Two New South Wales Members of Parliament have called for the scrapping of a 1,200-student Islamic school in Sydney’s southwest.
Joining hundreds of residents outside the Camden Civic Centre, Upper house Christian Democrat MP Fred Nile and Liberal Party MP Charlie Lynn highlighted Islam’s opposition to Christianity, as a good enough reason to stop the building of the school.
Nile told ABC Radio after the meeting: “… all the Aussies that are celebrating carols by candlelight this week all over Australia, millions of Australians, are condemned by the Koran. And sincere Muslims are supposed to believe this book – the Koran is the word of God, the word of their god, Allah.” Lynn said only 100 Muslim families lived in Camden, and added, “This is an attempt by social engineers to inflict culture shock, if you like on Camden.”
See also ABC Online which reports that about 900 people attended the protest:
“There’s anger and frustration in Camden. And that was only compounded when the organisers of last night’s meeting underestimated the turnout, leaving more than 200 people locked outside. Among those shut out were young men sporting Australian flags. They vented their anger yelling,’Let us in Mohammed, you’re already dividing us up’ at the hired security guards, who happened to be of Middle Eastern appearance. Police promptly marched in and formed a line of protection across the front doors while police horses waited in the car park.”
One protestor is quoted as threatening: “If it does get approved, every ragger that walks up the street’s going to get smashed up the arse by about 30 Aussies.” Another local opposed to the protest said: “I’m actually all for the proposal of an Islamic school. I’m actually a regular church going Christian, and I just think that, you know, I do not believe that Jesus himself would be here…. And I just think that it’s really upsetting that, you know, people are motivated enough to come out here for no other reason than they seem to just be anti-Muslim and essentially racist.”
“A Halifax man with extreme Islamic beliefs has been jailed for four years. Rizwan Mahmood Ditta, 29, of Royd Terrace, Savile Park, supported the Taliban and the July 7 London bombings, a court heard. He admitted two offences under the Terrorism Act.
“The report is fundamentally flawed. Policy Exchange seeks to name and shame institutions, not on the basis of evidence, but purely on the basis of their religious denomination or organisational affiliation. Further, there is a distinct difference between those institutions where receipts were genuine – these were largely apolitical, literalist and ultra-conservative Salafist or Deobandi ones – and those where the receipts have come under suspicion: institutions that were pragmatic and tolerant in their interpretation of Islam but according to the report were connected to the MCB. In my view, the evidence was cherry-picked to create a pre-determined conclusion designed to support an extreme ideology at odds with our national interests.”