The Age/Chip Le Grand/16.3.2024
Being a Muslim and supporting Palestinians has never been harder – God bless them all – Mark
Dismayed by horrific scenes in Gaza and political equivocation towards Israel, Muslim leaders are disengaging from government and shunning multi-faith forums.
There are two tables in two different parts of Melbourne which tell the story of what the war in Gaza – the most socially corrosive conflict Australia has experienced since Vietnam – is doing to Australia’s Muslim leadership and the communities they represent.
The first, the head table at a parliamentary Iftar dinner held this week inside the five-star Sofitel Hotel on Collins Street, was snubbed by invited guests from the Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) and Australian National Imams Council. This Ramadan, they have no appetite to break their fast with politicians from either major party.
The second was a trestle table draped in a Palestinian flag, set on a stage inside a western suburbs mosque on Sunshine Road, Tottenham. This is where ICV president Adel Salman took a seat the week before Ramadan, alongside prominent figures in the Palestinian protest movement, to denounce Israel as a criminal regime and repeat his inflammatory description of Hamas’ October 7 attack which killed 1200 Israelis as a legitimate act of resistance. Salman has repeatedly said he does not justify the killing of civilians.
The Tottenham event, titled “Understanding Cries for a Free Palestine”, was hosted by HobsonsBay4Palestine, a newly formed off-shoot from a self-seeding, protest movement which every Sunday for the past five months, has organised mass rallies in central Melbourne and Sydney.
Seated alongside Salman were Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni sporting a “Black Lives Matter” T-shirt, Greens Senator Janet Rice and Max Kaiser, a member of the Jewish Council of Australia, a nascent, non-representative Jewish group opposed to Zionism.
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