It is wholly understandable that peak Muslim bodies in Australia have announced they will not attend State-Government sponsored Iftar dinners in NSW and Victoria. The respective Premiers are right in cancelling them altogether.
The fraught situation within the Australian community, with its ever-deepening divisions over attitudes to the Gaza War, would have only been worsened had the dinners, with their political connections, gone ahead.
Attendees would have been branded as being on one side of the argument and absentees the other.
The fact that fighting continues through the Holy Month of Ramadan is bad enough, and the political dinners would only have inflamed tensions further.
In this context I was heartened to see the initiative taken by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in extending an open invitation to attend an Interfaith Iftar Dinner at its Baitul Huda Mosque in Sydney on 23 March – an attempt, as Grand Imam Kauser says, to build bridges in times of difficulty.
The fact that this invitation has come from the grass roots of Muslim Australia to all Australians, regardless of faith, or indeed, no faith at all; “of all perspectives” as the community says, is a bold initiative and one that deserves support.
I hope that it can be repeated in other towns and cities around the nation where Ramadan is celebrated and Iftar dinners held.
In a world that often seems to be coming apart at the seams, it is good to see that in Australia at least, there are those who still want to reach out in the spirit of peace and mutual respect.
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