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Wednesday, October 1, 2014
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Mareeba’s muslim community holds open day as show of unity
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the community had come to offer support during this difficult time. “The aggregate of this society is made up of its individual parts and those parts are important, every one of them, and this mosque and its community is very much a part of that,” Mayor Gilmore said. Mr Kempton was encouraged by the diversity of people who came to the Open Day, including police officers and people from other religions. “It really shows to me that Mareeba is a good solid community and the Muslims are very much a part of this community,” he said. “If you look at the papers everyday it is a fearful time and people are worried, but this is a time for communities to pull together not to separate out.”
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Mareeba in the 1920s. The mosque was built by Albanian Muslims with donations from the broader community. It was opened on April 25, 1970 and dedicated to the ANZACs. Following the success of the Open Day, Mr Murat hoped to hold other similar events. “We certainly don’t want the community to feel that we are going to be a thorn in their side,” he said. “I hope that those who came today can take it out to the broader community that we are not the perpetrators of evil and that we’re quite normal people.” Mareeba Shire Mayor Tom Gilmore and Member for Cook David Kempton attended the Open Day and were thrilled so many members of
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THE community has come together at the Mareeba Mosque Open Day to send a strong message of unity. People from Mareeba and around the Tablelands came to the mosque, on Saturday, to show their support and condemn the work of vandals who painted the word “Evil” on the mosque’s front wall a week earlier. Mosque community trustee Paul Murat delivered a welcoming speech to the crowd expressing his appreciation of the phone calls and offers of help Mareeba’s Muslim community had received. He became emotional when describing two
women who had travelled from Malanda to give flowers and express their sorrow at what had happened. Mr Murat hoped the Open Day would help create better understanding about the religion and strengthen the community’s bonds. “This makes us feel like we are still part of the community, as we have always felt,” he said. “We are Australian – we were born here and we live here. We support this country, as part of our economic base as well as our cultural base. We are Aussies; we’re not here to influence or compel people to be something else. “Our objective is to become better citizens and do more for our community in a good way.” Mr Murat’s parents came from Albania to
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