Five Locals From Besut To Embark On Expedition Across Australia

BESUT (Terengganu, Malaysia), Nov 25 (Bernama) -- Five locals from Besut will embark on a 200,000-km, 35-day expedition round Australia beginning Wednesday. The group, which included a doctor, two teachers, an International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) student, and another local, would travel on foot and a four-wheel-drive vehicle across eight cities in the country. The programme chief Mohd Zahari Omar, 55, said that throughout the expedition to meet the Muslim community there, they would camp in tents and sleep in mosques. He said they would leave for Perth from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 1am Tuesday, before embarking on the cross-country journey. Among the cities they would be visiting were Adelaide, Darwin, Alice Springs, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Tasmania. "We hope that during the expedition, we will be able to visit as many mosques and meet as many Muslims in Australia, which now consists of 400,000 people" he said. Mohd Zahari, who is a teacher from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Agama (SMKA) Wataniah in Jerteh, said that many had expressed their interest to join the programme but they pulled out due to the length of the trip. According to Zahari, this was the second time he would be embarking on such a trip after leading a group of eight students across Europe from United Kingdom to Egypt, for forty days, two years ago. The other four, who would be attending the trip this time with Zahari were Dr Ahmad Fadli Mohd Burhanuddin, 26, Mohd Isa Zakaria, 27, Mohd Ariff Halimi Nawi, 19, and Mohd Halim Omar, 57. He said another trans-European expedition would be planned for mid-next year. -- BERNAMA