Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 24 September, the former Grand Mufti of Australia, Sheikh Fehmi Naji El-Imam, passed away aged 88. During his 65 years in this country, Sheikh Fehmi was confronted by the challenges of misunderstanding and intolerance, worked tirelessly for multiculturalism, community and inclusion and has left a lasting impact on the face of our nation.

Sheikh Fehmi studied theology in Lebanon and arrived in Australia in 1951. Aged 23, he had travelled by boat and arrived amidst our country's White Australia policy. From the very beginning, he was faced with Melbourne's staunch conservatism and soon began working to develop a place for Muslims within Australia's community. He was undeterred in his mission to fully realise the ideals of the country he saw as a bastion of hope and a society of freedom and harmony. Always promoting tolerance, harmony and dialogue, six years after arriving he and a small group of Muslim Australians founded the Islamic Society in Victoria to foster a greater sense of community among the newly arrived Muslims and to help aid inclusion into the new country. He was instrumental in building Melbourne's first mosque, in Carlton North, and in 1976 personally knocked on his community's doors asking for donations to build the Islamic centre in Preston.

Familiar with facing significant challenges to practising his faith, a challenge shared by many, Sheikh Fehmi spoke of having to convince the Attorney-General at the time, Mr Snedden, to allow imams the ability to perform marriages for Muslim Australians. Similarly, barriers were faced in performing burials according to the Muslim faith, on which Sheikh Fehmi also engaged with the department of health to advocate for changes to the law.