LETTER: Peace and love at Easter

My hands are still smelling of disinfectant. I spent around 20 minutes washing feet at a church in Ashfield. Bill Crews' hands are probably also still smelling, as are the hands of two Buddhist monks from Strathfield. Each year, on the Thursday before easter, we get together at his church to wash the feet of those who have fallen on hard times. These days, the number of such people has increased dramatically.

Bill Crews is carrying on the tradition of Christ, who washed the feet of his disciples. In feeding the poor and homeless, Crews is carrying on the tradition of Muslim scholars and sufis such as the late Shaykh Muinuddin Chishti, not to mention the work of numerous Buddhist denominations.

Easter is a time when Christians celebrate a loving God who (Christians believe) gave His son to die on the cross and then be resurrected. Muslims and Buddhists don't share the letter of these beliefs, but certainly share their basic spirit. So do other faiths such as Sikhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Judaism.

Another thing all faith-communities have in common is that we're not monoliths. There are lots of different types of Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jews etc. Those who choose to show hatred and discord try to ignore this variety, to dehumanise believers and to present denominations as monolithically evil. Prejudice is built on the foundational myth of the monolith.

I wrote about the phenomenon of prejudice in a recent article for the Sydney Morning Herald. Here's an excerpt:

On the ABC's Q&A program on Thursday, columnist Andrew Bolt spoke of "a rejectionist strand" that made Muslim immigration experience different to the experiences of Greek and Italian migrants. Again, the underlying assumptions are based on ignorance. To speak of a recent singular wave of Muslim migration is to engage in historical revisionism. Virtually all waves of migration incorporated an element of Muslims, including Europeans from Albania and the former Yugoslavia .

Some Muslims came as refugees, others as skilled or business migrants. Some have hardly been out of an immigration detention centre for a few years. Others are descended from Afghan cameleers who married indigenous women in the 19th century.

Yet, for some reason, Australian Muslims are treated as some kind of monolith. We hear pundits and self-serving religious leaders speak of a mythical entity called the "Muslim community". The idea that Muslims define themselves primarily by their religion sounds ridiculous when one considers that membership of the Lebanese Moslems Association is limited to adult males eligible for Lebanese citizenship. Yet what happens at this Lakemba mosque is somehow a reflection of 300,000-odd Australians who feel inclined to tick the "Muslim" box on their census forms.

One reader named "The Spectator ' decided to type up a letter and send it to the Sydney Morning Herald who forwarded it onto me. I thought I would share it with readers as it is relevant to this blessed time and to the issues raised in my Herald article. I've made some slight adjustments to the text.

April 3 3009-04-03

YOU AND YOUR CAMEL F*CKING MATES JUST DON'T GET ...DO YOU?

Why do you think there is a phobia against you second class citizens? I will give you a few hints ...you moronic uneducated imbecile.

The formation of a Middle eastern Crime Unit...why would this be. ?

The constant flow of Middle eastern names that crop up each time there is and arrest

The Shabby Sheiks mosque performance calling the police

The drug trade and bikies awash with these low lifes like you.

Car rebirthing,ATM raids, drugs, rapes ( Whats a fine bunch the Skafs were )

In your article you mentioned the Greels and Italian migration...big difference ...these people came to this country to work, and work they did...not bring their criminal ways and mentality to disrupt and corrupt a country that opened their doors and took them in from their war torn peasant backgrounds. You breed like flies and live like the pigs that you are.

I would suggest you and your criminal mates ( Adam Houda, another prime example) piss off back to where you came from...you are persona non grata and not welcome here. You are parasites and leeches on Australian society

Maybe Fred Nile is right. His concerns when low lifes like you and your Muslim mates want t change the way we live in are a danger to the freedom and democracy of this mighty country that our forebearers fought and died for .

"The Spectator '

I wish all my friends a happy easter. That includes "The Spectator '.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf


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EVENT: Opera & Koran meet Gregorian ...

Two performances only, both on Saturday 25 October 2008 at the City Recital Hall in Sydney. Click here to purchase tickets online.

The cast includes Tenor Rosario La Spina singing operatic arias; Dr Neil McEwan leading Gregorian Chants with the St Lawrence Singers; Sufi Master Fatih Koca with the Whirling Dervishes and World Champion of Koranic Recitation Ahmet Karali reciting from the holy Koran.

What happens when you combine recitation of the Koran with opera and the Gregorian Chant? Listen to Soner Coruhlu and Dr Neil McEwan talking about this awesome spiritual combination of sound and soul.

To read what the Sydney Morning Herald says about this event, click here.

To read a group of tunnel-visioned narrow-minded moronic imbeciles condemning this event, click here.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf


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COMMENT: Malek Fahad Islamic School, double-dipping and public funding ...

Congrats to the Sydney Morning Herald for resisting the urge to turn this story into another Muslim-bashing exercise.

The Herald reports today of a Sydney private school which is fobbing off its weaker students to the publicly-finded TAFE system ...

Private school sends strugglers to TAFE
Anna Patty Education Editor
June 7, 2008

YEAR 12 students at a private school in Sydney are forced to complete HSC subjects at TAFE if it appears they will not score high marks.

Malek Fahd Islamic School, in Greenacre, joined the top 10 HSC performers in the Herald's league table for the first time last year, ranking ninth - a jump from 15th position the previous year.

Malek Fahd students, who pay fees to attend the school, make up close to half the free HSC chemistry class at Bankstown TAFE this year.

Ken Enderby, who co-ordinates the Bankstown TAFE HSC program, said in recent years students had told him they had to take HSC subjects at TAFE because they could not sit them at Malek Fahd. He said one Malek Fahd student who was asked to leave the school achieved a lowest score of 60 per cent and a highest score of 72 per cent at TAFE.

"I have had parents in tears because their children have not been allowed to sit subjects at the school," he said.

"I'm happy to have those kids here. These are very good students - well behaved and a pleasure to teach."

Here's how one subscriber to the "Sydney Muslims" yahoogroup responded ...

Of course by sending the strugglers elsewhere they aren’t counted n Malek Fahd’s scores and don’t bring the average down. This boosts the schools position on the HSC league table. No doubt other private schools do the same regardless of which religion they subscribe to.

The disturbing thing about this is that the school a recipient of $12.9 million in taxpayer largesse last year sees fit to fob off its weaker students to the publicly funded TAFE system. This is even more galling when the $3.4 million surplus for 2006 is considered. Why is this money not being put into helping the weaker students boost their performance? The school should cater for all its students and not be a cash cow for its masters.

Is he right? I think he has a point.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

COMMENT: Adequate responses to the Anti-Terror Laws

Mr Howard is angry. He has every right to be. His Anti-Terror laws have been released earlier than expected. Further, his hand-picked Muslim leaders have not proven as loyal to his dictates as he would like.

Now is the time for all those committed to liberty and freedom in Australia to join hands and ensure that these laws cannot be passed without a huge stink. It is time for Muslim Australians, the ultimate targets of these laws, to join hands with other people of goodwill and struggle to defeat this illiberal legislation.

On this occasion, we cannot afford to show nepotism or incompetence or stupidity. We have to place our best foot forward. We need people to speak who are properly briefed and who understand the policy, legal, political and media environment.

That means that many of the usual suspects, many of the Uncle Letmesplaynyoo’s and leadership families will have to move aside. It is time for people in the ghetto to stay in the ghetto.

Sadly, up until now, we have had people speaking on our behalf who speak in thick accents (if they speak English at all) and who have little or no understanding of the policy and legal and political environment in which this debate is taking place. People who cannot articulate their concerns about this legislation without sounding like a bunch of communal whingers.

We need specialist voices in this debate, people who can attack the issue from all sides. We need lawyers, writers, journalists, academics, public servants, social scientists and other specialists. We need people in law enforcement, social policy and business. We need our best voices.

Inevitably, these are people on the fringe of the Muslim communities. They are people who spend most of their time interacting with the broader community. They are people who understand how broader Australia thinks and understands and feels.

Allegedly religious Muslims from the ghetto have to accept that their involvement in this debate may be a liability. People whose whole approach to society is based on reading Henry Ford’s “The International Jew”, whose minds are full of conspiracy theories or who are too busy setting up pamphlet caliphates should remain in their burrows.

Migrant Muslim leaders who have spent the best years of their life certifying halal meat or setting up secret bank accounts should stay out of this. People with links to tyrannical Arab Kingdoms should stay away, even if they do get to invite the Attorney-General to lunch.

Yes, these people can have a role. But it must be in the background. The front runners have to be people who can speak and understand and communicate and articulate to the broader community. Whether or not they are religiously observant.

Seriously, we just don’t have the luxury of stuffing up this one. I ask all those uncles who have at the back of their mind the possibility of returning home to have pity on us Muslims brought up in Australia.

You may be able to return to Tripoli or Karachi or Dhaka or Jakarta or Ankara or Ba. You may have only a few years left before you go six feet under the ground. But the majority of Aussie Muslims have nowhere to be sent back home. This is our home. And most of us are young and probably have many years ahead of us.

So be careful before you rush to open your mouths on our behalf. Because what you say has direct repercussions on us.

Yes, we need existing leaders involved. They can share with us their contacts and their knowledge. But they have proven time and again that they have little or no ability to articulate our views. The lacklustre response of these leaders to the London bombings is typical of the limitations of our organisational leadership.

Even more evidence could be seen at the most recent press conference of Mr Ruddock with the Muslim Reference Group. The irresponsible and negligent remarks of an AFIC President with woeful English language skills and no understanding of legal and public policy processes was clear for all to see. His subsequent back peddling on the anti-terror laws was an embarrassment to us all.

What these leaders need to do is stay in the background. They need to shut their mouths and consider stepping down from the Reference Group. Instead, they need to allow a proper and professional group to come forward, with representatives from each state.

That group or network should consist of people with the following types of expertise:

a. Media (print, radio and TV).
b. Public relations and public affairs.
c. Advertising and marketing.
d. Legal and law enforcement.
e. Academia, with an emphasis on politics, law and sociology.
f. Business, finance and banking.
g. Management and strategy.

Network members must be born or brought up in Australia, New Zealand or another Western English-speaking country. They should at least have a university degree and 5 years experience in industry, business and/or academia.

There are people across Australia in the Muslim community who have these skills. But don’t expect the royal families of Sydney or the Uncle Letmesplaynyoos to let these people take over. Instead, these people should come forward and network each other. They need to take the bull by the horns and take charge of the Aussie Muslim voice.

The campaign against these laws has to be led by people who are competent, experienced, articulate and able. They need to come together and network starting yesterday. They need to join with people of goodwill who do not label themselves as Muslim.

Muslim voices in Australia can no longer be hijacked by migrant voices with no respect for locally-born or brought-up Muslims. We Aussie Mossies need to take over. The migrant generation had their chance. Had they done the job properly, and had they left their irrelevant baggage at the airport, we would not be in the predicament we are in now.

Because if we don’t take over now, and if these laws are introduced, we might as well all move to New Zealand.

Yes, I know this sounds over-the-top. But if you read the draft Bill, you will realise our law-makers are even more over-the-top! And it is our liberties at stake. On this occasion, there are no second chances and no second prizes.

So if you feel you have the expertise in any of the areas listed and you know someone who thinks the same way as you, start working. Study the provisions of the Bill. Set up your networks. Agitate. Talk and write in a language ordinary Aussies can understand. Help defeat these laws.

Words © 2005 Irfan Yusuf


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