2 days Ago By Natassia Chrysanthos
Liberal frontbencher Jason Wood was heckled out of a Melbourne mosque while pledging $6.5 million to upgrade its facilities on Monday, after worshippers became furious their Eid celebrations were being politicised during the federal election campaign. Wood, who is the Coalition’s shadow minister for multicultural affairs, was at the event with local Liberal candidate for the Melbourne seat of Bruce, Zahid Safi, when hundreds of people in the crowd of thousands gathered for prayer at Dandenong Showgrounds stood up in anger.
Several videos circulating on social media show people heckling, yelling, standing up and leaving, while another shows a physical fight breaking out. One clip includes footage of Wood being escorted out amid the commotion. “You’re not welcome here, brother, get out of here,” the man filming yells out to Wood as he passes.
The backlash came a day after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton spent his second day on the campaign trail visiting a mosque in the outer Sydney suburb of Leppington, where he pledged $25,000 for CCTV cameras as the Coalition courts voters in ethnically and religiously diverse communities. But Dutton has faced regular condemnation from Islamic leaders for his comments on immigration and his unwavering support for Israel during the war in Gaza, making his recent push into those communities a challenging task among Muslim voters, in particular. During Dutton’s mosque tour on Sunday, its leaders stressed that they were not endorsing the opposition leader and did not agree with all his past remarks about Muslim Australians.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton visits the Al Madinah Mosque in Leppington, Sydney, on Sunday. Credit: James Brickwood Fallout from Monday’s event in Dandenong, which was facilitated by the Afghan Islamic Centre and Omar Farooq Mosque, has divided members of south-east Melbourne’s Afghan community. Many were upset about what they saw as political interference in a celebration for the end of the holy month of Ramadan while others defended the funding announcement as a positive step.
Some people who attended the Eid prayer and protested were also associated with the activist group Stand for Palestine, which is discouraging mosques in western Sydney from inviting senior Labor ministers to Eid events. Labor is also facing a backlash from Muslim voters in its western Sydney strongholds who don’t think it has done enough to support Palestinians. A video posted to the group’s Facebook page congratulated those who protested at the Melbourne Eid event.
“Liberal MPs thought they could come to our community and bribe us into voting for Peter Dutton! Shoutout to our Afghan brothers and those who took a noble stance,” it said. But the protests came from dozens of people spread across the large hall and were not confined to those associated with Stand for Palestine, according to sources who attended the event but did not want to be quoted because of safety fears. People who spoke to this masthead on the condition of anonymity said Wood gave a speech to the crowd before the prayer began, in which he made the $6.
5 million funding pledge on behalf of Dutton and the Coalition. They said worshippers in the crowd eventually started yelling things like: “What are you doing here?” and “You’re not welcome to do this”. Others made angry comments asking about the Coalition’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza, or said they just wanted to pray.
“They were yelling at Jason Wood and the Liberal Party...
People have different emotions in the community, different values, and that’s important to them,” one man said. “It’s really disappointing for the community. It’s a spiritual institution, religious place, and should not be used for political campaigns.
” The man said many people were angry at the Afghan Islamic Centre for allowing the Liberal MPs to speak before the prayer in the context of a federal election. But a former local council candidate, Liaqat Khan, praised the Coalition’s offer to give $6.5 million to the Afghan community if elected.
“Please accept our apologies for the minor disturbance caused by a few individuals. We assure you that the vast majority of the attendees welcomed and applauded your commitment to the Afghan community,” he wrote in a post on Facebook. The mosque’s spokesperson, Rokhan Akbar, said its committee had called a meeting and would make a statement later on Monday night.
Wood was also contacted for comment, while the Coalition headquarters declined to comment. The federal seat of Bruce was held by Labor’s Julian Hill with a 6.6 per cent margin at the last election, although a redistribution has cut that down slightly.
While it has been a safe Labor seat since 1998, the Coalition thinks voters could be swayed by a meaningful pitch on cost-of-living. The seat is also home to Victoria’s largest population of Afghan Australians, which is reflected in the Liberal party’s pre-selection of Safi, an Afghanistan-born local businessman. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis.
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