Australia: Eid celebration prompts reminder many Muslims work for cohesive communities

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Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth in Australia president Waqas Ahmad said they had consciously focused on humanitarian work this year.

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | AU Desk
Source/Credit: Daily Telegraph | Mt Druitt-St Marys Standard
By Elisha Pearce | July 6, 2016

As believers gathered at the local mosque to observe Eid ul-Fitr — the festival marking the end of Ramadan — Ehsan Ullah Malhi wants people to know there are Muslims in the community working hard to make it better for everyone.

Mr Malhi, 25, is an Ahmadiyya Muslim and as a Plumpton resident is eager to talk about how he and the members of his mosque’s youth group focus on community works and charity.

At the Eid ul-Fitr festival on Wednesday Mr Malhi, along with everyone in attendance, donated $17 to specifically go towards the poor and disadvantaged in the community.

The youth at the mosque met with friends and family first and then volunteered to cook and set up for the celebration lunch and prayers.

Mr Malhi, who is a quality assurance worker at a local factory, said the Ahmadiyya denomination of Islam, which began in India, is different to the Shia and Sunni Islam that many in the west hear about.

Their persecution at the hands of other Muslims around the world forms the background to their attempts to consciously work to improve the lives of the poor and fully assimilate into Australian society.

“We face a lot of persecution in countries like Pakistan,” Mr Malhi said.

“The government actually bans us and has persecution against us.

“A law says Ahmadiyya can’t identify themselves as a Muslim and you can be jailed for two years or fined.”

Recently Mr Malhi and the others in the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth, a national organisation based at a Marsden Park mosque, have raised money for the Red Cross, contributed the most volunteers in the nation to Clean Up Australia Day and went on the Alzheimers Walk around the Nepean River in Penrith.

We have arranged a lot of events,” Mr Malhi said.

“I personally think that it is very important for us to integrate into Australian culture and learn to live together.

“We want to dispel the bad ideas of what terrorism has done to Islam.”

Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth in Australia president Waqas Ahmad said they had consciously focused on humanitarian work this year.

“We want the youth to engage in two ways,” he said.

“Learning about their religion at the mosque is one part but secondly we want them to learn about Australia and integrate into society.”

Mr Ahmad said sport was a big part of Australian life so they brought it into their group — many of the families are involved in local clubs and they have invited local cricket clubs to play at the mosque.

“Whenever we have meetings a lot of sport is played,” Mr Ahmad said.

“And we celebrate Australia Day very strongly.

“We have the national anthem at the mosque and then the youth write their own speeches about what they love about the community.”
Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth raised $40,000 for the Red Cross this year.

They stationed people at Rooty Hill, Penrith and Parramatta train stations collecting donations for a month; Mr Malhi even went to the city to raise money.

“I went to Town Hall and stood out the front for four or five days for collections,” Mr Malhi said.

In July the youth ministry is focusing on National Tree Day and Mr Ahmad said the youth will take initiative.

“Council has given us about five sites,” Mr Ahmad said. “We’ll go out there and dig and plant trees. We want the country we live in to be beautiful, clean and green.”

Mr Malhi says many people understand Muslims as people who take blood, but he wants people to know about the large portion of Muslims that are donating blood.

“What we do is work hard to make sure the community knows about the better option,” he said.




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