AUSSIE MUSLIMS OPEN MOSQUES, DEFEAT FEAR
Sydney, Queensland, 25 Dzulqa’dah 1435/20 September 2014 (MINA) – Seeing ignorance as the worst enemy of nations, the Muslim community in Australia’s third largest state has decided to open their mosques to offer their neighbors better understanding of Islam, to change people’s misperceptions about their faith.
“We want to hold Queensland Mosque Day and it will be one day when people can come all day, on one day from next year. There will be food and information sessions,” Ali Kadri, a spokesman for the Holland Park and Logan Islamic communities in Queensland, Onislam quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Friday.
“I am going to announce that Friday. Tomorrow I will announce the date,” he said.
The idea of open sessions was announced 24 hours after major anti-terror raids were carried out in Sydney and Brisbane, with police claiming to have foiled planned attacks on Australians.
They also come after up to 40 pamphlets filled with abusive, anti-Muslim language, were reportedly left outside the Logan mosque earlier this month.
“The problem is that if we can’t teach Muslims the proper meaning of Islam, then they will learn from YouTube, where it is heavily biased against the proper teaching of Islam by the extremists,” he said.
“So we want people to come to the mosques to learn the proper meaning of Islam.
“If you want to learn medicine, you go to medical school, you don’t go to a garage.”
The Muslim leader asserted that Islam, the fastest growing religion in the world, is 1400-year-old religion that cannot be judged by modern day terrorism phenomenon.
“They should not link what is happening now to Islam itself,” Kadri said.
He added there were 1.4 billion to 1.5 billion Muslims living throughout the world in many peaceful countries.
“There are some really, really peaceful countries, but there are some countries where there is a problem, and the problem is not because of Islam, it is because of geopolitics and the international relations of current times,” he Said.
For Queensland Muslims, the open mosque days were designed to encourage Australian to defeat their fear and step inside mosques.
“We want them to come here and see it is doctors and engineers, lawyers, teachers going on with their religious life in the mosque, that is what mosques do, that is what a mosque is about. There is nothing mysterious, or mystical about it,” he added.(T/P008/P3)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
