Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week and this week there have been a number of birthdays celebrated in my electorate of Parramatta and, because of those birthdays, I find that I have been spending quite an amount of my time with my Islamic community. Last weekend they celebrated the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed.

On Sunday I attended my local Shia mosque down in Granville, Nabi Akram, a place that I know quite well, where some of the nicest people I have met were quietly celebrating, as is their way, the birth of Mohammed. I should also say that I am often invited at Christmas time to that mosque to celebrate the birth of Christ. It is usually on Christmas Eve, so I have managed to get there twice, I think, in the last six years. The rest of the time I was off with my own family. They are a charming group of people at the mosque. They had made a very large cake shaped like a mosque. It was bright green and I had to eat at least half the dome on my own.

It is worth pointing out, though, that in many places of the world it is not actually safe for the Islamic community to celebrate the birth of Mohammed. It is not celebrated by the fundamentalists and we have seen in recent weeks a number of bombings of mosques and events around the world where people celebrating the birth of Mohammed were targeted by extremists. It is really clear in this community how grateful they are to be able to live in a country where they can live in peace, build good lives and celebrate their faith largely without fear.

I also attended a concert by Darulfatwa Islamic High Council, largely of chanting of the Koran, something which I quite enjoy. This time I got to hear it from the African community and the Polynesian community and the Bosnians as well. I have to say when you hear the Arabic chanting done by Africans it is amazing how it takes on quite a different colour. It was an extraordinary event and again a fabulous celebration of the birth of a person that is incredibly important to many people in my community.

This Sunday it is a birthday of a different kind. I am off to my Ismaili Shiah mosque in Auburn. Just as there are a great range of versions of the Christian faith, there are a great range, even in my community, of versions of Islamic faith. The Ismailis are a particularly interesting group who believe that if you can only educate one child you should educate the girl. They come from all over the world and virtually every woman you meet has a university education and the men are all in small business. It is very interesting way to manage their economy. This Sunday they are celebrating the 100th birthday of his Holiness Dr Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, their leader, a person who they hold in great esteem. It is a very important celebration for them and I will be pleased to be there.