Pegasus Post: June 21, 2016

PEGASUS POST Tuesday June 21 2016 17
News
Fighting prejudice
• By Donna Miles
BREAKING PREJUDICES: Nada Tawfeek and her mother
Dalia Mohamed are volunteers at the Islamic Women’s
Council New Zealand.
CLOSE TO 40 different ethnic
groups represent the Muslim
community in the city.
Community worker Dr
Husaini Hafiz said that the
city’s 3250 Muslims did not
suffer from the same levels of
Islamophobia experienced by
Muslims in Europe and the
United States, but racial and
religious prejudices can exist
everywhere.
Dr Hafiz said the Canterbury
Muslim Community
Trust is building cultural and
religious bridges by reaching
out to the city’s Muslims and
the wider non-Muslim community.
“We would like to ensure
that Christchurch remains a
good place to live for all, which
means taking steps to foster
better understanding between
different groups,” he said.
Dr Hafiz said many people
assumed that the Muslim community
in Christchurch was
homogenous with the same
cultural practices and religious
beliefs.
He said, in reality, the Muslim
community in Christchurch
was very diverse.
The trust’s outreach programmes
are run jointly with
the Islamic Women’s Council
New Zealand.
ICWNZ member Denise
Jeager said the inclusion
of Muslim women in the
outreach programme was essential
to show Muslim women
had a voice and they were willing
to exercise it.
ICWNZ volunteer Nada
Tawfeek said the outreach programme
was useful to bring
about more open-minded
views of Muslim women.
“Some people were surprised
to hear a girl in hijab speak
with a British accent,” she said.
Dr Hafiz said focus groups
run in Canterbury had
identified three common
concerns amongst Muslims in
Christchurch: leadership, communication
and lack of Islamic
knowledge.
One of the trust’s goals
was to address the need for
stronger communication channels
between Muslims and
non-Muslim communities.
Last July, the trust invited
students from New Zealand
Broadcasting School to join in
the breaking of fast at the Al-
Noor mosque in Christchurch.
The invitation was a followup
to an earlier educational
session where the students
were introduced to basic concepts
of Islam and the impact
of the media on Muslims.
This year a similar educational
session was offered to
student journalists at the University
of Canterbury and Ara
Institute of Canterbury.
Office of Ethnic Communities’
general manager, Maarten
Quivooy, said organisations
such as the Canterbury Muslim
Trust play a “vital role”
in educating and supporting
New Zealanders to embrace
and celebrate the benefits that
diversity brings to us all.”
Earthquake
amputee
given gift
THE LIONS Club of New Brighton
has presented a survivor of the
February 2011 earthquake with a
cheque for $500.
Stacey Herbert had both legs amputated
just below the hips after she was
crushed under a pile of concrete and
steel for eight hours in The Press building
in Cathedral Square on February
22, 2011.
After a long period of recovering, six
months ago she made contact with the
Hanger Clinic in Oklahoma, United
States.
The clinic specialises in creating
computerised legs, known as C-legs,
with unique sockets for amputees,
such as soldiers who lost limbs.
Travel, the prosthesis and rehabilitation
will cost in excess of $150,000
after ACC funded a knee prosthesis
only.
The process will take several
months. This time next year, she hopes
to be able to put on her C-legs, walk
through a mall and “blend in”.
Until she is independent again, she
is residing with her parents.
While many will acknowledge Ms
Herbert has been badly let down, it
would be a waste of valuable resources
to fight ACC.
Have you checked your
underfloor repairs?
This is the sort of ‘repair’ by both
EQC and insurers we are finding.
LGS_June_QP_001_2016_HO3228
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