Lakemba’s Ramadan Nights market has been an integral part of the Sydney Muslim social scene long before it was acquired by local council and became the viral behemoth it is today. And changing its name to make it areligious (read: apolitical) won’t undo its history.
Almost two decades ago, when it was first unwittingly created by burger-selling duo Abdul Obeid and Yassr Yatim, there were no stalls — just a humble street-side barbecue, an informal gathering of Muslims who wanted to feed their community after a long day of fasting and worship.
Over the years, as Muslims became more demonised in the media and Lakemba was labelled a no-go zone or ‘ghetto’ badland, Muslims from wider Sydney flocked to an event that they finally felt seen and safe at. The stalls expanded from selling camel burgers to knafeh, mutabak, pani puri and Kashmiri chai. And despite the increase in size, the event only became more intimate, with the same familiar faces appearing each year, and a sense of a community that was getting to know itself more closely than ever.
It was in the mid 2010s that I started attending as a child, still unlearning my own self-hatred and internalised racism from growing up post 9/11. I can confidently attribute the sense of community and care I found at the markets to the ease in which I grew into myself — there is something incredibly nourishing about being in a space full of your people, a space built on pride of your religion and the different cultures that make up your community, of which the sole purpose is to feed one another and reflect on your ties to each other and God.
Two years ago, the markets were taken over by Canterbury-Bankstown Council, and then the changes began. The fluid start times — made flexible to accommodate local prayer times — became fixed, and advertising material marketed the event as Australia’s biggest food festival, rather than a religious event. Soon, it went viral and the attendance swelled to the millions as non-Muslims discovered the event. Food bloggers and travel influencers made viral TikToks on the food they binged, locals expressed concern about the commercialisation and co-option of the event, and I wrote my first piece on non-Muslim attendees subjecting stallholders to racism and disrespect.
I have been writing about the devastating culture vulturism around the markets for years now, so I probably should have seen it coming when Canterbury-Bankstown Council dropped the bombshell announcement that it will remove “Ramadan” from the name of the Lakemba night markets in a bid to officially “uncouple” it from its religious origins.
Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that it has done this while at the same time increasing stall-holder fees, or that the “uncoupling” (done so for “commercial interests”) doesn’t seem to include holding the festival outside the holy month — it appears the council still wants to profit from our community, while simultaneously distancing itself from us.
Despite my cynicism, I did not predict such a blatant co-option and white-washing of an event that was created for the express purpose of community building between Muslims — and I feel especially outraged at the timing of this decision, when Muslims are feeling more alienated and maligned than ever.
Since October 7 last year, the Muslim community has been in a state of all-consuming isolation and grief. The official death toll of the attacks could be more than 180,000, according to a Lancet study, though the numbers are impossible to verify due to the decimation of health services and bodies remaining unaccounted for in rubble and mass graves.
We are seeing what the ICJ has deemed a plausible genocide of Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces (a charge Israel denies). This week, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called for international pressure to stop Israel from carrying out “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, while Israel has launched attacks on Lebanon and Iran. Our leaders in Australia have staunchly defended Israel even when its actions are in violation of international law, manufacturing consent for the erasure of an entire people, and the result is an aching loneliness and hurt and anger at the understanding that to this day, our lives do not matter. We do not matter.
In the past year, we have seen a rise in Islamophobia and racism towards Arabs and Muslims (no inquiry for us, though), and a censuring and silencing of Muslim and Arab journalists, protesters and students.
Just this week, Swinburne University in Melbourne made headlines for banning its Muslim students from using the prayer room on Fridays (which, if you didn’t know, is the equivalent of banning Christians from going to the church on Sundays).
Swinburne’s Islamic Society alleged to ABC News this week that they have been under surveillance since late last year, with the university introducing mandatory security measures for Muslims who want to enter the multi faith centre — thereby not only collecting the IDs of practising Muslims on campus, but refusing access to Muslim guests at the university who don’t have swipe keys, or local Muslims who use the space (the closest mosque is 13km away).
“The university doesn’t require swipe access cards to enter the student lounge which has computers but they have this security measure for us,” one student noted.
Places where Muslims gather and find solace in one another are once again being demonised and are under threat — which is why the Ramadan night market is so important to the Muslim community. It is simply one of the few community spaces we have left, and distancing it from us — the very community who made it what it is, who it is for — is an act of erasure and, quite frankly, feels Islamophobic. How else could one justify divorcing an event from Muslims during a time when Muslims are under attack and desperately need it, if not out of not wanting an association with an undesirable group?
NSW Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi slammed the council’s decision as “outrageous” and an “absolute shame” given the current political climate.
“It’s outrageous that ‘Ramadan’ is being dropped from the market’s identity. For years this has been a vibrant space where Muslims and the broader community have been coming together to share a meal and experience Ramadan. I’ve regularly been there with friends and family for iftar,” she told PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“It is an absolute shame to sever this connection with Ramadan, especially at a time when Islamophobia is rife and Muslims are being vilified and marginalised in this country for calling out a genocide.”
Fatima*, a 26-year-old Sydney local, feels it is particularly egregious for the council to “uncouple” Ramadan Nights from Muslims at a time where Israel’s continues to annihilate Gaza, Lebanon and the wider region.
Fatima’s family is from Aitaroun in south Lebanon, one of the villages most targeted by Israeli forces, and she feels that now, more than ever, Muslims need visibility — not to have their “history wiped away”.
“It’s incredibly offensive to know that we started this beautiful thing where Muslims can enjoy themselves during Ramadan, only for it to be completely disassociated from Ramadan and Muslims,” she said.
“It completely disregards our cultures and religion, and treats it as a purely social event that the council uses as a way to act like they love multiculturalism.
“When we need a community because it feels like the whole world is already against us, they couldn’t give us this little event?”
Zeinab, 25, another Sydney local from South Lebanon, told PEDESTRIAN.TV she feels like her “safe space” has been “invaded”. She also noted that Ramadan is a time for Muslims to abstain from music and other material pleasures, so “in a sense I worry it’ll become something that it’s not and we’ll be pushed out of yet another space.”
“It’s gone downhill the last few years and I know there’s been complaints over it but removing the Muslim aspect of it solves literally nothing aside from making us feel less welcome into an event that started with us.”
Umair Shakoor, a Sydney-based Muslim who has been attending the market for years and now takes his young children there, said the move feels like “anti-culturalism”. He stressed the importance of names in the appreciation (instead of appropriation) of cultures.
“You can’t just take the name off of Biryani and sell it as spiced rice with meat and expect people to appreciate Pakistani/Indian culture… the name leads to the recognition and appreciation of the culture,” he told PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“The name [Ramadan Nights] sparked so many positive conversations. Now it’s just another night food festival.”
Natasha, a young woman from Wiley Park who grew up in the Lakemba area, said Muslims were the ones who did the hard work of breaking the negative stereotypes of Lakemba and giving it the positive reputation it now has. By removing Muslims from the name, she feels their labour has been erased and stolen for the sake of Australians who “prefer a non-Muslim tagged” event.
Another local young Muslim, who requested her name be withheld, said she will no longer be supporting the markets for this reason.
“I won’t be going anymore. This is taking advantage of our cultural and religious experience for monetary gain. [It’s] atrocious,” she said.
Bankstown-Canterbury Council, for its part, has slammed any and all accusations of Islamophobia and Muslim erasure.
“Ramadan is an important time for prayer, fasting, personal reflection and giving and the name change is about respecting Ramadan while still holding an important community event that takes place during this time,” a council spokesperson said in a statement to PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“Any suggestion of the [council’s] decision being ‘Islamophobic’ is absurd. Council was the first to raise the Palestinian flag and has shown support in a variety of other ways including calling for a ceasefire, planting olive trees and fundraising for the Children of Gaza.”
*This name was changed to protect the identity of the source, who works in a government role.
Soaliha is a freelance journalist, podcaster and occasional TikToker who writes about politics, race, feminism, books and pop culture. You can find her on Instagram @soalihaoffical.
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