Christmas Island’s tight-knit Muslim Malay community are passing down their traditions and rituals to younger generations in afternoon religious classes.
KEY POINTS
- Islam is the second biggest religion on Christmas Island after Buddhism.
- Most adherents are of Malay origins.
- The island’s Islamic school has been running for decades, with former students now teachers.
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On a warm summer day, students of all ages from the only school on Christmas Island rush on their bikes and segways to the air-conditioned comfort of the Islamic school on the foreshore overlooking the Indian Ocean.
Housed in what was a building to treat wounded soldiers during World War Two when Japanese forces occupied the island in 1942, the madrasa, as it is known in Arabic, has been running for decades, with former students now teachers.
Year 11 student Ismail Ibrahim loves reciting Surah Yasin from the Quran which his teacher Azli Albashri, 40, explains is the heart of the holy book.
Albashri is more of a friend and confidant to the teenagers who come to class voluntarily where the language of instruction is Malay.
“Between our parents and us was the language barrier. My parents used to get caned at school for speaking any other language than English under British rule,” he told the Australian Associated Press in the island’s only mosque.
“For me, I always tell my kids as soon as you walk into my door, you speak our mother tongue. We are losing home,” Albashri lamented.
But he also wants the students to grow up with a sense of pride in their religious and cultural identity.
“It’s not just a refugee island, that’s our reputation,” he said. “We’re very multicultural.”
Respected as a community leader, softly spoken Zainal Abdul Majid sees himself as a novice in his first year teaching primary school kids the tenets of Islam.
“We are born Muslims, our parents were Muslims, we have to carry it on, we see the importance of the religion, even myself I came up through the madrasa,” he said.
Born and bred on the island, Majid, 64, worked as a mine planner, a union activist, owns a halal supermarket and was president of the Islamic Council.
Now in his latest role, he is imparting valuable lessons to the giggling young students for a couple of hours, twice a week teaching them in Malay.
“The island is such a small place… everyone knows each other, it’s safe, it’s an excellent place to bring up a young family because kids go anywhere, kids can be kids, they can jump in the ocean, come back wet and then be in class.”
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Islam is the second biggest religion on the island after Buddhism, with most adherents of Malay origins.
A former British colony annexed for its rich phosphate deposits, Christmas Island became part of Australia’s territory in 1958.
Also born on the island after it became an Australian territory, Imam Abdul Ghaffar Ismail has been serving the Muslim community for 30 years.
The 60-year-old left the island to pursue his theological studies in Malaysia and Pakistan and returned back in 1993.
“I decided to come back because they (Christmas Islanders) didn’t have a regular imam (Muslim prayer leader). I was born on the island so it doesn’t make any difference,” he said.
“It’s a unique form of Islam (practised). It’s a small place, things don’t change much unlike cities such as Perth, so it’s still very traditional.”
“We have a different culture here because we have a different lifestyle. It’s Christmas Island Islam,” Ismail said.
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He is pleased that there are more kids on Christmas Island now, even though the federal government shuttered specialist childbirth services at the island’s only hospital in 1998.
Expecting mothers still have to travel to Perth, about 2,500km away, to give birth in partially subsidised trips for families.
Speaking in parables, the imam sees the role of the Malay community as critical to continuing generational growth.
“The youngsters don’t have the ideas, so they just say they can lift a rock thinking they’re strong but the elders say you can’t lift it by yourself, we have to do it together or else you’ll break your back,” he explained.
“It symbolises following in the footsteps of Prophet Mohammed.”
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Published 25 November 2023 10:15am
Source: AAP
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