Senator Fraser Anning’s remarks, during his maiden speech in the Australian Parliament on Tuesday 14 August 2018, in which he called for the restoration of “White Australia policy” and “Muslim ban” on immigration has been overwhelmingly rejected by Australians including politicians of all major political parties and various sections of the civil society.
Victoria: Facts about Islam key to anti-Muslim prejudice
A Deakin University study has found that having more factual knowledge of Islam and contact with Muslims is linked to less prejudice against Muslims. The study by researchers with the University’s Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation (ADI) is the first to examine whether knowing more facts about Islam as a religion and knowing more Muslims predicts lower levels of prejudice regardless of people’s age, education and political views.
Western Australia: The towns where multiculturalism works, built on a foundation of tolerance
In front of a gathering in Kuala Lumpur of South-East Asia’s most influential Muslim scholars, the leader of a mosque in country Western Australia took centre stage. Imam Alep Mydie had travelled there from Katanning, a farming town 300 kilometres south of Perth. His message to the conference of ASEAN scholars was clear — that the commitment to multiculturalism in Australia was alive and well. “I put forward how we all live [in Katanning] together, and how the mosque is open to the public,” Mr Mydie said.
Victoria: The Maestro, In Search of the Last Music
Courage to Care together with Melbourne Holocaust Centre and March of the Leaving are holding fundraiser film night at the Classic on Sunday 26th August, 6.30pm. The film is called The Maestro, In Search of the Last Music:
Muslims in Sydney pray for rain
Muslims in Sydney have come together to pray for rain as NSW experiences its worst drought on record.
The prayers come as a response to the current drought which has left farmers across NSW in dire conditions desperate for rainfall.
NSW: Buddhist Retreat: Beauty and Sadness
Our lives are often caught between the experience of beauty and sadness, and sometimes we recognise the two in a single experience. The first disciple of the Buddha who entered the path entered through the gate of impermanence (anicca) and the Buddha proclaimed of him, “Kondanna knows”.
Most people avoid sadness and are fearful of anicca and see time as a kind of enemy, and yet it is a primary doorway leading to liberation. This weekend will be an invitation to enter into and to explore our experience of impermanence and its intimate relationship with beauty.
ABC Life: How to sit with someone who’s dying
When his grandfather died in the emergency department of a Hobart hospital, Andreas was by his side. “I was really frightened.” It was Andreas’s first experience of being with a dying person and it made him anxious.
“As his breathing slowed down and he was taking less and less breaths, I was worried about how I was going to feel when he didn’t take any more,” he says. “And then he had one final really deep inhale and exhale, and it was fine. “I wasn’t panicked at all. I thought ‘Oh, it’s not weird’.
Senator’s speech on ‘final solution’ condemned
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An Australian senator is being condemned for his speech in Parliament advocating reviving a white-only immigration policy and using the term “final solution” in calling for a vote on which migrants to admit into the country.
NSW: Afternoons with Geshe la: July to December
The Vajrayana Institute, Ashfield, NSW, offers an invitatio to Afternoons with Geshela: Saturday, 18 August 2018 to Saturday, 17 November 2018 from 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
The Daily Telegraph condemned for provocative headline
The Daily Telegraph, a Sydney based tabloid newspaper published by Nationwide News Pty Ltd has been widely condemned for its Islamophobic headline “ALLAH AK BARRED!” appearing against a background of flag waving ISIS gunmen on its front page published on Thursday 9 August 2018, while reporting on “Five Aussie terrorists stripped of their citizenship.
International: G20 Interfaith, Argentina, 26-28 September 2018
The 2018 G20 Interfaith Forum will take place 26-28 September in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Meetings will be held in the Auditorio Manuel Belgrano in the historic Palacio San Martín of Argentina’s Cancillería, the Ministry of Foreign and Religious Affairs, and the nearby conference hotel, the Sheraton Buenos Aires Hotel and Convention Center. This is the fifth annual event in a series of G20 Interfaith Forums held in relation to the meetings of the international “Group of Twenty” (G20) Economic Summit. The G20 Interfaith Forum is pleased this year to partner with meetings of the Argentinian project Ética y Economía, an ongoing dialogue on religiously- and ethically-informed dimensions of the economy, development, and society.
South Australia: ‘Faith Matters’ Service Project
Smiles were wide as young adults from different religious backgrounds in Adelaide came together for the third annual ‘Faith Matters’ service project event on Saturday 14 July.
About one hundred young adults (aged 18-30) from LDS, Muslim, Sikh and Catholic communities, together with their faith leaders, took up the invitation from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to work together in assembling birthing kits in aid of Birthing Kit Foundation Australia.
