MAHA KRAYEM ABDO, a recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia, does not like to think of herself as a soldier in the culture wars but a refugee.

It was not easy when she and her family migrated from Lebanon to Australia in the 1960s - she barely spoke a word of English.

But the principal at Coogee Primary School would take the time outside school hours to give her extra tuition and, apart from occasionally being called a wog, she made friends easily.

Then, in the late 1980s, when Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses was published, things began to change. Ms Abdo said she began to realise the need to reconcile the twin pillars of her identity, as an Australian and a Muslim.

"[The public debate] was very much about the negative aspects of Islam," she said.

"I became very interested and wanted to know what it meant for me as an Australian Muslim, and that was the beginning of my journey to find out my own positions.

"Out of something negative I felt that I needed to participate and take a role in correcting those myths."

Since 1991 Ms Krayem Abdo has been involved in the United Muslim Women's Association - "we grew up together," she said - serving as president for more than a decade. In the process she became a de facto voice of Muslim women in Australia.

Her achievements are many, including winning the 2002 NSW Premier's Award for her role in setting up the Muslim Foster Care service. She was also the recipient of the Affinity Intercultural Foundation's Muslim woman of the year award in 2003.

But speaking out for Muslim women has also meant speaking out against those who have offended them in the name of politics.

Most notably, Ms Krayem Abdo debated the Reverend Fred Nile on national television after he called for Muslim women to be banned from wearing their traditional robes because he believed they could conceal weapons.

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She also spoke out against a call by the federal MP Bronwyn Bishop for the hijab to be banned in schools, saying that being "free within the confines of sharia law; it's the same as people saying they feel free under slavery".

However, it is not a role that Ms Krayem Abdo relishes. Rather, she would like to

wind back the clock, being treated as an equal at school.

"I will continue to do what I'm doing, so that my grandchildren can hold their heads up high and say, 'We're Australian and we are from the Islamic faith and this is what we have to offer'."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/a-refugee-building-bridges/2008/06/08/1212863458349.html

There are more photos of Maha at different venue (spot Pauline Hanson!) as well as two more beautiful woman: foster parent Susan O'Connor and domestic violence refuge worker Marion Hosking... May Allah shower them all with his blessing!

http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2008/national/unsung-heroes/index.html

AlGoreisRich said

<<I guess it depends on who we encounter, experience etc.. and I seem to cop the worst.(Muslims) in the sense of their hyper fundamentalism.>>

I'll have to invite you to one of our monthly Mawlids (celebration of the Prophet's birthday), where you can enjoy qasidas, then mingle with young Muslim families , as the kids chase each other around the masjid. :-)

salaams

Cornflower:
<<Like Roman Catholicism, the fundamentalism is in the religion and liberation comes from the rejection of it

Posted by Cornflower, Tuesday, 15 June 2010 2:28:49 PM
>>

mmm this word fundamentalism. What is it?

My Shaykh once said: "A sufi is strict on himself, while giving dispensation towards others"

From this, and encounters with Muslims, Christains,and Atheists, i derive my own definition of fundamentalism.

Fundamentalists know all there is to know, being kind to those who follow their teachings, but harsh towards those who turn away. They are pre-occupied with condemning others and finding fault with others and give no attention to their own selves.

salaams

Cornflower,
This is how the Fundamentalist/Moderate divide is playing out in Somalia

FUNDAMENTALISTS:
http://www.smh.com.au/world-cup-2010/world-cup-news/football-fans-executed-for-watching-world-cup-20100615-ybrj.html

<< Two Somali football fans have been killed by Islamic militants after being caught watching World Cup matches......
....Sheikh Mohamed Abdi Aros, a spokesman for the militants, said Somalia should respect their ban on the World Cup and focus on pursuing jihad.
"We are warning all the youth of Somalia not to dare watch these World Cup matches," he said.
"It is a waste of money and time and they will not benefit anything or get any experience by watching mad men jumping up and down.">>

MODERATES:
http://muslimvillage.com/2010/05/29/somalias-moderate-muslims-rise-up-to-fight-extremism/
<< .....For centuries, the Sufis were men of peace. They followed a spiritual current of Islam that emphasizes moral education, tolerance and a personal link to God. When Somalia plunged into clan wars after the collapse of the central government in 1991, Islam’s extremist Wahhabi strain gained strength amid the anarchy.
But the Sufis engaged in neither the conflict nor politics. When neighboring Ethiopia invaded Somalia in 2006, with covert U.S. backing, to suppress a hard-line Islamist movement, the Sufis remained on the sidelines.
The invasion sparked the rise of the ultra-radical al-Shabab, which swiftly took control of large patches of southern and central Somalia. Al-Shabab fighters soon set their sights on the Sufis, whom they branded as heretics, assassinating Sufi clerics and burning down Sufi shrines. They opened Sufi graves and pulled the bodies out.
“In this world, they kill you. And when you die, you still cannot escape,” said Abdullahi Abdurahman Abu Yousef, a senior Sufi commander.
An uprising begins.....>>

Being religious (or even strict in observing your religion) does not make you a fundamentalist and a fundamentalist is not necessarily religious.

salaams

grateful

Richard Dawkins has used the term fundamentalism to describe religious advocates clinging to a stubborn, entrenched position that defies reasoned argument or contradictory evidence.