‘Come down’: locals seek Hanson meeting after diatribe
Members of Sydney’s Muslim community say Pauline Hanson should put aside her offensive views and meet and have a meal with them.
Up to one million visitors are expected to attend the popular night market at Lakemba in Sydney’s south-west during Ramadan. There are dozens of stalls here selling everything from camel burgers to sugarcane juice.
But the first day of the holy month was filled with sadness and disappointment after the Lakemba Mosque was sent the third threatening letter it had received in a month.
This echoed Senator Hanson’s widely condemned comments days earlier that he was “not a good Muslim” and that he felt “unsafe” and not welcome in the district.
Construction worker Mohammed, who was born and raised in Lakemba and asked that his full name not be used, extended an invitation to the controversial politician.
“We want Pauline Hanson to come here, break our fast, eat with us and see how we are doing,” he told AAP on the steps of the mosque, accompanied by his young son.
“It’s a multicultural place… come and let us show you around.”
The 35-year-old said the threats would not stop him from going to prayer and seeking spiritual solace in the next few weeks, when Muslims around the world will fast from sunrise to sunset.
“We can help and guide those who threaten us. They will no longer prevent us from going to the mosque or scare us.”
Mahadi Hasan, who shared the communal iftar meal at the mosque after a long and hot day, said that he felt like he was at home in the suburbs during his first Ramadan, which he spent away from his family in Bangladesh.
“I came to Australia because it is one of the most peaceful countries in the world and we Muslims love peace too,” he said.
The 24-year-old student said he was “very concerned” about increasing rhetoric targeting Muslims in Australia, including the latest threat to the Lakemba Mosque.
The letter, which featured a cartoon pig, called for the killing or deportation of Muslims and referenced a convicted Australian terrorist who killed 51 Muslims in Christchurch in 2019.
The unsigned letter sent to the mosque included a direct death threat against Josh Lees, the leading organizer of the Palestine Action Group, with the phrase “Praise be to Israel”.
He said that against a backdrop of more than 70,000 people being killed in Gaza in the past two years, politicians were fanning the flames of Islamophobia by smearing supporters of the Palestinian cause.
“There is a clear connection between the media and politicians’ consistent attacks on the Palestinian movement and the violent rise of disgusting Islamophobia,” he told reporters.
