Towards a Cohesive Australia, word of thanks by K Trad

Towards a Cohesive Australia, word of thanks by K Trad
My word of thanks, notesThanked Helen, Jane Favoto, Chris Murray, David and his wife and expressed my profound respect for Bishop Manning without whom we wouldn't have even got the first program off the ground and thanked him for his help now that we are in the fifth program.I thanked all the speakers and presented them with plaques/trophies, the ladies were also presented with flowers.
I thanked Dooleys for their generosity and indicated the extent in terms of the free dinner for which the numbers kept growing.

I thanked Cardinal Cassidy and nominated him for the position of pope and said:

Their eminences as men of faith spoke about love.
The politician spoke tough
The author spoke personal experience.

I thanked Sr. Libby Rogerson for chairing the program.

I thanked the Mufty for going outside his comfort zone and making the attempt to present his speech in English and made the point that in the present public debate on speaking English, that the audience understood the Mufty more during question time becaue he used a translator and understood less during the speech because he did not use a translator, so the public debate where some insist that eloquent speakers speak broken English without a translator is an injustice to the audience and to the public.

I made the point that this gathering that brings people together with respect, love and understanding is one that makes God pleased with us, hence He has blessed us, especially with all the different organisations such as Dooleys refusing to take our money and giving us the hall, the dinner and the refreshments motivated by love and goodness. This pleases God and upsets Satan. It was not just Dooleys, but also, the florist refused to take money for the flowers, someone brought me $200 worth of stamps for the invitations and both the Bishop and David insisted on paying for the printing.

I noted and responded to some of Tony Abbott's comments:In relation to Terrorism: I said: Terrorism is borne of fear, the terrorist tries to frighten those he or she believes to be persecuting him/her. We cannot stop young people from falling victim to this with isolation, exclusion, hatred or division. The fire that may deceive a recruit into terrorism can only be combated with the cool water of love, inclusion, respect, understanding and friendship.

In relation to his reply to the question on the Cronulla Riots, Mr. Abbott said that this was a law and order matter and that the police should arrest the people involved. I replied to this by saying: I agree that the riots were a law and order matter, however, I do not agree that they were a police matter, it was a political matter in that the decision not to caution the shock jocks who share the responsibility for inciting the violence is made at a much higher political level.

I thanked Tony for his support of multiculturalism at a time when some politicians were criticising it as mushy.

I also thanked Tony for quoting the comments from the Afghan Student who was happy to be able to rebut the Prime Minister in Australia. I said that it would seem that the Afghan finally found True Islam in Australia and that his case reminded me of the old woman who stood up during a speech by the Caliph and corrected him and how a man stood up, waved his sword and said to the Caliph: If you deviate from justice, I will correct you with my sword. The Caliph turned to God and thanked God that his constituency had the courage to speak out to him. He did not introduce counter terrorism laws, he did not persecute him, he did not threaten or in any way hinder this constituent.

A special word of thanks to Elkheir Florist and to translator Sh. Elsayed Kandil.