Muslim Leaders Reject Bondi Terrorists: ‘We Won’t Bury Them, They’re Not Muslims’
- Senior Sydney Muslim leaders condemn the Bondi attack as a ‘barbaric and criminal act’ and refuse to perform Islamic funeral rites for the terrorists
- Dr Jamal Rifi says the Muslim community ‘won’t receive their bodies, won’t perform the death rituals, and won’t accept them in any Muslim section of Rookwood cemetery’
- The community is on high alert, with mosques cancelling gatherings and funerals being held in private due to safety concerns
- Dr Rifi praises the heroics of a Muslim bystander who ripped the gun off one of the offenders, saying it sends a powerful message about the strength of community bonds
Sydney’s Muslim leaders have issued a scathing condemnation of the Bondi terrorists, declaring they will not be buried as Muslims and rejecting their twisted ideology. Dr Jamal Rifi, a prominent voice in the Sydney Islamic community, said the attackers’ actions were ‘inexcusable’ and ‘not condoned by any of us’.
‘We don’t see them as inside the fold of Islam or as Muslims,’ Dr Rifi said, his voice filled with emotion. ‘What they have done is not condoned by any of us and it is killing innocent civilians. We know it is a verse in our book, killing an innocent civilian is the same as killing all humanity.’
The Muslim community is reeling in the aftermath of the attack, with many still trying to come to terms with the senseless violence. Dr Rifi said the community was on high alert, with mosques cancelling gatherings and funerals being held in private due to safety concerns.
‘We usually do it inside the mosque with some gathering for the next three days, but due to circumstances, we are not going to do that,’ Dr Rifi said, referring to a funeral service for an elderly lady in the community. ‘The family already asked for the funeral service and the mosque if they can do it at home rather than in the mosque, so we won’t have gathering in front or inside the mosque.’
Dr Rifi also took a moment to praise the heroics of a Muslim bystander who ripped the gun off one of the offenders, despite being shot twice in the process. ‘That dimension, to be honest, is extraordinary,’ he said. ‘The fact that he is also of the Islamic faith … it actually sends a message that the things that bind us as human beings, the things that bind us as citizens of this great country, are much stronger than the actions of these criminal, terrorist people and their warped ideologies.’
As the community begins to heal, Dr Rifi urged Australians to come together and reject the inflammatory rhetoric that has weakened social cohesion in recent years. ‘Unfortunately, they succeed in the first one, but we need to work our best and every individual should be able to play their positive role, not to let those perpetrators achieve further decaying intentions in our social cohesions as a nation as a whole.’