Aussie News & Views: Taquiah Festival this weekend at Lakemba Mosque.

Mosque at Lakemba opens door to Sydney's mind

By Edith Bevin
The Daily Telegraph
March 05, 2010

Sheik Yahya Safi of Lakemba Mosque welcomes Sydney to his Mosque - Lakemba Mosque is having an open day, inviting all to come visit and learn about Islam.

ISLAM comes from the Arabic word Salem meaning peace but for Sydney's Lebanese Muslims the past few years have been anything but peaceful.

Tensions between Sydney's Muslim population and the wider community grew with the arrest of our first home-grown Islamic terrorists, outcry over applications for Islamic schools in formerly Anglo Saxon enclaves of outer western Sydney, debate over asylum seekers from war-torn Afghanistan and a series of gang rapes blamed on men of Middle Eastern descent.

“Anglo Saxon enclaves “ You mean post WW2 South Western suburbs of Sydney, established and developed for returned service men via cheap war service home loans ? now these same areas are known as the “Occupied Territories” and no go zones for Australians due to the Australian Labor Party’s importation of Muslim colonialists from the “Middle East” and any where else they can find them.

Not only were the “series of gang rapes blamed on men of Middle Eastern descent” those the Police caught and whose victims “Aussie Pigs and Sluts” had the intestinal fortitude to lay charges and testify, were found GUILTY and are serving lengthy jail terms, does the name Bilal Skaf ring a bell?

It revealed a deep-seated ignorance of what the Islamic faith was actually about, according to Sheik Yahya Safi, the imam at the Lakemba Mosque.

Oh Really Sheik? “deep-seated ignorance” you say? no, Australians are no different than any other Judeo Christian Democracy, we are well of what Islam and it’s followers are up to.

"I believe that Australians, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, can live together in harmony but we can only do that if there is an understanding and tolerance of each other's religion and customs," Sheik Safi said. "I think there is still a lot of misunderstandings."

"I believe that Australians, Muslim…..” Sorry Sheik there is no such thing as a “Muslim Australian” there are Muslims and there are Australians,Muslims are, if you like “Non Australians” just as they are Non Americans,Non British,Non Indian,Non Chinese, Non Danish, Non Sweedish etc etc etc .

To dispel those misunderstandings and myths, worshippers are throwing opening the doors of their Lakemba Mosque to the public tomorrow.

More than 1000 Sydneysiders go to the Lakemba Mosque to pray each day - and the congregation swells to 5000 for Friday prayers, a mandatory day of worship in the Islamic faith.

It's been two years since Sydney's largest mosque was open to the public.

As well as tours of the mosque, the open day will enable the wider community to question the sheik.

Sheik Safi agreed he was probably a little more moderate than past sheiks who have preached at the mosque.

He said past leaders had resigned themselves to a belief in a polarised clash of cultures.

Now Muslim community leaders were looking for ways to work together with the non-Muslim community to build a mutual understanding of the respective cultures.

“…..the non-Muslim community….” Ah Ah Ah ! There you go again, you mean the Australian Community.

"This year we decided to go big to make the opportunity to show that we're tolerant and we're trying to assimilate and work with each other, and to try and get a better understanding of what Islam is really about," Sheik Safi said.

"When you have experience with people - you can have more open ideas than before."

He said while everyone was invited to the open day he hoped those who had been most outspoken in their feelings against the Islamic community would take the time to visit the mosque.

"When people have a bad idea about you, you need to give them the right idea - we don't want to lie, we want them to understand who we really are and what our religion is about," he said.

"People don't know Islam but maybe they know a Muslim - that one person will reflect Islam to this man and the community. Our challenge is to let our people practice real Islam, not to claim they are Muslim."

The Lakemba Mosque is at 65-67 Wangee Rd, Lakemba. Tomorrow's open day is from 10am to 5pm

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