Sonny Bill Williams (Credit: Australian High Commissioner to Samoa)
Elham Asaad Buaras
An application for a multi-million dollar mosque in south Sydney, Australia, has been approved following a row between New Zealand rugby star Sonny Bill Williams and residents opposed to its development.
After a lengthy legal battle with the Georges River Council, the Hurstville Masjid mosque and community centre will be built on Botany Street in Carlton. Twelve residents objected to the mosque’s construction in December 2021, citing concerns about privacy, increased noise, and an overdevelopment of the site.
The development’s backers, including Williams, challenged the decision, and on September 6, New South Wales Land and Environment Court commissioner, Susan O’Neill, found the applicants addressed George River Council’s concerns.
“It’s been a rollercoaster ride to get this mosque up and running, maybe four or five years,” Williams said, who argued the mosque is long overdue for the large local Muslim community, members of which have to travel across the city to pray.
“As a proud Muslim in this area, this is something that I’ve been looking forward to for a very long time.”
Last year, locals left signs at the site opposing the mosque, but Williams hit back and said the complaints were based on racism and bigotry.
“Racism is well and truly alive in Botany St., Carlton, Sydney,” Williams, 36, posted on his Instagram page alongside a picture of him next to some of the signs at the site.
“God willing we’ll be praying 365 days, 5 times a day at our new Masjid very soon. May the most High eradicate racism from our society.”
However, residents in the area insisted their opposition had nothing to do with race or religion but was instead to avoid a deadly increase in traffic. Williams, who played rugby union for the New Zealand All Blacks as well as league with the Canterbury Bulldogs and Sydney Roosters, converted to Islam in 2009 while playing in France.
He said his experience living and working in the Islamic community during his four seasons with the Bulldogs led him to convert.
His mother Lee and brother John have also since converted to the religion, as has his wife. “I grew up as a Christian, and to be honest, I always felt a little bit uncomfortable,” he admitted in an Islamic podcast two years ago.
“Muslims are just people, the same as us; they’re humans, but their religion, when you really look at it, is beautiful.”
But he added, “It’s a tough thing to talk about racism and hatred because a lot of Western countries were born on racism and hatred.”
The new mosque is capable of holding 120 people for prayers between 5 a.m. and 10.30 p.m., seven days a week.
He dismissed residents’ claims about increased traffic, saying there was already a school on the same street and another nearby.
“There are thousands of Muslim families in the area, and we don’t have a place we can go to worship,” Williams told the Daily Telegraph. “Unfortunately, this is fear mongering.”
“The Muslim community has been here in the Carlton area since the 1950s and has never had a mosque.”
“The more places of worship, Christian churches, Jewish synagogues, and mosques in the area make me happy because I know people are being taught good morals and ethics.”
