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Category: Interviews »

Subject: Religion »

Seeking for harmony and understanding

Mohammed Abdalla.

Mohammed Abdalla, assistant Imam of the Kuraby Mosque in Brisbane, tells about the many ethnic origins of those who make up the mosque community.

Created:

2005

Date Added:

16 February 2006

Source:

Mohammed Abdalla interviewed by by Andrew Jakubowicz for MMA

Format:

mov (Quicktime);

File size:

2.5 MB

Length:

2 min 16 s

Transcript

My name is Mohammed Abdalla. I migrated to Australia in 1985. My parents are originally from Palestine…

I have a PhD in Islamic Science. I looked at Islamic science between the 11th and the 16th centuries, in particular what happened to Islamic science after the so-called golden age…

There is much deficiency in today's world amongst the Muslims in looking at the spiritual aspect. And myself having not, or lacking this spiritual aspect, I found solace in such a group of people where it gave me richness and spirituality and it also allowed me to look at things in a more moderate, if you like, moderate way, and a more subtle way…

I am a Sunni, a Sunni Muslim, and the majority of Muslims in the world are Sunnis – it is estimated that 90% or 85% of the Muslims of the world are Sunnis. The majority of Muslims in Queensland are Sunnis so I fall in the Sunni school of thought, if you like, which in itself can be now multi-layered…

Many of the Sunnis do not accept that you bring a change via a political revolution, but rather through education…

Kuraby mosque is made of at least 15 different ethnic groups…

Initially there were the South Africans, South African Muslims, who originally are from India, but they migrated long time ago, their parents, so they grew up in South Africa…

We have people from Zambia, we have people from Zimbabwe, we have people from Palestine, we have people from Jordan, we have people from Egypt, we have people from Algeria, we have people from Pakistan, we have people from India. We have revert, or convert Muslims – your fair dinkum Anglo-Saxon, white, blue-eyed, blonde Aussies, who are in the mosque. Who else do we have.. We have the Iraqis, and we have the Iranis, and we have.. these are some of the sample of what we have.