In all, 7 awards were presented at the dinner co-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.
Interfaith Dialogue: Rev Niall Reid, Moderator of Uniting Church Synod of NSW & ACT
Academic: Prof Gail Whiteford, Pro Vice Chancellor Macquarie University
Public Service: Detective Superintendent John O’Reilly, NSW Police Community Contact Group
Media: Mr Hamish McDonald, SMH
Education: Mr Philip Worrad, Chaplain – Kinross Wolaroi School, Uniting Church
Community: Dr Ibrahim Abu Muhammed, Scholar & QK Radio
Youth: Mr Benson Saulo, 2011 Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations
Interfaith Dialogue Award Receiver: Rev Niall Reid
Rev Niall Reid is trained as a lawyer but has been a minister of the Uniting Church for 27 years serving in congregations in Scotland, Sydney and Canberra and he has been the Moderator of the Uniting Church (Synod of NSW & the ACT) since 2007 with his term concluding in September of this year.During his time as minister of Gordon Uniting Church He began to explore interfaith issues, leading a study on other faiths within the congregation, encouraging an initiative to invite women of other faiths to the annual women's retreat and through visitation to Islamic Schools and the Gallipolli Mosque at Auburn. Prior to becoming Moderator, he participated in an Affinity trip to Turkey. Since becoming Moderator he has continued to maintain links with the Muslim community through his relationship with Affinity and connections made through the Muslim Womens Association in the context of the Sydney Alliance. The Sydney Alliance has provided opportunities to build relationships with people of the Muslim, Jewish and Hindu faiths..
Academic Award Receiver: Prof Gail Whiteford
Prof Gail Whiteford is responsible for Equity and Diversity; for outreach programs in indigenous, refugee and disadvantaged communities; indigenous education and also oversees international development projects. She has been an invited facilitator on two EU programs respectively in Bulgaria and Turkey with marginalized populations, and has given keynote and invited presentations in 13 countries. She was honored by the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists in 2009 with an award for outstanding international contribution. Last year she gave a national lecture on social inclusion and has established the inaugural Building Inclusive Communities Awards in conjunction with the Ethnic Communities Council of Australia. She has numerous publications to her credit and has a new book due out early next year. She appeared in the first – and all subsequent - editions of the Who’s Who of Australian Women.
Public Service Award Receiver: Detective Superintendent John O’Reilly
John O’Reilly has joined the New South Wales Police Force in 1981 performing general duties at Merrylands. In 1982, he commenced criminal investigation duties at Merrylands. In the following years, He was designated as a detective & performed criminal investigation duties at Central, Mt Druitt, Penrith & Springwood Police Stations. In 1989, He transferred to the Special Weapons & Operations Squad as a tactical operator. Following his return to criminal investigation duties at the Organised Crime Squad, he was attached to the Armed Hold-Up Squad (North West Region), and the State Crime Command. He was promoted to Sergeant at City Central LAC and Inspector at the Operations Response Unit (Office of the Commissioner). As an Inspector, he was attached to Bankstown and Eastern Beaches LACs and the Professional Standards Command. He was promoted to Superintendent as the Commander of the Operations Group, Counter Terrorism & Special Tactics Command, to which he is still attached. Units that he is responsible for, include Community Contact, Strategy & Education and Security Management. He also worked as a police negotiator between 1992 and 2006.
Media Award Receiver: Mr Hamish McDonald
He is an Australian journalist who has spent most of his career as a foreign correspondent – in Jakarta, Tokyo, Hong Kong, New Delhi and Beijing – for The Sydney Morning Herald or the Far Eastern Economic Review, and is currently Asia-Pacific Editor of the Herald. He is also the author of Suharto’s Indonesia, co-author of Death in Balibo, Lies in Canberra, and mostly recently author of Mahabharata in Polyester, about India's most powerful business house. He has won two Walkley Awards for his newspaper reports, and a FEER cover-story he wrote on Burma was read into record of US Congress. In 2008 he was made one of six inaugural fellows of the Australian Institute of International Affairs.
Education Award Receiver: Mr Philip Worrad
He is the Chaplain of Kinross Wolaroi School in Orange ministering to students from kindergarten to Year 12 as well as the school’s broader community. He has
attained a Bachelor of Theology through the Melbourne College of Divinity and a Diploma in Education, Mathematics, and a Master in Education through the Australian Catholic University Sydney. He has been a secondary school teacher of Religion and Mathematics for over twenty years and is currently teaching Studies of Religion in Years 11 and 12. As the Chaplain of Kinross Wolaroi School, His principle duties are pastoral care, worship, teaching and building relationships that reflect the ethos of the Uniting Church in Australia. He is both a Catholic and a Pastor of the Uniting Church. His contributions toward facilitating students’ understanding, interaction and communication with the ‘other’ has included the introduction of Islam to the school’s curriculum, his providing opportunities for cultural exchange and experiences of religious diversity to students in a mono-cultural school, his co-ordinating a study tour of Turkey, his fostering relationships between Kinross Wolaroi and Sule College and Affinity, and his addressing issues of Islamophobia via displays, school publications and preaching. He has a passion for ecumenism, as testified by the fact that he is a Catholic and a Pastor of the Uniting Church, and for inter-faith dialogue. He has introduced the study of Islam into the school’s curriculum, helped to counter Islamophobia through teaching and by providing opportunities for cultural exchange and experiences to understand religious diversity. He co-ordinated a study tour to Turkey in 2011 and is building relationships between Kinross Wolaroi School and Sule College. He also fosters understanding and tolerance within the broader school community via school publications and his preaching.
Community Award Receiver: Dr Ibrahim Abu Muhammed
He is one of the most prominent Muslim scholars in Australia. He is a hafiz, that is, he memorised the entire Qur'an in his childhood. He continued his studies in Islam at the renowned and historic Al-Azhar University. He completed Masters at the College of Usuluddin, Al-Azhar University and later completed his PhD at the same institution. His PhD thesis was in relation to how Islam makes peace in practise. His thesis earned him a high distinction as the top of his class. He taught Islamic Studies from 1988-1991 in Ajman College in Al-Ayn University Abu Dabi. He has taught postgraduate studies in Islam at Leaders College under the Defence ministry of Abu Dabi from 1991 to1996. He authored twenty six books which have been published in Arabic. Some titles of his books are “Man and the Environment”, “The Culture and the Diary of History”, “Between Freedom of Thought and Freedom to Destroy”, “A letter to the Sane”, “The Man and the Sycophant”, “Mental Striving: its Fields and its Heights” and the “Pure Melody and the Immoral Melody”. He has recently published the second edition of his book “Invitation to Contemplate” which has been translated into both English and French. He was a cultural advisor at the Islamic Council of NSW for a year in 1997. He has established Radio Voice of Peace in 1999 which broadcasts Arabic and English program to an audience of more than 15,000 listeners. He has been the shariah advisor for MCCA for 10 years to date. MCCA is an Islamic finance institution established in Australia. He is the serving member of the Fatwa board of the National Imams Council of Australia. He regularly delivers Friday sermons at major mosques in Australia and holds regular monthly public lectures for the Muslim community. • Religious advisor to the Islamic council of NSW on curriculum development and matters of dialogue and community engagement.
Youth Award Receiver: Mr Benson Saulo
Benson currently lives in Melbourne with his Grandparents He grew up in Tamworth and began working at ANZ when he was 15yrs through the Indigenous Traineeship Program, completed in 2005. He later studied at the University of Technology of Sydney and worked in Business Banking as an Assistant Manager. He has recently undertaken a career break from his role as a Business Analyst to pursue a voluntary position with United Nations Youth. He is one of the 40% of Indigenous Australian’s under the age of 25 determined to promote positive messages about Aboriginal Australia and encourage an inclusive, progressive society. He has taken a 10 day road trip to Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Elliott, Katherine and Darwin by visiting schools and local youths from different cultural race and religious backgrounds to discuss local, national and international issues in their communities that affected them as young leaders”. He has being appointed the 2011 Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations. He is the first Indigenous Australian to be appointed since this role began in 1999. He participated on 3 boards, of the: Reconciliation Victoria, Aboriginal Advisory Board to the Victorian Electoral Commission and EastWeb; a youth lead philanthropic board focusing on Indigenous, and the Refugee and Asylum Seeker community initiatives.
Event Photos
