ALLAH GUIDES SYDNEY’S SAD MOSLEMS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 12915, 9 December 1939, Page 6

ALLAH GUIDES SYDNEY’S SAD MOSLEMS

Sydney, Dec. 1. A Mohammedan community exists in Sydney, but it is only the ghost of its former self. . , ' Thirty years ago the Indian Mohammedans of Sydney numbered 'more than 2000 and were prosperous ■ traders. But the White Australia ban stopped new arrivals. Those who had accumulated sufficient wealth drifted back to India. Now there remains only some 40 of the originals. They are. mostly old-age pensioners or hawkers, who squat on doorsteps pf their small shops and discuss, their problems. There is 116 mosque in Sydney, but the small band of the Faithful gather In a room of one of the shops on feast days and offers up prayers. For these occasions they don the white robes, turbans and coloured sashes of the Orient, and he who acts as mufti'leads the prayers to Allah. Work Hard, Live Simply They are a law T -abiding community. “We work hard and live simply,” said Begali Khan, who has lived here more than 40 years. “We are loyal to the Empire, but you do not want us.’ -In. the last war I hear speakers say the Indian is-a great fighter, a grand man, but when it is peace, well, then, he becomes just a dirty black man again.” Ram Dulla and Mali Been, who have each lived in Redfern 56 years, echoed his sentiments. ■ “Once there were big mosques in Melbourne, in Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth, but now all are gone,” said Ram. There never was a mosque in

Sydney. Money was subscribed for one, but when Indians, Afghans and Arabs were excluded from this country the project fell through. “We collected £ 250 and put up a building at Cemetery near where we bury our dead,” explained Begali Khan, “but it was pulled down. Even the fence was | destroyed.” i It is to the old shops facing Redfern Park that Lascars from visiting liners go to pray. ■ ' j For the brief space of their So- | journ the neighbourhood is bright i with the colours o£ the Indian bazaar. But when they go the colour *goes, too. f . Sydney’s Mohammedans are a dying race.