I spent two hours at my local mosque on Sunday afternoon. It was mosque open day in Victoria on 17 March, coincidentally just a couple of days after 50 people were gunned down at two mosques in Christchurch by a white supremacist.
I was planning to go to the open day before Friday’s mass murder, but my sense of outrage added a certain determination that I wouldn’t miss the opportunity.
I’m very glad I went. The local Muslim community was pleased to see about 100 infidels turn up to share lunch, to learn some of their history, acknowledge their right to religious observance and to show solidarity.
It was a solemn occasion given the horror of Friday is rightfully still on everyone’s mind, but there was also a sense of joy. The faces of the children were lit up with curiosity. It’s not every day that dozens of mostly white strangers turn up at the mosque.
Our neighbourhood mosque
Flowers have been left
I’m here in solidarity
Get to your local mosque today
21 in Victoria are open for visits pic.twitter.com/ZMN0nVKFxR— Doc Martin (@ethicalmartini) March 17, 2019
The wife of the local Imam, Sister Mary, told us that the mosque elders had thought briefly about cancelling the open day out of fear that some gun-toting Nazi chud might want to attack them. But the community held strong and the open day was a commemoration of loss but also a celebration. I’m glad I went because it helped me find a place of some quiet after two days of restless agitation. I wrote on Twitter that I had been more profoundly affected by the Christchurch massacre than I thought possible.
I’m totally ashamed of the violence white privileged Aussie men are capable of.
I am more affected by Christchurch than I expected.
I’m profoundly sad and really angry at our government and media who cuddle up to the neo-Nazis and who dogwhistled this monster into existence.— Doc Martin (@ethicalmartini) March 15, 2019
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Here’s a clue about the source of my rage – fuckwitted dregs like Greg Sheridan pretending to fucking care.
FYI, he doesn’t give a shit about Muslim lives.
We weren’t all Muslims when women were having their headscarves pulled off in the street, men were being told to go back to where they came from and children were being called terrorists and bullied at school pic.twitter.com/H3h5w22U4L
— Brad Chilcott (@bradchilcott) March 16, 2019