Young Muslim leader sips champagne then is arrested for cocaine
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap...001021,00.html
Vilified over sip of bubbly
By Luke McIlveen
December 06, 2006 12:00
THE state’s most promising young Muslim leader has become the victim of a hate campaign because she celebrated with a glass of champagne after being named NSW Young Australian of the Year.
Iktimal Hage-Ali, 22, has been targeted on Muslim websites for drinking alcohol and declining to wear the traditional hijab.Her anonymous attackers condemned her after she drank the champagne to toast her award at the NSW Art Gallery last Thursday.
“It’s true, I was celebrating. Bloody hell, I had a glass of champagne in my hand – so what?” Ms Hage-Ali told The Daily Telegraph yesterday.
The Islamic youth website Muslim Village posted dozens of messages berating Ms Hage-Ali.
“A person who drinks champagne, especially unabashedly, cannot represent the Muslim community,” one member wrote. Another added: "She knows we don’t appreciate her representing us – but it’s the power that drives her. Drinking champagne, that is sick."The cowardly accusers also berated Ms Hage-Ali for wearing “revealing” clothes, nail polish and make-up.
“Her matching nails, eye shadow and top . . . were not . . . how Islam would like to portray a Muslim female to the wider community,” one said. Yet while the majority criticised her, a few did come to her defence.
“It wonderful that a young Muslim woman has won the award and that is a cause for celebration, not denigration,” one chatroom member wrote.Ms Hage-Ali, who is a finalist for the national Young Australian of the Year to be named next month, said she was shocked by the tirade, but refused to tone her comments down.
“I’m proud of what I have done, my family is proud, my friends are proud, my colleagues are proud,” the State Government public servant and tireless community worker said.
“They’re not looking at the fact that a young Muslim person has won a prestigious award – they are looking for the negatives.”
Ms Hage-Ali is regarded as one of the Muslim community’s most progressive young voices since joining Prime Minister John Howard’s Muslim Reference Group.
She accepted her public profile would draw criticism but did not claim to speak on behalf of all Muslims.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap...007132,00.html
Young Muslim leader arrested
Exclusive by Kara Lawrence and Luke McIlveen
December 13, 2006 12:00
YOUNG Muslim leader Iktimal Hage-Ali – a handpicked adviser to the Prime Minister – was arrested in a cocaine bust eight days before receiving the NSW Young Australian of the Year award.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal Ms Hage-Ali, 22, was one of four people arrested by detectives from the Middle Eastern organised crime squad on November 22 as part of Strike Force Kirban. She was arrested at her Punchbowl home and taken to Bankstown police station, where she was questioned over a cocaine supply ring allegedly operating in Sydney’s southwest.
The leading member of John Howard’s Muslim Community Reference Group was released without charge. Police seized what is believed to be prohibited drugs, cash and ammunition from several of the homes. Ms Hage-Ali’s home was not searched, but she had been identified by police as a suspect.
The Daily Telegraph first learned of her arrest last week, but Ms Hage-Ali vehemently denied any involvement or links to alleged drug suppliers.
“If it is true, why hasn’t it come out?” she said. “I am a high-profile person, I have no idea why people would be saying this.”
The prominent youth leader has worked full-time as a personal assistant in the NSW Attorney-General’s department for three months. Ms Hage-Ali claimed last week that she had only been to Bankstown police station on two occasions – once to report a threatening text message after the Cronulla riots and more recently to talk to police about how to relate better to Muslims.
She did not return calls yesterday, despite repeated requests to respond to the allegations. A Daily Telegraph investigation has confirmed that Ms Hage-Ali was taken to Bankstown police station on November 22, where she participated in a police interview.
Following the interview, police exercised their discretionary powers to allow her to leave without facing charges. Ms Hage-Ali was one of four people targeted in the raids. The other three, males aged 17, 22 and 23, are facing the courts on drug supply charges.
Two were arrested in Telopea St, Punchbowl, while a third was a Greenacre man.
In raids on the men’s homes, police allegedly seized cash, pills and powders, believed to be prohibited drugs. Eight days after the arrests, Ms Hage-Ali received her NSW Young Australian of the Year award from Governor Marie Bashir.
She has been considered a frontrunner for the national award, to be announced on Australia Day.
Ms Hage-Ali is the youngest member of John Howard’s Muslim Community Reference Group and a former deputy chair of the State Government’s Youth Advisory Council.
She has had access to the highest levels of government and works full-time in the NSW Attorney-General’s Department. The popular young Muslim made headlines last week after members of her own community attacked her for sipping a glass of champagne at the NSW Australian of the Year awards.
Yesterday Middle Eastern organised crime squad commander Detective Superintendent Ken McKay said he was unable to comment because the matter was before the courts.
Ms Hage-Ali lectures police on showing cultural sensitivity to people of Middle Eastern background. The revelation leaves the PM’s already damaged Muslim reference group in even greater doubt.
The group ceased to convene regular meetings in September and Mr Howard wants the whole body overhauled.
Comment:
Another so called representative of the Muslims falls flat on their face according to non-Islamic criteria’s. But according to the Islamic criteria she fell from grace a long time ago. Just because someone is a Muslim and is given lots of publicity and chosen to represent us does not mean that they are Islamic and we should follow them and be pleased with them.
We have been blessed with Islam and should use Islam to judge with.
Any Muslim who openly commits haram and does not repent but is proud of their actions is following the western values and far from Islam and will lead Muslims in line with the western agenda of integration/ assimilation and loss of the Islamic identity.