Zachariah Matthews, a Sydney Muslim educator and community advocate, was born in Bosmont Johannesburg and attended Chris Jan Botha Senior Secondary School CJB, South Africa, where he studied Qur'an and Islamic studies as well as secular subjects. Matthews' secular education was in Pharmacy, in which he completed B.Pharm, BSc (Hon) and Pharm.D degrees in South Africa and the United States before migrating to Australia, where he now lives. He has also completed a Master of Islamic Studies in Australia.
Matthews has appeared at a number of Islamic forums and conferences, published several papers and given media interviews on Islamic topics. He works actively with Australian youth, and is involved with/on the board of several community-based and national organizations and has contributed to various civic initiatives. Notably, he has helped to co-ordinate national statements in regard to the Australian government’s Muslim Community Reference Group, the pro-hijab campaign and others.
Matthews has lectured part-time for several years at the University of Sydney and was a former director of pharmacy at Canterbury Hospital, Sydney, NSW Australia.
For two years he was Head of Religious and Leadership Studies at an independent school. Dr Matthews actively focusses on leadership mentoring and development. He writes and publishes on subjects ranging from the ethics of disagreement to spirituality in the post-modern world.
He previously served as the president of the Australian Islamic Mission (AIM) and was a board member of the Australian Muslim Civil Rights & Advocacy Network (AMCRAN).
Matthews is the director of Just Media Advocacy and instructor with Deen Academy.
Education and community work
Studied Quran Reading and Memorisation for seven years part-time (South Africa), 1975-1981.
Islamic Studies Course for 2.5 years part-time (South Africa), 1986-1988.
MSA High School Student Affairs coordinator (South Africa)1985-1986.
B. Pharm (Wits University, South Africa), 1986.
BSc, Hons (Pharmacology), Potchefstroom University South Africa, 1988.
MSA Exco member, Ohio State University, USA, 1989-1990.
Editor, MSA News, Columbus, USA (monthly), 1988-89.
Pharm.D, OSU, USA, 1990.
Migrated to Australia 1990.
FAMSY Exco and National President, 1991-1997.
Editor, SALAM Magazine, 10 years, 1995-2004.
FAMSY Tarbiyyah coordinator/assistant, 1995 to 2006.
AFIC Exco Member, 3 years, 1997-1999.
Editor, Australian Muslim News, 3 years, 1997-1999.
Editor, Muslim Business Network magazine, Sydney (quarterly), 1 year, 1998.
Australian Islamic Mission President, 2003 to 2011.
Board Member, Australian Muslim Civil Rights & Advocacy Network (AMCRAN), 2007–2011.
Director Just Media Advocacy, 2011–present.
Instructor, Deen Academy, 2012–present
Master of Islamic Studies, 2016
Papers and Presentations
Current Muslim trends impacting adversely on Australia
Zachariah Matthews responds to media allegations about sharia, deception, etc.
Islamic community fosters understanding in Wagga, 17 November 2014,
Islam is the third largest religion in the United States, after Christianity and Judaism. A 2017 study estimated that 3.45 million Muslims were living in the United States, about 1.1 percent of the total U.S. population. Pew Research Center has subdivided the Muslim community and their percentages into three subsets, namely Sunnism (65%), Shi'ism (11%) and non-denominational Muslims (24%).
Warith Deen Mohammed, also known as W. Deen Mohammed, Imam W. Deen Muhammad and Imam Warith Deen, was an African-American Muslim leader, theologian, philosopher, Muslim revivalist, and Islamic thinker (1975–2008) who disbanded the original Nation of Islam (NOI) in 1976 and transformed it into a semi orthodox mainstream Islamic movement, the World Community of Al-Islam in the West which later became the American Society of Muslims. He was a son of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam from 1933 to 1975.
The Muslim Student Association, or Muslim Student Union, of the U.S. and Canada, also known as MSA National, is a religious organization dedicated to establishing and maintaining Islamic societies on college campuses in Canada and the United States. It serves to provide coordination and support for affiliated MSA chapters in colleges across North America. Established in 1963, the organization now has chapters in colleges across the continent, and is the precursor of the Islamic Society of North America and several other Islamic organizations. The Muslim Students Association has at times been the subject of scrutiny; for example, the New York Police Department (NYPD) targeted MSAs across several US college campuses for monitoring as part of their Muslim surveillance program.
Islam in Australia is a minority religious affiliation. According to the 2016 Australian Census, the combined number of people who self-identified as Muslim in Australia, from all forms of Islam, constituted 604,200 people, or 2.6% of the total Australian population, an increase of over 15% of its previous population share of 2.2% reported in the previous census 5 years earlier. Of that earlier 2.2% figure, "some estimate more than half are non-practicing" cultural Muslims stemming from all the varying denominations and sects of Islam present in Australia.
The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), based in Plainfield, Indiana, USA, is a Muslim umbrella group. It has been described in the media as the largest Muslim organization in North America. ISNA holds an annual national convention which is generally regarded as the largest annual gathering of American Muslims to discuss their role in society, politics, public media, activism, educational institutions, and other areas. The organization has been the subject of several controversies throughout its lifetime.
Ahmed Hoosen Deedat was a South African writer and public speaker of Indian descent. He was best known as a Muslim missionary, who held numerous inter-religious public debates with evangelical Christians, as well as video lectures on Islam, Christianity, and the Bible. Deedat established the IPCI, an international Islamic missionary organisation, and wrote several widely distributed booklets on Islam and Christianity. He was awarded the King Faisal International Prize in 1986 for his fifty years of missionary work. He wrote and lectured in English.
The Master of Sciences of Pharmacy (MPharm) is the standard master's degree program in Pharmacy. It is the oldest honourable Diploma (Degree) authorized from the European Faculties of Pharmacy as it takes five years to complete. It is based on a credit system higher than the normal Bachelor of Pharmacy degree. It is different from the American Pharmaceutical Diploma, Doctor of Pharmacy,(PharmD), that takes 4 years to complete. The Faculty is a member of the Association of European Faculties of Pharmacy and its graduates meet all the requirements for the profession as defined by the European Union. In the initial three years students revise and broaden their knowledge of elementary natural and medical subjects to the level required for understanding specific subjects from the field of Pharmacy. Students attend lectures and seminars and take part in practical pharmacy placements. During the last year of study they work on their thesis. The programme is concluded by defending the thesis and taking the final state examination. Then the students are awarded the master's degree. The study programme is compliant with EU directive 2005/36/EC. Graduates awarded the master's degree can later sit for a thorough state exam including an advanced thesis defence. After passing they are awarded the "Testing Board" degree . Graduates can apply for postgraduate after studying several branches of Pharmacy in the five accredited years. After defending their dissertation, submit their researches in their selected branches of Pharmacy and passing the final state examination they are awarded the degree. The master's program is offered in different specialized areas, one major being Clinical Pharmacy. Clinical pharmacy specialization enables pharmacists to deliver higher levels of clinical services. In some countries these specializations are happening with residency programs.
A Bachelor of Pharmacy is an undergraduate academic degree in the field of pharmacy. In many countries, this degree is a prerequisite for registration to practice as a pharmacist. Since both PharmB and PharmD are prerequisites to license in most western countries they’re considered equivalent. In many western countries, the foreign graduates with BPharm, PharmB or BS Pharm practice similarly as PharmD graduates. It is analogous to MBBS vs. MD where MBBS is foreign equivalent of MD. It is training to understand the properties and impacts of medicines and developing the skills required to counsel patients about their use.
Ahmad Totonji was a co-founder and officer of the now-defunct Safa Trust and a co-founder of the International Institute of Islamic Thought, along with Anwar Ibrahim, Jamal al Barzinji, and Hashim al Talib. He also served as chairman of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS), and Deputy Secretary General of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth. Totonji was born in Iraq, and is a citizen of Saudi Arabia.
Qatar University is a public research university in Qatar, located on the northern outskirts of the capital Doha. Courses are taught in Arabic or English. The university is the only government university in the country. The university hosts ten colleges – Arts and Sciences, Business and Economics, Education, Engineering, Law, Sharia and Islamic Studies, Pharmacy, College of Health Science, College of Medicine, and the latest College of Dental Medicine – with a total of almost 8000 students at a 13:1 student-teacher ratio.
The Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network (AMCRAN) was established in April 2004 after the arrest and detention of medical student Izhar ul-Haque in Sydney on terrorism related charges of attending a training camp in Pakistan. The organisation aims to prevent the erosion of the civil rights of all Australians, and to do this through providing a Muslim perspective in the civil rights debate. It engages in political lobbying and legislative reform, grassroots community education, collaboration with both Muslim and non-Muslim organisations on civil rights, and communication to wider Australian society through the media.
The basic requirement for pharmacists to be considered for registration is an undergraduate or postgraduate pharmacy degree from a recognized university. In many countries, this involves a four- or five-year course to attain a master of pharmacy degree (MPharm). In the United States of America, students graduating after January 1, 2003, must complete a doctor of pharmacy degree to become a licensed pharmacist. This same requirement has been coming into place in other countries such as Canada and France.
The American Society of Muslims was a predominantly African-American association of Muslims which was the direct descendant of the original Nation of Islam. It was created by Warith Deen Mohammed after he assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father Elijah Muhammad. Imam W. Deen Mohammed changed the name of the Nation of Islam to the "World Community of Islam in the West" in 1976, then the "American Muslim Mission" in 1981, and finally the "American Society of Muslims".
Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) is a public university in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It is accredited by the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU).
Akbar Muhammad was an associate Professor Emeritus of history and Africana studies at Binghamton University in New York. He specialized in African history, West African social history, as well as the study of Islam in Africa and the Americas. He is the co-editor of Racism, Sexism, and the World-System, along with Joan Smith, Jane Collins, and Terrence K. Hopkins. His own writings focused on slavery in Muslim Africa, Muslims in the United States, and integration in Nigeria through the use of education. He holds a notable role in the history of the Nation of Islam.
Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) was founded and incorporated by Ani Zonneveld and Pamela K. Taylor in 2007,headquartered in Los Angeles with a regional office in Malaysia and The Netherlands. It is a grassroots human rights organization with networks in Bangladesh, Canada, France, Chile, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia, and throughout the U.S. MPV provides educational and theological resources for Muslims with a liberal or progressive Islamic worldview. In response to global discourse of criticism and the radicalization of Islam, MPV seeks to dismiss false ideologies about Muslims and Islam. Through their global advocacy and community programs MPV enlighten Muslims and non-Muslim populations globally. On October 1, 2017 in Tunisia, MPV was a founding member of the Alliance of Inclusive Muslims, an umbrella human rights association made up of 14 member organizations spanning five continents.
African-American Muslims, also colloquially known as Black Muslims, are an African American religious minority. They represent one of the larger minority Muslim populations of the United States as there isn't an ethnic group that makes up the majority of American Muslims. They are represented in Sunni and Shia denominations as well as smaller sects, such as the Nation of Islam. The history of African American Muslims is related to African-American history, in general, and goes back to the Revolutionary and Antebellum Eras.
Islamic organisations in Australia include a wide range of groups and associations run and supported by the Islamic community in Australia. Organisations include major community councils, local organisations, mosques and schools. Most Australian Muslims are Sunni, with Shia then Sufi and Ahmadiyya as minorities.
The Muslim Community Reference Group (MCRG) was an advisory body to the Australian federal government, set up by the Howard Government, from mid-2005 to mid-2006. The board served to provide the federal government with proposals on strategies and practices to help integrate the Muslim community and to foster greater understanding towards Muslims among the general society, public institutions and governmental bodies.
Muslim Women's National Network Australia (MWNNA) is an association in Australia which represents a network of progressive Muslim women's organisations and individual Muslim women. MWNNA runs events and projects for Muslim women, and represents their views to media and government organisations.
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