By Neelam Rahim

Eight people have been charged after a mosque was allegedly broken-in in Melbourne yesterday, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage.

The men allegedly jumped two security fences to get inside the centre, home to hundreds in Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

Radio Islam speaks to Keysar Trad, the Founder of Islamic friendship.

“The information that we have regarding the attack on a masjid in Melbourne this morning is that the police are treating this matter with urgency. These thugs who vandalised the masjid should not be able to get away with such a heinous hate crime although the police have stopped a lot of the hate crimes. For a group of young people to come and insult the masjid and knock over chairs used for the elderly is completely unacceptable not just in Australia but anywhere In the world.”

“This has shocked many people in Australia and authorities are taking it very seriously they will be some arrests very soon, says Keysar”

Keysar also extends his congratulations to Fatima Payman, who is the first Hijabi-wearing sister in the Australian Parliament. 

He says, “Fatima ran for the labour party, and the labour party have won government. The state of Western Australia confirmed that she became a senator in the Federal Parliament of Australia. Young in her 20s of Afghan background, and she wears the hijab. This is a significant sign of acceptance for Muslims in Australia.”

Australia’s newly elected government is facing a perfect storm, with rising inflation, food shortages, higher interest rates, and an energy crisis.  

The national market operator has seized control of the energy market in an unprecedented intervention to avoid the prospect of widespread power outages.  

All parties have warned prices are still set to soar in the coming months. 

Keyer says even though winter has already started, to this moment, they have still experienced the outages.

“There is a concern as throughout the Eastern states in Australia they don’t have adequate storage of gas reserves. Though Australia exports gas it seems they didn’t have the force for it to make sure there is enough reserves in times of crisis,” he said.