Jewish leaders have backed the idea of prayer rooms at AFL venues, saying they sympathise with Islamic fans wanting to pray and barrack, as Jeff Kennett continued to fan the issue.
The Catholic church did not comment, but irascible retired priest Bob McGuire said he saw nothing wrong with it. He said corporate hot-shots had their “prayer rooms” at the football “behind the glass partitions”.
He said AFL scoreboards should be used to encourage people to use the interfaith rooms and atheists could even go and “slump in the corner and ponder the universe”.
After calling the AFL’s move “stupid” and “political correctness gone mad”, Mr Kennett said on Sydney radio yesterday that prayer rooms were “not part of football”.
The former Victorian premier and former Hawthorn president said the idea that it would result in bigger (Muslim) crowds was “moronic”.
The AFL is pushing for prayer rooms at all major venues after being approached on the issue by Richmond footballer Bachar Houli, the AFL’s first Muslim player and the league’s part-time “multicultural ambassador”.
Mr Kennett said the move was as “grey” as preventing schoolchildren from celebrating Christmas. Many talkback radio callers also panned the move, saying “there’s a place for religion and a place for sport”.
But Khadija Gbla, South Australia’s young person of the year, told ABC radio in Adelaide: “This is not extremist. This is what is going to going to make us feel like Aussies.”
Danny Lamm, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and a Collingwood supporter, who said observance of the Sabbath had curtailed his involvement with the Magpies, said he had no objection to prayer rooms.
And NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief Vic Alhadeff, who follows the Waratahs, Wallabies, NSW State of Origin team, Kangaroos and Swans, in that order, said multi-faith prayer rooms were “standard fare in hospitals, universities and . . . airports”.