Bluestar Intercultural Centre presented ‘The Second Australian Bluestar Awards’ on Monday 13th of August at the Albert Hall.
Each award recognises the award recipient's outstanding contribution to the understanding, appreciation, facilitation and promotion of dialogue between members of the various faith, no-faith and cultural communities. Contributions include engaging people as relevant, from both one’s own faith or cultural tradition and other faith and cultural traditions present in our community, recognising both commonality and difference in order to actively promote informed dialogue, understanding and acceptance. This contribution includes community outreach which involved both a personal effort and a broader involvement of his or her institution in engaging the various communities in our diverse society. This engagement further includes promoting dialogue in both the private and public domains in order to help build a harmonious and cohesive society through lawful means available to the recipient. Bluestar recognises people making outstanding contributions in six specialised self-explanatory categories.
As the Bluestar Intercultural Centre, we would like to express our most heartfelt condolences to the victims of the heinous terrorist attacks which took place in Norway recently and offer our deepest sympathy and prayers to the families and Norwegian people. We would also like to extend well wishes to the injured and wish them a speedy recovery.
"A Muslim cannot be a terrorist; a terrorist cannot be a Muslim"
By world renowned Muslim scholar M. Fethullah Gulen
Earlier this week, we commenced our day with anxiety and distress due to the news we heard in the media. Just like all Australians, we were concerned about the unpleasant developments. However, our concern as Australian Muslims is doubled in comparison to the rest of society. Once again, we were listening to news regarding a devious plot where the name of Islam was used.
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The adage nowadays is that we all need love. So many people are talking about this. Islam teaches us that God's act of creating humanity was an act of mercy and compassion.
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