.: The Islamic Association of Australia

The heat is on! Once a year a dramatic change occurs in the Muslim community. Once a year Icky baby and the Sams becomes Iqbal and Sameera. Off come the baggy jeans, the Nike 180's and the Raiders cap. On come the yellow Shalwar Kameez (clothes most Pakistanis wear), the bryl-creamed hairstyle which glues on that terribly uncool Towpee(cap) and in comes the miswak (used to clean teeth) in the top pocket, making you look like something from "Karachi cops".

It's during this HOLY month of Ramadan that we ditch the daytime raves and the frequent visit to the library (and we don't mean for the reference section!!!) and begin to act it out. Icky baby becomes temporarily religious.

It's a sort of spooky feeling. The Mosques are full and you feel good. Good cos' you've done your bit for the year. One by one you scratch the days from your Ramadan timetable that your dad brought back from the Mosque and then thank crunchie, it's Eid.

Eid Mubarak!

The Mosques again become museums for the old and for those deprived "ACHE BACHE" (good babies). The crease-free shalwar kameez comes off and on come the baggy jeans, whilst the libraries reopen for "business as usual". Just 11 more months of "freedom" to go before the smelly breath season comes back with a vengeance.

Year after year it goes on, almost as a ritual. You know it's rough. Yet Allah(swt) is Al-Rahman and Al-Raheem as we are told by our parents (who probably also have gone through this). And anyway religion is for the old men in the mosques with smelly breaths, and beards that sweep the floor everytime they walk from one end of the mosque to the other.

Religion is for those "fundies" (fundamentalists) at school/college, the "weirdoes" who only talk to the opposite sex about the benefits of the Khilafah ruling system or the fallacies of Western ideology such as Capitalism and Marxist Philosophy.(try saying that in one breath!).