Australians have reacted with anger and disbelief after a Muslim monument was quietly erected in the heart of Sydney near the scene of a 2014 Islamic terror attack.
On Monday Anglo-Celtic advocacy group the British Australian Community shared a photo of the object, a replica of the Kaaba in Mecca, with the caption: “An Islamic black cube erected only 50 metres from the Lindt Café, and 200 metres from an Anzac Memorial in Martin Place, Sydney.”
Two innocent Australians died in the Lindt Café siege after being taken hostage by an Iranian Muslim refugee, and the 10th anniversary of the attack is just weeks away.
An Islamic black cube erected only 50 meters from the Lindt Café, and 200 meters from an Anzac Memorial in Martin Place, Sydney.
Do you think this is acceptable? Let us know below. pic.twitter.com/YE1tevtrCv
— British Australian Community (@Brit_Aus_Com) September 30, 2024
“What? That is disgraceful! What on earth is it doing there? Who authorised it? This isn’t Saudi Arabia!” wrote one person in response.
“Absolute disgrace,” said a second.
“Australia will go the same way as the UK if we don’t put a stop to this now.”
A third X user said: “A crazed Muslim terrorist slaughters random innocent Aussies and they now desecrate the memory with this. The very thing we fight to keep out. More division. Remember how fantastic things were before diversity and multiculturalism.”
“Incredibly disrespectful to the victims of the Lindt Café siege,” said another.
Many more seemed unable to believe that the group who erected the monument had received planning permission, while others asked how it could be tolerated amid outrage over supporters of terrorist group Hezbollah marching through Sydney and Melbourne on the weekend.
“Why is this allowed after yesterday’s Hezbollah terrorist demonstrations by all the Islamists?” asked one upset Australian, addressing her question to Opposition leader Peter Dutton.
“It’s a display of power over non-Muslims. It’s a marking of territory,” read another popular comment.
But this is not the first time the replica Kaaba has been erected in Martin Place, with Muslim former Labor Party MP Shaoquett Moselmane celebrating the display earlier this year. He described it as “a unique and historic initiative. First of its kind anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere”.
In April Muslims marked the end of Ramadan by taking over a large swathe of Martin Place to pray, sparking an angry response from ADH TV host Fred Pawle, who called it a form of “colonisation”.
“If [the fallen soldiers] saw this they would wonder why they bothered fighting at all,” Pawle said.
“Call me presumptious, but I don’t think any Australian soldiers died so this significant site in the centre of Sydney and many other streets and parks around the country could resound to a call to prayer.
“Whatever virtues Islam has for its adherents, compatibility with liberal democracy is not one of them. Despite the proliferation of mosques around the West this new phenomenon of praying in public places has suddenly increased around the world.”
Pawle went on to give examples from Spain, Belgium, Naples, Times Square in New York City, and Anfield Stadium in Liverpool.
