(Sydney) How many times have you heard an Islamic spokesman (always a man) claim that if permission is granted towards building their latest mosque, they will open it up to all the community. You know, like they professed at the Ground Zero mosque. "Open to all" they claim. Yet across the world in Australia the opposite is happening.
Erdinc Ozen was an Australian policeman (as well as a member of the naval reserve), and when his life was cut short, his family invited all his friends to the funeral at Sydney's Auburn Gallipoli Mosque. However, while waiting for the service to begin, the vice president of the mosque, Dr Abdurrahman Asaroglu, informed the congregation that as this was an Islamic funeral, all women and non-Muslims had to leave. So they did, and now the Ozen family are demanding an apology from the mosque at how their wishes that Erdinc's friends share their day of remembrance were thrown out of the window by a bigoted so called holy man. His brother summed up his anguish:
Erdinc Ozen was an Australian policeman (as well as a member of the naval reserve), and when his life was cut short, his family invited all his friends to the funeral at Sydney's Auburn Gallipoli Mosque. However, while waiting for the service to begin, the vice president of the mosque, Dr Abdurrahman Asaroglu, informed the congregation that as this was an Islamic funeral, all women and non-Muslims had to leave. So they did, and now the Ozen family are demanding an apology from the mosque at how their wishes that Erdinc's friends share their day of remembrance were thrown out of the window by a bigoted so called holy man. His brother summed up his anguish:
"He told everyone it's a Muslim prayer service, all women and non-Muslims were not welcome and they had to leave the mosque area, All of his friends were not Muslim, so they had to leave - it was a big shock. It upset a lot of people."Most hurtful for his family was that when it came time to move Erdinc's coffin, his closest friends were not allowed to take part in the proceedings."These complete strangers were grabbing my brother's coffin, not his mates, as a result of what this bloke had said,"I had to laugh when I read the official explanation from the mosque:
Islamic Friendship Association president Keysar Trad said: "What was done does not run consistently with our traditions. Our religion teaches us to be compassionate towards people grieving."Give it a rest, Keysar, time and time again we here about how Islam is a magnanimous faith and time and time again on a daily basis we see acts carried out in the name of Islam which say bloody otherwise.
