Yesterday evening (Saturday) the Kuraby Mosque held its inaugural Jalsa for its first group of graduates from the Qu'ran Tajweed programme conducted by the Imam of the Mosque, Imam Akram Buksh.   Before an appreciative audience who attended the awards, the 19 men, ranging in age from 19 to 90, each recited in turn a short verse from the Qu'ran.   A member of the audience told our CCN reporter that these men were an inspiration and a testimony to fact that age was no barrier to learning, more so when it came to learning the proper pronunciation during recitation.   The evening concluded with a dinner.

The following men received their awards last night:

Holland Park Mosque will be holding its Centenary celebrations at the Mosque on Saturday 30 August from 11 am to 3.30pm.

In addition to the official programme which is scheduled for 11am there will be fun rides for the children, food stalls, camel rides and an historical exhibition.

A large turnout is expected and a shuttle bus service will be operating from designated car park areas in the vicinity of the Mosque.

Proud to be Aussie!

Victoria University (VU) - Australia's most culturally diverse university - will launch a student guide for Muslim students, acknowledging their specific cultural, religious and social needs.

The 'Muslim Student Guide to Living in Melbourne' provides one of the most comprehensive listings produced by an Australian university for its Muslim students. It contains detailed maps, coloured photos, addresses, and contact details about a range of services to help Melbourne's Muslim students.

The guide covers:
. Melbourne's mosques and prayer centres
. Muslim student societies.
. Halal restaurants and food suppliers
. Halal food on campus
. Islamic bookstores and clothing shops
. Female doctors and dentists
. Islamic media
. Islamic women's groups
. Islamic celebrations and prayer times

Nearly one-quarter of VU's 45,000 students are from culturally diverse backgrounds, with a strong concentration from south-east Asia and Horn of Africa communities, which are substantially Muslim in religious affiliation

MY Services is happy to announce that the 2008 Islamic youth camp was a huge success.

It seems the venue, Fraser Island, and the activities involved had won the likes of the boys.

4wd, fishing, bush hiking, swimming, kayaking and more 4wdriving is what 20 young men did over the 3 day camp and during the evening we had talks about deen and iman.

It was not only Muslim males that attended but also non-Muslims came along to participate which resulted in great positive dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims.

Alhamdulillah everything went really smooth and everyone who attended got along really well, and those that did not know each other before were exchanging numbers by the end of the trip.

The objective was to promote social cohesion between young Muslim males and young non-Muslim males through the means of healthy communication, and one of the ways to do that is to take them out of their normal everyday comfort zone and take them to a secluded island where there are no arcade machines, no city skyscrapers and no Starbucks.

Everyone was working together to achieve certain goals during the camp like taking turns with cooking, stocktaking amount of food we have left, financial management with the budget we had, navigation, maintaining the camp area and guarding items and food from dingoes.

These tasks, which were rotated, were achieved to promote leadership skills and skill building among the youth, and everyone did a job well done!

With fantastic results and positive feedback at the end from everyone we are sure to make this trip an annual event.

On the 16th of August the Islamic pool competition was held at Breakers pool hall with an outstanding 35 participants setting their sights on the first prize – a brand new cue set.

It was a grueling one-on-one competition but finally after 2 hours of competing young Br. Moey won the last game against Bilal where they had everyone standing around in awe as the game was too close to predict the better player.

With both players on the eight ball Moey sunk the last ball seemingly effortless which stunned everyone in many ways.

The night turned out to be a fantastic one with a large amount of last minute participants just before the competition started.

MyServices and Al-Nisa would also like to send their thanks and gratitude to the boys at Breakers Pool Hall, Raheem, Zahid and Salman who contributed greatly to make this night a success which we could not have done it without their help, so thank you guys!

With more positive feedback about the pool night MY Services might consider making this event a regular event.

 

This British publication is aimed at helping you understand the health issues related to fasting so that you are able to make more informed choices, minimize complications and maximize on the benefit of your fast.

The booklet will guide you through physiological changes that occur when one is fasting; give examples of beneficial and harmful food during fasting, discuss potential medical complications and remedies, suggest a diet plan and respond to the most frequently asked questions about fasting in general and medical issues in particular.
 

The booklet has been put together by medical experts, Islamic scholars and researchers who have stayed within the spirit of Islam while ensuring the medical advice and suggestions are scientific and culturally sensitive.

Faiza El-Higzi was part of a team that was awarded the Department of the Premier and Cabinet High Commendation Award for Enhancing Governance Systems and Practices held last Tuesday 19 August.

Faiza was seconded from her agency to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet last year to work on a couple of projects of strategic importance that were presented to Cabinet earlier this year.

One of these projects - and the one which won the award - is rather unique in that it used a new and innovative approach pioneered at the UK Cabinet Strategy Unit, to inform Government of future policy direction, making Queensland the fourth country/State to use this methodology. It was also the first time in the history of State that a project was presented to Cabinet in a format that departed from the traditional way and that required prior approval from the Premier.

The second stage of the project was to inform the Queensland 2020 Summit delegates about the future strategic challenges facing the State to prepare them for the Summit in Canberra. Faiza played a major role in adopting the original approach to suit the new audience. The end result was presented to the Queensland delegates at Parliament House by the same consultant who lead the original UK project.

Faiza said she feels privileged to have been part of this work and to have had the opportunity to work with talented people to inform Queensland's future policy direction.

A Buddhist society's plans to build a temple in south-western Sydney is facing an outcry from residents, coming as it does close on the heels of the recent furore over a proposed Islamic school in suburban Sydney.

A resident of suburban Wedderburn, a 40-minute drive south west of Sydney, has lodged her opposition with the city council against the Da Bao Monastery's plans to expand its four-bedroom meditation retreat, raising concerns about noise, traffic and amenities.

'It will really disturb our neighbours. It's going to take away our peace, harmony, tranquillity and privacy,' the resident, Beatrice Alderden, was quoted as saying in the Sydney Morning Herald.

The United Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation of Australia monastery, built eight years ago for monks and nuns, is seeking permission to build two prayer halls, a single-storey accommodation building, two cottages, toilets, a five-metre-high stupa and a car park.
 

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