Affinity Intercultural Foundation

Muslim Community Promotes Integration & Harmony with Ramadan Dinner and Harmony Awards at NSW Parliament House - Thursday, 3rd of September 2009

While so much of the world’s attention focuses on religious conflict and rivalry, it’s easy to overlook the effective work being done particularly in Australia to promote peace and understanding between cultures and faiths.

On Tuesday, 1 September, at the great setting of the NSW Parliament House with a gathering of over 160 guests made up of academics, politicians, educators and various other individuals from differing backgrounds, Affinity Intercultural Foundation along with its parliamentary co-hosts The Hon Paul Lynch MP – ALP, Mr Anthony Roberts MP – NSW Liberals and Mr Adrian Piccolli MP – NSW Nationals, presented the Australian Affinity Awards, to recognise the efforts of individuals who actively promote interfaith dialogue and the removal of religious prejudice in the Australian community.

Notable award receivers included Mr Hazem El Masri – Canterbury Bulldogs Rugby League Player, as he has been a good role model for the Muslim community in NSW; and Prof James Haire who is the Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture. The winner of the Media award went to Mr Andrew West, senior journalist at the Sydney Morning Herald.

After the opening remarks by the three Parliamentarians along with the Affinity President, Prof James Haire gave the keynote address.  Prof James says, “The work that Affinity is doing to create dialogue between faiths is healthy and encouraging and a positive way forward for all Australians.”

Importantly, many of those listening were eating their first meal since dawn, as the dinner marked the end of the day’s fasting, a practice required by all observing Muslims during the month of Ramadan. The sharing of a meal is considered in all cultures of the world to be one of the most significant gestures of accord and goodwill.

In all, 8 awards were presented at the dinner hosted by the Affinity Intercultural Foundation, an organisation founded in 2001 by a group of young Australian Muslims specifically to promote cultural and religious awareness and understanding across the entire Australian community.

According to Mr Mehmet Saral, Affinity’s President, “The Awards recognise individuals for their significant contribution in bringing together Australians, and improving understanding between Australians of diverse religious and cultural backgrounds”. 

‘2009 Australian Affinity Awards’ Award Receivers

Youth Interfaith:
The recipient of the award is the current President of MITRA Youth Buddhist Network. MITRA is a network of youth Buddhist societies with connections to many youth Buddhist groups and the greater Buddhist community.

Our award recipient has been the key representative of Mitra Youth and has worked on major projects in 2009 such as Powershift - Australia's first National Youth Climate Summit. This summit was held in July this year which brought together over 1000 youth Australia wide. She is involved in the organising of one of the Pre-Parliament of World Religions events where she represents the youth of the Buddhist community.

Muslim Youth Community:
Our Muslim Youth award recipient is the President and a founding director of the Ghan Lighthouse Institute, a youth organisation in NSW which provides leadership and mentoring programs to Muslim Afghan Youth. In 2002, he graduated from Year 12 in the top 0.05% of his cohort in NSW and was awarded Commonwealth and NSW prize for all-round academic excellence.  He was also awarded a scholarship to study at Macquarie University.  His community work began in 2005 whilst studying a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Actuarial Studies.

Utilising his academic success, our award recipient was involved in the launching of the Ghan Assistance Program (GAP), which provides homework help and mentoring services to Afghan youth in the inner and western Sydney.

He has also helped coordinate two annual Mosque Open Days at Blacktown Mosque, encouraging dialogue between the Afghan community and the wider community. He is currently works as an Investment Analyst at a global consulting firm and is engaged, soon to be married in January 2010.

Muslim Community:
The Muslim community faces numerous challenges in Australia and abroad as it seeks to establish itself as partners in peace, justice and democracy. Our winner tonight is recognised for not only his exploits on the sporting field but also for his service to the community. He is the leading point scorer in Rugby league history, the fifth highest try scorer and the most capped Bulldog player of all time. He has represented NSW at state of origin and represented Australia and Lebanon in rugby league. He is the Women of Leagues Man of the Year and is a recipient of the Ken Stephens medal for community service. On Sunday afternoon although I am a St. George man myself I had the pleasure of attending his farewell home game with well over 40 000 other people, itself a record for the largest non finals crowd for a rugby league match. He spends an enormous amount of time mentoring muslim and non muslim youth and promotes numerous charitable courses. I am of course referring to Hazem El Masri.

Education:
Our award recipient studied theology at the Perth Bible Institute and Moore Theological College in Sydney and was awarded a Bachelor of Theology (Hons). He then achieved a Bachelor of Arts (Social Welfare) from Charles Sturt University. He completed his Graduate Diploma in Education and in 2001 became a Studies of Religion teacher at MLC School in Burwood, Sydney where he currently teaches.

He is also an HSC marker and judge, and has served on the Consultative Committee for HSC Studies of Religion. He was elected Chairman of the Association for Studies of Religion in 2006. In 2003, he co-authored the Macquarie Revision Guide: Higher Schools Certificate Studies of Religion and is the contributing editor of the Cambridge Studies of Religion textbook which was published in 2008.  
He has been an advocate of interfaith dialogue, being on the organising committee of the "Peace, Justice and Interfaith Dialogue in Studies of Religion" Conference which was held earlier this year in this very building. He has also contributed to the Association of Studies of Religion whilst the president, bringing together presenters from various faith traditions at their annual Studies of Religion Conference, encouraging interfaith dialogue at a new level. 

Academics:
The world of Academia is at the forefront of leading social change and championing the cause of numerous movements that promote a voice of reason and perspective. Our recipient is currently the Deputy Vice – Chancellor (Academic) at Charles Sturt University since 2002.  Prior to that appointment he was the Dean, Faculty of Arts at CSU, a position he held from 1992.  Prior to his appointment as Dean, he taught the history of political and social thought. and is a specialist in the history of Russian religious and social thought.

In addition to his general responsibilities as Dean, then Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), our esteemed recipient has overseen the introduction and development of CSU’s teaching and research programs in policing and in theology.  He was responsible for establishing the first university policing programs in 1992 and has maintained close involvement in their leadership since that time.
He has overseen the establishment of CSU’s School of Theology in 1995 and the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture in 1998.  The Australian Centre is committed to interfaith dialogue and reconciliation and our recipient in this category has been Chair of the Board of Management of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture since 2002. In addition to this, he has been the sponsor within CSU of the introduction of Islamic Studies to the University’s profile.

Media:
Our award recipient is a senior writer at the Sydney Morning Herald. He is the author of "Bob Carr: A Self Made Man", a biography of the former New South Wales Premier; and "Inside The Lifestyles of the Rich and Tasteful", a study of social class in contemporary Australia. In April 2009, he produced and presented "The New Politics", a 48-minute documentary for Radio National's Background Briefing on how the global financial crisis is changing political and ideological trends in Australia, Britain and the United States. He is a former political correspondent for The Australian and was a contributing writer for The Christian Science Monitor. His work has appeared in leading international newspapers, including the New York Times and the South China Morning Post and in 1997 and 1998, he was an editor and writer with United Press International in Washington, DC. He has a BA (Hons) in politics and modern history from the University of Sydney and a Master's degree from Columbia University in New York City. He appears regularly on live ABC radio as a commentator on Australian politics.

Our award recipient has brought about good journalism and has demonstrated objectivity in critical times where most media may have followed a particular direction.

Public Service:

Our award recipient joined DIAC (then DIMA) in November 2005, as First Assistant Secretary leading the DIMA National Project, drawing together many of the themes around developing a better “connected culture” in DIMA. He commenced as NSW State Director in June 2006. He is a member of a number of DIAC Corporate Governance Committees; an Executive Fellow of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government; an alumnus of the Commonwealth Study Conference 2003; and a Board Member of the NSW Division of the Australia Day Council.

He was seconded to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet between February and May 2005 to work on the Government’s Welfare to Work Policy Taskforce that led to major announcements in the 2005 Federal Budget. In Centrelink, he also held the positions of General Manager Employment, Education and Disability Division; National Manager Employment Services Branch; and Area Manager Western Australia.

He was instrumental in organising an innovative project which involved the conducting of a citizenship ceremony at Auburn Gallipoli Mosque.

Interfaith Dialogue:

Professor James Haire is Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture (ACC&C), Professor of Theology of Charles Sturt University (CSU), and Director of the Public and Contextual Theology Strategic Research Centre (PACT), all based in Canberra. He took up his appointment in Canberra in October 2003.

Professor Haire has also served as Head of the School of Theology at Griffith University, Professor of New Testament Studies, Dean and President of the Brisbane school of theology and Principal of Trinity College, Brisbane.

From 1985 to 1987 he was Uniting Church Parish Minister in Darwin. Prior to that, he served, from 1972 to 1985, as a theologian in Indonesia (College Principal, Lecturer in New Testament, Church Administrator and Professor of Theology). He was involved in peace and reconciliation negotiations involving Christians and Muslims in the Moluccas, Indonesia from 2001 until 2005.

He served as President of the Uniting Church in Australia, and was Chairperson of the National Heads of Churches, from 2000 to 2003. He served as President of the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) from 2003 to 2006.

He became a Knight of St John in 2000, and a Rotary Honorary Peace Ambassador in 2001. He was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2003, and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2006.

For further information please contact Mehmet Saral, President, Affinity Intercultural Foundation at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and 9702 0789