The most glorified death in human society is martyrdom, in its secular definition, martyrdom is to make the ultimate sacrifice to save others, it is to take a very high risk that needs to be taken in order that others might be saved.
The most glorified sacrifice in Christianity is that of Christ, sometimes referred to as the “lamb of God”, meaning the sacrificial lamb, the famous verse in John 3:16 which explains the sacrifice of Christ in order to save humanity.
In Islam, martyrdom is also glorified, put simply, the status of martyr can be gained in a variety of ways which include being killed defending your family, or defending those who are not as able as you are to defend themselves.
I could quote from other faiths, but that requires time to ensure that those bits of information in my memory are reproduced accurately.
In our Australian tradition, we honour the risks taken by Simpson to tend to wounded diggers at Gallipoli, brave actions under whizzing bullets that ended in his death. Simpson was a Briton who joined the Anzacs to cement his position in our Australian history for the sacrifices he made for others.
Following these traditions, another Australian, a former asylum seeker who came to our shores to escape the persecution of Gaddafi only to find himself the subject of ongoing mistreatment at one of our immigration detention centres until he won his freedom in 1999, took the most dangerous of risks in order to gain freedom and liberty for his people.
The Moment Sh. Nasser Zuway gained his freedom from Villawood Immigration Detention Centre, he immediately set about seeking help for his friends in detention, friends whom he felt had genuine fears of persecution, friends who deserved to be granted asylum in our fair nation.
The first time I met him, he was filling in for me because I was a little late to a meeting with the former Mufti, Sh. Taj Aldin Alhilali. This meeting was with a lawyer from Amnesty International. I arrived to see the three of them discussing the plight of asylum seekers, seeing me enter the office, he immediately asked me to take over the translation, I did not know who he was at the time and I did not know that that moment would herald the start of a friendship and a working relationship that would span more than a decade.
That was a decisive moment in late 1999 and it marked our exposure to the horrors of immigration detention and to our nation’s policies towards those fleeing persecution, it was at the very beginning of the Howard government campaign against asylum seekers. That was a time when we discovered that a number of Algerian asylum seekers fearing deportation had gone on a hunger strike, we visited them and heard their heart-rending stories including how much weight each of them had lost as a result of the hunger strike and the impact of that hunger strike on their health.
Sh. Nasser Zuway would regularly bring to our attention the plight of those asylum seekers and we would explore avenues to make representations on their behalf or other means to alleviate their suffering.
Seeing his keen desire to help others, his knowledge of his faith and his affable and sociable nature, we added more work to our repertoire, we established an organisation to promote awareness of issues relating to our community and how to address these issues. We also embarked on a campaign to bring divergent sections of our community together, that committee was brought to a halt, after three events. We were struck by the tragic events of September 11, a number of our key members decided to leave Australia and we found ourselves needing to put our efforts into a different field, the field of promoting understanding between Muslims and the rest of Australian society. Within a short period of time, I had organised for Sheikh Nasser to become an Imam at the Cabramatta mosque and encouraged him to volunteer some of his time with one of the Muslim radio stations in Sydney. It seemed like it was only yesterday when he got married and in those early days of
marriage, he still found ample time to come to our meetings and to be very active and dedicated to serving society.
His first attempt at married life was thwarted by department of immigration officials sending documents bearing his name to Libya, these documents were intercepted by Libyan officials which put his wife in a very delicate situation with the authorities. That marriage which had taken place in a third country was quickly ended in order to save his wife and her family from persecution.
I think it was his dedication to the community that caused an early end to his second marriage, he married a local young lady from a Lebanese background. Even as a newlywed, he could not detach himself from tending to the needs of others, his community work, as it has with a number of other people, put his marriage at risk and finally, it led to the end of that marriage.
It was in that period that I recalled him from his duties at the Cabramatta mosque, hoping that he would help us with one of the larger mosques in Sydney – instead, he preferred to go work with Muslims in the UK.
For many years, Sh. Nasser supplemented his clerical duties with other work, he would regularly use his own funds to help people in need, or to resolve a dispute between people. He was driven by the need to help others, even if this meant that he had little time and few means for himself.
On returning from the UK, he would call me to assist him with various matters relating to the community, other times he would ask me to summarise the translation for a Friday sermon for him so that he can read the English, even though he was conversant with English, he wanted those finishing touches. He would practice some of the new words with me and at other times, he would ask me to give him my own words on a particular topic that he wanted to Address, so he would compose his own words for the Arabic and I would compose mine for him to deliver in English.
In many of our sittings, I found Sheikh Nasser to be very fond of poetry, he had committed numerous classical and new poems to his memory.
Sheikh Nasser had remarried and since returning from the UK, his wife gave birth to two boys and one girl.
Sheikh Nasser did not settle in any particular mosque when he returned from the UK, he moved around, he gave sermons and led prayers in different parts of Sydney.
Early last year, Sh. Nasser Zuway, decided to give a new priority to his old dream of uniting the community. He started by establishing the Australian Union of Africa and Arab Association (sic). One of the few times that he did not consult me about the name. His group put a deposit on a function centre that was for sale and he quickly made a sign and named the centre “Peace Function Centre”. This was one of the few times where he did not ask me to review the English. He could not wait to make that centre operational. He made it very active within a very short space of time.
He asked me to help him organise the various community events, starting with the four day festival of Arabic Script early last year. After this inaugural function, Sh. Nasser organised regular activities at the Peace Function Centre, these activities always included speakers from divergent sections of the community. He would say, let them all speak their minds and let us debate the various ideas, in the end, the good ideas will triumph and the flawed ideas will be set aside and everyone can be friends. He worked very hard to bring leaders together to discuss their ideas.
When Sheikh Nasser heard that the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia was planning to honour Bishop Kevin Manning for his commitment to interfaith dialogue and efforts in cultural inclusion, he expressed a keen desire for our event/function to be held at his centre which we did in May 2010.
We spent most of last year organising events and programs, these were on a monthly basis with additional events in between, if it was not an event amongst community leaders, it was an event for the Libyan students or a celebration for members of the community. He brought to life the Aussie adage “any excuse for a celebration” and he took every opportunity to promote the celebration of humanity.
In July/August we hosted one of America’s leading Imam’s in Australia. Imam Vernon Fareed was the immediate assistant of the late great Imam W. D. Mohamed, he came to Australia with his wife Swiyyah, the entire trip was sponsored by Sh. Nasser and the Australian Union of Africa and Arab Association.
In September of last year, the Imams offered the use his centre to host Australian Federal Police Commissioner Tony Negus at a dinner with approximately 25 Sydney Imams. We were planning to follow that up with meetings with heads of other agencies in order to improve trust and the lines of communications between us.
2010 was also the year that he had sought to improve his relations with the Libyan Embassy and to see if the situation in his country had sufficiently improved to allow him to return for a visit so that he can see his mother and father.
The middle of 2010 was quite an anxious time for Sh. Nasser. His wife was homesick and wanted to see her family in Libya and she was pregnant with their third child. As soon as his wife gave birth to their third child he sent her and the children to Libya, this was July/August 10. Sheikh Nasser travelled with them to Qatar from where he sent her and the children on their own.
It was in that period that we started preparation for the Parliament House Conference. Sh. Nasser called on his friend and former teacher Dr. Ali Alsallabi to bring him to Australia as a keynote speaker at this conference.
Dr. Alsallabi is a world leader in persuading people to resort to dialogue instead of violence in order to address disputes. He managed to convince many people through his teachings that dialogue is the best means of resolving disputes.
We set a range of possible dates for this conference and started the preparation process.
At some point in January this year, Dr. Alsallabi informed us that the most suitable time for him would be in the second half of February, we agreed on
a date and commenced inviting and confirming other speakers. Within a short time of issuing the invitations, word came to Australia about the planned protests in Libya. At this stage, the Tunisian Spring had bore the fruit and their dictator had fled to Saudi Arabia, the Egyptian dictator was on the verge of relinquishing power and it seemed that Gaddafi’s reign would be challenged by a population seeking freedom. The days leading to the conference must have been amongst the most difficult for Sheikh Nasser. He was torn between his commitment to a very significant conference for Australia and his desire to be with his family in Libya and to be with his people at this decisive moment. True to his commitments, Sh. Nasser stayed with us until the conference was finished, this conference brought together
representatives from the Federal Police and the State Police along with some of Australia’s most accomplished academics and most popular members of the
clergy and the new grand Mufti of Australia.
We all worked together to reinforce the idea that dialogue is one of the best tools for human progress, two days after the conference, Sh. Nasser was on his plane to Egypt from where he would travel by land to Libya.
We thought that he would only be away for three to four weeks, after all, Tunisia and Egypt did not take too long, we did not realise that Gaddafi would be supported by an army of mercenaries and foreign fighters, we did not realise that Gaddafi, would like Nero, rather destroy his country than step down from his throne of tyranny and oppression.
In his first few weeks in Libya, Sh. Nasser passed my details to a medical equipment company in Turkey and alerted me to expect a call, telling me that they already have an order for the necessary medical supplies. His people needed medications for the treatment of burns and aids for the treatment of broken limbs and suturing cuts and wounds and the need was desperate.
Sh. Nasser and I would communicate from time to time for the first couple of months after he left Australia. Every time I asked him when he would return, he would say soon Insha Allah, as soon as my people are able to live free. I asked him many times to come back, I told him that we could help his people better from Australia, that we could organise an awareness campaign, inform the public of the details to which we did not have proper access in Australia, but these pleas were unheeded. I knew that he could not leave his people in the situation which they faced, that he would feel compelled by a sense of duty to stay.
He could not leave his people as he felt that he could help one person, any person, to him, tending to the wounds of a person who was wounded in seeking
freedom and self-determination was more important than any notions of personal safety and security. He tended to their needs and sought to bring them medical supplies, I am also told that he protected and defended civilians and that he even moved in and out of the fiercest trouble spots helping where he can.
Finally, as the conflict in Libya was about to finish with only a few streets to go in the city of Serte, we received the tragic news which I, along with all his friends did not want to believe at first. Surely, it must be a case of mistaken identity, we have not finished our work together, we were on a mission to promote dialogue, to promote friendship, to promote unity, we were partners on a mission, all of us. We did not want to lose one of our most dynamic members. We had been hoping that it was a mistake until his family told us that they received the body and that they held the funeral procession and they showed footage of his mother and father next to
his body, we had to believe the news that one of our dearest brothers had left us. He courageously risked the comfortable safe and secure life in Australia to help others.
He tended to the wounded, much like Simpson, he was Christ-like in his sacrifice for humanity and he was brave and courageous in the face of one of the world’s most brutal dictators. Sh. Nasser Zuway, a proud Australian friend who sacrificed all to win the freedom and liberty of a nation has cemented his martyrdom as a national hero for Libya. He will forever live in our consciousness as a model of selflessness and dedication.
A memorial/condolence ceremony was held for him yesterday at the former centre for the Australian Union of Africa and Arab Association, the Peace Function Centre which he founded in Lakemba.