Sheikh Shadi Asuleiman holds many titles.
He’s the president of the Australian National Imams Council (ANIC), recognised as one of the 500 most influential Muslims worldwide and is also Australia’s first born and bred Imam.
Sheikh Shadi is also on a mission to keep young Australian Muslims in the faith.
How? By opening an Islamic university and, for the first time in Australia, providing women the opportunity to study to become religious scholars — known as shaykhas — with the same standing as men.
“Both men and women, males and females, boys and girls, are welcome to attend,” Sheikh Shadi said.
“And when it comes to Islamic knowledge, there’s no differentiation or discrimination based on gender.”
The university, which is about two years away from being finished, will form part of an Islamic centre that Sheikh Shadi describes as “a one-stop Islamic shop: A place to eat, pray and hang out”.
Building has begun next to the site where Sheikh Shadi’s centre — the United Muslims of Australia (UMA) — currently stands in the south-western Sydney suburb of Padstow.
The making of Australia’s first homegrown imam
Born to Palestinian parents and raised in Bankstown, in Sydney’s south-west, Sheikh Shadi began exploring his faith at an early age.
“When I was about 14 years old I started attending Lakemba Mosque and saw the need to make a bit of a change,” he said.
“My generation struggled when we went to public places of worship, when we went to mosques, when we went to Islamic schools because the imams and sheikhs were predominantly from overseas.”
“They didn’t speak our language or grow up in Australia. It was hard for them to connect with us.
“I say … proudly [that] I’m a homegrown imam.”
At 16, Sheikh Shadi went to Pakistan, India and Syria to learn more about his faith.
Eight years later, he returned as a fully qualified religious scholar and began working at Lakemba Mosque.
Sheikh Shadi had only been in his role a few months when 9/11 threw Australia’s Muslim communities into turmoil.
It was the young sheikh’s first taste of dealing with a community in crisis.
“When I came back from overseas, I dealt with a lot of troubled people,” Sheikh Shadi said.
“Many young Muslim men were involved in gangs, they were involved in drugs, in crime.
“Many people had a lot of troubles in their lives.”
He decided to create UMA to build a safe place for young Muslims to hang out, play basketball, eat pizza and pray.
UMA remains his home base today.
A bridge between faiths
As well as his work with Muslim youth, Sheikh Shadi spends some of his time working with other faith leaders.
“We have more that unites us than divides us,” he said.
As the first English-speaking imam to be born in Australia, Sheikh Shadi has been a bridge between Australia’s Muslim and non-Muslim communities, with his office a revolving door for politicians of all persuasions.
He and other faith leaders formed Faith NSW in October last year in a bid to develop policies to combat Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, and provide advocacy on issues like religious freedom.
At a launch dinner, held only days before the start of the Israel-Gaza War, the group was hailed as a success story — a united, multi-faith organisation that reflected Australia’s multicultural makeup.
But the joy was short-lived with the outbreak of war, which has increased tensions between many members of the Jewish and Muslim communities.
Faith NSW must now manage relations between the two distressed communities.
Community ‘let down’, betrayed
With mounting civilian casualties in Gaza, Sheikh Shadi said the Muslim community have been feeling betrayed by government and media for not showing stronger support for Palestine.
“Well, this is a general feeling across the globe,” he said.
“Even in Australia, there is a sense of let-down, there is a sense of betrayal.”
On a personal level, Sheikh Shadi’s focus has turned to the difficult task of managing his own community’s emotions and expectations.
“I need to manage that bridge and connection between my community and the general [non-Muslim] community,” Sheikh Shadi said.
“And then manage that bridge between the Muslim community and the decision-makers and the political decision-makers.
“Striking that balance, especially during a huge divide, becomes very challenging.”
But some members of the Muslim community do not just take their anger out on the government, directing their emotions at Sheikh Shadi as well.
There has been a perception by some in the community that he has worked too closely with the government and that he has betrayed them.
An online petition was circulated, calling for him to step down as president of ANIC.
Sheikh Shadi understands why the community feels this way, but believes it is always better to keep the lines of communication open, even with those who you disagree with.
Questioning Australian identity
The disappointment felt by many members of Sheikh Shadi’s community towards Australia’s politicians and media has struck at the very core of their sense of belonging in Australia and changing that will be no easy fix.
Amal Nasser, age 23, is an Australian-Palestinian human rights lawyer and one of the key organisers of Sydney’s Palestinian protests that began in October days after the Israel-Gaza War began.
The war has only amplified her own questions about her faith and Australian Muslim identity.
“I haven’t felt this isolated since I was young during the war on terror,” Amal said.
“[Young Muslims] were forced to assimilate into society, and society spits us out quite quickly.
“I think a lot of young Arab Muslims are currently re-assessing their place in Australian society.
“[As we] see who our governments are, who our community leaders are often getting in bed with and what that means for us.”
Isolation among gay Muslims
Another challenge to the Sheik’s leadership comes from his deeply held view that homosexuality is a sin .
“These practises in Islam are a sin, unacceptable to practise them, but it does not take you out of the fold of Islam,” Sheikh Shadi said.
“Our responsibility as Muslims and imams is to guide people to what pleases God.”
Those views leave young queer Muslims like Mohammad Awad from western Sydney feeling excluded from his faith.
“Let’s invite more Muslims in that you might disagree with, that you may not be on the right terms with,” he said.
“But we all serve the same God and we all have the same core values and beliefs and queer Muslims aren’t going anywhere here.”
Mohammad works at a community centre that helps young gay Muslims deal with their sense of isolation.
“The biggest thing that I see is that they want connection to their family,” he said.
“They want connection to their community.
“That is what they love and that is part of the grief that a lot of Muslims go through.”
But despite this disquiet within Sheikh Shad’s own flock and the distress of the current war, he has hope that he can unite his community.
Living through multiple events including the Gulf War, September 11, the emergence of ISIS and the Christchurch shootings, Sheikh Shad says he has learnt a lot.
“I’ve experienced those traumas … but you learn a lot out of them [and] it empowers you as an imam, as a community leader,” he said.
“From my experience of hope, whenever the Muslim community went through a crisis, they’ve only come out of it stronger.”
Watch more of Sheikh Shadi’s story in the latest episode of Compass on Sunday, March 17 at 6:30pm on ABC TV or stream any time on ABC iview.