Mareeba Mosque

The Mareeba Mosque,[1] officially known as the Mareeba and District Memorial Mosque,[2] is a mosque located in Mareeba, a rural town in Queensland, Australia.[3] The building contains a minaret, and an adjacent hall used for community functions that houses the library and visitors room.[4][5] Associated with the Albanian Australian community, the mosque (built late 1960s) is owned by and the centre of the Albanian Australian Moslem Society (Mareeba Islamic Society).[4][6]

Mareeba Mosque
Mareeba and District Memorial Mosque
Religion
AffiliationIslam
RiteSunni Islam
Ecclesiastical or organisational statusMosque
OwnershipAlbanian Australian Moslem Society (Mareeba Islamic Society)
LeadershipBenjamin Murat (Imam)
StatusActive
Location
Location108 Walsh Street, Mareeba 4880
StateQueensland
Country Australia
Location in Queensland
Geographic coordinates16°59′21″S 145°25′22″E
Architecture
TypeMosque
Groundbreaking1969
Completed1970
Minaret(s)1
Inscriptions1
Website
Mareeba Islamic Society

History

In Mareeba, most of the Muslim population is composed of Albanian Australians,[7][6] many from Albania (Korçë region), others from Kosovo and Montenegro.[8][9] Beginning in the interwar period Albanian immigrants arrived and following the Second World War, Bosniaks, Tatars and other Albanians settled in North Queensland in areas where sugar cane was grown like Cairns.[7][8][5] The local Albanian community devoted its efforts toward preserving traditional values and their transmission, especially since they came from Albania where religion was strongly suppressed by the communist government.[10] They sought to establish Islamic institutions and structures they had left in their homeland.[10]

Led by an Albanian imam from Cairo, new Albanian arrivals to Mareeba formed an organisation, the Albanian Australian Moslem Society (Mareeba Islamic Society) in 1953.[3][11][9] A house was bought by the society and repurposed into a mosque.[4][10] At the time, some 70 Muslim households from multicultural backgrounds lived in Mareeba.[4] The project to build a mosque began with land bought by the Islamic Society for $4,000 in 1968 on the corner of Walsh and Lloyd Street, followed by construction (1969).[4][5] The Mareeba Muslim community provided finances for the entire process of buying, planning and building a mosque.[4]

Assistance came from Tom Roy, a Mareeba architect who designed the mosque and Patty Cannon, a local builder that constructed it.[5][4][10] The Islamic Society's budget lacked funds for a minaret and Islamic arch, and Cannon added them from his own accord with the minaret being an imitation, serving only as a design feature.[5] A new modern brick building replaced the previous house serving as a mosque.[4][10][8]

Among the Albanian communities within Australia, reverence is maintained for its contribution to the World War Two effort and its Australian war veterans.[12] On Anzac day, 1970, the Mareeba mayor opened the new mosque and it was dedicated to Australian soldiers who died in war.[4][10][12] An inscription was added by the Albanian community as an expression of its desire to forge close ties with the wider local population.[4][9][10] It reads: "Mareeba and District Memorial Mosque, Erected by the Albanian Australian Moslem Society: This house of God is dedicated to those who gave their lives in the defence of Australia and in appreciation of all who served. 'Lest We Forget' 25th April, 1970".[4][1][13] Attached to the front mosque brick wall (left side), the inscription is a war memorial and part of the Mareeba Shire War Memorial Heritage Asset List.[1] Shortly after the mosque opening, the Mareeba imam was granted the ability to register marriages.[10] As part of closer relations, the wider community gave an area of the Mareeba cemetery to the Muslim community for burials and graves, that face westward in accordance with Islamic tradition.[10]

The mosque since its establishment has become a centre for the local Muslim community.[4] By 1986, the Muslim membership of the Mareeba Islamic Society numbered some 300 people.[4] A hall was added (1988) to the mosque toward the rear end of the premises for celebratory events and Muslim functions, that includes a visitors room and library.[4] In the early twenty first century, parts of the Mareeba Albanian community are either third, fifth or sixth generation locals.[4][5] The mosque serves as a focal point for the Albanian community that assists in preserving family traditions and religious identity.[5]

The 40 year anniversary of the mosque was celebrated in 2010.[5] In September 2014, the word "evil" was sprayed on the Mareeba mosque and the incident was blamed on anti-Muslim backlash over anti-terrorism police raids in Brisbane and Sydney.[14][2][15] The Mareeba mosque has participated in National Mosque Open Day, held across Australia for members of the general public to visit, support or acquaint themselves with Islam and Muslims.[16]

Mareeba Islamic Society's members are mainly farmers.[9] In the early twenty first century, the mosque congregation is multicultural, composed of locally well established Albanians and newer Muslim arrivals from Kosovo, Bosnia, Uzbekistan and Turkey.[5] The Albanian imam provides weekly lessons and lectures, with other Islamic lessons conducted on the weekend.[4][5] Beginning from the early 2000s, the current serving imam is Benjamin Murat.[5][17]

See also

References
  1. Dunne, Nettie (2020). Mareeba Shire War Memorial Heritage Asset List 2015: Mapping Our Anzac History (PDF). Mareeba Shire Council. p. 11.
  2. Uhr, Grace (21 September 2014). "Information sought on Mareeba mosque anti-Islam vandalism". Cairns Post. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  3. Haveric 2019, pp. 153-154.
  4. Haveric 2019, p. 154.
  5. Davis, Sam (28 April 2010). "Keeping the faith". Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  6. Jupp 2001, p. 166.
  7. Haveric, Dzavid (2019). Muslims making Australia home: Immigration and Community Building. Melbourne University Publishing. p. 153. ISBN 9780522875829.
  8. Volz, Martin (2009). "Tropical tapestry - North Queensland is home to a diverse range of communities of people who choose to live amid the forests and fruit". Big Issue Australia (342): 19.
  9. We are Queenslanders Contemporary multicultural tapestry of people (PDF). Queensland Government. 2015. pp. 12–13.
  10. Carne 1984, pp. 191-192.
  11. Jupp, James (2001). The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 167. ISBN 9780521807890.
  12. Barry, James; Yilmaz, Ihsan (2019). "Liminality and Racial Hazing of Muslim Migrants: Media Framing of Albanians in Shepparton, Australia, 1930-1955". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 42 (7): 1178. doi:10.1080/01419870.2018.1484504. S2CID 149907029.
  13. Carne, J.C. (1984). "Moslem Albanians in North Queensland" (PDF). In Dalton, B. J. (ed.). Lectures on North Queensland history. University of North Queensland. p. 193. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  14. Milman, Oliver (23 September 2014). "Islamophobia: Tony Abbott urged to speak out against attacks on Muslims". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  15. Withey, Andree; Mellor, Leonie (27 September 2014). "Brisbane mosque service brings Christian and Muslim leaders together". ABC. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  16. Rigby, Mark (2 November 2014). "National Mosque Open Day: North Qld mosques welcome public to dispel misconceptions about Islam". ABC. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  17. "'It's out of character for Bob': Muslims in Katter's electorate saddened by anti-immigration comments". Nine News. 17 August 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
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