 |
Keysar Trad | |
|---|---|
| Born | Lebanon |
| Occupation(s) | Founder of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, Former president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Author |
| Spouse | Hanifeh |
| Children | 9 |
Keysar Trad is the founder of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia and is the former president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils. [1]
Trad was born in Lebanon and came to Australia at the age of thirteen under the Australian government's family reunion program. He met and married his wife, Hanifeh, when he was in his early twenties. They live in south-west Sydney and have nine children. [2]
After a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1987, Trad decided to become a much stricter Muslim, rather than to follow the more liberal form of Islam that he observed around him in Lebanon and Australia. Trad began to take an active role at the Lakemba Mosque in Sydney shortly thereafter. [2]
Trad is well known for his former role as an interpreter and spokesperson for Sheik Taj El-Din Hilaly. [3]
He is also an author, having released several books.
After leaving the Lebanese Muslim Association, Trad founded his own organisation, the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia Inc (IFAA).
Following the actions of an Australian suicide bomber, who had killed at least five people and injured up to 90, Trad said, "I have always been opposed to suicide bombing. I'm opposed to any form of senseless taking of human life". [4]
Trad has entertained the possibility of becoming a candidate for both the Labor Party and for the Liberal Party. Because of his background Senator Bernardi has raised concerns saying, "Mr Keysar Trad is wholly unsuitable to be a member of parliament". [5]
In July 2016 Trad was elected President of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils following the standing down of the previous President. [1]
Around the time of the 2005 Cronulla riots, Sydney commercial radio station 2GB broadcast comments by Alan Jones and Jason Morrison on Lebanese Muslims in Sydney. In the aftermath of the Cronulla riots, a rally was held in Hyde Park on 18 December 2005 in the centre of Sydney, attended by some 5,000 people. [6] Keysar Trad attended the rally and spoke about "the suffering of Muslims in Australia" as a result of "predominantly one radio station" which the crowd identified as 2GB. The next day, 2GB ran an 11-minute broadcast with Jason Morrison that included a recording of the rally, as well as a talk back section.
Keysar Trad commenced legal proceedings against Harbour Radio, the operator of 2GB, for alleged defamation during the 11-minute broadcast on 19 December 2005. [7] The plaintiff alleged eight defamatory imputations of comments made in the broadcast under the Defamation Act 1974, and Harbour Radio defended the comments under Sections 15 and 16 of the act which provide a legal defense if "imputation is a matter of substantial truth" and "either relates to a matter of public interest or is published under qualified privilege." Supreme Court justice Peter McClellan ruled against the plaintiff. The claim has gone to the High Court of Australia, [8] and the New South Wales Court of Appeal. [6]
The case against Jason Morrison is one of the longest running cases in recent Australian history, and is believed to have incurred $4 million in legal fees for Harbour Radio, who continued to defend Morrison after he left for a rival station. [9]
In 2015 the matter was resolved by the High Court of Australia and he was forced to pay $290,000 in damages. In a separate case, Trad won a defamation action against the same radio station and was awarded $10,000. [10]
Trad is a controversial figure in Australia due to many of his activities, comments and views on matters relating to Islam:[ citation needed ]
The Sydney gang rapes were a series of gang rape attacks committed by a group of up to 14 youths led by Bilal Skaf against Australian women and teenage girls as young as 14, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia across several days in 2000. The crimes, described as ethnically motivated hate crimes by officials and commentators, were covered extensively by the news media, and prompted the passing of new laws. In 2002, the nine men convicted of the gang rapes were sentenced to a total of more than 240 years in jail. According to court transcripts, Judge Michael Finnane described the rapes as events that "you hear about or read about only in the context of wartime atrocities".
Taj El-Din Hamid Hilaly, is a former imam of Lakemba Mosque in Sydney and an Australian Sunni Muslim leader. The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils appointed him Mufti of Australia in 1988. He referred to himself as the Grand Mufti of Australia and New Zealand, although this title was not unanimously endorsed, and has also been described by some Muslims as honorary, rather than substantial. After a series of controversial statements on social issues, Hilaly retired from this position in June 2007 and was succeeded by Fehmi Naji.
Alan Belford Jones AO is an Australian former radio broadcaster. He is a former coach of the Australia national rugby union team and rugby league coach and administrator. He has worked as a school teacher, a speech writer in the office of the Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, and in musical theatre. He has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland, and completed a one-year teaching diploma at Worcester College, Oxford. He has received civil and industry awards.
Islam in Australia is a minority religious affiliation. According to the 2021 Census in Australia, the combined number of people who self-identified as Muslims in Australia, from all forms of Islam, constituted 813,392 people, or 3.2% of the total Australian population. That total Muslim population makes Islam, in all its denominations and sects, the second largest religious grouping in Australia, after all denominations of Christianity.
Al-Ahbash, also known as the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects is a neo-traditionalist Sufi religious movement and, in Lebanon, political party, which was founded in the mid-1980s. The group follow the teachings of Ethiopian scholar Abdullah al-Harari. Due to the group's origins and activity in Lebanon, the Ahbash have been described as the "activist expression of Lebanese Sufism."
The 2005 Cronulla riots were a race riot in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It began in the beachside suburb of Cronulla on 11 December, and spread over to additional suburbs the next few nights.
The Lakemba Mosque, also known as the Masjid Ali Bin Abi Talib and officially the Imam Ali bin Abi Taleb Mosque, is Australia's largest mosque. It was the first purpose-built mosque in Sydney and is located at 71-75 Wangee Road, Lakemba. Owned and managed by the Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA), Lakemba Mosque and the LMA offices are situated contiguously at the same address.
The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC), founded in 1964 as Australian Federation of Islamic Societies (AFIS) and also known as Muslims Australia, is a not-for-profit umbrella organisation to represent Sunni Muslims across Australia.
Gordon Cheng is an Australian Christian author and writer. He is a Bible teacher at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, employed by the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students. Prior to this he was Campus Director with the Cumberland Campus of Sydney University. For several years he was the Resources Editor of Matthias Media. He is also an Anglican presbyter in the Diocese of Sydney.
Jason Morrison is a conservative Australian talk radio presenter and newspaper columnist.
Bilal Saadallah Khazal is a convicted Lebanese Australian criminal currently serving an Australian custodial sentence of fourteen years, with a non-parole period of nine years, for producing a book whilst knowing it was connected with assisting a terrorist attack. Khazal who was a former baggage handler for Qantas Airways at Sydney Airport, and a prominent figure in the Islamic Youth Movement.
Feiz Mohammad is an Australian Muslim preacher.
The Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA) is an Australian non-profit welfare Sunni Muslim organisation based in Lakemba, a south-western suburb of Sydney. It is also variously cited as the Lebanese "Moslem", "Moslems" or "Muslims" Association.
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Shady Alsuleiman is a Muslim imam and the president of the Australian National Imams Council and the United Muslims of Australia. He is from a Palestinian family who migrated to Australia in the late 1960s. He initially obtained an Ijazah (licence) with Sanad in complete and sound memorization of the Quran at Darul Uloom Al-Husainiah in Sindh, Pakistan.
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Islamophobia in Australia is highly speculative and affective distrust and hostility towards Muslims, Islam, and those perceived as following the religion. This social aversion and bias is often facilitated and perpetuated in the media through the stereotyping of Muslims as violent and uncivilised. Various Australian politicians and political commentators have capitalised on these negative stereotypes and this has contributed to the marginalisation, discrimination and exclusion of the Muslim community.
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Jamal Rifi is a Lebanese-born Australian general practitioner and prominent figure in the Lebanese Muslim community in Sydney. He is known for winning The Australian newspaper’s Australian of the Year in January 2015.
