SA Senator Cory Bernardi is bristling at news the new RAH will feature a Muslim prayer room and only a multi-faith reflection centre for all other religions.
“It’s an epic fail, if I can put it like that,” Mr Bernardi told David and Will on FIVEAA breakfast.
David and Will podcast on iTunes here.
“Why do we expect the predominant religious belief — being Christian cultural heritage — and every other religious belief to share the multi-faith reflection centre… and then have another room almost exclusively for the use of another minority religion of two per cent — even less here in South Australia.”
Mr Bernardi criticised the removal of the word chapel — “which has Christian connotations, and which has always been in hospitals”.
“We’ve removed any Christian symbolism,” he said, “and yet we’ve got another room, which they’ve called a prayer centre, but it has all the hallmarks of an Islamic centre.”
“I just don’t know why we’re pursuing this path when we’re trying to bring people together in this country to unite them by Australian values, and yet there’s one group of people who consistently and persistently don’t want to integrate into mainstream society.
PHOTO GALLERY: FIRST LOOK INSIDE NEW RAH HERE
He said the move was proof of a “culture of appeasement”:
“The Islamic minority demand special accommodations, whether it comes to schools or prayer rooms…
“It just says that the peoples’ concerns about integration, about assimilation, about embracing the unique differences that make Australia so special only applies to one section of society, which I think the government has facilitated in this case,” he said.
MOST POPULAR
PORT ASSISTANT FULL OF PRAISE FOR THIS PLAYER — DESPITE LOSS
DAVID & WILL CHAT WITH EYEWITNESS AT CENTRE OF SHOWDOWN BRAWL
