Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Australia) Share this | Hansard source

For my Islamic community in Parramatta—and for communities all around the country—it is Ramadan Kareem. It is once again the holy month of Ramadan, the ninth month on the Islamic calendar, which commenced at the sight of the first crescent of the new moon on 16 May. For Muslims, it represents the month in which the Koran was presented to the Prophet Mohammed by the angel Gabriel. Ramadan will continue for 29 to 30 days, until the sighting of the next crescent moon around 14 June, and during those 29 to 30 days Muslims around the world will engage in a ritual fast from dawn to sunset, with complete abstinence from food and drink. In Parramatta, we celebrate the sighting of the crescent moon at the end of Ramadan with the Chand Raat festival, the biggest one in Australia, at Rosehill. It's an event I've been attending for a number of years, and I'm really looking forward to it once again.

Ramadan is a particularly holy month for Muslims. It's a time of charity, being the best you, spending time with family, and showing compassion and communal spirit. But one of the stories that I recall every time Ramadan comes around is a conversation I had with a Muslim man, named Omar, in my electorate. Omar's eight-year-old son wanted to fast with him; he wanted to do what his parents did. He's eight, so it's not really a good thing for an eight-year-old. His father was saying to him, 'Okay, you can just eat breakfast an hour later, or you can skip lunch.' He was just giving him a little taste of it. Omar said to me: 'He's learning restraint. That's what Ramadan is. It's when we, as people, learn to say, "I want that. So what?"' It's an extraordinary sort of concept for improvement. And now every time I see my Islamic community celebrating Ramadan, I wonder what these people who have done this year after year, all their lives, have learnt about themselves through that month of abstaining both from food and drink for the daylight hours—particularly in our summer months. In winter, it's a long time; in our summer months, it's an incredibly long day.

I'm in parliament for three of the four weeks of Ramadan, so I'm going to miss a lot of the iftars, but I just want to mention many of my organisations that will be marking Ramadan this year. Of course there's the Parramatta Mosque, and I'll be joining them for an iftar; Nabi Akram; the Gallipoli Mosque in Auburn; there's a prayer room in Merrylands; and the Ismailis and Ahmadiyyas, who have mosques just outside of my electorate. But to all of the people from all around the world—from Sri Lanka, from Somalia, from Indonesia—who have made Australia their home, to the descendants of the cameleers that were practicing Muslims in the 1880s, and to the descendants of the Muslim traders to the north: this is your month, and I'm delighted to be able to share it with you. And to all of those whose iftars I can't get to, I'm sorry; I'll see you next year.

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