Page boy Muaadth Omar and bridesmaid Alhena Khan

The nikah (wedding) of Naadira Omarjee (22), daughter of Saaeda Vorajee and Rashid Omarjee, and Hussein Karimshah (25), son of Shamene and Bashir Karimshah took place last week Sunday at the Kuraby Mosque.

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For a chance to have your wedding pictures and stories published send them to ccn@crescentsofbrisbane.org.

 A.R. Keri

How do Muslims engage with the modern world ? An Islamic studies major at Griffith University sheds light on an enduring question.

Deputy-director of the Griffith Islamic Research Unit (GIRU), Dr. Halim Rane said the course doesn’t produce traditional Islamic scholars but encourages Muslims and non-Muslim students to understand academically, issues facing the Islamic and broader world.

‘We need to have a strong foundation in Islamic studies, particularly the Quran and Sunnah but we need to be specialised in particular [secular] fields...to be able to understand and explain issues that are of concern to Muslims ’, Dr. Rane said.

Dr. Rane said the lack of interest in the Muslim world to pursue social sciences is due to the technical needs of nation building that favour engineering or science disciplines, and Muslim migrants settling in developed nations.

‘The social sciences are important for Muslims if they want to understand Islam because essentially Islam is a social religion’, he said.

According to Dr. Rane, some non-Muslim students are high achievers who don’t take the course for granted. Muslim students have an initial advantage but as the course progresses to advanced subjects, an Islamic upbringing is no substitute for a strong study ethic.

‘The classes are not designed to be propaganda for Muslims, it’s designed to engage in critical analysis of Islamic and Muslim issues’, he said.

The Islamic studies major at Griffith University is available under the Bachelor of Arts programme, part of the National Centre of Excellence in Islamic Studies.
 

Mr Adem Sav and Dr Mohamad Abdalla from Griffith University are conducting a large scale research project investigating the work-life balance experiences and health and well-being of Australian Muslims.

The research project is part of a PhD study and involves Australian Muslims, who are employed in various organisations and industries who will complete a short 10 to 15 minute survey about their views and experiences.

The surveys will be distributed in early March and April this year.

At present, the research project is examining the experiences of Australian Muslim men, with focus on Muslim women occurring at a later stage.

For more information on the research proposal click here.

Former Guantanamo Detainee, Mamdouh Habib, will speak in Brisbane at 6:30pm Thursday 5th of February at the TLC Building, 16 Peel St, South Brisbane.

this is a public meeting with Mamdouh Habib discussing his new book: My Story: the Terrorist Who Wasn't

Mamdouh Habib has been one of the many victims of the War on Terror.

Branded a terrorist, Habib was arrested in 2001 and imprisoned and tortured in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Egypt, before being sent to Guantanamo Bay for 2 years, alongside David Hicks.

It was here he was tortured by US soldiers, heavily drugged, deprived of sleep for weeks, beaten, given electric shocks, repeatedly injected with a needle in the same place so that it became terribly painful, left naked in freezing rooms for hours on end in isolation and threatened with rape.

In 2005 he was released without any charge.

Upon returning to Australia, Habib and his family have suffered police surveillance, threats of violence, and even assault by NSW police, yet received no compensation.

This special meeting will feature Mamdouh Habib discussing his new book and giving a first hand account of the brutality of the United States, and will expose the War on Terror for being a War OF Terror.

Mamdouh will also be signing copies of his book.
 

Presented by Socialist Alternative www.sa.org.au

Ph 0410621884 for more info.

A big youth event – youTHINK - will be held on 20 February 2009. It is the inaugural event of the Australian Youth Forum (AYF), the Australian Government’s formal communication channel with young people.

All people aged 15-24 are invited to take part.

youTHINK will be held simultaneously in ten locations around the country, and will focus on two topics:

• Violence and Safety
• Contributing to our Democracy

For more information and to register for youTHINK, visit the AYF website at www.youth.gov.au/ayf.

By visiting the website, you can also contribute your ideas on the above topics, as they are currently live discussion boards on the website. This means that even if you can’t make it to youTHINK on 20 February your ideas will still be heard. On the website you can also find information on how to ‘host your own forum’ and feed the outcomes through to the AYF.

Another new discussion board has recently opened on the AYF website. The AYF Youth Engagement Steering Committee, and a number of website users, indicated that they would like the opportunity to discuss the topic of human rights. This discussion is quite timely as on 10 December 2008, the National Human Rights Consultation was launched by the Attorney-General, the Hon Robert McClelland MP.

To find out more about the three discussion topics, have a say, or register for youTHINK, head to the AYF website – www.youth.gov.au/ayf.
 

The Australian Human Rights Commission has extended the deadline for submissions to its Freedom of religion and belief in the 21st century Discussion Paper until 28 February 2009.

Released in September, the discussion paper sets out to examine and report on the extent to which the right of freedom of religion and belief can be enjoyed in Australia today by drawing from practical everyday experiences and observations.

The Race Discrimination Commissioner, Tom Calma, said the discussion paper had already generated a lot of initial interest from individuals and organisations.

“We have been open to receiving submissions for some time but given the Christmas and New Year period, we want to give more organisations and individuals – including secular and religious minorities - further opportunities to contribute,” Commissioner Calma said.

“In particular, we encourage responses that represent a diversity of views in order to ensure a comprehensive foundation from which the research team can develop the final report.”

Commissioner Calma said the Discussion Paper asked a series of thought provoking questions but pointed out that it was not necessary for submissions to address all the questions.

“The fundamental human right of freedom of religion and belief is protected by a number of international treaties and declarations,” Mr Calma said.

“It encompasses freedom of thought on all matters and the freedom to demonstrate and express our religion and belief individually, with others, in private or in public, including the right not to believe.”

Commissioner Calma emphasised that gaining a comprehensive understanding of these issues could not be achieved merely by consultation with academics, religious institutions or government.

“We need to hear from as many people as possible, from all walks of life and I encourage everyone with an interest in this issue to take advantage of this extension and make a submission,” Mr Calma said.

Submissions can be informal and include letters or emails. Electronic submissions are encouraged by visiting www.humanrights.gov.au/frb or emailing frb@humanrights.gov.au.

Submissions can also be made by post to the Race Discrimination Unit:
Education and Partnerships Section,
Australian Human Rights Commission,
GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001.
For enquiries, call (02) 9284 9600 or 1800 620 241.

The Freedom of religion and belief in the 21st century project is being run in partnership with the Australian Multicultural Foundation, in association with RMIT

A pedestrian bridge is going to be built across Lake Burley Griffin in the nation’s capital Canberra to commemorate the contributions of migrants to Australia.

In all probability you or your ancestors are among the more than 10 million migrants who have permanently settled here in Australia since 1788. So this project is about you and your families.

The handrails of this 400 metre long bridge have been designed so they can be engraved with the names of over 200,000 immigrants. You can take part in this project by paying to have your or your ancestors’ names among them.

To make this truly a People’s Bridge, you are encouraged you to tell your family’s stories of migration so they can be recorded on the surfaces of the Bridge for future generations, and in the Migration Book for display on the Bridge and published online.

IBA has invited Architects Bligh Voller Nield, engineers ARUP Australia, composer Ross Edwards and poet Peter Skrzynecki to form with them a unique discussion forum to address the challenges of producing a design that will be world recognised.

The design team is ensuring that the Immigration Bridge will be one of the most significant constructions in Australia, a source of great national focus and pride with major benefits to Australian tourism.

THE MIGRATION BOOK will be a priceless collection of all the stories of migration that can be gathered and published on the Bridge in book form, and also online for all the people of Australia and the world to see. 

You are invited to record your story through the 'Tell Your Story' section on the IBA website. There is no charge for submitting stories.

Adapted from here

Extracts from Op-Ed by Peter Roebuck 

Humble, resilient, modest and unflappable, Hashim Amla has overcome plenty and emerged the better for it

Hashim Amla counts amongst the most serene of cricketers.

Nothing seems to ruffle him.

Along the way both life and cricket have tried to disturb his tranquility, only to be met with a mild smile and a broad bat. Fast bowlers have pounded him with bumpers.

Nothing personal, you understand, just that he was a new kid on the block and his back-foot game was regarded as suspect; mistakenly as it turned out. Refusing to hook, he simply parried the bouncers as he has everything else, and waited for the storm to abate, whereupon he resumed collecting runs in his unflustered way.

At times he has struggled against spin and found long tours hard to endure as the attraction of hotels wanes, but he has met every challenge, scored heavily in India, and finished the Australian tour with a stirring innings in Adelaide.

Too humble to disdain criticism, too resilient to be distracted, the young Durbanite has a toughness in him not easily detected from afar.

But then he has overcome a lot, has fought for his place every step of the way, has managed to remain cool amidst the furies that sometimes rage around him.

Always he has retained his inner core while recognising the need to improve, and without judging others.

Accordingly he has fit comfortably into cricket teams containing a broad swathe of humanity, and a fair share of ruffians, and has cheerfully joined in activities without ever selling himself short.

Of all his achievements, Amla's emergence as the first member of the large Indian community to play Test cricket for South Africa has been the most significant.

During the apartheid years the Indians tended to lie low.

Shy by nature, resourceful by disposition, aware of their origins as indentured labour, they were caught in a racial no-man's land, and so concentrated on making money and gaining a good education.

To them cricket was an enthusiasm, almost an indulgence. Certainly it could not be a profession.

Inevitably the game was played, and well played in places, notably in the strongholds around Durban.

It was hard to assess the quality of the players because they were seldom pitted against outside forces.

Self-sufficiency was paramount.
 

Obviously there were exceptions, in politics and cricket.

After all, Mahatma Gandhi made his name as an activist lawyer in South Africa, was thrown out of the first-class seats on a train at Pietermaritzburg station in the capital city of Kwa-Zulu Natal (as it has become).

It is Amla's home province.

Nowadays the Pietermaritzburg city centre contains a statue of the Mahatma.

The Indian communities also produced their own parties, and in some cases activists of the ANC - until recently the speaker in parliament was an Indian woman respected for her integrity and admired for her courage in supporting the ANC in its underground years.

Nevertheless Amla grew up in an essentially inward-looking society somewhat reluctant to enter the new mainstream.

He has played his part in changing all that.

Every community needs an inspirational figure capable of lighting the path forwards.

Makhaya Ntini has demonstrated the untapped capacity of the black population.

Ashwell Prince proved that he was as tough as a trekking Afrikaner, as durable as any desert nomad. But the Indians also needed to break through in the sporting arena.
 

Sportsmen can become national, and even international, figures in months.

Ask JP Duminy.

Amla belongs to a younger, bolder generation that had not been involved in all the palaver and patronising and repressing; a generation committed, expressly or by implication, to the ideas advanced by Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King and the other giants of the era; a bunch that wanted to live in a mixed and united nation, where a person was judged only by the content of his character.

A group that wanted to cross the great divide.

For all the turbulences of the period, with its desperation to find brown-skinned players worthy of advancement, Amla's rise was orthodox even as his background was distinctive.

Born into an affluent family whose roots lay in the state of Gujarat, he was reared in a middle-class home and sent to a highly regarded cricketing and academic school, Durban HS, previously the alma mater of Lance Klusener and Barry Richards.

His parents are doctors and Ahmed, his older brother, is a fine batsman in his own right, albeit one held back for a time by the hotness that often affects youth.

Nowadays Ahmed is so well respected that he captains the provincial team.

In short, the Amlas are intelligent, professional, serious but not solemn, and keen on cricket.

Evidently the parents are also enlightened because they did not discourage their younger boy from trying his luck in cricket.

Previous generations of Indian parents might have pointed him towards a "proper" profession.

And so it came to pass that Amla took his place in a powerful batting order and a successful, jovial and cosmopolitan national aide.

South Africa and Amla performed magnificently in 2008, drawing a series in India, beating England and overcoming the Australians on their own patch.

Throughout, the team displayed the tenacity of a spider and the spirit of a Scottish regiment responding to the bugle.

Amla played his part, calming nerves, unfurling numerous sweet strokes off the back foot, supporting his colleagues.

He is a son, a Muslim, an Indian, a fine batsman and a worthy member of a South Africa team that represents not the poverty of life but its richness.

Full article

The four rallies organized by Justice for Palestine against the Israeli attacks on Gaza and held over four consecutive Saturdays at Queens Park, Brisbane succeeded in raising $9213.50 in donations.

The money has been forwarded to Australian People for Health, Education and Development Abroad (APHEDA), the overseas humanitarian aid agency of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU)

APHEDA was created in 1984 as the overseas aid agency of ACTU.

Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA was established to contribute directly to countries and regions of the world where men and women workers are disadvantaged through poverty, a lack of workplace, denial of labour and human rights, civil conflict and war.
 

APHEDA has been engaged in a number of projects in Gaza.

Yusuf Omar, recently arrived in LA where he is spending the semester as an exchange student, writes home from California after seeking out relatives

Salaams Mum,

 
You asked about my visit to the family up in Norco. They live in a rare part of California known as horse town. Everyone there has horses. The drive thru even has a horse part!

Anyways they are VERY American country and very Indian at the same time. It’s a crazy mix! They don’t speak much English but the little they do is in an almost strong country tone.

They owned horse which they bought in the auctions for $1! They showed me the receipt to prove it.

Their source of income - breeding pigeons and parrots in the backyard (this is the one family I’m talking about).

The one uncle there (your 2^nd cousin) I made good friends with because he reminded me SOOOO much of Uncle Chooper. He had goofy like features and was very funny. Before doing this parrot business he was actually part of the assembly line for BOEING 747’s! He had some interesting stories to tell. 

We then went to another household for lunch where we ate really nice Burmese food (most of these people were raised or had spent a large amount of time in Burma). The food was excellent, a traditional soup which you mixed various items into.

I then fell asleep on a sofa due to jetlag.

The kids of these households (my 3^rd cousins) were real farm kids. I thought it was brilliant, better then growing up in the city in many respects.

All these households kept large German Shepherds. Not to protect them from other people like in South Africa, but to protect their livestock from wild dogs (there is a name for these dogs but I can't remember it - they look like a mix between a fox and a wolf).

At the end of day I was amazed at how they had kept their traditional Indian roots and maintained a strong Islamic culture in probably the whitest areas you could find in the world.  I felt bad that I couldn’t talk to them in good-rati (excuse the spelling!!!- that’s just a sign of how much I've lost my Indian roots).

I can't wait to meet the rest of the family but to be honest this household doesn't seem in a rush to do ANYTHING at all.

Lots of love

Yusuf

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - British singer Yusuf Islam released a charity song on Monday for which all proceeds will be donated to a United Nations agency helping refugees in Gaza.

Islam -- who changed his name from Cat Stevens when he became a Muslim -- will donate the money made from "The Day the World Gets Round" to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and Save the Children to help families in the Gaza Strip, UNRWA said in a statement.

The song, which was originally recorded by the late Beatle George Harrison, features Islam on vocals and Klaus Voorman, known to many as the fifth Beatle, on bass.

Islam said he hoped the music will "help remind people of the immense legacy of love, peace and happiness we can share when we get round to looking at mankind's futile wars and prejudices, and start to change our foolish ways."

Israel's three-week Israeli in Gaza killed 1,300 Palestinians, including 700 civilians.

The war, which began on December 27, tentatively ended on January 18 when Israel and Hamas began separate ceasefires. Israel says it launched the offensive because of rocket fire by Hamas into Israel, which has killed at least 21 Israelis since 2001.

UNRWA said it has provided over 50,000 civilians refuge in over 50 improvised shelters, mostly in its school buildings, and has been a focal point for aid supplies.

It is also playing a leading role in recovery response as well as providing on-going education, health relief and social services. This includes providing schooling for over 196,000 children and food aid to over 750,000 refugees.

A taste of the track

To download the song, "The Day the World Gets Round"
http://www.jamalrecords.com/cgi-bin2/commerce.cgi?display=home

Source

Building on the success of the first Boys Weekend Away a second outing is planned for 13-16 March at Bornhoffen near Nerang.

The cost of $100 includes accommodation, food and transport and is an opportunity to have some fun, get to know people from other communities, play sports and get in some outdoor action like canoeing and abseiling.

Contact Imam Akram (0431 672 263) or Mohamed-Junaid (0403 113 123) for more information or to book your place.

An ambitious plan to pump “significant” profits from the film Slumdog Millionaire back into the Mumbai slums where the film is set has been revealed by Danny Boyle, the film’s director.

 
Boyle said investors, who are set to benefit from millions in box office profits, were planning to meet in London next week to discuss how much money to put into a special fund and how best to distribute the cash.

 
“We want to set it up as soon as possible. What absolutely mustn’t happen is that the money disappears, or people think this is a PR stunt,” Boyle said.

Boyle and Christian Colson, one of Slumdog’s producers, revealed the plan after mounting criticism of the film’s alleged financial exploitation of its child stars and its portrayal of Indian slum life.
 

Source

  We Are One: AFIC applauds new Diverse Australia Program targeting racism and intolerance

  AFIC Fundraising Dinner for Gaza: Report

  The Executive Council of Australian Jewry responded "in the strongest possible terms" to AFIC's press release which made reference to the Holocaust and the Gaza conflict.

AFIC followed with a reply to the ECAJ's letter.

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