Dozens of people milled about, waiting for a burger after praying Taraweeh — a nightly prayer performed during the month of Ramadan — at a nearby mosque.
The success of the night markets has generated mixed feelings among the Australian Muslim community. Source: Getty / Roni Bintang
“There weren’t that many places as there is now to eat in Lakemba after Taraweeh, so we thought it would be a great idea to do a barbecue,” Obeid tells SBS News.
[We] started off serving the guys that pray[ed at the mosque] and, with the money we raise, we could give back to the community.
As years passed, the market crowds grew. Dozens grew to hundreds, and hundreds grew to thousands of mainly Australian Muslims filling their stomachs before the sun would rise the next morning.
The famous food markets in Sydney’s south-west were once known as ‘Lakemba Ramadan Nights’, until some Muslim community members wanted the religious reference removed. Credit: AAP
Among them was western Sydney resident Sami Chalabi.
Now, the market’s popularity has spilled into the mainstream, attracting visitors from all over Sydney. It has left many in the Muslim community conflicted.
Religious roots ‘gone out the window’
Canterbury-Bankstown Council started overseeing the Haldon Street event in 2017, which until recently was known as ‘Lakemba Ramadan Nights’.
Throngs of people cram the street annually to taste a range of Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian cuisines. Around 60 local businesses are participating in this year’s month-long event, which the council expects will contribute up to $50 million to the local economy.
Up to 60 local businesses are expected to take part in Lakemba’s Ramadan food markets. Credit: AAP
But Chalabi says the markets no longer serve their initial purpose of feeding the Muslim community and that “it’s lost that hometown element”.
It’s so big now that there’s not the religious aspect of what initially was probably intended at the start. That’s gone out the window.
Removing ‘Ramadan’
“The reality is Ramadan is not just about food, it’s more about spirituality, it’s about getting closer to God, it’s about getting close to one another as Muslims within our community and also reaching out to the wider Australian community,” he tells SBS News.
Last October, the council, appearing to listen to these concerns, proposed a raft of changes, including the removal of the word ‘Ramadan’ from the event’s branding.
Ibrahim Dadoun says some members of the community complained Lakemba’s night markets have become overcommercialised. Source: SBS News
The proposal drew overwhelmingly negative feedback from many local residents, including 26-year-old Joel Wallbank-Hutton, who is not Muslim.
“Some people thought that this is not part of the religious element of the festival, but the reality is there were a lot of people [who] wanted ‘Ramadan’ to stay in there, so we’ve listened to the community,” he says.
‘Let’s have a conversation’
“People come from everywhere with their different culture to see our culture,” he says.
It doesn’t matter where they come from … It is for everyone.
“A lot of people who are open-minded will come, meet other Muslims and just know that we’re not bad people.”