Making 'multicultural' schools in Australia will never be easy.
There is already strong public prejudice against black skinned Africans & muslim arabs, because there different to the'normal' Australians. I really don't understand how, african and arab children are suppose to blend in, into a society that treat their parents as foreign freaks.

vinny, you might find this hard to believe, but there are many lebanese people with white skin.

Irfan,

Sorry I did not attend to your questions (9/01) earlier – I got side tracked with other posts and forgot all about it.

1. Coach, how do you define a madressa?

It’s actually spelt and pronounced Madrassa in Arabic – usually means ‘school’. But to put it in context and judging from the tone of your questioning, I thing you eluded to the ‘other’ significance of the word.

Madrassa is especially known (but not restricted to) in SE Asia as a place used mainly for teaching Islamic theology, the Arabic language, the memorising of the entire Qur’an, training in the understanding and interpretations and applications of the Qur’an (imams). Madrassa comes under different names in other countries (e.g. Kottab)

It is an institution in itself intended largely - but not always - for underprivileged children and adults who have no normal access to a proper schooling due to geography or poverty. Very little emphasis (not as a rule though) is placed on common teaching like science, maths, etc…It is also alleged that some madrassas are used for extracurricular teaching in jihad and military combat.

2. Do you know what the word means?

The word means a school (directly translated = teachery); coming from the word derassah which means ‘study’. The word describes a place, a building, typically including a mosque/ place for prayers and classrooms.

3. Do you know which language it is in?

Arabic – as I mentioned it before to FH and others, I am fluent in Arabic (and other languages) which comes very handy when deciphering the Islamic texts first hand – still relying on some translation when available.

4. Can you advise as to where madressas exist in Sydney or Melbourne?

As mentioned above, any place that teaches islam – exclusively or not – should by definition satisfy to some extent the description of a madrassa. It could be a school, college, mosque, home, boot camp, club, gym, or any combination.

I hope this answers your questions.

Irfan. You are right, there are many Lebanese with white skin. But for sure the defining factor is the "hair"....

My 15 year old son wants to blend with his Australian mates and keep with the Australian fashion and trends so he tried growing his hair, as is the fashion, and his hair went so curly and so big that he looked like Ronald McDonald. Not quite his aim. Reluctantly he had to cut it off, it was driving him crazy. Then it became obvious that the fashion in Australia is "no hair" for men on body and so he asked me to help him, or provide for him to remove the hair on his body. Help, 15 year old boys with Lebanese background tend to have more hair just on their face, not to mention their body, than the average Australian will every see on their entire body in a lifetime. All I could think of was, have they invented a "hair removal bath" yet.

I am still sitting here mouth open wondering how to tackle this problem of an Australian boy from Lebanese background wanting to blend with his Aussie mates and fashion when his genetic make-up, whilst it is essentially the same, is so different!

It isn’t easy. Maybe the fashion industry in Australian should take more things into consideration and have more scope when directing fashions.

A perfect example of a political correctness and diplomacy:

<vinny, you might find this hard to believe, but there are many lebanese people with white skin.

Posted by Irfan, Friday, 13 January 2006 12:45:27 AM >

Surely, a combination of not belonging to native Britons / Christian tribes is a key point.

I guess Mr Donnelly's recent piece in that American newspaper calling itself "The Australian" will also be posted on OLO in the near future. Again, it represents just how irrelevant some allegedly conservative thinkers have become. Mr Donnelly moans how the Crusaders are given a rough ride. After all, they were so harmless, going around murdering Jews and Orthodox Christians and eating the flesh of dead bodies. Such lovely people they were.

I know some people here would like to see a repeat of that in Australia.