CAIRO – The construction of three prayer rooms in Perth’s new $1.4 billion sporting stadium has been widely welcomed by Australian Muslims, saying the move would help integrate Muslims as part of the society.

“When these things are considered you feel part of society as a whole. The most important thing in this day and age is for people who are both Muslim and non-Muslims to feel included,” Australian New Muslims Association president Said Kanawati told Daily Mail Australia.

“This one thing alone will not stop radicalization but it is just one of the many things that will help stop it.”

Perth’s new stadium, which is being built in inner-city Burswood, will feature three prayer rooms with washing facilities, a shoe rack and bookshelf.

Kanawati praised the decision by West Australian Government to include prayer rooms in the new stadium.

He added that most Muslims planned their days around prayer sessions but even with the most carefully laid plans it did not always work out.

“For example, I went to the Big Bash [cricket] the other day [at Sydney Showgrounds] and I thought about how I was going to do my sunset prayer,” Kanawati said.

“But I managed to leave the stadium and find a small park to pray and come back.”

The decision has also won the praise of other faiths, including former Ethnic Communities Council president Suresh Rajan.

Muslims pray five times around the day and night time

Rajan noted that the AFL season usually coincided with Ramadan when Muslims were required to pray five times a day.

He told The West Australian it was important to make Muslim youths feel like they were a ‘valuable part of the mainstream community’ if radicalization was to stop.

The decision to include prayer rooms in Perth Stadium followed commands from AFL that all football venues to have ‘a private, clean room’ in 2012 so sporting event attendees had an area to pay their respects.

Richmond Tigers player Bachar Houli, a Muslim himself, asked for the inclusion of these facilities.

Apart from the new stadium, Perth’s current main sporting venue, Domain Stadium, specified an office space as a prayer room for fans and a second room is used by players.

Acting Sports Minister Colin Holt said the interfaith prayer rooms were included in the new stadium’s design as the multicultural landscape of Western Australia was changing.

Muslims pray five times a day, with each prayer made of a series of postures and movements, each set of which is called a rak‘ah.

The five prayer times are divided all through the day which starts with Fajr prayer at dawn.