Irfan Yusef has posted some useful thoughts on the recent goings on at the Canberra Mosque:
“It’s little wonder the closest thing you’d find to a Cronulla-style anti-Muslim riot is inside the mosque itself. The argument started some months back when a faction of worshippers decided they didn’t like the imam any more. They decided to tell a Melbourne reporter the imam’s supporters were extremists.
To understand this mentality requires some historical background. A medieval Syrian philosopher, Abul Hasan al-Maarri, made the following remark on the eve of his city being overrun by the Crusaders:
In this world, there are only two types of people: those with lots of intelligence and little religion, and those with little intelligence and plenty of religion.”
