Members of Sydney’s Muslim community say Pauline Hanson should put her offensive views aside and meet them to share a meal.
Up to a million visitors are expected to show up at a popular night market in Lakemba in south-western Sydney for the month of Ramadan, where dozens of stalls serve everything from camel burgers to sugarcane juice.
But the first day of the holy month has been tinged with sadness and frustration after a threatening letter was sent to Lakemba Mosque – the third it has received in a month.
It echoed Senator Hanson’s widely-condemned comments days earlier that there were “no good Muslims” and that she felt “unsafe” and not welcomed in the area.
Born and bred in Lakemba, construction worker Mohammed – who asked that his full name not be used – extended an invite to the controversial politician.
“We want Pauline Hanson to come down here, break our fast and eat with us and see how we are,” he told AAP on the steps of the mosque with his young son in tow.
“It’s a multicultural place … come in and we’ll show you around.”
The 35-year-old noted the threats would not deter him from going to pray and seeking spiritual solace in the next few weeks, when Muslims globally fast from sunrise to sunset.
“Those who made a threat, we can help them and guide them. It’s not going to (stop us coming) to the mosque anymore or scare us.”
Sharing in a communal breaking of the fast at the mosque after a long hot day, Mahadi Hasan said he felt at home in the suburb observing his first Ramadan away from his family in Bangladesh.
“I came to Australia because it’s one of the most peaceful countries in the world and we Muslims also love peace,” he said.
The 24-year-old student said he was “very concerned” with the rising rhetoric targeting Muslims in Australia, including the latest threat to the Lakemba Mosque.
Featuring a cartoon pig, the letter made calls to kill or deport Muslims and referenced an Australian convicted terrorist who killed 51 Muslims in Christchurch in 2019.
The unsigned letter delivered to the mosque also contained a direct death threat levelled against Josh Lees, the prominent organiser of the Palestine Action Group, with the words “Praise Israel” atop.
He said politicians had fanned the flames of Islamophobia by denigrating supporters of the Palestinian cause, against a backdrop of more than 70,000 people being killed in Gaza over the last two years.
“There is a clear link between media and politicians’ consistent attacks on the Palestinian movement and the vicious rise in disgusting Islamophobia,” he told reporters.