Thursday, December 3, 2009

2-year anniversary and an Australian Premiere

I am packing to head off to Australia for a screening in Melbourne and I just realized that today is the two-year anniversary of the Aga Khan Film's launch. Time has flown by quickly and I feel a sense of gratitude that the film is still being requested to be shown. But there is also a sense of concern that Islam is increasingly being juxtaposed against peace and tolerance, such as the Swiss ban on the building of new minarets. Within the Ummah and externally, there is a lot more work to be done...

Australia Screening Details:

Parliament of the World's Religions
http://www.parliamentofreligions.org/
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

AN ISLAMIC CONSCIENCE: the Aga Khan and the Ismailis (61 mins)

Sun 6 Dec 4:30 - 6:00pm
Room 107
Followed by a Q+A

I will also be on a panel discussion 2 days later:

Changing the Conversation about Islam and Muslims Through Film: Shia, Puerto Rican-American and Australian Voices
With: Shamir Allibhai, Dr Pamela Ryan, Macky Alston, Hussein Rashid (Chair)
Tue 8 Dec 2:30 - 4:00pm
Room 106



About the Parliament:
(from their website)
The Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions was created to cultivate harmony among the world's religious and spiritual communities and foster their engagement with the world and its guiding institutions in order to achieve a just, peaceful and sustainable world.
To accomplish this, we invite individuals and communities who are equally invested in attaining this goal.

1 comment:

Shohil Dholasaniya said...

Hi all Yaa Ali madad,

We in Melbourne Australia were fortunate enough to volunteer as Ismaili Muslims at the Parliament of World Religion taking place in our city. It was a great event hosting Ismaili and other religious scholars and leaders. Big personalities like Dalai Lama, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and others are guest speakers at the event together with Ex President of USA Jimmy Carter and other Australian dignitaries and political leaders.

This movie "Islamic Conscience - Agakhan and the Ismailis" was shown on Sunday 4.30 - 6.00, which I consider prime time as it was the busiest time, and was attended by a lot of participants. The viewers enjoyed the movie and were impressed by our community and our Imams efforts. They were asking to the panel which consisted of the maker of film "Why was this information about a great community hidden from public? And Whether there are other communities in Islam with similar ethos?” I tell you now, I felt great to be an Ismaili.

The show was attended by our Melbourne Council Team including National Council Representative for Melbourne.

Another point which I wanted to share was the positive and immense impact we had on the event itself and the Volunteer Co-ordinator Fran Woodruff and Chris. They were all praise for our volunteers from Melbourne. As she said to me personally "It was great to have you Eismaeilis (her way of saying Ismailis) working as volunteers at the Parliament. We love your wonderful smiling faces and your ability to serve." She asked us a lot of questions and wanted to know whether we met very often and was very amused to know we meet every day for prayers and our volunteers are active and do service every day.

She was particularly happy with Melbourne Council leadership in organising the volunteers and managing them effectively. Please feel free to contact me if you guys need more information about the event, Melbourne or Australia in general.