Privileged to address this forum by the Jewish Christian Muslim Association on religion and the media (and yes I have this unfortunate habit of turning everything into a way to talk about sport - so my brief presentation had one non-sporting example). My fellow panelists were former Age editor Michael Gawenda and seasoned religion reporter Barney Zwartz.
Prior to our talks/audience QnA session, we heard from Aksen Ilhan - she handles media for the awesome Turkish girls' youth group Sareera based at Meadow Heights mosque in Melbourne. Aksen told the audience about the group's media coverage and how they'd built a strong relationship with local reporters. She and the Sareera members have been pro-active in this area, asking me to run a media workshop with them and learning from each of their experiences with the media.
Oussama, me, Joel with Summeye Cetinkiran - a Sareera member and futsal pal -
hoping to recruit her for the Unity Cup next year...
Oh, and these guys. Love these guys. So did the audience. The co-captains of the MUJU peace club (who won the Unity Cup in 2012 and were finalists this year) and co-recipients of the Hobsons Bay Citizen of the Year award presented an account of how they met as part of the Western Bulldog's More than a Game program and set up their unique footy team. (The Bulldogs followed up 'More than a Game' with their successful, recently concluded Generation M program.) They also joked that they recruited one of the day's panelists (me) for the MUJU women's side who played in the Unity Cup 2013 exhibition match. I rarely make cheesy and earnest statements - but seriously, when you come across young leaders like Joel Kuperholz and Oussama Abou-Zeid, you can't help but think there's so much hope for our country.