 “The main thing is we’ve got what we want, and you can’t change that.”– multicultural ambassador and Richmond player Bachar Houli, who pressed for prayer rooms at AFL grounds.
“Inclusive” seems a curious description. The AFL is actually providing an exclusive service to followers of a minority faith, although that’s not how Demetriou spins it. He says the rooms will be available for all denominations, which must be a relief to Presbyterians who’ve been missing out for more than 100 years on game-time worship opportunities.According to Houli, Islamic fans are fed-up with the lack of worship sites when they go to the football. “I speak for the Muslim community,” Houli told SBS. “I get complaints (that) there’s nowhere to pray other than the carpark. It can be quite disturbing (to pray) with people walking through to the game.”
Sure thing, Houli. A passing dog or female invalidates the prayer that curses the kafir 17 times a day.
The Q Society, the courageous group of freedom fighters that sponsored and organized my speaking tour of Australia last December, has the story:
AFL Mandates Prayer Rooms in all Australian Footy Stadiums – Will the call of the muezzin soon ring out at quarter time?
22 April 2012, Melbourne – Q Society of Australia Inc acknowledges the right of the AFL and stadium operators to provide whatever facilities they deem necessary to encourage and increase patronage at their functions. However, as representatives of citizens concerned with the spread of political Islam and sharia law in Australia, Q Society voices strong objection to such ill-advised developments.
It is important to outline the reasons for this objection.
Observant Muslims can take part in football just as they take part in other activities without needing a prayer room wherever they go. Koran and Hadiths clearly acknowledge (references below) the need to modify the prayer schedule, especially when in non-Islamic countries. Missed prayers can be made-up later when there is opportunity. The Islamic religion is much more practical than some Muslim fundamentalists want us to believe.
Requests for prayer rooms in secular spaces do not come from average Australian Muslims. Do we recall the Pakistani or Bangladeshi cricket teams complaining? Are visiting sport teams from the Middle East on public record with such requests? These demands are conceived by fundamentalists and Islamic activists seeking to impose their divisive religious lifestyle on to what they perceive our ‘infidel’ society.
This seemingly simple and apparently moderate request for pious Muslims to be able to practice their religion while in public venues, heralds once more the stepped introduction of Islamic sharia law. It starts with a multi-faith prayer room, moves to a Muslim-only prayer room, on to gender-segregated Muslim prayer rooms, then Muslim-only ablution facilities and eventually a staffed mosque. Examples abound in our universities. Spreading from one facility to another, gender segregation and religious apartheid are suddenly entrenched in our society. No other religious group has similar aspirations.
This is not an extremist reaction, but a factual response based on documented methods used by political Islam to achieve its long-term aim of imposing sharia law worldwide.
Verifiable history plays out before our eyes. Europe shows us the next steps in this process.Many European cities reveal how segregation has advanced to Muslim-only zones where the indigenous population dare not venture. All from the same well meant, but ill-advised path some short-sighted Australian politicians and the AFL are beginning to tread.
Q Society stands with the majority of Australians for a free and integrated community, with one secular law applied equally to all Australians. There is no place for gender segregation or religious apartheid anywhere in our Commonwealth. There is no place for sharia law, even at its most basic level, in Australia.
Q Society believes religion belongs in churches, synagogues, temples and mosques, not in footy stadiums or any other secular public space in Australia.
References:Koran Sura 4:101
“And when ye go forth in the land, it is no sin for you to curtail (your) worship if ye fear that those who disbelieve may attack you. In truth the disbelievers are an open enemy to you.”Hadith narrated by al-Bukhaari (571) and Muslim (631):
“O Messenger of Allaah, I could hardly pray ‘Asr until the sun had almost set.” The Prophet said: “By Allaah, I did not pray it either.” We went to Bat-haan and he did wudoo’ for prayer and so did we, then he prayed ‘Asr after the sun had set, then he prayed Maghrib after that.Hadith narrated by al-Bukhaari (572) and Muslim (684):
“Whoever forgets a prayer or sleeps and misses it, the expiation for that is to pray it when he remembers.”
About Q Society of Australia Inc
Q Society of Australia Inc is a national grassroots organisation run by volunteers since 2010.
Our members are concerned about the socio-political problems associated with the rise of Islamic sharia law in Australia; as well as religiously-motivated human rights abuses against women and indigenous religious minorities in OIC countries. We seek to inform and lobby for a free and open discussion about the socio-political impact of Islam in Australia. We oppose the Islamisation of our society and attempts to silence critical debate under the pretence of multicultural tolerance. No tolerance for the intolerant.
SYDNEY has four official senior AFL venues: the SCG, ANZ Stadium, Skoda Stadium and Blacktown International Sportspark. This surprising total means that Sydney has an equal number of AFL grounds to the combined total in Melbourne, Western Australia and South Australia.
We’ll also be equal to those areas in Islamic prayer rooms, following the AFL’s decision last week to install such rooms at all AFL venues. “It’s again a demonstration of our inclusiveness,” said AFL boss Andrew Demetriou, who announced the move in response to calls from Richmond player and observant Muslim Bachar Houli (pictured).
“Inclusive” seems a curious description. The AFL is actually providing an exclusive service to followers of a minority faith, although that’s not how Demetriou spins it. He says the rooms will be available for all denominations, which must be a relief to Presbyterians who’ve been missing out for more than 100 years on game-time worship opportunities.According to Houli, Islamic fans are fed-up with the lack of worship sites when they go to the football. “I speak for the Muslim community,” Houli told SBS. “I get complaints (that) there’s nowhere to pray other than the carpark. It can be quite disturbing (to pray) with people walking through to the game.”
Try being a smoker, pal. As a tobacco worshipper, I’m forced outside all the time. No nice rooms for us Benson & Hedgians. Judging by online reaction, fans seemed more than slightly dismissive of the AFL’s latest pandering, but Muslims, as you’d expect, were delighted. “This is not extremist,” explained Khadija Gbla, South Australia’s young person of the year, on ABC radio. “This is what is going to make us feel like Aussies.”Nothing makes someone feel more like an Aussie than going to the footy. And praying there. It’s a wonder we’ve managed to build a national identity at all without the help of these transformative rooms.
Of course, critics of the initiative were widely denounced last week as narrow-minded bigots. This was led by people who just one day before the announcement had never in their lives considered whether AFL grounds even needed prayer rooms.
Once the idea emerged, however, any opposition was evidence of moral failure. Oh, well. Further from Houli, who in addition to being a Richmond player is also a one-day-per-week multiculturalism ambassador with the AFL: “The main thing is we’ve got what we want, and you can’t change that.” True, but people can always change what they spend their money on every weekend. Right now, netball is looking pretty good.
***********
AFL chief Andrew Demetriou said the league had an obligation to make venues welcoming to people of all cultures.
Many football fans took to websites to condemn the move. “What next, the Adhan over the loudspeakers instead of the final siren?” posted one Richmond fan. “Or . . . half-time breaks to coincide with mid-afternoon prayer? Or designated women-only areas at the ground on the top deck completely out of sight and earshot of any men? Actually, that one’s not a bad idea.
“Seriously though, I don’t like this decision at all and it’s just another example of how this country is changing.”
Others posted: “This is OUR game and I’m sick of all this multicultural crap that is dividing our country”; “The last bastion of Australian culture to be stripped away from us in the name of Islam”; and “Football should be football. It’s a religion in itself. Let it be.”
It is reasonable to assume that all food on sale in the venues will need to be halal certified, in the interests of inclusion, since halal is “for everyone”, whether they want it or not. Best to stay home and watch it on TV.
Just wait…one of these days soon….KA-BOOOM!
Alcohol and hot “meat” pies will be banned.
Which drongo decided that footy needed a multiculturalism ambassador . That was the thin end of the wedge.
Considering the AFL lives not only of TV rights but venue attendance and club membership, for the 2013 season basketball looks like a very attractive alternative. For now…
Religion should stay out of sport and that goose Demetriou should be sacked for pandering to the most intolerant people on earth.
We keep hearing from the multiculturalists that Australia is a secular country yet they support the privileged treatment of Muslims. The fans should boycott the footy until this stupid decision is reversed.
I am so pissed off by this ridiculous act of appeasement that I am considering staging a few demonstrations at the footy.
* Just wait…one of these days soon….KA-BOOOM!
Nothing to do with islam.