” spaces for Muslims of all stripes and colours to meet other Muslims, something he hopes will change with apps such as his.

Both apps have similar functionality to Tinder, which I flagged as a potential issue for some Muslims, given that app’s rather (cough) seedy reputation. Jessa stated that, “[t]he fact that people are making a conscious attempt to find someone of their faith on Salaam Swipe shows that they are looking for something more meaningful than just a casual relationship.”

Saify emphasised the flexibility of using Crescent, noting that while some may be on there to get married, others may just be looking to make friends.
 

Privacy and discretion are key in this game. For those worrying about their Facebook friends popping up as potential matches, Salaam Swipe has a feature which specifically weeds out Facebook friends. Saify admitted that there is a stigma attached to Muslims meeting people online, and while he notes that it’s already happening, “no one is going to readily admit it.” However, Jessa believed that “it makes total sense” to search for someone online, particularly for Muslims who are looking for very specific characteristics in a partner.

Both Jessa and Saify feel that their apps provide a safe space for young Muslims who may have few alternatives. Saify noted that there is often “friction” associated with Muslims meeting partners and that apps like Crescent can play a part in making the process smoother and more natural, while Salaam Swipe reflects an attempt on Jessa’s part to “level the playing field and make it as fun and easy to meet people within our community, as it is to meet people outside of our community.”

Studies have shown that a third of couples in the US now meet online, and it appears that many Muslims in the US are jumping right on board. It’s difficult to say how many Australian Muslims would be open to the idea. From my discussions with young Muslims locally, it seems many have reservations, wondering if the pool would be too shallow for them to bother diving into.
 

There’s also the stigma attached to using ‘dating apps’, which seems to be a significant deterrent for young Aussie Muslims, particularly those born to first-generation migrants. Even face-to-face matrimonial events have been slower to take off in the Australian Muslim

But Jessa laughingly notes that he would definitely use his own app, while Saify also tried his hand at Muslim and Afghan matrimonial sites before meeting his wife (offline, as it so happens). To swipe left, or right, or not at all? The choices are now increasingly at your fingertips.

About the Author

Zeynab a 20-something Australian lawyer, social inquirer, traveller and chronic human observer,who started the blog Love Haqtually on all things Muslim relationships.

 

Source: The Point Magazine

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THIEVES have repeatedly removed the Torres Strait Islander flag from a Heidelberg West park amid community rumours it is “Arabic”.

The flag, which flies alongside the Australian National and Aboriginal flags in Malahang Reserve, has been nicked three times — twice last month, and once towards the end of last year.

And Banyule Mayor Craig Langdon believes thieves think the flag is Arabic.

Cr Langdon told Heidelberg Leader he received an anonymous phone call from a woman a few months ago who told him she thought the flag was Arabic.

He said the caller asked whether he was proud of the flags at the reserve.

“I said of course I was proud of the flags and she said ‘we don’t like the Arabic flag’,” Cr Langdon said.

“I said no it’s not, they’re the three official flags of Australia.”

Cr Langdon said the caller remained staunch that she and others in the community believed the flag was Arabic, and then hung up in a huff.

“Either someone doesn’t like green and blue or they think it is Muslim,” he said.

The council keeps on replacing the flag, at $80 a pop.

Cr Langdon said since the rude phone call he had resolved to put a sign up in the park with information on the history of the three flags, which will be installed in coming weeks.
 

Source: Leader

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Your very existence as a Muslim woman is a form of resistance.

If you’re shy and quiet, you’re a prude. You’re boring. If you’re loud and outgoing, you’re attention-seeking. If you are a Muslim woman that doesn’t don the hijab, you’re asked why you don’t by Muslims — or why you would follow such a barbaric religion by bigots. If you do wear the hijab, every aspect of your hijab is criticized for not being “hijab,” white feminists want to liberate you, men want to test you and see how pure you really are and whether the hijab you’re wearing is just a front.

Because of your hijab, all of a sudden, you become the spokesperson for more than one billion people. Even when you don’t want to answer the questions you’re bombarded with, you feel obligated because the very act of wearing hijab is a form of dawah, and the words you leave with this person can change their perspective on Islam. And in the middle of all of that, everyone has something to say about your hayaa.

Hayaa isn’t something someone can look at you and see. Similar to your iman (faith), it is purely between you and Allah (SWT). The word hayaa, is derived from the word hayat, which means life.

Hayaa can mean many things, the most popular definition of it is shyness, but it also means modesty, humility and self-respect. There are different types of hayaa, the social one and the one you have with Allah (SWT). The hayaa (shyness) that has to do with Allah (SWT) has to do with feeling embarrassed about committing a sin, no one knows how you feel about committing a sin except for Allah (SWT). That is solely between you and Him.

The societal one is the tricky form of hayaa. When it comes to men, hayaa can be talked about without bringing up their chastity because in a hetero-patriarchal society, a man’s virginity isn’t intrinsically attached to their worth. A woman’s hayaa is always spoken about in connection to her modesty, how appropriately she hides her beauty from the unlawful gaze of men — and after 1400 years of Qur’anic exegesis, it amazes me how hayaa has been reduced to how docile, de-sexed and nonthreatening a woman can be.

Hayaa for the woman in Islam is defined many times by men — and each time, it has something to do with hindering the man’s fragile, ravenous sexual appetites by contorting the Muslim woman into something that’s impossible. Likeable, but not loose or flirtatious. Quiet but not too quiet. Delicate but strong. Confident but not boastful. Intelligent but un-intimidating.

Celibacy until marriage is also stressed when it comes to a woman’s hayaa, along with hijab. Sex before marriage is haram, or forbidden, for both men and women — yet when we speak about a man’s hayaa, this is left out. When you consider how hayaa could also mean self-respect, hayaa is put into a better perspective.

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Amber Rashidi converted to Islam eight years ago after falling in love with a Muslim man.

"We started getting a bit more serious and I wanted to know what he believed in, and I wanted to find out what I believed in also," she said.

"I just fell in love with Islam and the beautifulness of it."

Ms Rashidi wears a niqab, abaya and long hijab when she goes out in public.

"I experience discrimination every day, but I don't take it on board because I'm happy in myself and I think that maybe that person is unaware of the real Islam," she said.

"I'm at the frontline of it because what I wear is very in-your-face.

"We choose very carefully where we go in Australia.

"We'll go to the botanical gardens and I think people who are smelling flowers are not interested in what I'm wearing.

"You go to a place where there's drinking and alcohol and people are probably going to say something to you, so you have to be aware of what you are wearing, the people around you and that I have children with me who can be affected."

Ms Rashidi said her mother, Vikki Crook, became a Christian around the same time she became a Muslim.

"I think the rest of my family just accepted that something Amber would do is completely out there, and it's just something Amber would do," she said.

"My mum is awesome and is very accepting.

"She found God, the same God but not from the same field, and I found God and we were addicted to talking about God."

Ms Crook said she had felt excited for her daughter when she converted to Islam.

"When she said she wanted to put the hijab on, I said, 'Go for it, do it'," she said.

"I respect her belief system. It's a beautiful religion and I'm really proud of who she is.

"However, Ms Crook said had had initial concerns about how Ms Rashidi may be discriminated against.

"When the grandkids came along I didn't want them to get the looks and feedback off other people. That worried me," she said.

"But, really, it doesn't affect them.

"Amber's got this way of talking to people and they gather towards her and they see a different side to the religion when they talk to Amber."
 

Source: ABC

NEXT WEEK IN CCN: Abdul Aziz

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Australia is currently afflicted by a social climate of hype and negative media around Muslim and non-Muslim relationships (e.g., protests by ‘Reclaim Australia’). Fatima and Stefania’s intercommunity initiative was aimed at instigating positive change in the community and within the university, as well as create a platform for open and respectful dialogue between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians towards a more harmonious and genuinely integrated multicultural Australia.

The hijab stall project is an intercommunity engagement and research initiative undertaken at the University of Newcastle, between March and September 2015. Non-Muslim women from students, staff, and the general community were invited to attend a hijab stall where they could learn from Muslim women why they wear different headcoverings. They were also invited to try one on. Fatima with 14 other female Muslim volunteers from a variety of national backgrounds and wearing different Islamic headcoverings, ran seven hijab stalls across three UON campuses and Newcastle CBD precinct over a period of six months. These hijab stalls contributed to important diversity and equity initiatives, like 2015 Harmony Day, and Cultural Awakening Day. They involved also many non-Muslim volunteers thus modelling genuine intercommunity dialogue and partnership.

The hijab stall project also offered the basis for Fatima’s honours research and a new and larger research project sponsored by an Australian Research Council’s Discovery Project awarded to Dr Paolini which aims at identifying new ways to break down barriers between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians, and more broadly increase social harmony and integration in Australia’s diverse society. Fatima has been invited to receive the award and present her research at the 2016 APS congress in Melbourne, next September.
 

Source: University of Newcastle

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Births

Marriages

Condolences

If you would like to record a birth, marriage, engagement or someone's passing please email ccn@crescentsofbrisbane.org with the details.

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8. Aziz Sancar

2015 was also the year that Aziz Sancar won the Nobel Prize for chemistry. It made him the first Turk to win the Nobel Prize. He won it together with Tomas Lindahl and Paul Modrich for their work on the mechanistic studies of DNA repair. Their studies may lead to the ultimate cure for cancer. Would be awesome right?

NEXT WEEK: 9. Ahmed Shihab-Eldin

Source: MVSLI

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Al-Masjid al-Haram, Saudi Arabia
Al-Masjid al-Haram, Saudi Arabia The Sacred Mosque, or Great Mosque of Mecca, can accommodate up to four million people, and surrounds the Ka'aba - a cuboid building that is the holiest place in Islam. It covers 400,800 square metres (99 acres), and has outdoor and indoor praying spaces. The mosque is also home to the Black Stone, set into the Ka'aba's wall by Muhammad before his first revelation, and the Maqām Ibrahim (Abraham's place of standing). Non-Muslims are not permitted to enter Mecca.   
 

Source: Telegraph UK

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10. "Take a Minute," K'naan (2009)

You may remember this lanky Somali musician from his song "Wavin' Flag," which was chosen as Coca-Cola's anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. But he has a ton of other things going for him, too.

He was born to a Sunni Muslim family in Mogadishu, but his family fled civil war when he was 13 and now lives in Canada.

Musically, he can be pretty much anything you want. A good example of this range is the difference between "Take a Minute," which is a soulful and introspective ballad, and "In The Beginning," which is exactly like what a party in my brain would sound like.

Try to sit still during that song, I dare you. It's also later in this playlist.


END OF SERIES
 

Source: PRI

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What have Muslims ever done for America? If your sole source of information were Donald Trump, you’d think that the answer was not much – apart from murdering its citizens and trying to destroy its values. The Republican presidential hopeful has called for a halt to Muslims entering the US until American authorities “can figure out” Muslim attitudes to the US in the wake of last week’s killings in San Bernardino. If only, you might well think, Scotland had had the same thought about Trump before he was allowed in to blight Aberdeenshire with another of his golf resorts.

What Trump doesn’t seem to grasp is his own country’s history, and how many American achievements worth celebrating are the work of the kind of people – Muslims – he wants to keep out.

Here, then, is a guide to some of the things Muslims have done for the US. It’s not an exhaustive list – but it’s still more impressive than what Trump has done for his homeland.

Bringing the laughs
 

And then there’s Dave Chappelle, who came to our attention as Ahchoo in Mel Brooks’ 1993 film Robin Hood: Men in Tights and is now a leading American standup. He converted to Islam in 1998 but doesn’t go on about it. Why? “I don’t normally talk about my religion publicly because I don’t want people to associate me and my flaws with this beautiful thing,” he told Time magazine in 2005. “And I believe it is beautiful if you learn it the right way.”

END OF THE SERIES

Source: The Guardian

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TUTOR REQUIRED

Year 2 student requires English reading tuition

2 nights per weekly

Please call Shafiq 0468342127
 

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The CCN BOOK-OF-THE-WEEK

In the Skin of a Jihadist: A Young Journalist Enters the ISIS Recruitment Network

by

Anna Erelle, Erin Potter
 

Description

A young French journalist’s riveting and unprecedented look at how today’s most ruthless terrorists use social media and technology to reach disaffected youth—witnessed through the undercover investigation that led to her deep involvement with a key member of ISIS.

On Facebook, “Melodie”—a twenty-year-old-convert to Islam living with her mother and sister in Toulouse—meets Bilel, a French-born, high-ranking militant for the Islamic State in Syria. Within days, Bilel falls in love with Melodie, Skypes her repeatedly, and adamantly urges her to come to Syria, marry him, and do jihad. The honey-tongued suitor promises the innocent, fatherless young girl a life of material comfort and spiritual purpose.

But “Melodie” is actually Anna Erelle, a Parisian based journalist investigating the recruitment channels of the Islamic state, whose digital propaganda—Jihad 2.0—constitutes one of its most formidable and frightening weapons, successfully mobilizing increasing numbers of young Europeans.

In this taut and riveting true story, Erelle chronicles her intense, month-long relationship with Bilel—who turns out to be none other than the right hand man of Abou Bakr al-Baghadi, the self-proclaimed caliph of ISIS. Impatient for Melodie to join him, Bilel tells her that, according to an imam, they are already all but married, and will be officially when she arrives in Syria. As she embarks on the final, most dangerous stage of her investigation, Melodie leaves for Amsterdam to begin her journey to the Middle East. But things go terribly wrong.

A gripping and often harrowing inquiry into the factors that motivate young people to join extremist causes, and a shocking exploration of how technology and social media are spreading radicalism, The Mind of a Jihadist is a riveting page-turner that helps us better understand the appeal of extremism—and how an Islamic militant attempts to brainwash, seduce, and manipulate a vulnerable young woman.

"One who does not read is no better than one who cannot read."

Would you like to see the cover of your favourite book on our book shelves below?

Then simply email the title and author to thebookclub@crescentsofbrisbane.org

Double click a book cover to find out what others think of the book

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Healthy nutty granola

Jallaludin (to his travel agent): I am about ready for a vacation. Only this year, I am going to do it a little differently....

The last few years, I have been taking your advice on where to go....

Three years ago you said go to Hawaii. I went to Hawaii and spent some days and my wife Tuntunbegum got pregnant.....

Then two years ago, you told me to enjoy Bahamas, and Tuntunbegum got pregnant again....

Last year you suggested Tahiti and Tuntunbegum once again got pregnant.....

Travel agent: So, what are you going to do this year that is different?....

Jallaludin replied: This year I'm taking Tuntunbegum with me!

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PLEASE NOTE

1. All Islamic Event dates given above are tentative and subject to the sighting of the moon.

2. The Islamic date changes to the next day starting in the evenings after maghrib. Therefore, except for Lailatul Mehraj, Lailatul Bhahraat and Lailatul Qadr – these dates refer to the commencement of the event starting in the evening of the corresponding day.

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Disclaimer

Articles and opinions appearing in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Crescents of Brisbane Team, CCN, its Editor or its Sponsors, particularly if they eventually turn out to be libellous, unfounded, objectionable, obnoxious, offensive, slanderous and/or downright distasteful.

It is the usual policy of CCN to include from time to time, notices of events that some readers may find interesting or relevant. Such notices are often posted as received. Including such messages or providing the details of such events does not necessarily imply endorsement of the contents of these events by either CCN or Crescents of Brisbane Inc.

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