Report: Who is Australia's 1st Muslim Minister?

Azza Mahmoud Fawzi Hosseini Ali Al-Srougi, who was born in 1967 in Alexandria, is the first Muslim woman to hold a ministerial position in the history of the Australia where more than 620,000 Muslims reside between immigrants and descendants.

An Egyptian woman, who they chose for the position of Minister of Youth for the Labor Party in the new Australian government, appeared as she was sworn in on Wednesday, holding a copy of the Quran with a pink cover, before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rose in a scene described by the local Australian media as historic and distinguished.

Anne Aly, Azza's circulated name, is the first Muslim woman to hold such a prestigious official position in the history of the country in which more than 620,000 Muslims, in addition to more than half a million Arabs, mostly are Lebanese.

Aly immigrated with her family when she was a two-year-old girl to Australia, and regained her Egyptian citizenship in 2016.

Her choice as the Youth Minister was based on her experience in combating extremism and terrorism, although the achievements of her past are different.

In 1990 she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the American University in Cairo (AUC). After returning to Australia, in 2008 she received the Dean's Award for Best New Researcher from Sabq university. She obtained a master's in 1996 in the English Literature and two years later a doctorate in philosophy, from the Australian Edith Cowan University.

In 2009, she also received the "Publishing Award" from the Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence, and after her appointment to the "Council of Arab-Australian Relations" of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she founded what she called the "People Against Extremist Violence Organization."

In 2016, she was chosen as "Woman of the Year" when she became the first Muslim woman to be elected to parliament.

She is also a university professor, and a mother of two sons from a husband she married in 1988.

Qualifications and occupation before entering Federal Parliament

• PhD (Edith Cowan University).
• MEd (Edith Cowan University).
• PGDA (Edith Cowan University).
• BA (American University of Cairo).
• Senior Policy Officer at the Department of Education and Training (WA), from 2001 to 2002.
• Senior Policy Officer at the Office of Multicultural Interests (WA) from 2002 to 2007.
• Manager of Training and Education at the Equal Opportunity Commission (WA) from 2007 to 2008.
• Senior Lecturer at Curtin University and Edith Cowan University from 2011 to 2014.
• Associate Professor at Curtin University from 2014 to 2015.
• Professorial Fellow, 2015.

In 2017, Aly was the victim of a fake-news attack claiming that she refused to lay a wreath at an ANZAC Day service in Perth. The story was promulgated by the Love Australia or Leave Party.

Aly asserted that she was 'insulted by the allegation she refused to lay a wreath'. Indeed, the leader of the Love Australia or Leave Party later apologized for the social media post and the inaccuracy of the information.

In 2013, Aly founded a youth-led not-for-profit organisation, People Against Violent Extremism (PaVE), to address extremism in Australia.

PaVE received a $115,000 grant from the federal Attorney-General's Department to develop videos to counter extremism, and in 2015, Aly announced that PaVE had raised $40,800 for a mentoring program for young activists.

The mentoring program includes training through MyHack, which trains university students to brainstorm and develop counter-messaging to extremist propaganda online.

In 2015, Aly was the only Australian invited to address Barack Obama's Countering Violent Extremism summit at the White House.

In 2016, Aly was nominated for Australian of the Year.

As for the new Australian government, it was formed of 23 ministers, including 10 women and a Muslim minister as well, but a man named Edham Nurredin Husic, 52, originally from Bosnia. His father, Haseeb, was a welder on flat-letter in Australia, while his mother was a housewife. He is married, has one son, is also a member of the Labor Party, and is Minister of Industry in the government.