CREATING A SPACE
FOR FRIENDSHIP
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audio coverage of the event

This interfaith event was held in St.Vincent’s Catholic Church in Redfern, Sydney on November 3, 2002. It was prepared by a group from the Muslim and Christian communities led by: Keysar Trad, Maha Krayem Abdo, Mary McMahon, ElisabethBurke, Brendan O’Dwyer and Dorothy McRae-McMahon.

Mary McMahon: when we started we were gathering together again, a year after that event when we had had massive compassion for those children who drowned the three Muslim children. Then after we started preparing it we had the terrible events in Bali and we also had the ASIO attacks on the Indonesian Muslims here and so the whole thing expanded and we began to get more and more people, from different parts of the Islamic community. We also had the people from the Indian Sikh community who were also being attacked sometimes in our streets and we wanted to get together and really just say we are a real community here and we are going to work real hard to build this community. The fact that we were so many generations of people here and quite a bit of the leadership in this service came from our children, our Anglo Celtic children, our Indian children our Islamic children, our Indonesian children as well, the Lebanese children offcourse then we are teaching them a new way of living and that we respect each other across the great religions and races

Feda Abdo was one of two Muslims who were given the honour of facilitating the days events. Her vision is a vision shared by many Australian Muslims, one of a united Australian community. Here is Feda talking to Fatima Mowas after the ceremony.

Fatima: Salamu Alaikom (peace be upon you) I’ve got sister feda Abdo with me today who gave a couple of speeches in the ceremony.

Feda: wa alaikom assalaim wa rahamat Allah wa baraketoho (and may peace, blessings and the mercy of God be upon you too)

Fatima: so tell me feda how do u think this ceremony went today?

Feda: I thought it went great fabulous Alhamdulilah (praise to God), it was really good to see people with really diverse backgrounds all Australian there were Muslims, Sikhs Buddhists, and beautiful presentations by each of the religious diversities from Australia, and it was beautiful standing there on the podium seeing all these great people really asking for unity in Australia, we really don’t like to hear the backlash from others in the community that’s been happening for instances with the raids. There are Indonesian Muslims here today just everyone showing their support showing that inshAllah (God willing) we can come through this, it is a hard time now but inshAllah we will get through it and we can see that there is hope in the austrlian community and everyone is supporting the Muslims and it was so beautiful to see all these religions coming together for the sake of one purpose, bringing Australians together to one community.

Fatima: yeh it is, and you actually gave a poem at te end of the ceremony, can you actually tell us the significance of the poem.

Feda: yeh it was a beautiful poem written by a young 10 year old girl, it was about friendship and she was wrote about how friends are not always, you know the most rich or the most glamorous but they are always there for you when ur sad when ur happy, they will be there to laugh with you, and then even though we cannot always rely on people there is one friend that we can always rely on and that is Allah Subhanna wa ta’ala (God, Glorious and Exahlted is He). And Allah is always there for us, so it’s a very very beautiful poem written by a ten-year-old girl.

One of the attendants of this ceremony was Hiba young Muslim woman who was deeply moved by the event.

Hiba: MashaAllah (as God has willed) is was absolutely beautiful, I was sitting in there the whole time I had Goosebumps just to see, all the faiths everyone just meeting in one place, everyone was very friendly, everyone just looked around you could see smiles everywhere Alhamdulilah it was beautiful.

Fatimah took part in the official proceeding by reciting verses from the holy Qur’an.

Fatimah: it is I think appropriate to read Qur’an in such a gathering because Allah name should be mentioned as many times as possible where ever you go. And it was the best opportunity to read Qur’an and let everyone know that Islam is not what they think it is, I think today’s purpose, well for me personally was to clear out misconceptions, to show what Islam really is we are nice we are not oppressed because we wear the scarf and we do have a say. InshAllah we can make this work breaking the barriers between members of the community.

An inspiration for many young Muslim Women Hajjah Maha, the president of the United Muslim Women’s Association has always called for unity both within the Muslim and wider Australian Community. Her participation and support in this event sends a clear cut message to all Muslim women, that they should be proud to express their true Islamic character. Hajjah Maha spoke to fatima after the event.

Fatima: salamu alaikom

Maha: wa alaikom assalam wa rahmat Allah wa baraketoho

Fatima: how are you today?

Maha : Alhamdulilah, now that we have finished the gathering this morning here and hearing the prayers and the anasheed of different cultures and different religions has made me feel a lot more subhannahAllah a lot more sort of “alive” , seeing that human beings can be friends with one another and as today was the calling for friendship and space, I think Islam encompasses all of that. Today was again an opportunity for all of you as young Muslims, and me myself offcourse as a young Muslim, Australian Muslims to show and be together with other Australians from different religious backgrounds and enjoy each others friendship for the sake of Allah subhannah wa ta’ala. And break down those barriers, break down those barriers tat exist amongst different communities so that in that process of developing the friendship we actually break down the boundaries and those barriers that exist. So I feel today was really the beginning inshAllah of breaking down those walls that exist between communities and having everyone together. Listening to the recitation of the Qur’an, listening to one of the uniting church reverends saying something from the bible, form the Jewish community from the Buddhist, from the Sikhs again made me feel more proud of who I am and being surrounded by all those people and as the sheikh said it was a garden bed of roses from different colours and I think tyhats what sort of comes down to al-Islam and as Muslims Allah subbhanna wa ta’ala says we have created you fro different nations and tribes so that we may know one another not so that we despise each other and I think today was an implementation of that on a small level and inshAllah it will continue to be and become an annual event for all Australians together and really talk in an honest way about who they are and what they represent.

Sheik taj was also present at the event; his words after the event were one of support to young Australian women wearing the Hijab. He described the event as an illustration of Australians who are generally nice and loving people who support the idea of a multicultural society.

The Event was also covered by the international satellite channel Al-Jazeera, their Australian Correspondent spoke to Feda

Feda: what is the point of you being here today in Sydney Australia when we see that you are broadcasting from the Middle East.

Al-Jazeera correspondent: the Al-Jazeera satellite channel it is not only broadcasting from Doha where the centre of al-jazeera is having about 80 correspondents around the world reporting any events affecting the Arabs and Muslim community in general and also effecting the war in general we are here today because this is a significant event, we are working on a long report for about 10 minutes for al-jazeera about the Muslim community and what the problem they are facing here especially after September 11 and the Bali events and even the effect of the gulf war and even some of the internal matters happening to the community from discrimination against women discrimination against people who have the faith and are practicing their faith.

Feda: so did you see this ceremony beneficial in promoting harmony amongst the Muslim community in Australia?

Al-Jazeera corespondent: I think today is a very significant event for all the members of our community in Australia to have all these people from different coming sitting together sharing their ideas, sharing their prayer together and also sharing their thought we saw some kids, sharing their painting and drawings which is amazing to see all these people all these kids thinking of how we can live in harmony I think it is very significant and we hope we see more of it and that will create in the future a better society live in harmony. I think the struggle to stop this minority group in Australia who are facing the problems of all of society Following up the path of discrimination, following p the path of racial hatred these people will be defeated sooner or later because they are minority there are certain people in the Australian society is very kind very welcome and that’s why the opened up the door for migrant to come and live here in Australia and I think this event here today again it is very important for our community and our society in general and we are Al jazeera and we are interested in promoting this image.

Creating a space for friendship was an interfaith event held at the St Vincent's Catholic Church in Redfern.

This report was complied by members of Unity in the Community directed and produced by Glory Productions.