Muslim community criticizes Sydney Council’s Ban on Prayers in Community Centre

Campbelltown Council recently issued a ban prohibiting Muslims from allegedly using a local community centre for prayers, About Islam news outlet reported.

The decision has been widely criticized by the Muslim community, accusing the council of targeting the religious minority.

The council issued an official order banning members of the Australian Muslim Welfare Centre in Minto from using it as a place of worship after it received a complaint from a resident, Daily Telegraph reported.

Anisul Afsar, the president of the welfare centre, refuted claims the centre had become a place of public worship, explaining that more than 1500 Muslim members come to the centre for classes, sports activities, counselling services, and other events,”.

“If you’re a practicing Muslim, it’s your obligation to pray five times a day, so at prayer time, people pray wherever they may be, but that doesn’t mean we’re operating as a place of public worship. We’re not a mosque; we don’t have preaching; we’re a community centre,” he added.

Afsar stressed the fact that even though the demographic data indicates an increase in the Muslim population in the region, there is only one mosque in the entire area.

“If we have classes and community events and are not allowed to pray, what do we do? People will have to leave or go home to pray,” he noted, adding that the order “is unjust, and in our view, the council is targeting us.”

Australian Muslims make up 2.6% of the population of 26 million, according to the last census in 2016, which went up from 2.2% in the 2011 census.