Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Islamic Council of NT Chairman Chowdhury Sadaruddin says he cannot imagine the hurt Sifat’s parents would be feeling having lost their only son

Transcript

Islamic Council of NT Chairman Chowdhury Sadaruddin says he cannot imagine the hurt Sifat’s parents would be feeling having lost their only son · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: It's an absolute tragedy that we are in a situation
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  Speaker 1: where a twenty three year old international student's life was
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  Speaker 1: lost last week and the alleged murderer appeared in court yesterday,
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  Speaker 1: is my understanding. Now joining me on the line right
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  Speaker 1: now is the Chairman of the Islamic Council of the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory, Chowdhri Sarta rund In. Good morning to you, Childhri.
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  Speaker 1: Let me just try to get him on the line again.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to.
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  Speaker 2: You Childrei, Good morning, Good morning to you listener.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning. Now we
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  Speaker 1: know that a prayer service was held yesterday. It's an
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  Speaker 1: incredibly sad, sad time I would imagine for the Islamic community.
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  Speaker 2: It is indeed, I myself living in Darwin first last
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  Speaker 2: twenty three years, I never feared this type of tragedy
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  Speaker 2: in my twenty three years in Darwin, so definitely it's
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  Speaker 2: a very tragic incident which taken out the whole communitee.
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  Speaker 1: It really has you know, I was a whay last
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  Speaker 1: week and I felt so incredibly sad thinking about the
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  Speaker 1: fact that that a family sent their twenty three year
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  Speaker 1: old son to Australia for a better life, to further
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  Speaker 1: those studies, and it's something like this could happen.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, especially he was the only child and the
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  Speaker 2: couple got him after quite a long time after their marriage,
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  Speaker 2: so you can understand the loss. And I myself is
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  Speaker 2: a parent. I've got a boy, one single child, and
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  Speaker 2: when I put myself into their shoe, I cannot imagine.
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  Speaker 2: I cannot sleep at night when I think about it.
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  Speaker 2: So you can understand the feeling of normal community.
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  Speaker 1: Now, can you tell me a little bit about the
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  Speaker 1: service that was held yesterday for say fat and what
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  Speaker 1: people was saying at that service.
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  Speaker 2: It's just a Islamic system of before burial, we actually
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  Speaker 2: washed the body, so that happened yesterday in the morning.
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  Speaker 2: I participated in that washing of the body and then
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  Speaker 2: putting the shower down, and then it took him to
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  Speaker 2: the mosque for a small prayer, which very simple in
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  Speaker 2: Islam how it has to be done. And next one
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  Speaker 2: is the burial. So his body will be taken to
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  Speaker 2: Bangladesh on Thursday. The flight is on Thursday and his
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  Speaker 2: parents will receive him over there. His uncle and auntie
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  Speaker 2: from Sydney. They were here in Darwin when he passed away,
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  Speaker 2: so they are also flying from Sydney and they will
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  Speaker 2: meet him over there in Bangladesh.
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  Speaker 1: Chadrick, can you tell me how his family wants him
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  Speaker 1: to be remembered.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't have the opportunity to meet his parents or
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  Speaker 2: talk to his parents, but I did talk to his
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  Speaker 2: uncle and the cousins, and also many of his friends
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  Speaker 2: in Dawin, especially his roommates, I mean the flagmates. He was.
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  Speaker 2: He was a very jolly sort of person and everybody
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  Speaker 2: used to love him for his liveliness and generosity and
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  Speaker 2: a fun loving sort of person. The Universityalseur University is
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  Speaker 2: doing a fantastic job at this moment there trying to
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  Speaker 2: create a fund so that fund can be utilized in
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  Speaker 2: memory of Siafat, like, for example, creating a scholarship or
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  Speaker 2: some other other thing which can help the international student
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  Speaker 2: and other students. So that's what they're doing, and definitely
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  Speaker 2: we will consult the family before it lies in that
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  Speaker 2: fund which way they like to see him remembered in.
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  Speaker 1: Darwin, and we will make sure that we share any
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  Speaker 1: of that information so that the community is able to
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  Speaker 1: support that childre Can you tell me how is the
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  Speaker 1: Islamic community feeling at this point in time when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to safety, and particularly with those discussions that you've
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  Speaker 1: had with the international students and his flatmates.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. But the three things here which actually highlighted to
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  Speaker 2: the politicians, the Chief Minister and the Opposition leader. Also
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  Speaker 2: Number one is a safe accommodation. Basically, we are planning
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  Speaker 2: to bring lots of international student but the normal community
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  Speaker 2: is now struggling to get an accommodation. So we need
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  Speaker 2: to think about it how we'll be accommodating all this
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  Speaker 2: international students. Like as for example, cephat was I was
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  Speaker 2: struggling to get an accommodation. He got an accommodation with
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  Speaker 2: with with his friends, but it's not a suitable accommodation.
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  Speaker 2: Number two, I get lots of information from the community,
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  Speaker 2: especially from these students, those who are using public transport.
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  Speaker 2: Quite often they feel unsafe, especially our ladies I've been
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  Speaker 2: you know, given information about how they have been attacked, abused,
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  Speaker 2: you know verbally and those sort of things. So we
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  Speaker 2: need also public transfer to be safe. The third third
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  Speaker 2: thing is that if we feel like to make Darwin
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  Speaker 2: suitable for the international students, we need to promote that
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  Speaker 2: that this is a safe place, which we were doing before,
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  Speaker 2: but now I think we need to act together to
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  Speaker 2: make it a safe place so we can promote it
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  Speaker 2: to the international students.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think it's a safe place for international students
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  Speaker 1: right now?
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  Speaker 2: As I told you that, I'm living in the city
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  Speaker 2: for the last twenty three years. Before that, I used
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  Speaker 2: to live in Sydney, and I've never seen Darwin like this,
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  Speaker 2: So definitely if it was a better place in past.
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  Speaker 2: And Vice Chancellor was telling it constantly that he was
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  Speaker 2: in bangladeshli ten times. Okay, so he went to Bangladesh
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  Speaker 2: ten times and always he's promoting Darwin as one of
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  Speaker 2: the safest places in Australia. And now he's telling he
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  Speaker 2: was telling me that, you know, next time if I
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  Speaker 2: go to Bangladesh or the Vice since a lot of
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  Speaker 2: Dhaka University will be visiting Darwin very soon, how he
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  Speaker 2: will be standing by his statement that he was giving
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  Speaker 2: in giving in bangladest community. So yeah, so I have
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  Speaker 2: the same feeling if the place was in past, it
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  Speaker 2: cannot be again. What are the things, what are the
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  Speaker 2: things you're not not doing properly? You know, what is
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  Speaker 2: what is going wrong? You know? You think about it.
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  Speaker 1: We really do well, you know, we people are really upset,
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  Speaker 1: they're absolutely heartbroken and and we want to see change. Chadri,
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  Speaker 1: I really appreciate you speaking to me this morning. I'm
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  Speaker 1: so sorry for the loss of Sefat. It's an utterly
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  Speaker 1: heartbreaking situation for us as territories too, you know, to
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  Speaker 1: have such a tragic and unnecessary loss of life of
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  Speaker 1: a young man who did not deserve for something like
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  Speaker 1: this to happen. I really appreciate your speaking with me
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  Speaker 1: this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you very much for talking to me.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, thank you