LIFESTYLE 21 - 24
UMMAH 25 - 26
EDUCATION 27 - 28
BUSINESS 29
MEFF 2022
SOCIAL 30 - 31
MULTICULTURAL EID FESTIVAL & FAIR - SOUVENIR 2022
AMUST
Message from Hanif Bismi The legacy of MEFF continues President of the Australian MEFF Consortium,
Zia Ahmad, Trustee of Australian MEFF Consortium
AssalaamuAlaikum / Greetings of Peace We welcome all Australians of various faiths and cultural backgrounds to join us at Fairfield Showground on Sunday 15 May 2022 for the 37th annual Multicultural Eid Festival & Fair (MEFF). Great news! It’s free entry this year so please bring your extended family and friends. MEFF is the first, the largest and the longest-running Eid Festival in Australia. This festive gathering of all Australians was the pioneering idea of Dr Qazi Ashfaq Ahmad OAM. It is of great sorrow to the multicultural Australian community that Dr Ahmad passed away on 10 February 2022 at the age of 91. Dr Ahmad believed that communi-
The annual Multicultural Eid Festival & Fair (MEFF) is the first, the largest and the longest-running Eid Festival in Australia that welcomes tens thousands of people from the Australian Multicultural community at Fairfield Showground. MEFF started in 1987 and has been held every year since then except in 2020 and 2021 due to restrictions based on COVID-19 pandemic. The last MEFF was the 36th in a row held on Sunday 9 June 2019. MEFF is usually celebrated on the Sundays following Eid Al-Fitr. Started by the Islamic Foundation for Education and Welfare (IFEW), it is run by the Australian MEFF consortium, a non profit community based organisation. Its founder, Dr Qazi Ashfaq Ahmad realised that Eid was not being celebrated as a festival of joy as in his home country India and together with the help of his family organised the first MEFF in 1987 as a multicultural event welcoming all, thus founding
Organisers of the Multicultural Eid Festival & Fair ty-based volunteer work is the backbone of society. MEFF is based on volunteer work and its dedicated volunteers contribute their free time, effort and money to bring to you this fantastic social gathering. We encourage you to reach out and understand others and thus clarify your own beliefs and identity. We will realize that our similarities far outweigh our differences and then we work together for the betterment of the larger community. Dr Ahmad’s memory and achievements are kept alive through the active organizations he started, his books, and publications. Today, MEFF stands as an Australian Muslim identity and showcasing Australian Multiculturalism. In the future, MEFF will be a better and bigger place for Australians to meet and bridge a stronger community bonding.
the first ever Eid Festival in Australia. By 1991, MEFF moved to Fairfield Showground, very soon catering for tens of thousands of people from over 35 different multicultural communities, at its peak attracting up to 30,000 people. MEFF is a showcase of multicultural Australia, an icon of Muslim unity in diversity providing a platform for celebration, tolerance and peace on a grand scale. Muslims from all backgrounds, ethnic communities, mosques and societies gather at MEFF to display their colourful costumes, sumptuous food, songs, folk dances and other displays within the bounds of the Islamic way of life. Dr Ahmad passed away in February 2022, but MEFF continues as one of his legacies and a sadqa jaria, passing on the skills from generation to generation to celebrate Eid through Australian volunteerism in order to put smiles on the faces of young and old in an atmosphere of peace and harmony.
Dr Qazi Ashfaq Ahmad OAM (centre) enjoying the main ceremony at MEFF 2018. Photo by Ash Wheatley.
Dr Qazi Ashfaq Ahmad OAM (centre) with Ray Williams (left) and Sam Dastyari (right) at MEFF 2017.
SOUVENIR LIFTOUT PAGES 15 - 18
Proudly Sponsored By
10am-9pm
MAY 2022 / ISSUE 198
WWW.AMUST.COM.AU
AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES
15