MR Alkhafagi of the Shepparton mosque claims that the objection to a mosque being built in Bendigo is being run by outsiders (“Acceptance takes faith”, Bendigo Advertiser, July 5).
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Apparently, it’s all right for an outsider like Mr Alkhafagi to become involved in the Bendigo mosque debate but not other outsiders.
However, whether or not the debate involves outsiders is irrelevant.
Like all those who falsely claim that to object to the mosque is racist and bigotry, Mr Alkhafagi endeavours to portray Islam as merely a religion like other religions. It is not.
Mr Alkhafagi states that the Shepparton “Muslim community remains relatively private even in the most accepting of towns.”
This is just another way of saying that Muslims don’t integrate into the wider community.
It’s known that in some Muslim communities Sharia law is applied even when it’s not consistent with Australian law and social values. Social workers in Melbourne report that there are incidents of underage girls from Muslim families being sent to Muslim countries to be married off.
If Mr Alkhafagi was serious about Islam being a religion of peace, he would be at the forefront of a movement to have it evolve into a form which is consistent with modern Western values.
Fundamental to those values is treating females as having equal rights to males.
Requiring Muslim females to dress in a particular way represents oppression.
Hiding the hair of females is also an insult to non-Muslims in that we are deemed to be unworthy of seeing the hair of a Muslim female.
Justifying the head scarf under the name of religion only demonstrates that Islam has not attained any sense of enlightenment.
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