News

The Newspaper

Archives

Press Releases

Subscribe

Advertise

Mailing list

Links

About us

What's on and where

Messages for
The Muslim News

Contact The Muslim News

The Muslim News on your PDA

Back to index

Issue 230, Friday 27 June 2008 - 24 Jumad al-Akhbar 1429

Lack of mosques causes Muslims to move from regional Victoria

By Zainab Hemani

Australia’s south-eastern state of Victoria is losing its Muslim population due to its lack of mosques, according to the Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV). Many workers who move there leave again in a few weeks because they have no place to go and pray. Lately, almost thirty Muslims have left Warrnambool as the nearest mosque is almost two hundred kilometres away in Geelong.
The 90,000 Muslims in Victoria’s thirty regional cities have access to only four mosques, whilst there are 32 mosques in Melbourne, the state’s capital and largest city. Victoria is Australia’s second most populous state with an estimated population of 5,205,200. Muslims, who have been in Australia for more than 200 years, make up 1.5 % of its 20-million population. Islam is the country’s second largest religion after Christianity.
ICV executive committee member, Sherene Hassan, told The Muslim News that there was much more of a need to have mosques in regional Victoria than the metropolitan areas of Melbourne.
“Many Muslims living in country Victoria move back to Melbourne as they have complained about the fact that mosques are too far from them to access. Many have also complained about the lack of halal outlets, Islamic schools etc. Regional Victoria is crying out for people to live in country towns,” she said and agreed that the ICV supported the idea of building more mosques in regional Victoria but admitted that they were not in any position to offer financial support.
“If Muslims in a local community are interested in establishing a mosque they need to sit down with local residents and explain what the building of a mosque will entail and the impact it would have on the local community. It should be communicated to local residents that mosque open days will be a regular feature so neighbours will be given an opportunity to visit the mosque in the future. Many non-Muslims fear Islam and are completely misinformed about Islam. Effort needs to be directed to allay these fears and address misconceptions about Islam. People only fear the unknown,” Sherene added.
New South Wales’s Foundation of Islamic Studies and Information Chairman, Amin Hady, told The Muslim News that the lack of mosques built in a region is due to the small number of Muslims living in that particular area. “If the Muslims move back because of the lack of the mosque this will definitely affect the economy. But Muslims in the small towns should start conducting religious services by renting public halls, or even in the private houses and slowly they can build a mosque for themselves,” he argued.
“This is a difficult case Muslims always experience. The local community in most cases will object to this, particularly in the last few years. I saw this in a big city such as Sydney. I hope there will be less resistance in the small towns,” he added.
Community Leader Mohamed Khanyari said he had encouraged thirty workers to move to Warrnambool last year but they had all moved back to Melbourne because the area had no mosque. He had approached council leaders in 2006 seeking cheap building rental but the Warrnambool City Council Chief Executive at that time, Lindsay Merritt said it was not possible to give special allowance to one faith over other ones. The present Chief Executive, Bruce Anson, and the Mayor David Atkinson agree with her view.
Bruce Anson told The Muslim News that, “Warrnambool is a small community approximately 300 kilometres from the major City of Melbourne with a small population. It has a positive growth rate of 1.7% which has been fairly consistent over the last 10-15 years. The Council has been working with a local employer and members of the Warrnambool Muslim community in an endeavor to find a facility that is suitable to the members of the local Muslim community.
“The Council has identified a number of community facilities that may be suitable to members of the local Muslim community and these have been referred to the local Muslim community for their consideration.” He also said that he could not comment on what the impact would be on the economy due to the lack of mosques.