Australian Muslims celebrate a year of high achievement

A gathering of the finest of Australia’s Muslims community witnessed a celebration of remarkable accomplishments and success at the Australian Muslim Achievement Awards (AMAA) 2012 held in Melbourne on the weekend. The awards, organised by Mission of Hope and now in their seventh year, are more than just a celebration of the ‘who’s who’ in the Australian Muslim Community.

The Awards celebrate the important role that Australian Muslims have played in Australian society.

The AMAAs also recognize the efforts of non-Muslims who have helped foster mutual respect and understanding by awarding a Australian non-Muslim the prestigious Abyssinian Award.

Amongst the 16 celebrated award categories announced at the ceremony, the most anticipated categories included the ‘AMAA Woman of the Year’, the ‘AMAA Man of the Year’ and the ‘Australian Muslim Lifetime Achievement Award.’. This year awards attracted over 150 nominations from all around Australia.

Held at the glamorous Showtime Events Centre on the Yarra River, those attending the ceremony got to enjoy a delicious three course meal and entertainment from upcoming comedian Khaled Khallafallah and spoken word artists Nour Abouzeid and Kamal Saleh. For Kamal Saleh it was a particularly memorable afternoon with him making a return to the stage on a further two occasions when he won awards for Creative Artist of the Year for his YouTube videos – his “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus | Muslim Version” has had close to 1.5million views – and in the newly introduced category for 2012 of People’s Choice.

Another memorable winner was Haj Mohamed Hassan OAM, the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award winner, who was honoured for his over 45 years community service to the Australian Muslim community.

Haj Mohamed in accepting his award reminisced about his days  a student at the University of New South Wales in the 1960s. 

At the time he could not find a single other Muslim student and told the audience how he used to go to the local markets with a small group of fellow Muslims to buy live chickens and hand slaughter them in order to eat Halal meat. His stories were not only a reflection of his remarkable achievements in service the community, but also a reflection of how the Australian Muslim community has rapidly established itself over the last 50 years.

The Women of the Year Award went to Amina ElShafei for her remarkable impact as a contestant on one of the Australia’s most popular television programs of the year, the reality cooking show Master Chef.

Despite not winning the show, Amina was clearly one of the most popular contestants with her genuine and charming personality winning the hearts of Australians from all walks of life.

Her efforts on the show was watched by millions of everyday Australians on a weekly basis. Many in the Australian Muslim community have concluded that, although unplanned, the positive public reaction to her appearance on the show was perhaps to date the single most effective initiative in the ongoing challenge of depicting Muslims as everyday normal people to the wider Australian community.

Her award was thus well deserved and was due to Amina being….well just Amina.

Another crowd favourite was the winner of the Abyssinian Award John Cornwall. The award, named after the the people of Abyssinia who provided shelter from prosecution to the first Muslims over 1400 years ago, was humbly received by John Cornwall for his outstanding efforts as President of the Horn of Africa Relief and Development Agency (HARDA). HARDA provides support and acts as advocates for the successful settlement and integration of refugees and humanitarian entrants from the Horn of Africa countries.

The AMAAs were judged by a panel of 25 (a full list of the judges is available the end of the article) that comprised Australian Muslim community representatives nationwide who are all prominent and active Australian Muslims in their own right.

The selection process involved a thorough and detailed examination of each and every nomination, with the judges encouraged to do their own research through independent sources. To make the process more transparent, at no stage were the judges able to consult one another, nor did they know who the other judges were.

This year’s awards ceremony was once again a spotlight on the amazing talent in the Australian Muslim community.

It was not just a celebration of the winners and those nominated for their remarkable achievements over the last year, but one that exemplified the often unheralded success story of the Muslim community’s contribution to all areas of Australian society.

The calibre of the award winners in 2012 and their accomplishments are clear evidence of this success. The AMAA’s Man of Year Award recipient Waleed Aly described it best when he said in his acceptance speech that the awards reflected that 2012 was “the year that Muslims had finally arrived”.

The Awards, sponsored this year by the Islamic Museum of Australia and Human Appeal International, continue to grow in prestige year after year and could well become the key national calendar event for the Australian Muslim community in years to come. The President of Mission of Hope, Hanan Dover’s opening remarks reflected the sentiment felt by many of those present on the day.

“They celebrate the exceptional and remarkable contributions made by Muslim individuals and organisations to both the Australian Muslim community and the mainstream community. These remarkable people make us proud to be Australian Muslims, inspiring us all to strive harder and live better” she said.

With Australian Muslims often having their collective identity held hostage to the negative actions of a very tiny minority of the community, in shifting the spotlight to recognize the marvellous accomplishments of the community’s high achievers, the AMAA’s can play a significant role in helping correct this false perception.