Abdullah Saeed and his team at the University of Melbourne have put together a superb booklet entitled "Muslim Australians - Their Beliefs, Practices And Institutions". The book is some 80 pages long and introduces the fubdamental beliefs, practices and institutions of Islam as it exists in Australia.
The book is written for high school students and for persons with little exposure to Islamic literature. Aussie Muslims can also benefit from gaining an understanding of their community and its interactions with the broader community.
And many of our pre-conceived notions about Muslims are dealt plenty of blows by this study. It stunned me that Auburn in central Sydney has a higher proportion of its population as Muslim than Lakemba or Bankstown, with some 33% of the population being of Muslim background.
This is a superb initiative, and you can pick up your free copy by clicking here ...
http://www.amf.net.au/PDF/religionCulturalDiversity/Resource_Manual.pdf
Abdullah Saeed and his team (including the exceptionally funky Umm Yasmin of http://www.maryams.net/dervish fame) deserve to be congratulated on their efforts. I also deserve to be given congratulations in monetary format for the free plug I have provided to this wonderful publication. I trust the cheque is in the mail.
