Saleem Shaukat, Secretary Tabligh, Jamaat Adelaide South, Australia
Since 2002, every year an annual show is held at the regional city of Callington in South Australia. This show is unique, combining a festival atmosphere with lots of entertainment plus traditional rural show events and exhibitions.
On 31 October 2021, Jamaat Adelaide South had the opportunity to visit the show and hold, for the first time, a Holy Quran exhibition and bookstall for spreading the true and peaceful teachings of Islam in this city.
After offering the Fajr prayer, a group of six Jamaat members began their journey at 6:30 am from the Noor Mosque, where the local Sadr Jamaat, Fareed Ahmad Bajwah Sahib, gave instructions to members, followed by silent prayer led by the missionary, Atif Ahmad Zahid Sahib.
Callington is a small town on the eastern slopes of Adelaide hills about 55 kilometres from Adelaide city. The total population of the city is about 600 but as its local government classified it as a rural city, around 20 different cities, towns, villages and localities are under its local council and during the springtime especially around the annual show time more than 5,000 people visit the city all from different parts of the region, making it a popular attraction.
On the day, the bookstall showcased translated copies of the Holy Quran in ten different languages along with a variety of books including, Life of Muhammad, The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam, World Crisis and the Pathway to Peace and Islam’s Response to Contemporary Issues.
Pamphlets that were displayed included topics such as “Muslims for peace”, “Muslims for loyalty”, “Muhammad in Bible” and “Messiah has come”.
Approximately 200 people visited the Holy Quran exhibition and bookstall and engaged in detailed conversations about Islam and the presented books. Visitors were very impressed with the variety of information that was displayed. Through holding this display, the peaceful message of Islam reached around 4,000 people.
The questions asked the most revolved around the following questions:
• Has the Quran also been emended like other holy books?
• Why does Islam emphasise Jihad?
• Does Islam convince Muslims to fight with the sword, as Jihad?
• In Islam, what is the concept of prayer?
ED Thomas, a local resident shared that he had been looking for the true God for many years and had studied various religions including Buddhism and Christianity, but he was still not satisfied. Our missionary had a detailed talk with him about the peaceful teachings of Islam and shared with him the Promised Messiah’s book, The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam. ED Thomas was eager to know more about Islam and the true God and said he would be in touch.
Hon Adrian Pederick, a member for Hammond, also visited our stall and appreciated the Jamaat’s efforts, and said:
“It was a lovely day with the 5,000 people here to see the […] great interest here and great to see the Muslim community here today, educating people about life with the Muslim religion and it’s great that the people get the transparent views […]”
The organiser of the show, Rose was very happy with our efforts and said:
“It is wonderful to have the Muslim community stall so they can answer the questions, and I think this is the answer to finding out about diversity, finding out about different ways of thinking, how it applies to all of us. I think it’s a really great thing […]”
