Muslims in Australia - trailer (documentary film)

First time in Australia - documentary film about Muslims made by Muslims...

It's purpose is to show deep history and constructive contribution of Muslims in Australia.


Direct link:
http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=1386694383458957263

The rise and fall of the ’salafi dawah’ in the US

From http://umarlee.com/ blog
Over the next few days, weeks or however long it takes, I will be writing a series about the rise and fall of the “salafi dawah”, the accomplishments, mistakes and ultimately, its fall amongst US converts from my perspective and consulting with some other brothers on the scene at the time.

I’m not going to open comments on these posts until the end because I’d like for everyone to have the full body of information - at least from my perspective - before commenting. This is part one.

The Beginning…

In the early to mid 90s, we witnessed a period in which lots of people were becoming Muslim after the new interest in Malcolm X brought on mostly by Spike Lee’s X hats and the movie.

This brought on a short period of revived black consciousness in which we saw many black bookstores open that sold books such as “The Isis Papers” and “Stolen Legacy” promoting myths of a black super civilization that used to exist that had 25th century technology buried beneath the Saharan desert to protect their super knowledge from the evil of the white man. There was so much hope that ‘knowledge of self’ would finally bring blacks out of the rut they’d fallen into. This “hope” is what leads African-Americans into different movements. The strong yearning to be a part of something positive. Many of you will not understand this yearning, but it is very strong. I cannot understand it as well as a black person, but I do know what this yearning is like. This point is important because many of these new Muslims from the influx would find that their next “great hope” was in the salafi dawah.

The black consciousness period basically ended with the disappointment in lack of substantive response in aftermath of the “Million Man March”. Lots of people showed up, lots of good feeling, lots of money made for some, but nothing happened in the black communities after that.

After the Malcolm X bio-pic and the new black consciousness movement, this led to a lot of interest amongst black youth (even white youth like me at the time) in “returning to their roots” which eventually led many of them to Islam. I became Muslim myself during this period after reading the ‘Autobiography of Malcolm X’. The same is the case with others I know.

On top of pointing out the influx of Muslims that came in from the short black consciousness period in the early 90’s, it must also be noted that the internet was taking off. This is important to note as the internet would feed much of the growth of the salafi movement and, ironically, eventually contribute to its current decline.

Before this time, in the late 80’s, some of the forbearers of salafi dawah that were already here in the US, used to drive hundred of miles to give lectures in which there would only be like a dozen people who all knew each other. This was a “big gathering”. There were few converts that were salafi at that time. These speakers would form part of the backbone of the salafi speakers circuit along with those that were about to graduate from the University of Madinah (Abu Muslimah and Abu Usamah). It is these individuals, along with Dawood Adib, that really took “the dawah” to the converts where it was originally mostly a Gulf Arab thing.

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Warning on Muslims

Academic's warning on Muslims causes stir
Barney Zwartz
February 16, 2007
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THE fabric of Western nations is at risk when the Muslim population reaches about 10 per cent, as in France, a Jewish commentator on Islam said yesterday.

Raphael Israeli, an expert on Islamic history from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, told The Age that Australia was at risk of violence if its Muslim population increased.

"When the Muslim population gets to a critical mass you have problems. That is a general rule, so if it applies everywhere it applies in Australia," he said.

His views were last night dismissed as extreme by Muslim leaders.

But Professor Israeli distanced himself from a report in yesterday's Australian Jewish News that quoted him as saying Australia should cap Muslim immigration or risk being swamped by Indonesians. Professor Israeli has been brought to Australia by the Shalom Institute of the University of NSW. The Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Council is co-hosting many of his activities, including a proposed visit to Melbourne next month.

Professor Israeli said Muslim immigrants had a reputation for manipulating the values of Western countries, taking advantage of their hospitality and tolerance.

"Greeks or Italians or Jews don't use violence. There is no Italian or Jewish Hilali (controversial Sydney cleric Sheikh Taj al-din al-Hilali) Why?"

The head of the Federal Government's Muslim advisory taskforce, Dr Ameer Ali, condemned the comments as being "totally inflammatory". He said Professor Israeli was pushing an Israeli Government line and betraying his discipline as an objective academic.

Islamic Council of Victoria spokesman Waleed Aly said some of the comments attributed to Professor Israeli came close to the sort of remark Sheikh Hilali was condemned over. He said the professor was conflating complex and separate issues.

Professor Israeli said that when the Muslim population increased, so did the risk of violence.

"Where there are large Muslim populations who are prepared to use violence you are in trouble. If there is only 1 or 2 per cent they don't dare to do it — they don't have the backing of big communities, they know they are drowned in the environment of non-Muslims and are better behaved."

In Australia, Muslims are 1.5 per cent of the population.

In France, which has the highest proportion of Muslims in Europe at about 10 per cent, it was already too late, he said. There were regions even the police were scared to enter, and militant Muslims were changing the country's political and cultural fabric, and demanding anti-Semitic and anti-Israel policies.

"French people say they are strangers in their own country. This is a point of no return. If you are on a collision course, what can you do? You can't put them all in prison, and anyway they are not all violent. You can't send them all back. You are really in trouble. It's irreversible."

Professor Israeli said that in Australia a few imams had preached violence and influenced young people.

"You should not let fundamentalist imams come here. Screen them 1000 times before they are admitted, and after they are admitted screen what they say in the mosque."

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Signs of the Hour - Sheikh Feiz

Putin blasts U.S. for 'very dangerous' foreign policies

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of making the world a more dangerous place by trying to impose its will through an "almost uncontained, hyper use of force."

U.S. foreign policies are prompting countries around the world to develop nuclear arms, Putin told a security conference in Munich on Saturday in what many observers said were the strongest verbal attack that Putin has made on Washington.

Putin, speaking through a translator, said countries were "witnessing the almost uncontained, hyper use of force in international relations."

"One state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way. This is very dangerous. Nobody feels secure anymore because nobody can hide behind international law," Putin told the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy.

"It is a world of one master, one sovereign.… It has nothing to do with democracy," he told the gathering of senior security officials from around the world.
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US mayor converts to Islam

MACON, Georgia: Macon Mayor Jack Ellis has converted to Islam and is now working to legally change his name to Hakim Mansour Ellis.

Ellis, who was raised Christian, said Thursday that he became a Sunni Muslim during a December ceremony in the west African nation of Senegal.

"You do it because it feels right," said Ellis. "To me it's no big deal. But people like to know what you believe in. And this is what I believe in."

Ellis said he has been studying the Quran for years and that his new religion was originally practiced by his ancestors before they were brought to North America as slaves.
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"If anybody wants to know about Islam, I can hold an intelligent conversation," Ellis said. "What I've found is how little we know about the religion."
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Bush seeks $700bn for military

Only World War II has cost the US taxpayer more than the conflict in Iraq.
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George Bush, the US president, has asked Congress for an extra $700bn to spend on the military, funded by curbs on spending on health and domestic programmes.

The request, totalling a record amount of $2.9 trillion, provoked immediate criticism from Democrats who now control congress.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat leader of the house, said: "Democrats will not give the president a blank cheque on Iraq."
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Elements of Iraq 'civil war'

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence concluded that key elements of Iraq's violence rose to the level of "civil war" in a report on Friday that the White House said justified a troop increase and Democrats seized on as proof of a failed strategy.

Escalating violence between Iraqi Sunnis and Shi'ites met the definition for a civil war, but the politically charged term did not describe all the chaos in Iraq, the report said.

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Church's 'Jesus loves Osama' sign

JESUS does indeed love Osama bin Laden - it is just that he does not approve of him or his line of work.

The head of the Anglican church in New South Wales has said "there is a truth" to a Baptist parish's billboard declaration that "Jesus loves Osama", but love does not necessarily translate to approval.

The Central Baptist Church on George St in Sydney's CBD yesterday defended the sign - outside its front doors and facing the street - and said it was designed to convey that Jesus Christ taught the importance of loving everyone.

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