To speak against the attacks on places of worship in the Sydney suburb of Auburn, Affinity coordinated a panel titled, ‘Universal Message of Love’
with the Sri Mandir Hindu Temple, Auburn Gallipoli Mosque and Auburn Uniting Church.
Affinity President Mr Mehmet Saral gave a welcoming speech, where he stated “…Auburn City area has had its fair share of attacks against places of worship, including Mosques, Temples and Churches, over the last decade. These activities were not one faith attacking another faith but were highly likely to be criminal attacks and offences”. He emphasised the need to work with the Police in sorting out these crimes.
The keynote address was given by a famous visiting scholar, Sheikh Afeefuddin Al Jailani from Malaysia. He focused on addressing the need for communities to reach out and let themselves be known to one another in order to establish peace.
Rev Dr Mele Fakahua-Ratcliffe from Auburn Uniting Church, responded by reminiscing how the community responded after their hall was burnt down on December 2005. She recalled how the Affinity President brought over to the Church a group of Muslim youth who collected donations of $500 towards the re-building of the church hall.
Mr Rajeev Kapoor, President of the Sri Mandir Hindu Temple, which had gun shots fired in to the Temple a few weeks ago, talked about the devastating attack on their temple. He sees it as a sign that people of all faiths should work together to stop the spread of violence and hatred. He noted how important it was to do this on a youth level.
Remarks from Superintendent Phil Rogerson from Flemington Local Area Command, gave his remarks from a Policing perspective and how the Police are on to the task at hand. He stressed that there have been other places of worship attacked in the area over the last decade or so and on all occasions these have been criminal offences.
Ms Julie Owens MP, Federal Member for Parramatta, also made remarks stating she is happy she got to share this moment with the locals and hear words from such an extraordinary person as Sheikh Afeefuddin.
The Vote of Thanks was made by Mr Tony Issa MP, State member for Granville, who thanked everyone for coming and highlighted the importance of faith based communities getting together. Mrs Barbara Perry MP, State member for Auburn, was also present, attending after her busy schedule in NSW State Parliamentary sitting day.Performances on the night included the Australian Sufi Music Ensemble accompanied with an Aboriginal Didgeridoo player.
As a token of appreciation, President of Affinity, Mr Saral, presented all the speakers with a traditional Turkish plate for their time and effort.
During Q&A, many questions were asked by the audience, to which the three speakers gave some interesting answers.
Overall, it was a great event, and it was good to see local people of all faiths coming together in solidarity to showcase that Auburn truly is a harmonious and peaceful place amongst the people of faith.
