Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

A bishop, a rabbi and an imam walked into a room. I confess that this line was actually stolen from Imam Kamran Tahir, who started his iftar speech by noting that this is in fact usually the opening line to a joke. But in this instance it was in regard to a really interesting and important multi-faith event that I was honoured to attend and speak at. Mahmood Mosque, part of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, hosted an iftar a couple of weeks ago. The evening feast celebrated the breaking of the Ramadan fast after sunset. They invited well-known Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri Elder Uncle Moogy as an honoured guest, who gave an interesting and informative welcome to country. Uncle Moogy is very respected in the broader Adelaide community and is always informative, educational and entertaining.

Another honoured guest was Bishop Sophie Relf-Christopher from the Adelaide diocese of the Anglican Church, whom I've known for a number of years since she was Rev. Sophie at the St Jude's Anglican Church in Brighton, in my electorate of Boothby. Finally, the third honoured guest was Rabbi Frankie Salzman from the Beit Shalom Jewish synagogue. Rabbi Frankie is relatively new to Adelaide. I have been pleased to get to know them, with an introduction from the former rabbi and my good friend Shoshana Kaminsky. Also present at the iftar event were members of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities of Adelaide and a wide range of federal, state and local politicians from all sides of politics.

The imam, bishop and rabbi all spoke about the tradition of fasting in their own faith traditions, and the similarities in the use of fasting, its purpose and its meaning were remarkable across the three faiths. Many of the other politicians and I then had an opportunity to speak to the combined congregation. I spoke about the importance of such events as this to increase understanding in our broader community. Extending the hand of friendship across what others would tell us are boundaries is a really important way to make our community stronger and safer. There are forces out there that seek to divide us. They use fear and stoke division for their own personal gain. But, when we reach out the hands of friendship to each other, we show them that we are stronger than they are.

Mahmood Mosque is known for reaching out into the community. Its motto is 'love for all, hatred for none'. What a fine principle to live your life by. I was last at the mosque for their celebration of NAIDOC week. They reached out to the First Nations community to celebrate and respect their 65,000 years of custodianship. All three of these faith traditions are excellent examples of Australian values in action. When I talk about Australian values, the Australian values statement, which is part of the Australian visa and citizenship forms, says:

including freedom from religion, plus freedom of speech and freedom of association—

and importantly—

Like 25 per cent of all Australians, I am a migrant. I am constantly grateful that my parents took that enormous step to leave behind family, friends and everything they knew on the other side of the world and restart their lives and careers here in Australia. This is a wonderful country, and we need to protect it and protect Australian values.

I attended events such as the iftar at the Mahmood Mosque; another iftar run by Pinnacle College, which was also multifaith and included many representatives from a wide range of civil society groups; and the multifaith day of mourning event service held by St Peter's Anglican Cathedral in conjunction with the Jewish community. There's also an upcoming Ramadan festival organised by the Islamic Society of South Australia at the Park Holme mosque, which has reached out to the local community with notices of road closures and invitations to come along, have a chat, enjoy the food and enjoy the celebration. These are all really important ways for community groups to strengthen our community. These organisations are demonstrating Australian values in action, and I congratulate them all and the very many secular organisations that do the same. Together, they make our society better, richer, safer and stronger.

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