{"id":551607,"date":"2026-03-19T23:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T23:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/551607\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T23:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T23:56:09","slug":"joy-in-the-midst-of-much-grief-australian-eid-and-nowruz-celebrations-overshadowed-by-war-in-the-middle-east-australia-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/551607\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Joy in the midst of much grief\u2019: Australian Eid and Nowruz celebrations overshadowed by war in the Middle East | Australia news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inaz Janif would ordinarily attend prayers at the mosque for Eid al-Fitr<\/a>, the event that marks the end of Ramadan, a sacred month and fasting period for Muslims.<\/p>\n

This year, however, she\u2019s doing something a bit different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to take a family-centred approach. I\u2019m a mum of four and my plans for Eid this year are to take my children to a community-centered celebration and prayers,\u201d Janif says.<\/p>\n

The event, held by Muslim organisation Benevolence Australia, will include face painting, henna and activities for the children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it might be a bit healing for my children,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

For many Australian Muslims, approaching Friday\u2019s Eid with a sense of celebration is difficult this year as war continues in the Middle East. The Iranian diaspora will also be preparing for the Persian new year \u2013 Nowruz \u2013 this weekend, against the backdrop of war.<\/p>\n

Yet many say that being an openly practising Muslim in Australia is feeling increasingly risky.<\/p>\n

Janif says she\u2019s approaching Eid differently this year. Photograph: Penny Stephens\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a deep sense of grief \u2026 we\u2019re trying to practise our faith and find joy in the midst of much grief, much pain,\u201d Janif says. \u201cIt feels really surreal and wrong to celebrate something, when so many people that I love and care about are worried about the survival of people they love overseas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Security was also stepped up at Heidelberg mosque in Melbourne<\/a>, Imam Alaa Elzokm says, where they expected 1,500 worshippers to attend prayers on Friday morning.<\/p>\n

He hoped to give \u201ca message of comfort\u201d during the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have families who either have family members who are stuck overseas because of the war and some also have relatives in other countries like Lebanon, for example, that got recently struck as well,\u201d Elzokm says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel saddened by the war in general. We don\u2019t like any person to be unsafe. We don\u2019t like children to be killed. And that\u2019s the current situation in the Middle East now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Increased security at Lakemba mosque<\/p>\n

Concerns about a rise in Islamophobic incidents in Australia<\/a> are making the community fearful, Elzokm says.<\/p>\n

But this year\u2019s Eid \u2013 calculated according to the lunar calendar and marked by the sighting of the new moon \u2013 also comes in the shadow of the seventh anniversary of the Christchurch massacre<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s remembering Christchurch,\u201d Elzokm says. \u201cThe fear is still there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gamel Kheir, the secretary of the Lebanese Muslim Association, says he believes this fear is also being driven by the actions of politicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got politicians jumping over themselves to see who can be more extreme in their hatred of the Muslim faith. That\u2019s the worrying attitude \u2013 these politicians who are just clickbaiting for some cheap votes have standardised and normalised Islamophobia<\/a>,\u201d Kheir says.<\/p>\n

Kheir says Sydney\u2019s Lakemba mosque has had to increase security for the 50,000 people expected to attend Eid prayers \u2013 to a level not required since the 2005 Cronulla riots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe elderly are too scared to walk to the mosque. Because our prayers are at night, they\u2019re walking in the dark, we can\u2019t offer a pickup service. We\u2019ve got women who won\u2019t send their children to the mosque any more because it\u2019s at night,\u201d Kheir says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community remains resilient and we\u2019ll celebrate as we usually will, but with a touch of remorse and sorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nowruz becomes \u2018form of resistance\u2019 among many Iranians<\/p>\n

Nowruz is an ancient cultural ritual that predates modern religion and marks the northern hemisphere\u2019s spring equinox.<\/p>\n

Nowruz is also one of the few ancient Persian cultural practices to survive under the repressive Iranian Islamist regime.<\/p>\n

Mediya Rangi, who left Iran more than 20 years ago when she was a teenager, has been volunteering with the Australian Iranian Sun and Lion Association, which is holding an event at Melbourne\u2019s Federation Square to mark Nowruz on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Rangi says Nowruz has become \u201ca form of resistance for us \u2026 it is an honouring of what is going on to our people today\u201d.<\/p>\n

She says many people have received messages from their family members hoping they will celebrate Nowruz, especially after the massacre of protesters in Iran in January<\/a>, and as news spread that Iranians in Tehran celebrating another ancient ritual, Chaharshanbe Suri, or festival of fire, were shot at by security forces<\/a> this week, amid the bombing of the country by Israel and the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cNowruz predates the Islamic Republic and this is a light they\u2019re trying to take out and we won\u2019t let them. So for us, it\u2019s very much tied to that resistance, to that defiance,\u201d Rangi says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel if we come together we can not only uphold this 3,000-year-old ritual that signifies hope and renewal for us, but we can also provide some comfort for each other and hold each other in this space and continue to hope for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inaz Janif would ordinarily attend prayers at the mosque for Eid al-Fitr, the event that marks the end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-551607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}