High Commissioner Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri highlights Holy Quran placed at Islamic Museum in Melbourne

Canberra: Pakistani High Commissioner to Australia Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri this week highlighted the Holy Quran placed at the Islamic Museum in Melbourne.

“The Holy Quran in the Islamic Museum in Melbourne, used by Muslim Minister Ed Husic when he took oath in the Parliament was published in Karachi, Pakistan by Idaratul Quran,” the envoy posted on X.

The Islamic Museum of Australia is a community museum located in Melbourne. Opening in 2014, the museum aims to showcase the ‘artistic heritage and historical contributions of Muslims in Australia and abroad’ through the display of artworks and various historical artefacts and objects.

At the moment, the museum’s permanent exhibition is focused on five themes: Islamic faith, Islamic contributions to civilisations, Islamic art, Islamic architecture and Australian Muslim history, thereby underlying its departure from the traditional and historical, essentially Western creation of a museum of Islamic arts, where Islam is represented almost from an areligious perspective.

Contrastingly, at this museum, the Islamic faith is the starting point of the museum, focusing on portraying Islamic heritage both from a contemporary and historical viewpoints.

In addition to the museum’s permanent display, the Islamic Museum of Australia also presents a number of temporary shows each year.

In the past some of its temporary exhibitions have examined the Holy Month of Ramzan, Australian Muslim artists and the theologian Imam al-Shafi’i.

It seems the museum has a relatively wide-ranging approach to its exhibitions as it presents shows from theological, art historical, contemporary and historical perspectives, thereby not binding to a discipline but rather a topic: Islam.