 Mosques by Bangladeshi Community Faruk Choudhury Early Muslim Settlers
As the immigration policy was relaxed, small numbers of Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India began arriving to explore the possibility of living in Australia. As the years passed. these Muslims gained confidence in their prospect of living in Australia permanently. They started thinking about building mosques, Islamic Schools and other organisation. First Mosques in Sydney The Turkish Muslim Community established the first mosque in Sydney at Erskineville near the central station in 1973. This was followed by the mosques at Redfern and Surry Hills. Then the Lebanese community established a very large mosque at Wangee Road Lakemba in 1977.  Erskineville – Turkish Mosque  Redfern Mosque  Surry Hills Mosque  Lebanese Mosque, Lakemba The Islamic communities from the Indian sub-continent grew and they found their new homes mainly in the Western suburbs of Sydney in the large area between Parramatta and Penrith. There was no mosque in the area. In the case of the Bangladesh migrants, the original people came for higher studies in the Universities of NSW and Sydney and settled in the suburbs of Randwick and Kensington. But those who came later moved to the Western suburbs for affordable housing. So, there grew two Bangladeshi communities – one in the East and the other in the West. Rooty Hill Mosque Sometimes in 1983, a group of local Muslims gathered in the house of Late Masud Alam Khan at Mt Druitt for dinner. Brother Khan came from Bangladesh. Over the dinner, they talked about the possibility of building a mosque in the area. Some of the guests took the idea seriously and started a campaign immediately. At their initiative a meeting was organised in the house of Late Dr. Badar Qadri at Castle Hill. Dr. Qadri came from India. About sixty people attended the meeting. They were mainly from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. Late Dr. Ashfaq Ahmad from India presided over the meeting and a committee was formed to pursue the matter. The Islamic Association of the Western Suburbs was formed. For a number of years, the Association remained active in organising religious celebrations like Tarawih and Eid prayers etc, but could not agree on the question of the exact location to build a mosque. Finally, during the late eighties, under the leadership of Mr. Qamar Khan, a younger member of the community, they succeeded in acquiring a block of land at the corner of Woodstock Avenue and Duke Street at Rooty Hills NSW. The small house on the block was converted to a mosque and regular prayer started.  Rooty Hill Mosque A number of Bangladeshi members remained committed to the Association and worked hard for years. They included Dr. Fazlul Huq, Faruk Choudhury, Abdul Momen Bhuiyan, Kazi Khaliquzzaman Ali and others. Dr. Fazlul Huq served a term as President. However, the bulk of the membership came from the Urdu speaking Pakistani and Indian migrants. As soon as, the mosque was established, to the dismay of others, the Urdu speaking members of the Association started asserting their numerical superiority in making decisions by ignoring the opinions of rest. The Bangladesh Islamic Centre When this was going in the Islamic Association of the Western Suburbs, one night, a large number of Bangladeshi residents from the East and the West of Sydney, gathered in the house of Dr. Tanvir (Ronju Bhai) and Dr. Mrs Nasreen at Lidcombe for a Milad. In that gathering, the rumours about the Rooty Hill Mosque came for discussion. Everyone who heard the story became emotionally aroused and a decision was made almost instantly to establish an Islamic Association and to build a mosque entirely with the initiative of the Bangladesh community. Mr. Mohammad Alamgir was elected Convenor to do the ground work for the proposed association. All those who were associated with the Rooty Hill Mosque were requested to help Brother Alamgir. The Bangladesh Islamic Centre came into existence soon. Barrister Salahuddin Ahmed was elected President of the Centre. The community accepted the Centre with enthusiasm. The Centre began organising the Islamic religious occasions with a Bangladeshi flavour to the delight of the community. Years passed, but there was no progress in finding a place to establish the mosque. Finally, Dr. Rashid Raashed was elected President in 1995 and a determined effort was made to achieve this goal. At that time, a disused Presbyterian church on a double block came to the market for sale at Helen Street, Sefton, NSW. The place was close to the railway station with direct train service to Sydney. The building was in good condition and not heritage listed which allowed the possibility for future rebuilding. Sefton had a selective school close to the church. The price asked for was reasonable. Moreover, the disused Christian church with the Council zoning for public worship allowed it to be used as a mosque without any legal objection. The Executive Committee decided to go for the property. However, what about the community opinion which was divided in the East and the West? In order to create a consensus, the Executive Committee organised a picnic at the Homebush Bay Park. The community responded overwhelmingly and joined the picnic from everywhere. An agreement was reached over the lunch. After the picnic, the senior members of the community gathered at the Surry Hills Mosque in the city to formalise the agreement. That was the easy job, but what about the money? The Centre did not have sufficient funds to buy the church outright. While the discussion was progressing, Mr. Habibur Rahman (Habib Bhai), a young member of the community stood up and declared that he had $100,000 in savings and was ready to allow this money to be used as loan for buying the property. The gathering was astounded by this extra-ordinary generosity of this young member of the community. With this offer, the purchase of the property became feasible as the Committee found that the remaining money could be raised from the donations. The property was purchased and the community member along with local Muslims started regular prayer.  The Sefton Mosque Objections from the local non-Muslim community This sudden increase in the activities at the disused church alarmed the local community, who increasingly became hostile. They overwhelmed the Bankstown Council - the local Council in-charge, with all sort of accusations – noise, overcrowding, loss of privacy, objectionable behaviour and everything. The Council tried to remain calm for a while then started listening to the complaints. The church had been zoned as a place of worship since 1954. The Centre thought that it would be a suitable site for a mosque. But Bankstown Council thought otherwise. It first issued a permit allowing the use of the existing church as a place of public worship for only 12 months, then withdrew the permission. The Council lodged case to the Land and Environment Court of NSW to challenge the use of the former church as a mosque. To the dismay of the Bangladeshi Community, Justice Terry Sheahan of the Court ruled that 'A mosque, while a place of worship, is not a church, which is a place of worship in the Christian tradition', and awarded costs against the Centre. The Community became very disheartened and dis-spirited. Just at that time, Faruk Choudhury assumed the responsibility as President of the Centre. He was advised by the well-wishers to work on creating wider public support for the mosque. The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) and the Islamic Council of NSW were contacted. Some Islamic and other religious organisations were advised about the legal repercussions. AFIC decided to form a Committee - the Save Sefton Committee under the Chairmanship of Mr. Amjad Mehboob, the AFIC CEO to help the Centre. While this was going on, something very unexpected happened. I received a phone call from the Sydney Morning Herald. The caller wanted to know about the details of the Bankstown Council’s court case against the Centre. He said that the Herald editors had heard about the judgment of Mr. Sheahan and felt that an injustice had been done to the Bangladeshi Community. They wanted to help. The details of the case were forwarded to the Sydney Morning Herald and the reporters and cameramen visited the mosque. Within a couple of days, on 29 October 1998, the Sydney Morning Herald published a front-page report - “Why is this church not a church?”, strongly criticising the judgment and supporting the Bangladesh community. The Herald continued with the follow-up reports for a few days and demanded some government action to help the Bangladeshi community. Other newspapers of Sydney also joined in. In response, the religious leaders of all denominations – Christians, Jewish, Hindus and Buddhists – issued statements supporting the cause of the Centre. Mr. Stepan Kerkyasharian, chairman of the NSW Ethnic Affairs Commission took the matter to Mr. Bob Carr, who was Premier of NSW. Mr. Carr instructed his Chief of Staff to call a meeting of the leaders of the Bangladesh Community and other religious leaders of Sydney to look at the issue. The meeting was very well attended and recommended that the mosque must stay at Sefton. They advised the Bangladesh Islamic Centre to appeal to the Supreme Court of NSW to have the lower court judgment overturned. Three prominent lawyers of NSW Supreme Court, led by Mr. Timothy Robertson SC offered voluntary free service (Pro Bono) to conduct the appeal. After some considerations, the Save Sefton Committee decided to accept the proposal of Mr. Timothy Robertson SC. The appeal was lodged and, in March 2000, the three judges of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of NSW set aside the ruling that a 'church' could not be a mosque. This hard-fought outcome became a legal precedent for all future cases of “a disused church becoming a mosque”. The success in the appeal was celebrated by all Muslims of Sydney in a big gathering in the Ashfield Park. Happy Years at Sefton With the legal problems out of the way, the Community leaders took initiative to consolidate the activities at Sefton. The building was renovated with some extensions and improved facilities for ablutions, washing and toilets for men and women. New fences were erected for privacy and parking facilities were improved. Most importantly, the Committee succeeded in acquiring the neighbouring house for future extension and rebuild. All Islamic celebrations were organised with great enthusiasm and attendance. The Executive Committee setup two bank accounts for raising money for two more mosques – one in the East and the other in the West. The money from the accounts were later distributed to the two mosques at Bunnerong Road, Matraville and Quakers Hills respectively.  Matraville Mosque  Quakers Hill Mosque According to the Constitution, a new Executive Committee had to be elected every year. This caused no problem. All Executive Committees were elected with full consensus. Trouble on the Horizon The peaceful years did not last long. In the Bangladeshi Community, there always was a group of people who presented themselves as the activists of the Bangladesh politics. These individuals slowly became active in the affairs of the Centre and problems started brewing. After the election of the Executive Committee in 2003, they raised an issue that some anti-Bangladesh individuals had been elected and caused disruptions to the sanctity of a place of worship. Even, the Eid prayer was disrupted and some members of the congregation were insulted when they opposed their behaviours deemed unfit for a place of worship. In the following Annual General meeting they disrupted the proceedings in a manner that resulted in most of the attendees to abandon the meeting. These individuals than declared an Executive Committee with all the members of their choice. Most of the Bangladeshi mosque attending community began to shun the mosque to avoid intimidation and unpleasant situation. The happy days were over. There were no proper elections, no religious celebrations and no development work. Very few came forward to change the situation and the mosque became dysfunctional for the Bangladeshis. Only the local Muslims continued to use the mosque. All these years, the community heard about the court cases between groups within the occupiers over the control and the talk of selling the mosque, which they declared to be of no use to the Bangladeshi community. End of the Occupation This undesirable occupation continued for long sixteen years. In 2019, it was heard from the legal sources that those who made themselves in-charge of the Sefton Mosque had lost a court case lodged against the Centre by a neighbour named Al-Zamtar (Abu Ahmed) for not paying his accumulated salary of $600,000 as he claimed he was appointed Care Taker some 30 years ago. This was a lie. But surprisingly, those in-charge of the Centre decided not to defend the case. The judge gave the verdict in favour of Al-Zamtar as the case was not defended. This new development caused anger and dismay in the community. Dr. Rashid Raashed, the founding President, took the lead and contacted all current permanent members of the Centre for saving the mosque. The Centre had created the provision for the permanent membership on the payment of extra donations and 40 members joined. The first action of the permanent members was to reoccupy the mosque and secure it. They did this with courage defying the intimidation. However, there was an attack on Dr. Raashed one night outside his house. He escaped with minor injuries. The assailant was not apprehended. The permanent members formed a new Executive Committee as they were the only legal members. The occupiers did not maintain any membership register. They lodged an appeal to the court against the judgment, but lost as the earlier occupiers in-charge did not defend. The new Committee had to find $600,000 to pay off Al-Zamtar for which they took a loan from a generous Muslim businessman. The new Committee running the mosque, but still facing spurious legal claims for money from individuals of the Bangladeshi community. The new Committee wants to establish full control of the mosque, change its status to a Charity and rebuild a grand mosque to replace the old building. Faruk Choudhury, Sydney, Australia |
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Home Page Published on: 25-Feb-2024 
