More than 160 political, diplomatic and community leaders attended AFIC’s Annual Congress Dinner on Saturday 1 October 2022 at Sydney’s Stamford Plaza Hotel. Community leaders from all around Australia joined Multiculturalism Minister Mark Coure MP, Finance Minister Damien Tudehope MLC, Shaouquett Moselmane MLC, Lynda Voltz MP, Senator David Shoebridge and Mayor Philip Ruddock.
Diplomats including Russian Ambassador Alexey Pavlovsky and Azeri Ambassador Ramil Gurbanov also joined the 2022 Congress dinner on the day when AFIC President Dr Rateb Jneid made history being elected for another 3 year term after having served for 5 years at the helm of the Australian Muslim community.
Representing the premier of NSW, Dominic Perrotet, Minister Coure reminded the leaders about the great contributions multicultural communities made to Australian society, a message echoed by the Philip Ruddock who illustrated how Australia’s multicultural and multifaith society has made it the safest in the world.
Finance minister Tudehope praised AFIC’s contributions through the treatises from the Da’wa and Iftaa manager which gave advice on Islamic finance and other matters.
Dr Rateb Jneid told the gathering that he was humbled to have received such support from the community and promised to take AFIC to higher and better levels in his second presidential term. He told the gathering about the new AFIC initiative to promote better awareness, friendship and goodwill through more literature and more involvement in the important issues that face society.
The National Grand Mufti of Australia, Sheikh Abdul Quddoos Al Azhari spoke about the farewell sermon of Prophet Muhammad (s), as to how the Prophet reinforced human equality and women’s rights and the need for Muslims to strive to bring salvation to humanity through the Grace of Allah.
During the dinner, AFIC honoured Dr Ali Sarfraz for his services to human rights in Kashmir, Hajji Sharief Alaeddin for his services to AFIC, Fatimah El Kordy for outstanding achievement in her Masters in Legal Studies and National Grand Mufti Al Azhari for his outstanding contributions to education in Australia and India.
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