Sydney mosque members receive ‘death threats' in call to prayer furore
Security measures have ramped up at Lakemba Mosque in Sydney's west amid an ongoing planning row centred on a $22,000 proposal by the Lebanese Muslim Association to add four new loudspeakers to the mosque's prominent minaret.
The proposal involved using the loudspeakers to play the Adhan call to prayer once a week, on Fridays, for up to 15 minutes at a time.
But the plans have hit a major hurdle: Canterbury-Bankstown Council is expected to refuse the development application (DA) at a meeting next week due to concerns over 'significant noise' and 'unacceptable amenity impacts' that were raised in public submissions.
Lebanese Muslim Association secretary Gamel Kheir said what was intended to be a straightforward development application has turned into a planning quagmire, with the mosque receiving online abuse from those opposed to the proposal.
Kheir said the abuse has included death threats, resulting in the mosque investing in new security measures, including additional CCTV cameras.
'There have been objections which are, in the worst-case scenario, purely based on Islamophobia,' he said.
'The paranoia has been purely based on the same old thing that we hear constantly – that Muslims are taking over the place and that somehow the call to prayer is associated with a terrorist threat.'
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