new member.. help wanted

[carol_au]

Hi,

I'm Carol and I'm a non muslim, who is learning about Islam and spending a lot of time working with people from non English speaking backgrounds,

I am wondering if any of you are migrants and from a non english speaking background and would be willing to tell me what it was like to arrive in Australia.

I know many of you would have arrived into places like Melbourne and Sydney where you had a lot of other support, but I'm sure you still felt strange not living close to your family and friends.

I'm wondering if any of you, especially ladies, could tell me about your experiences and what sort of things helped you settle into life in Australia.

If there are people here who have family or friends who are new migrants I would love to hear from you as well.

I would love to hear how your faith helped you settle in, so please, even though I am not a Muslim, please tell me about Islam in Australia and how your feel today being a Muslim in this country.

I really appreciate anyone's help, and look forward to joining in more conversations throughout the forum. Thanks to the administrators for allowing me to join the forum. I am sure I will learn a lot by being here. :)

[Shadower]

Try Meme & Theory (though Meme if you prefer a female) I think their family is new here. I was born here so I am of no use :)

Though my parents arrived in '69 and it was hard back then, they knew no English and some of the stories they would tell me such as when ordering meat some people would make the noises of the animal they want to buy. I cannot see my parents doing that though, they would of just pointed to what they wanted.

[Khaled]

Welcome Carol,

Good to see you on this forum.

Just for your info guys, Carol has a good understanding of Islam. If you guys want to bring something to her attention, you can post it in the Islamic Section and send her a link via PM or if it's a website you want her to read, PM her also. This thread is about Muslim migrants in Australia InshaAllah.

[carol_au]

Would u consider being a muslim?? :D

Not at the moment Meme :-) I have plenty of Muslim friends around the world, but I am a Christian...(born to a non religious family). I have discussed Islam for many years now with Muslims on the internet, and deeply respect the Muslim desire to serve and submit to God.

[carol_au]

Try Meme & Theory (though Meme if you prefer a female) I think their family is new here. I was born here so I am of no use :)

Though my parents arrived in '69 and it was hard back then, they knew no English and some of the stories they would tell me such as when ordering meat some people would make the noises of the animal they want to buy. I cannot see my parents doing that though, they would of just pointed to what they wanted.

thanks Shadower,

We like to think Australia is helpful to migrants, but I know it's not easy being a non English speaker. I came as an English speaking migrant so it was relatively easy for me). I just cannot imagine what it must be like to leave family and friends behind, and move here without at least understanding the language of this country.

I appreciate your story.. and Meme, 15 years is not that long ago..

[islamirama]

Is there any assistance for english speaking folks who want to move to oz :D

[Alquddsu*Lana]

Hi Carol :)

I can help you out..give me 2 days to write them up lol not because of my English..I have a test tomorrow and I am not ready to start now..

I will pm you so *was about to say Insha allaah:p* meaning If Allaah Wills :)
but Insha allaah :D

[Khaled]

Just a reminder, Carol probably knows more about Islam than some Muslims. The words 'InshaAllah' and 'Alhamdulillah' and 'SubhanAllah' aren't new to her. Let's forget she is a non-Muslim for a few moments and answer her question :)

I was born and raised here Carol, and have the majority of my family here. I have 2 step uncles in Syria and 2 aunts in Lebanon. I'm not really sure how my parents dealt with things in Australia, I understand they met and got married here. My father was studying engineering at Melbourne University but left because he wanted to get married and to start working.

These days, we feel right at home here. Main reason is because the people we take as friends are usually people from the same backgrounds as us. However, I usually find it easy to get along with anyone in almost any situation alhamdulillah. Must be the 'Aussie' in me :p

[aussiemu]

assalamu alaikum,

Hi Carol. You'll actually find alot of the young ones here were born and raised here. However, most of their parents were the migrants.

I came to Australia fairly young (I was 6). This was back in 1988. My brothers were 8 and 9. My dad could speak English (not 100% fluently but enough) and my mum couldn't. I couldn't speak a word and neither could my brothers.

My experience being raised in Australia and coming as a migrant was really positive. And I think the same for my parents.

I'm actually teaching English to some kids and I realise how good the ESL program was when I first arrived in Australia. My brothers and I were put in an ESL program at my primary school for around 2 years. My main memory was our teacher taking us to the milkbar to get icecream (so we could practise how to buy things at a shop). :)

I never faced prejudice or racism as a kid. My two best friends as a kid was a Jewish girl (my school was actually 50% Jewish) and a Christian girl. Religion didn't really factor into our friendship as a kid. I remember trying to teach them the Arabic alphabet by tracing letters in the sand.

One thing that was good was the services available for migrants. My mum used to go to the community college classes to learn English and she went to some classes for sewing etc. Actually right now (16 years later now that all the kids are grown up and she has no responsibilities) she is going to some English classes locally again to improve her English even more.

Overall, honestly, I can't find anything really negative about coming here as a Migrant back in the 80's and growing up here.

The change seems to be happening now though. There's alot of negative press about migrants, theres alot of anti-migrant, anti-Muslim talk going that didn't seem to be around when we migrated here.

You know as a kid, I found Australia fascinating. I'd come from overseas and Coles was this humungous store to me. I was absolutely fascinated by it. I look now and it makes me laugh. :)

wassalamu alaikum

[islamirama]

Lucky you mite! In the US you learn from a very early age that you're an arabi terrorist even if you're not even arab at all. And unless you can speak no accent english and act like others in all aspect you and an outsider and guys would love making fun of you. It goes for all kids, wheather muslim or not, others make you realize who you are when they yell "go back where you came from" and esp in times like todays. Don't know what all these ppl see in US that they flock like idiots here by the thousands.:rolleyes:



assalamu alaikum,

Hi Carol. You'll actually find alot of the young ones here were born and raised here. However, most of their parents were the migrants.

I came to Australia fairly young (I was 6). This was back in 1988. My brothers were 8 and 9. My dad could speak English (not 100% fluently but enough) and my mum couldn't. I couldn't speak a word and neither could my brothers.

My experience being raised in Australia and coming as a migrant was really positive. And I think the same for my parents.

I'm actually teaching English to some kids and I realise how good the ESL program was when I first arrived in Australia. My brothers and I were put in an ESL program at my primary school for around 2 years. My main memory was our teacher taking us to the milkbar to get icecream (so we could practise how to buy things at a shop). :)

I never faced prejudice or racism as a kid. My two best friends as a kid was a Jewish girl (my school was actually 50% Jewish) and a Christian girl. Religion didn't really factor into our friendship as a kid. I remember trying to teach them the Arabic alphabet by tracing letters in the sand.

One thing that was good was the services available for migrants. My mum used to go to the community college classes to learn English and she went to some classes for sewing etc. Actually right now (16 years later now that all the kids are grown up and she has no responsibilities) she is going to some English classes locally again to improve her English even more.

Overall, honestly, I can't find anything really negative about coming here as a Migrant back in the 80's and growing up here.

The change seems to be happening now though. There's alot of negative press about migrants, theres alot of anti-migrant, anti-Muslim talk going that didn't seem to be around when we migrated here.

You know as a kid, I found Australia fascinating. I'd come from overseas and Coles was this humungous store to me. I was absolutely fascinated by it. I look now and it makes me laugh. :)

wassalamu alaikum

[amatul_rahmaan]

Welcome to the forum Carol, by the way there's lots of young members here on the forum and that's why meme considered 15 years to be a lot comparing to how old is she.

i guess my story is a bet different, my parents came to australia (they are egyptian) after they got married then they had me and after that my sister, as far as i was told i never spoke with them in arabic but i understood what they said and i always replied back in english.

when i was in grade one, my parents decided to go back to egypt again, i hardly remember anything from that time. all i know is i went to english school for one year then i was moved to public school so i can learn arabic since i was stil speaking english and my life went on and slowly i forgot the english.

i finished my education untill first year uni and again my dad decided to bring us here to have better life (financially). i was the most one who rejected this and i was crying so bad to my friends at uni to do anything and keep me there :o but subhan allah coming to australia was one of the best things that happened to me.

my first month in australia was a nightmare for me. although i have studied english in middle year and highschool as second language but it was american english therefore when i came to australia i spend my first month crying so bad everyday in class and at home, i couldn't understand one word from what's happening around me in class and niether did anyone because of my accent. i spent my nights with a dictionary trying to memorise as much words as i can and elhamdolelah that was helpfull, i was also addicted to reading stories so i used to borrow them form library and try to guess the meaning of the sentence from what i read or check it in the dictionary if it was hard plus my addiction to shows like charmed, xena, hercliz (i think wrong spelling) which i used to see in egypt. all of this plus having non-arab around and the fact that i had to work after coming to australia by 3 month have forced me to learn english.

in regard of support, i didn't get much in the first couple of years and being not practicing at that time got me more involved with non-muslim and thier lives but i was still holding to my morals elhamdolelah and most arab coutries morals are part of islam elhamdolelah.

through time, i learned few things about islam from my non-muslim friends at uni, i.e a hindu friend was the one who explained to me what does halal meet means and what's the different between that meat and other meat. i also met few sisters and brothers who kind of helpe me to know prayer room and other muslims but i was more into knowing arab because speaking arabic was helping me not feel home sick a lot.

since i didn't have anyone here except my parents and my siblins, i used to go to chat rooms looking for any egyptians, may allah forgive us for these days.

anyway, few things happened online and i was really broke emotionally, i tried to look for a replacement to the chat room and i heard about the islamic society at uni so i joined it for fun but elhamdolelah it have made a great change to my life. through there i met so many practicing brothers and sisters, i was introduced to islamic organisations and heard about lectures that was done monthly in Melbourne then i started practicing elhamdolelah and from there i started to feel at ease and slowly i found myself slipping away from non-muslim and getting closer to muslims (i didn't even realise that untill it was mentioned to me after a while), the more the time passed and more i learned about islam, the more i felt home in my heart.

i didn't really care much about going back to my country because i realised that no matter where i'm, i'm only alife for one purpose and i will only be happy if i did ONE thing, that's worshipping Allah and obaying him and that's how i became at ease and feeling stranger didn't exsit in my heart anymore elhamdolelah.

subhan allah, when i think about it, i always miss my first couple of year of practicing because that was the most happiest time in my life, i felt so close to Allah to the point that i used to talk to birds and trees, look at the sky and look at their beauty, i used to enjoy reading quran in the park and watch how the birds come closer to me and think about how birds and animals love quran as it was mentioned in one of the nasheeds (islamic songs)

the only time that i get all these home-sick feeling back is when i'm struggling with my iman (faith) and i get affected sometimes by all the desires around me but elhamdolelah allah usually put something in my way to get over it and usually going to lectures and having a good practicing company help me to overcome it sometimes and at other times, it's being patient that gets me throught it.

that's pretty much my story during my time in australia since i came back since nearly 6 years.

another thing i would like to note and i found it with most poeple, when we first start practicing, we feel so happy and exited and want to follow islam to the top but then later on we get depressed a lot and feel our faith is going backwords which is wrong.

a good example that a sister have mentioned to me is if you get into a room with weak lighting, you only see few things there and it seems nice but if you get stronger light then you will see all the dust and dirt in it and maybe you won't feel it's beauty.

meaning when you first start practicing, you have limited knowldge about islam so you feel all happy but when your knowldge increase about islam, you see more clearly your sins and bad things and you realise more it's result and affect on your life and you forget that it have been always there so you started to feel depressed thinking that you are not doing good enough for your faith where in fact, allah hae only opened your heart to this extra knowldge so you will change the bad things you were doing and try to move on to a higher level of faith.

subhank allahomma we behamdek ashehado an la ellah ella ant, astaghferak we atoob elaik

we al salam alekom we rahmat allah we barakatoh.

[Shadower]

thanks Shadower,

We like to think Australia is helpful to migrants, but I know it's not easy being a non English speaker. I came as an English speaking migrant so it was relatively easy for me). I just cannot imagine what it must be like to leave family and friends behind, and move here without at least understanding the language of this country.

I appreciate your story.. and Meme, 15 years is not that long ago..

My parents were helped out a lot by the Moronite Priest who led the Lebanese Maronite community here in Melbourne back then. My mom left her family behind, though my father had an uncle and a brother already here.

I guess my family was pretty lucky as some people come here having no one at all.

[carol_au]

Hey everyone,

Thanks so much for your replies so far. I really appreciate all your replies, and it will help me so much, not only for the people I'm working with here, but in my studies as well. ( I'm doing some courses on working with people who are newly arrived as migrants/refugees and the special needs they have.)

I will spend a little more time here on the weekend and share more about myself for those who are interested.. in the meantime, my sincere thanks for the help from you all.

[carol_au]

Sub7an Allah.. How things change :)

:) sis don't they? alhamdulillah

Sometimes it seems so surreal that I am a muslim now, yet to be honest, I miss nothing in my Christian faith because Allah has given me so much more now... masha Allah as I keep saying to people.. I really feel like I have come home!! and I can so relate to the ayat that "this day I have perfected your religion".

May Allah help us all to never compromise on the truth ..

my favourite hadith of the week is this one

You are the Truth and Your word is Truth. .. beautiful isn't it???

LOL I had to edit the post when I re read the thread... wow what a huge step took place between May and November :) and Meme you asked the question ... "would I consider".. and I replied "not yet" :) mashaAllah

Maybe I knew back then it was going to be inevitable.. SubhanAllah

[MrWarraEnib]

allahu akbar !!!! :D

[*F@ttY*]

:subhan: wa :alham: