End Of Ramadan Celebrations Laurie Ferguson - Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs

Media Statement - 24 November 2003

I extend my best wishes to Australia's 280,000 Muslims as they celebrate today the end of their annual month-long Ramadan, a crucial period for one-sixth of humanity celebrated in virtually every nation.

Observance of Ramadan is one of the five central duties for Muslims, and requires them to fast from dawn until sunset as a demonstration of piety and self-discipline. The end of Ramadan is followed tomorrow and Wednesday by the Festival of Eid al Fitr (the festival of giving charity), which involves the sharing of food and gifts with friends, relatives and neighbours and giving charity to the poor and needy.

As someone who has a very large Muslim population in my electorate of Reid, I well understand that Australian Muslims come from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds and hold varying political views. I have had the privilege of attending a number of evening Iftars, or breaking of the fast, with them over the past few weeks.

I know that the Muslim community feels a deep sense of outrage and horror at recent indiscriminate killings in Indonesia, Turkey and elsewhere. As the Australia Federation of Islamic Councils has made clear, such attacks have absolutely no religious justification.

I welcome efforts by the Australian Partnership of Ethnic and Religious Organisations to foster inter-faith dialogue between our main religions and to promote renewed efforts to foster tolerance and harmony amongst Australia's culturally diverse population. The Opposition strongly supports such efforts and reaffirms its belief that there is no place in our society for attacks on places of worship or for those who would harass and vilify fellow Australians on religious or ethnic grounds.

Nothwithstanding international events, I know there are many Australians of goodwill who are striving to build a fair, just and harmonious society. I recently attended a seminar in Greystanes in Sydney to promote better understanding between Catholics and Muslims and was very pleased that more than 500 people were in attendance.