AUSTRALIAN AFFINITY AWARDS

Affinity: “natural closeness” or “getting closer to something in harmony”.
On Sunday 31st October Affinity Intercultural Foundation presented its inaugural Australian Affinity Awards.

Affinity Intercultural Foundation President, Mehmet Ozalp said, “the purpose of the Awards is to recognise individuals in a number of categories for their significant contribution in bringing together Australians and improving understanding between Australians of diverse religious and cultural backgrounds”.

The Friendship and Dialogue Dinner brought together members of the community from the religious, academic, educational, media and political circles and presented awards in seven categories.

Political: The Honorable Bob Carr MP, Premier of NSW
Media: ABC Compass Program
Interfaith Dialogue: Bishop Kevin Manning, Catholic Diocese of Parramatta
Education: Anne Colreavy, Principal of St John Vianney Catholic School
Youth: Hanan Dover, President of Mission of Hope
Muslim Community: Ibrahim Din, President of the Auburn Gallipoli Mosque
Academic: Professor Gary Bouma, Head of the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University

Photo above shows the recipients in attendence of the Australian Affinity Awards for the year 2004. (from right to left, Roger Bayley, Peter, Ann Colreavy, Hanan Dover, Bishop Kevin Manning, Prof. Gary Bouma, and Ibrahim Din.)

Political Award Receiver: Premier of NSW, the Honourable Bob Carr MP
The Premier has shown unprecedented support for social harmony in the state of NSW. He personally attended and spoke at the 2003 International Interfaith Conference. Earlier this year he invited Sheik Al-Faisal, the imam of New York Mosque, to Sydney in order to attend an interfaith program in St Mary’s Cathedral with Archbishop George Pell. This program was attended by more than a thousand people of diverse backgrounds personally invited by the Premier.
Most recently the Premier invited the Muslim community and religious leaders, along with Christian and Jewish representatives, to a Harmony Iftar. This was an historic event as it was the first such iftar dinner hosted by a Premier not only in NSW but also in Australia.

Media Award Receiver: ABC Compass
Compass is a unique program on Australian television, enlightening Australians with religious and intellectual curiosity for many years. Since September 11th and the rise of negative coverage of Islam and Muslims in association with international terrorism, Compass has followed an objective and positive line. Under the weight of negative news coverage, Compass has done a number of programs on interfaith and Islam including, “Encounters with Islam”, Women in Muslim Countries in a number of consecutive episodes, “Goodness and Kindness” depicting an interfaith dialogue example between Christians, Muslims and Jews; and very recently a two part series “Muhammad the Legacy of a Prophet”.

Interfaith Dialogue Award Receiver: Bishop Kevin Manning – Catholic Diocese of Parramatta
Catholic Bishop of Parramatta Diocese, Bishop Manning has displayed a genuine support for the interfaith movement in Sydney beyond his diocese. He provided generous financial support to the first International Interfaith Conference held in 2002. In subsequent years he has continued his support with active participation in these conferences. He has also been a key speaker and organiser for the very successful Christian-Muslim Dialogue in Greystanes and Baulkham Hills. He regularly writes in the Catholic Outlook paper in support of interfaith dialogue and standing up for social justice and against discrimination on grounds of race and religion.

Education Award Receiver: Anne Colreavy, Principle, St. John Vianney Catholic School
Anne Colreavy has been leading a private Catholic school in a sensitive area where there is a substantial Muslim community and a significant number of Maronite Christians. She has been at the forefront of making significant changes and has initiated harmony, dialogue and understanding between her school staff, parents of students and the Muslim Community. In October 2003, she arranged for her staff to visit the Auburn Gallipoli Mosque on their staff development day, the program consisted of a tour of the mosque followed by morning tea, a workshop and lunch at the MADO café in Auburn. In August 2004 Anne organised for P&C members and the ministers from the school to tour the Auburn Gallipoli Mosque, the feed back from the participants were very positive, they had an enlightening and informative session about Islam and Muslims, members also voiced their appreciation of her and her efforts beyond the call of duty in making such a valuable experience possible.

Youth Award Receiver: Hanan Dover – President, Mission of Hope
Hanan has contributed greatly to the youth of Muslim community initiating professional and grass roots organisations to address significant gaps in areas of mental health and youth health education. She is committed to self-development education seminars that are delivered to Muslim youth at various community centres and mosques to improve psychological health among young Australians. Hanan is a registered psychologist who founded the Australian Society of Islamic Psychology, and was instrumental in getting "Islam and Psychology Interest Group” under the Australian Psychological Society. She has presented at various international and local conferences advocating for religions inclusion in psychology. She recently also co-started the first Muslim community health and welfare organisation, Mission of Hope that is comprised of many young Muslim health and welfare professionals, addressing the unique and diverse needs of Muslims in Australia especially youth. One of the latest initiatives of Mission of Hope was their “Fatiha Project” where they launched a Muslim community drugs and alcohol campaign for the youth to address the issue while adopting the cultural sensitivities of the Muslim community.

Muslim Community Award Receiver: Ibrahim Din, President, Auburn Gallipoli Mosque
Ibrahim Din has been involved in community work for three decades. He is one of the early migrant Muslims who established the first mosques in Australia since the time of Afghan Camel Riders. He became the President of Auburn Gallipoli Mosque since 1991. In his tenure, the mosque has been completed from a course construction site to its present form. Although he is from the first generation migrant Muslims, he saw the need to involve the second generation in the mosque. Under his facilitation, and support, the mosque has engaged in pioneering work of establishing visitor services, annual Open Days and previous Friendship and Dialogue dinners. He was also instrumental in the establishment of Funeral Services in Sydney considering that people were sending their dead overseas. He has also allowed Muslims of diverse ethnic backgrounds to use the mosque to offer educational services to other Muslim sub-communities in Auburn.

Academic Award Receiver: Professor Gary Bouma
Professor Gary Bouma is one of the finest academics in Australia in social sciences. He has contributed greatly to the contemporary understanding of multiculturalism in Australia. He has been an advocate of the inclusion of one’s religious identity irrespective of what religion one may belong to in managing diversity in Australia. Gary Bouma has been an active participant in many interfaith conferences and events in Melbourne for a number of years. In recognition for his intellectual and active involvement in interfaith and intercultural dialogue, he has been appointed as the UNESCO Chair in Interreligious and Intercultural Relations in the Asia Pacific Region.

For further information please contact Mehmet Saral, Secretary, Affinity Intercultural Foundation msaral@affinity.org.au