Death Threats Target Sydney Mosque After Plans for Weekly Adhan Broadcast
Lakemba Mosque in Sydney’s west has increased security, including installing extra CCTV cameras, following threats linked to a $22,000 proposal by the Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA).
The plan seeks to add four loudspeakers to the mosque’s minaret to broadcast the Adhan once a week, on Fridays, for up to 15 minutes.
LMA secretary Gamel Kheir said what began as a routine development application had escalated into a highly charged dispute, with abusive messages flooding in.
“There have been objections which are, in the worst-case scenario, purely based on Islamophobia,” WA Today quoted him as saying on Saturday.
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He added that the rhetoric often repeats the unfounded notion that “Muslims are taking over the place” and that the call to prayer is linked to a “terrorist threat.”
The mosque has faced threats since the 9/11 attacks, Kheir noted, but said the latest messages were “on another level.”
He also pointed out that many objectors do not live in the Canterbury-Bankstown area and questioned why church bells elsewhere in Sydney attract no similar backlash.
Canterbury-Bankstown Council will discuss the proposal at a local planning panel meeting next week. A council report concluded that, while the speakers were permissible under the site’s religious zoning, they would cause “significant noise impacts” and could not proceed in their current form.
Noise modelling in the application estimated the Adhan would reach up to 92 decibels—about the volume of a motorbike—and be heard within 100 metres of the mosque.
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Kheir said the LMA is now in discussions with the council about providing further noise assessments in hopes of having the proposal reconsidered. He emphasised that the call to prayer would only be broadcast for midday prayers on Fridays, not during the night.
According to the LMA’s application, the broadcast would “foster a sense of unity and shared faith” for many residents and serve as a “familiar and comforting sound” marking daily life.
Source: Agencies
