Media Release
Muslim Community Promotes Social Integration & Harmony with the Ramadan Breaking-of-the-fast dinner and Harmony Awards

At a gathering in the National Press Club, with around 160 guests in attendance, comprised of religious leaders, academics, politicians, educators and various other individuals from differing backgrounds, the Bluestar Intercultural Centre presented its inaugural Australian Bluestar Awards. These awards recognise the efforts of individuals who actively promote intercultural dialogue and the removal of religious prejudice in the Australian community. The Award ceremony was held during a Ramadan iftar dinner on Wednesday, the 16th of August 2011.

The event was co-hosted by Bluestar Intercultural Centre and Australian Labor Party Parliamentary Secretary The Hon Kate Lundy MP as well as Liberal Party of Australia, Senator Gary Humphries MP.

Notable award receivers included Senator Kate Lundy, who was awarded in the area of Public Service. Kate’s commitment and dedication to serving communities in her portfolio of Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism, has been instrumental in promoting dialogue and understanding.

Other award winners included Prof James Haire, Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Christian Culture, who was awarded with the Interfaith award; James Haire has been an active advocate of Interfaith Dialogue; and Prof Greg Berton, Lecturer at Monash University for his contribution in the field of academia. Prof Barton also gave the keynote address.

The media award was presented to Mr Barney Zwartz from The Age for his contribution to the field of journalism, seeking balanced and ethical reporting. The education award was presented to Mr Mehmet Ozalp for his outstanding efforts in promoting education, shaping the views of many students from his Department of Islamic Theology at Charles Sturt University, to eradicate bigotry and foster harmony and respect.

The Muslim community in Australia have been noticeably embracing the importance of integration, interfaith and understanding of the ‘other’ service. Imam Ahmed Yousef, who was the co-founder and the President of the Canberra Islamic Centre, was awarded with the Muslim Community Award.

The keynote address by Professor Greg Barton, from Monash University, said “...in the past decade, terrorism that has rocked the World and in particular Europe, knows no boundaries. I can say from my expertise that terror has no nationality or religion. Even the Qur’an says clearly that killing an innocent person is as if you have killed the whole of humanity.” Prof Barton then continued to talk about Imam Fethullah Gulen, whom the work of the Bluestar Intercultural Centre was inspired by, when he said, “There must be a catalyst behind why the Bluestar Intercultural Centre has organised such an event and why we are all here tonight. There must be an architect, a thinker bringing us together tonight and that person is Imam Fethullah Gulen, a thinker and an activist.

These words by Prof Barton were stated in an environment where Bluestar has been instrumental in setting ground breaking initiatives such as the Ramadan Iftar dinner being held at the National Press Club. 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 co-hosted by the Bluestar Intercultural Foundation, an organisation founded in 2009 by a group of young Australian Muslims specifically to promote cultural and religious awareness and understanding across the entire Australian community.

According to Mr Abdul Celil Gelim, Bluestar’s Executive-Director, “The Awards recognise individuals for their significant contribution in bringing together Australians, and improving understanding between Australians of diverse religious and cultural backgrounds”.

2011 Australian Bluestar Award Receivers

1. Interfaith Dialogue: Prof JAMES HAIRE, Executive Director, Australian Centre for Christianity
2. Academic: Prof GREG BARTON, Herb Feith Research Professor for the Study of Indonesia, Politics program, School of Social and Political Inquiry, Faculty of Arts, Monash University
3. Public Service: Senator KATE LUNDY, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural affairs
4. Media: Mr BARNEY ZWARTZ, The Age Religion Editor
5. Education: Mr MEHMET OZALP, author and Lecturer Islamic Studies at Charles Sturt University
6. ACT Community: Mr SAM WONG, Chair Canberra Multicultural Community Forum
7. Muslim Community: IMAM AHMED YOUSEF, co-founder of the Canberra Islamic Centre
8. Youth: Mr KAMRAN SIDDIQUE, President and founder of ANU Muslims Association

Interfaith Dialogue Award Receiver: Prof JAMES HAIRE
James has been in the interfaith dialogue scene for a while now. He has been involved in inter-faith dialogue in both Indonesia and Australia, and has spoken extensively at inter-faith conferences internationally. He has spearheaded many interfaith initiatives such as the one he currently heads, the Australian Centre for Christianity & Culture. He is also busy educating people at a Charles Sturt University level and serving as Director of the Public and Contectual Theology Research Centre (PaCT) since 2003.

Academic Award Receiver: Prof Greg BARTON
Greg has a general interest in security studies and particular interest in counter-terrorism. He is an active member of the Global Terrorism Research Centre (GTReC) at Monash Uni. He is involved in teaching several counter-terrorism courses each year at the Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies (APCSS) in Honolulu and with other institutions and agencies. He joined Monash in January 2007, prior to that he had worked for a year as an Associate Professor at the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS) in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he continues to have an association as adjunct professor teaching in human security and counter-terrorism courses in Honolulu and in Asia. Before that he was an Associate Professor at Deakin University where he taught courses on Politics since 1993. He is an author, writer of several books including the biography of Abdurrahman Wahid and is currently working on books projects - Progressive Islamic thought and social movements in Indonesia and Turkey (which returns to some of the themes and material he first addressed in his published PhD thesis Gagasan Islam Liberal); and: Islam’s Other Nation: a fresh look at Indonesia.

Public Service Award Receiver: Senator Kate LUNDY
Senator Lundy typifies the stoic Aussie battler who gave it a go and through perseverance, commitment and dedication she has earnt a reputation as a community leader. It is well known that she has climbed the ladder of success in a remarkably short time to take on serious and prominent portfolios. What distinguishes each new role is how she redefines it and stretches it to the boundaries of possibility and sometimes well beyond. She had chaired many committees such as the Joint Standing Committee for the National Capital and External Territories. She is a long-standing member of the Senate Environment, Communications and the Arts Committee and one of the Federal Parliament’s representatives on the Advisory Council of the National Archive of Australia. She is currently the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural affairs.

Media Award Receiver: Mr Barney Zwartz
Barney has a broad experience in both reporting and senior production roles having previously worked as a special projects editor, chief sub editor, letters editor and opinion editor. The religion round includes not only Christianity, but also the increasingly important role of other faiths, especially Islam. He is a regular public speaker on religious issues, and has addressed national conferences of Christians, Jews and interfaith groups. In 2004, the Melbourne-based Muslim interfaith group, the Australian Intercultural Society, presented him with a peace award. In 2005, he covered the papal enclave in Rome for The Age and sister paper The Sydney Morning Herald. He has a theology degree (Australian College of Theology, first class honours) and is part-way towards a PhD in moral philosophy. He has tutored in philosophy and ethics at the University of Melbourne, and lectured at a Melbourne theological college. Barney, who joined The Age in 1981, also writes regularly on classical music and opera.

Education Award Receiver: Mr Mehmet OZALP
He is a writer, academic and community activist. He has been involved in social, cultural and religious work since 1991 in various mosque and community organisations. He is one of the founders of Affinity Intercultural Foundation. He served as the founding president of Affinity for six years from 2001 to 2007 and as Executive Officer from 2007 to 2009. In 2009, he co-founded ISRA Australia, an Islamic educational and research organisation. He is currently the President and Executive Director of ISRA. Between 2009-2011, he served as a director on the board of Auburn Gallipoli Mosque, one of the largest mosques in Australia. He also serves as the Muslim Chaplain at the University of Sydney and Macquarie University.
He was a member of the NSW Community Harmony Reference Group. He has established and currently teaches courses on theology, Islamic history, culture and contemporary issues on Islam and Muslims. He is the author of two books: "101 Questions You Asked About Islam" & “Islam in the Modern World”. He is a PhD Candidate in Islamic Theology at the University Sydney and an adjunct lecturer at the Charles Sturt University.

Muslim Community Award Receiver: Imam Ahmed YOUSEF
He is a remarkable community leader and has been a voice for peace, harmony, moderation, tolerance and goodwill for many years. Our winner came to Australia from Egypt after graduating as an architect, working at Sth Melbourne City Council in 1969. In 1976 he was elected President of the Australian Muslim Youth Movement. In 1984 he was lecturer of Arabic & Islamic curriculum at the Canberra College of Advanced Education. In 1986 he was a staff member of the Jordanian Embassy. He was one of the co-founders of the Canberra Islamic Centre, which he served as President in 2001 and in 2006 he was a member of ACT Muslim Advisory Committee. Recently in 2009 he was selected as volunteer of year and is still continuing to serve the community in the ACT.

ACT Community Award Receiver: Mr Sam WONG
He is a well-respected multicultural community leader. He has often been asked to speak at forums, meetings and as a guest speaker at local, national and international forums about Multicultural affairs and is a true multicultural Ambassador to promote Australia as a multicultural nation. He was a Council Member of University of Canberra (UC) appointed by the ACT Chief Minister (2001–5) and was the Convenor (Chair) of the UC “Harmony Festival” Celebration Steering Committee. He has been involved with community services for over 30 years and is a well-respected community leader within its own right. On Australia Day 1999, he was appointed to be a Member of Order of Australia (AM) for services to community and multiculturalism in the ACT Region. In 2002, the ACT Chief Minister appointed him as an Honorary Ambassador for Canberra. He currently chairs Canberra Multicultural Community Forum

Youth Award Receiver: Mr Kamran SIDDIQUE
Kamran had founded ANUMA within the ANU campus. He was elected President of the organization to which he guided the organization to do outreach programs such as interfaith programs and seminers, iftar dinners within the university community, forging new relations and strengthening existing ones. .

For further information please contact Mr. Abdul Celil Gelim, Executive Director, Bluestar Intercultural Centre on 0411 553 838.