2 days ago
Western Australia's remote Islamic communities gather for Eid al-Adha
"Eid Mubarak" may seem a bit different in Western Australia's north-west, where community members gather in unconventional ways to mark one of the most important dates on the Islamic calendar.
In Karratha and Carnarvon, worshippers, including some donned in high-visibility work uniforms, have no fixed place of prayer for Eid al-Adha.
It is a far cry from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a majority-Muslim external territory, where the Athan or Islamic call to prayer blends with the sound of drums and violins to ring in the holy festival.
On Saturday, belated Eid celebrations were held at a hired council venue in Karratha, about 1,500 kilometres north of Perth.
Karratha Muslim Community Association president Imraan Koalia said not having a permanent place of prayer had been a real "sticking point" for the community.
"We are looking for a dedicated space that we could call our home," he said.
Mr Koalia described the Muslim community in Karratha as small but tight-knit, with people from all walks of life and corners of the globe.
But he said the transience of the town could make it difficult to cater for all nationalities and cultures.
"It's very diverse, very multicultural, very traditional as well. We're only a small community," he said.
About 150 people came together for Eid festivities, which involved prayers, sharing gifts and treats, visiting families, jumping castles and face painting at the Tambrey football oval.
Mr Koalia described the dissonance of celebrating and feasting as a community while people in Gaza remained under threat and could not enjoy the same freedoms.
"It's a time for us when we come together as a Muslim community to remember Muslims all around the world, and especially those Muslims in Palestine and in Gaza," he said.
The Carnarvon Muslim community is made up of 50 people.
Most have travelled from Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan to work in the farming town.
Like Karratha, there is no fixed space for worship.
In the past, the civic centre has been rented to host Eid prayers.
But this holiday, no communal prayer was held.
It is a Sunnah for Muslims, which means it is highly recommended and should be practised, but is not strictly obligatory.
Shzahaer Iezayed Abdullah bin Mahalan, who goes by Lang, moved to Carnarvon from Malaysia eight years ago.
He spent his Eid working at the kebab shop.
"I just talked to my family in Malaysia … I really miss them when Eid comes. But the only the thing I can do is video call them," he said.
Lang said most people were too busy to organise the prayer.
"They're working in the plantation, some in the petrol station, everywhere they're working. So we don't have any time," he said.
But that did not entirely squash the festivities.
"Sunday … we can make Eid party for us. We're just discussing … like who's doing cooking, who's doing the preparation?"
Using a WhatsApp group, the community planned gatherings and supported each other.
More than 2,300km north-west of Carnarvon, the call to prayer could be heard along tropical beaches and blue lagoons as Eid al-Adha kicked off in Australia's most remote Muslim community.
Many residents of the Indian Ocean territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands observe the festival, although their traditions have developed in isolation from the mainland.
Haji Adam Anthony, the islands' senior imam, said the special variety of Islam practised by the Cocos Malay merged distinct cultures from across the world.
"The Clunies-Ross brought the peoples from different places to Cocos."
The islands were discovered by the East India Company's Captain William Keeling in the early 1600s.
But it was not until the 19th century that trader John Clunies-Ross began populating them with indentured workers from British Malaya, China, India and other places.
Haji Adam said Islam took strong root among these settlers, who congregated on Home Island when the Clunies-Ross fiefdom passed into Australian control.
Cultural markers from homelands as distant and diverse as Indonesia to Scotland still feature in contemporary ceremonies.
Worshippers marked Eid with traditional dancing, tamarind drum playing and performances on the Cocos biola, a fiddle which the Clunies-Ross family is often credited for bringing to the territory.
Haji Adam explained the harmony between disparate traditions and Islam made the Cocos (Keeling) Islands unique.
"[Without] using drum or violins and so forth … we lost our culture and tradition," he said.
"The elder people still like to keep this."
