I found a HIDDEN MUSLIM Town in The Aussie Outback
OnePath Network
2.04M subscribers
1,815,061 views Mar 13, 2024
OnePath Network travelled all the way over to North Queensland to meet with the Muslim Community of Mareeba.
They are a small rural community of Albanian farmers that have been here for over 100 years. Their story is nothing short of inspirational for Muslims around the world.
We uncovered how they not only were able to blend in so flawlessly into Australian culture but also the secret behind their ability to survive for so many generations.
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세진님, 보내주신 자료는 호주 퀸즐랜드 북부의 외딴 시골 마을 마리바(Mareeba)에 정착하여 100년이 넘는 역사를 이어온 알바니아계 무슬림 이민자 공동체의 삶과 신앙의 여정을 다룬 유튜브 다큐멘터리 스크립트입니다
요청하신 대로 이 자료의 내용을 <해라>체로 요약한 후 평론을 이어가겠습니다.
마리바의 알바니아계 무슬림 공동체 생존기 요약
1. 개척과 정착의 역사
1929년 전쟁으로 황폐해진 알바니아를 떠난 후멧 무라트(Humet Murat, 호주식 이름 '잭 무라트')가 호주 북부 퀸즐랜드에 도착했다
2. 초기 이민 사회의 신앙적 방황과 위기
정착 초기, 척박한 아웃백 환경에서의 농장 노동은 극도로 혹독했다
이러한 공백은 공동체 내부의 정체성 혼란과 균열을 가져왔다. 이슬람 회관 내 알코올 반입 문제를 두고 세속화된 이들과 신앙을 지키려는 이들 사이에 심각한 갈등이 발생했다
3. 신앙의 재정립과 이슬람의 부흥
가족과 이웃을 잃는 고통 속에서 마리바 무슬림들은 심한 혼란을 겪으며 자신들의 정체성에 대해 근본적인 질문을 던지기 시작했다
이후 라마단 단식과 쌀라(Salah, 일일 기도)가 회복되었고, 여성들은 성지순례(Hajj)를 다녀온 후 히잡을 착용하기 시작했다
4. 호주 현지 문화와의 조화
마리바 무슬림들은 자신들의 이슬람을 호주식 표현인 <페어 딩컴(Fair Dinkum, 진짜의, 솔직한, 100% 진실한)>으로 정의한다
이러한 정직성은 비무슬림 호주 주민들과 이탈리아계 이민자 공동체, 그리고 마리바 시장(Mayor)으로부터 깊은 존경을 받는 배경이 되었다
평론: 상실의 고통이 잉태한 토착화된 신앙의 생존력
본 다큐멘터리 스크립트는 이주와 정착이라는 거대한 사회적 단절 속에서 소수자 공동체가 어떻게 종교적 정체성을 유지하고 토착화하는지를 보여주는 흥미로운 미시사(Microhistory)적 기록이다. 이 텍스트의 핵심 가치는 100년의 생존사를 단순한 성공 신화나 로맨티시즘으로 포장하지 않고, 내부의 세속화 갈등과 개종이라는 <고통스러운 비밀>을 정면으로 다루었다는 점에 있다
1. 위기와 상실을 통한 주체적 자각
사회학적으로 소수자 공동체의 종교는 고립될수록 교조화되거나 반대로 완전히 흡수(동화)되기 쉽다. 마리바의 알바니아 공동체는 초기 아웃백의 가혹한 노동 환경 속에서 후자의 길, 즉 신앙의 유보와 세속화의 길을 걸었다
부모 세대로부터 물려받은 당연한 유산이었던 종교를 잃어버리는 고통을 겪은 후에야, 이들은 이맘을 찾아가 교리를 배우고 <자신이 누구인지>를 맹렬히 질문하기 시작했다
2. 문화적 하이브리디티(Hybridity): 아웃백과 이슬람의 조화
이 공동체의 가장 큰 성취는 이슬람이라는 보편 종교를 호주 아웃백이라는 특수한 공간과 문화 속에 자연스럽게 녹여낸 <문화적 하이브리디티(혼종성)>에 있다. 이들의 신앙은 대도시의 거대한 모스크 안에서 정형화된 교조적 이슬람이 아니다. 그것은 자연의 순리에 순응하는 농부의 감각이며, 호주적 정서인 <페어 딩컴(Fair Dinkum)>과 결합한 정직한 삶의 태도이다
"악수를 하면 계약이 성립된다"는 선대 알바니아 무슬림들의 상거래 원칙은 이슬람의 '하디스(Hadith, 예언자 언행록)'적 가치와 호주 아웃백의 신뢰 문화가 완벽하게 결합한 지점이다
결론
마리바의 알바니아계 무슬림 이야기는 다문화 사회에서 이민자 공동체가 정체성을 지키며 공존하는 지속 가능한 모델을 제시한다. 그들의 100년 생존 비결은 신앙의 순결성을 지키기 위한 폐쇄성이 아니라, 오히려 시련 속에서 정체성을 재발견하고 이를 현지 문화와 유연하게 조화시킨 <열린 정직함>에 있었다
마리바 무슬림들의 개척과 신앙의 여정에 관한 요약과 평론이 세진님의 연구나 사유에 도움이 되었기를 바랍니다. 혹시 이 자료에서 조금 더 중점적으로 다루고 싶거나 보완하고 싶은 부분이 있으신가요?
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Transcript
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0:00I'm going to be taking you guys on a journey, all the way to the top of Australia... Here!
0:077 secondsA little place called Mareeba.
0:1010 secondsI went there to meet with one of Australia's These people have been living here for so long.
0:2222 secondsThey are more Aussie than Vegemite!
0:2525 secondsThis was an incredible journey that had me dive deep into Australian history, meeting with so many different people and even uncovering
0:3333 secondssome of the painful, hidden secrets that lie behind the story of this remote community.
0:4040 secondsI urge you to watch all the way to the end because this is a story I will never forget!
0:5656 secondsIn this series, we travelled across Australia collecting some of the most inspiring Muslim stories we could find.
1:021 minute, 2 secondsWe focused locally, just like our sponsor A briliant charity that collects your Zakat and distributes it locally to those most in need.
1:131 minute, 13 secondsThrough the effective distribution of your zakat, they’re able to empower local Muslim communities for generations to come.
1:201 minute, 20 secondsPlease consider supporting them where you can.
1:221 minute, 22 secondsLet’s get back to the video I wanted to find out how on earth this small Muslim community -
1:301 minute, 30 secondsliving out in the middle of nowhere - was able to survive for so long.
1:351 minute, 35 secondsSo I flew all the way out to Cairns in north Queensland to find out for myself.
1:411 minute, 41 secondsI was greeted at the airport by a dear friend, Samir.
1:441 minute, 44 secondsAn Australian Albanian Muslim, who was going to be my guide for the trip.
1:491 minute, 49 secondsGiven that the earliest Muslims living in Mareeba originally came from Albania.
1:541 minute, 54 secondsSamir’s guidance was going to be crucial Of course I was filming him.
2:022 minutes, 2 secondsI was on the journey to capture everything there was to know about one of the oldest surviving Muslim communities in Australia!
2:102 minutes, 10 secondsAnd after a long winding drive, I finally made it to the town I was looking for. Mareeba.
2:192 minutes, 19 secondsAnd as expected, it was really, really, dead. But I had a story to capture.
2:272 minutes, 27 secondsSo off we went.
2:282 minutes, 28 secondsAnd the first gateway to our journey was a massive 66 acre coffee farm originally belonging to one of the earliest Muslim Albanians to arrive in Australia.
2:392 minutes, 39 secondsJack Murat.
2:412 minutes, 41 secondsBy the way, that's not him. That's his son, Plum.
2:452 minutes, 45 secondsAnd today he runs the farm. Salamu Alaykum. Waalaykum Asalam. Welcome. Very well thanks, yourself?
2:532 minutes, 53 secondsIt’s an honour to be on Jack Murat’s coffee farm. Pleasure having you here. Thank you so much.
2:572 minutes, 57 secondsYou've got a firm grip a firm grip, tough hands. Not going to lie. My hands were gone!
3:023 minutes, 2 secondsbut hey, Welcome to Mareeba. Thank you so much. Thank you for hosting us.
3:063 minutes, 6 secondsWhat you see out there, of course, is a coffee plantation. Okay. All the coffee? Yeah.
3:103 minutes, 10 secondsYou've got Jack Murat That's obviously your father.
3:133 minutes, 13 secondsThat's the brand of the coffee we produce and sell, yes.
3:173 minutes, 17 secondsOver the front of the coffee plantation, you said that Jack was his Australian English identity, and his Albanian name was?
3:263 minutes, 26 secondsHumet Murat Yeah.
3:293 minutes, 29 secondsOf course everyone here called him Jack.
3:313 minutes, 31 secondsEveryone here called him Jack.
3:333 minutes, 33 secondsJack Murat arrived in Australia in 1929 after escaping war torn Albania in desperate search of a means of survival.
3:423 minutes, 42 secondsFarms across north Queensland were booming and in need of strong workers.
3:473 minutes, 47 secondsJack quickly took up the opportunity and made a name for himself. He looks very strong from the photos. Would have been a hard life. Yeah, for sure.
3:543 minutes, 54 secondsAnd this photo was taken in the late 1940s? Correct.
3:593 minutes, 59 secondsJack Murat This is a coffee plantation. We're talking about sixty years in operation. Jack Murat’s coffee farm.
4:074 minutes, 7 secondsThis is crazy!
4:104 minutes, 10 secondsAlmost a century after his arrival, the farming legacy left by Jack, is still being carried forward - Not only by Plum,
4:184 minutes, 18 secondsbut the rest of the Murat brothers in Mareeba.
4:214 minutes, 21 secondsWhat's your relationship like working with your brothers? It's good. Yeah. You guys work together? Yeah, absolutely.
4:284 minutes, 28 secondsYou know what you have to do?
4:294 minutes, 29 secondsWho’s the hardest worker from your brothers in farm? You’re getting political now, aren’t you? I’m not going to answer that question.
4:384 minutes, 38 secondsAll right then. You want to stir the women up, do you? No no no.
4:404 minutes, 40 secondsPlum clearly wasn't interested in answering my challenging questions, so I had to look elsewhere.
4:474 minutes, 47 secondsIt was time to move on to my next stop.
4:494 minutes, 49 secondsThis time to meet with Plum’s eldest brother, Iskander.
4:544 minutes, 54 secondsHe's the quintessential example of what an Aussie farmer looks like.
4:584 minutes, 58 secondsThe only difference, is he rocks a hefty beard and a sunnah hat. MashAllah brother!
5:055 minutes, 5 secondsBut before we could meet with Iskander, I had one of his workers show us around.
5:095 minutes, 9 secondsMohammad works on the farm, out in Mareeba.
5:125 minutes, 12 secondsHe's married into the family of Iskander right there, and TabarakAllah, he does a brilliant job.
5:175 minutes, 17 secondsIf you want to know what an Aussie farm looks like, just check out the hay behind me.
5:235 minutes, 23 secondsIt's like a giant tractor with giant bales of hay.
5:305 minutes, 30 secondsThis is an incredible farm holding sugar cane, and what else? umm....
5:365 minutes, 36 secondsI clearly had no idea what farm life was about, but if I knew one thing about Queensland farm's growing up, it was the bananas.
5:535 minutes, 53 secondsThanks, Muhammad.
5:545 minutes, 54 secondsWithout further ado, it was time to meet with the head of the Murat brothers, Iskander, and get a real taste
6:026 minutes, 2 secondsof what Aussie farming was about.
6:096 minutes, 9 secondsOrganically Anyways, Bismillah. This is a baler.
6:176 minutes, 17 secondsYeah, a baler?
6:186 minutes, 18 secondsA baler which makes We make hay bales. So the haystacks that we saw coming in? Yeah, that's the, yeah.
6:246 minutes, 24 secondsAnd you've got your ute - Proper Aussie outback, ute. Yeah well, you need it for the farm.
6:286 minutes, 28 secondsYou need some patrol to maintain - just to keep an eye on things on the farm This is our sugar cane crop, sugar cane? All this is sugar cane? Yeah.
6:376 minutes, 37 secondsWow, it’s hot. It's actually hot. It’s stinking hot. Rain mustn’t be too far away. Check this out!
6:476 minutes, 47 secondsThis is the equipment we have these days.
6:496 minutes, 49 secondsWhen Dad started, this was his first new tractor. So this is your dad's tractor?
6:546 minutes, 54 secondsThe first new tractor that he had. Oh wow!
6:576 minutes, 57 secondsThis goes back to 1953 or 54 Wow!
7:027 minutes, 2 secondsBut if I thought this was historical, right across the road, lived His name
7:137 minutes, 13 secondswas Abdul Rahim And his connection stretches all the way back to Vegemite, I was not joking!
7:267 minutes, 26 secondsThey're very perceptive horses.
7:277 minutes, 27 secondsThey see more people and they say, you know, it doesn't matter.
7:317 minutes, 31 secondsThey come up, How are ya? Abdul Rahim and his wife Heather...
7:357 minutes, 35 secondsAre etched into the history of Australia. We had his grandfather. We've got him.
7:417 minutes, 41 secondsWe've got our daughters, and we’ve got their children and now we’ve got a great grandson as well.
7:457 minutes, 45 secondsSo it's almost six generations Six generations! Yeah, yeah.
7:497 minutes, 49 secondsMuslim Albanians in Australia.
7:517 minutes, 51 secondsIt was an incredible piece of Muslim history hidden all the way at the top of Australia.
7:587 minutes, 58 secondsYeah, this is another photo of dad and neighboring kids.
8:028 minutes, 2 secondsThis is all the way back in the 1940s. Yeah, those were the days.
8:078 minutes, 7 secondsYou remember your father taking you out to the farm? Oh well, yeah.
8:108 minutes, 10 secondsHe made us go out to the farm. Yeah.
8:138 minutes, 13 secondsOh yeah in those days, the kids were part of the farm. They were part of the workforce.
8:188 minutes, 18 secondsNo child labour policy back then. It's all fine.
8:208 minutes, 20 secondsIt's all turn a blind eye it’s all sweet.
8:228 minutes, 22 secondsAfter school or before school, or on weekends.
8:258 minutes, 25 secondsYeah, they'd be out there doing some sort of work.
8:298 minutes, 29 secondsThe women, they used to do all the shed work. And it wasn't easy.
8:328 minutes, 32 secondsIt was pretty, It was fairly physical work, you know, like they ended up with muscles. We did! We did.
8:418 minutes, 41 secondsThis was very heartwarming, but I was still yet to unpack the most important question:
8:528 minutes, 52 secondsThis is where I met with the youngest of the Murat brothers: Benyamin.
8:588 minutes, 58 secondsAnd it only took a few moments with him for me to be taken aback by his profound sense of faith and connection with Allah.
9:079 minutes, 7 secondsWhat beauty is in this, subhanAllah!
9:109 minutes, 10 secondsSo many examples in our garden.
9:129 minutes, 12 secondsYou know, you see the artistry of Allah. So many examples.
9:179 minutes, 17 secondsYou can see the comparisons of all the colours in the foliage.
9:219 minutes, 21 secondsSo you sit back and you look, wow, look at look at all the contrast, the colours, the artistry, look at it all.
9:289 minutes, 28 secondsYou know, and you just doing that, you see Allah everywhere you go! SubhanAllah!
9:339 minutes, 33 secondsAnd when you see the animals and they come and feed on the flowers of Allah, or the trees And all that, when they're feeding off the tree
9:419 minutes, 41 secondsthat you've planted, you get a reward for every bird that's feeding off that tree. For every seed they eat you get one hasanat. MashAllah.
9:509 minutes, 50 secondsIt’s a natural aspect of living. You know, Islam is part of nature.
9:549 minutes, 54 secondsHe had such a unique understanding of Islam that was almost exclusive to country folk and farmers.
10:0110 minutes, 1 secondHow does your religion affect your farming lifestyle?
10:0610 minutes, 6 secondsIt does in a sense that you appreciate who Allah is.
10:1010 minutes, 10 secondsYou know that you know that he's actually in control because you can plant a crop, grow a crop well Allah grows it, but you can farm it to a certain age, come to harvest time.
10:1910 minutes, 19 secondsAnd if Allah allows, you harvest, if he doesn't, you don’t.
10:2210 minutes, 22 secondsAnd you accept that, rather than going around, “Why me?” “Why this, why that?” And it's happened many times where hail has come through, wiped out our crops.
10:3110 minutes, 31 secondsOr heavy, heavy rains have come through and can’t harvest our crops.
10:3410 minutes, 34 secondsAnd subhanAllah, it’s still like ‘Alhamdulillah’. Yeah, you have to.
10:3810 minutes, 38 secondsNot only was their faith strikingly country, but it surprisingly ran in complete harmony with their Australian culture.
10:4610 minutes, 46 secondsHow was this possible?! This was a question that led me to the centre of Mareeba’s community: The Mareeba mosque.
10:5510 minutes, 55 secondsAnd it was here where I met with the local Imam, Sheikh Ibrahim Abdullah.
11:0211 minutes, 2 secondsIslam has never been about your outward external form.
11:0511 minutes, 5 secondsThe Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, tells us that Allah does not look at your outward external form, but rather he looks into your heart and into your deeds.
11:1511 minutes, 15 secondsAnd so when you experience Islam here, It is very much part of the natural environment if you'd like.
11:2211 minutes, 22 secondsAnd their identity, their culture is very much deeply rooted and connected to the land.
11:2811 minutes, 28 secondsHowever, their Islam is also deeply established in the heart, and that comes through in their dealings and interactions with others.
11:3711 minutes, 37 secondsI myself, I used to work at Granite Engineering, like I said, at Granite Engineering I used to fast, you know, there and it's pretty hot work,
11:4611 minutes, 46 secondsespecially in a workshop And a lot of the guys used to really because I was really, I was fair dinkum in my practice They really respected me.
11:5511 minutes, 55 secondsThey always asked me every year, “When do you start fasting?” He defined his Islam as being: ‘Fair Dinkum’ And that means this:
12:0312 minutes, 3 secondsFair dinkum is being is being 100% truthful in what you're doing.
12:1212 minutes, 12 secondsSo 100% truthful.
12:1412 minutes, 14 secondsIt was an Islam that permeated right through to their everyday activities on the farms.
12:1912 minutes, 19 secondsOur business dealings are Halal, we keep away from usury and that sort of thing.
12:2312 minutes, 23 secondsWe don't pay it nor receive it.
12:2412 minutes, 24 secondsSometimes people can't pay their debt on time, So you sort of let it go for a while.
12:3012 minutes, 30 secondsWe try and practice all those things that we read in hadith. Yes.
12:3312 minutes, 33 secondsOtherwise, if we don't, what's the point of having a religion? You can't just pick and choose.
12:3912 minutes, 39 secondsAnd our forefathers, when they shook a hand, the deal was done.
12:4412 minutes, 44 secondsAnd there was a lot a good rapport amongst the business community.
12:4812 minutes, 48 secondsBecause they were farmers and they were business people.
12:5112 minutes, 51 secondsAnd they all got on very well together.
12:5412 minutes, 54 secondsAnd every single one said working with an Albanian and being Muslim Albanian, they rate us as the best.
13:0213 minutes, 2 secondsThey have no issues Like for payment or doing the job. We've got it.
13:0613 minutes, 6 secondsWe've we've built up a really good reputation.
13:0713 minutes, 7 secondsThis community was so well respected, even the mayor of Mareeba was a fan.
13:1313 minutes, 13 secondsI understand that your parents had a relationship with the Murat family. Oh yes! Very much.
13:1713 minutes, 17 secondsPredominant muslim Albanian families in Mareeba. What was that relationship like?
13:2313 minutes, 23 secondsWhen they was out on Ray Road when my father farmed there and my mother always spoke very highly of Mrs. Murat And over a cup of coffee,
13:3113 minutes, 31 secondsI think they shared many family stories. Oh wow. They respected each other.
13:3613 minutes, 36 secondsAnd that was and that was the thing.
13:3813 minutes, 38 secondsThere was a lot of respect and the respect continues.
13:4213 minutes, 42 secondsBut if anything demonstrated the tremendous rapport the community held, it was in the construction of Mareeba mosque.
13:4813 minutes, 48 secondsAnd this is where the old first Mareeba mosque, they were just the house.
13:5313 minutes, 53 secondsthey used to utilise as a Mosque.
13:5513 minutes, 55 secondsSomewhere to pray, somewhere to pray. Yep, exactly.
13:5813 minutes, 58 secondsEven a lot of the locals, a lot of the non-Muslims gave their time You know, they gave their labour gave themselves they gave their free time,
14:0714 minutes, 7 secondsyou know, to help build the Mosque as well.
14:0914 minutes, 9 secondsLike I know the architect was a local Australian architect, a non-Muslim. He designed that masjid.
14:1714 minutes, 17 secondsYou can see, you know, it's got the Minaret and it looks very much like a Masjid.
14:2214 minutes, 22 secondsAnd I do believe some Italian members of the Italian community contributed to it as a mark of respect because of the fact that they worked alongside these people.
14:3114 minutes, 31 secondsI think they donated services. Yes, they did.
14:3514 minutes, 35 secondsMareeba is one of the third mosque built in Australia.
14:3914 minutes, 39 secondsAnd I got married in that mosque in 71 and I think I was the third one to get married in that Mosque and we were probably the third ones to get married at that mosque in 1970.
14:4914 minutes, 49 secondsOh wow. the second or third?
14:5314 minutes, 53 secondsOh yes, we might of been the second Oh yeah, Sam and Lil.
14:5714 minutes, 57 secondsIt was Sam and Lily, which was one of our friends.
15:0015 minutesIt all seemed like a picture-perfect Muslim community. A story that was all too rosy.
15:0715 minutes, 7 secondsAnd this is the point where we need to As an outsider, it's easy to get fast tracked into romanticising
15:1515 minutes, 15 secondsthe Muslims of Mareeba, the mosque, the prayers, the beautiful beards.
15:1915 minutes, 19 secondsBut as I dug deeper, I quickly realised things weren't always as pretty as they seemed...
15:2615 minutes, 26 secondsWhen the Albanians first arrived, life on the farms was intensely demanding.
15:3115 minutes, 31 secondsAnd when you couple this with the challenges of being wartorn migrants, it wasn't difficult to see how religion was often sidelined.
15:4015 minutes, 40 secondsWhat was the Muslim community like?
15:4215 minutes, 42 secondsWhat was the Albanian Muslim community like when you first came here? They were strong. Yes.
15:4715 minutes, 47 secondsBut as far that took practice daily prayers and everything.
15:5115 minutes, 51 secondsYes, we were too involved, too busy At that stage, nobody in Mareeba was fasting.
15:5715 minutes, 57 secondsNobody was, honestly, nobody was fasting, nobody was praying. We didn't have anything. There was no Friday prayers. There was nothing originally.
16:0516 minutes, 5 secondsEven within the mosque itself, the challenges were felt...
16:0916 minutes, 9 secondsIn our hall, we even had like a sign up there saying, ‘No alcohol’ is allowed in this hall, you know, cause you've got the diehards,
16:1716 minutes, 17 secondsyou know, and they don't want to give up their drinks.
16:2016 minutes, 20 secondsWhen they built the hall they we all insisted us, because we were practicing - we started practicing - we said, no, no, no alcohol in the hall.
16:2716 minutes, 27 secondsAnd then the arguing started with the other lot who wanted to have alcohol in the hall, and nobody wanted it.
16:3216 minutes, 32 secondsBut anyway, alhamdulilah, we won.
16:3616 minutes, 36 secondsAnd, but then a lot of those people backed off from coming to the hall Yeah, like the people that backed off, they only did it at first, but they come around.
16:4616 minutes, 46 secondsThey did not all... Most of them come around.
16:4916 minutes, 49 secondsThey saw the you know, that you couldn't, you can't do you can't do both. Yeah, you can't.
16:5616 minutes, 56 secondsAnd as the pressure mounted to maintain Islam in a foreign country within an incredibly remote rural town,
17:0417 minutes, 4 secondsit wasn't long until things were to take a drastic turn.
17:0917 minutes, 9 secondsAnd there was a time in the early 1980s where community members were looking, and because the effort of
17:1717 minutes, 17 secondsdawah wasn't there, unfortunately, they looked elsewhere
17:2417 minutes, 24 secondsWell, we had we had a bit of a problem here in Mareeba.
17:3217 minutes, 32 secondsAnd um, some members of my family, we lost them.
17:3917 minutes, 39 secondsWe lost them to Christianity.
17:4217 minutes, 42 secondsWe had three of my family, oh four actually, and their husbands all their wives, left Islam.
17:5017 minutes, 50 secondsIt was like a crash landing, and the pain was felt right across the community.
17:5617 minutes, 56 secondsI was going to say I got one brother whose not a Muslim. He's actually my twin brother.
18:2018 minutes, 20 secondsThis beautiful journey I had embarked on had suddenly taken a major twist. Why do these things happen?
18:3318 minutes, 33 secondsBut amidst the trauma and pain, emerged the wisdom that only Allah could have known.
18:4018 minutes, 40 secondsJust give me a minute, then we’ll start.
18:4318 minutes, 43 secondsAnd then we started to search, you know, who we were.
18:4618 minutes, 46 secondsWe wanted to know who we were, like as Muslims. What? What? Why were they leaving?
18:5318 minutes, 53 secondsI don’t know, we were all we were all going through confusion at the time because we had, we weren’t, we were known as Muslims, but we weren't practicing.
19:0119 minutes, 1 secondWe had no idea much about Islam.
19:0419 minutes, 4 secondsSo then we started lessons with our imam.
19:0719 minutes, 7 secondsAnd every week we’d go once or twice a week at night.
19:1019 minutes, 10 secondsWe were doing lessons with him And it took a while for us.
19:1519 minutes, 15 secondsBut Alhamdulilah by the end of the two years, yes, I was convinced 100% who I was, where I was going
19:2319 minutes, 23 secondsand then then we started practicing our Islam.
19:2619 minutes, 26 secondsI think that reinforced, you know, our Islam.
19:3119 minutes, 31 secondsI reckon it’s motivated us more From that point onwards.
19:3619 minutes, 36 secondsI mean, a few other brothers started visiting other community members and just talking about the greatness of Allah
19:4319 minutes, 43 secondsand reminding ourselves and themselves about our duties in this life and, you know, in the sense of the duty
19:5119 minutes, 51 secondswe owe to Allah and looking after our hereafter. And then, Taraweeh then started.
19:5719 minutes, 57 secondsRamadan started, people started to practice fasting of Ramadan, and you would never think in Mareeba,
20:0420 minutes, 4 secondsyou know, such a remote area, so distant
20:0820 minutes, 8 secondsand people started to make Salah That's when you put on your Hijab, perhaps?
20:1920 minutes, 19 secondsNo, no, that took a while for that.
20:2220 minutes, 22 secondsI wanted to do it for many years, but I never had the courage.
20:2620 minutes, 26 secondsAnd so and I kept saying, “I want to go for Hajj ,I want to go for Hajj” we were looking after his mum, who was an invalid at the time. She had had a bad stroke.
20:3520 minutes, 35 secondsAnd once she passed away the following year we end up going for Hajj.
20:4020 minutes, 40 secondsBut I made a promise that once I went for Hajj, it wasn't taking it off and I came back and I left it on, it caused a little bit of a stir in Mareeba.
20:4820 minutes, 48 secondsYou know, it's funny It caused a bit of a stir for some people.
20:5220 minutes, 52 secondsI felt like everyone was staring at me.
20:5320 minutes, 53 secondsAnd one person said to me, “But isn't that the reason why you wearing it?
20:5620 minutes, 56 secondsSo they won’t look at you?” It was a realisation I never would have imagined.
21:0321 minutes, 3 secondsBut before I could go, I needed to know what awaited the future of this community.
21:0921 minutes, 9 secondsOnce a month we have a community dinner, where people bring their food, they share.
21:1621 minutes, 16 secondsWe have some Islamic activity and we pray together and Jammat and so forth.
21:2221 minutes, 22 secondsThese are very important, you know, to keep keep us all together. I think we're going forward. Yeah.
21:2921 minutes, 29 secondsI can see all the things that are happening at the Mosque at the moment.
21:3421 minutes, 34 secondsYeah, we can see a good future. Yeah, for the kids.
21:3621 minutes, 36 secondsWe can see a good future for Mareeba, for all the children.
21:3921 minutes, 39 secondsPlay groups and all sorts of things are happening.
21:4121 minutes, 41 secondsAnd so the kids are getting together all the time. And they're learning. And these things weren’t happening years ago.
21:4721 minutes, 47 secondsAnd backing all that up, Alhamdulilah we’ve got Madrasah classes for our children, where young kids, young boys and girls
21:5521 minutes, 55 secondsnow are learning to become who Hifaz of Qur’an in Mareeba.
22:0122 minutes, 1 secondThis is something in a million years I thought would never happen. But Allah is great.
22:0822 minutes, 8 secondsToday, the muslims of Mareeba are buzzing with over 80 families and a growing convert community.
22:1522 minutes, 15 secondsYou accepted Islam in 1975. Yes. Yes.
22:1922 minutes, 19 secondsSo we're talking about 48 years Most of my life. Almost 50 years. Yeah.
22:2422 minutes, 24 secondsHe converted to Islam almost 50 years ago, right here in Mareeba at Mareeba mosque. I will never change. I will be a Muslim when I die.
22:3222 minutes, 32 secondsI'll be buried in Mareeba.
22:3422 minutes, 34 secondsAllah is my Lord and my friend as well as my master, So my life is all about Him.
22:4522 minutes, 45 secondsI think just just the unity and the closeness of the community.
22:5122 minutes, 51 secondsYou know, I don't have family here, so all the sisters, they're all my sisters.
23:0723 minutes, 7 secondsMy journey had come to an end and I had effectively lifted the lid on one of Australia's earliest muslim stories of survival.
23:1723 minutes, 17 secondsSo how did these true blue Aussie farmers out in the middle of nowhere survive for over 100 years?
23:2323 minutes, 23 secondsPerhaps it was through their unique country culture, their solid relationships, their warmth for one another,
23:3123 minutes, 31 secondsor above all, their love for Islam.
23:3423 minutes, 34 secondsafter realising how painful it was, to lose it.
23:4523 minutes, 45 secondsIt was a journey I would never forget. Thank you Mareeba.
23:5423 minutes, 54 secondsMay Allah bless you all.
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