Some thoughts on the shameful collusion between cowardly politicians, the craven media and mortgage belt bigots to stop the building of a Muslim school at Camden on the outskirts of Sydney.
In 1867, a mentally deranged man named O’Farrell fired a shot at the Duke of Edinburgh during a royal visit to Sydney. The assassination attempt caused a wave of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic bigotry across the 80-year-old British penal colony.
In his book, Life and Progress in Australasia, published in 1898, British MP Michael Davitt wrote:
No class or race deplored the act more than the Irish citizens, to whom O’Farrell’s name linked him in racial association. But their indignation, outspoken and sincere as it admittedly was, availed them nothing.
They were assailed in the most cowardly manner by the anti-Irish and anti-Catholic press, and (Sir Henry) Parkes was the chief accusing voice in openly charging plots and conspiracies, in line with O’Farrell’s act, against the Catholic people of Australia.
Parkes revelled in this wave of bigotry, and rode upon it in a tempest of disgraceful popularity. Irish workers were dismissed from workshops, Irish girls discharged from domestic service, and a reign of political and party terror swept the country.
Parkes paid for a spy to be placed in O’Farrell’s cell to take down further alarmist ravings from the condemned man. “On the strength of these concocted tales of plots to murder the Royal Family and others, he (Parkes) and a renegade Irish Catholic succeeded in passing a treason-felony bill for NSW, which, among other provisions, proposed to imprison anyone who should refuse to drink the Queen’s health!”
Any similarities with the lynch mob politics at Camden overnight are simply a matter of history.
So where is Premier and Minister for Citizenship Morris Iemma, MP for Lakemba which has one of the highest number of Muslim residents in NSW?
Where is Planning Minister Frank Sartor, another high achiever from a migrant Italian family? Will he use his powers to declare the school of “state significance” and approve it as he has done with so many other controversial developments?
What of Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, who has benefited from huge federal and state hand-outs to fund Catholic schools and the World Youth Day? Perhaps some spiritual guidance?
And what of The Great Mandarin-speaking Helmsman Himself, Kevin Rudd, or is he too busy with an art-burning project flowing from his 2020 summit?
Oh, and by the way, we know where the Rev Fred Nile is: the upper house MP and leader of the Christian Democrats is leading a campaign to stop new Muslim schools in Sydney and for a 10-year ban on all Muslim immigration.
However, he recently welcomed messianic Israeli Eliyahu Ben Haim to parliament house to showcase the DVD Praying through the land which “assists Christians throughout the world to become aware of the specific prayer needs of the Messianic community in Israel”.
In one sense, last night’s unanimous council vote, accompanied by the delirious cheers of the local burghers, confirms Camden’s place in the nation’s European history. In 1803, sheep entrepreneur John Macarthur was given 5,000 acres to raise sheep there, resulting in the dispossession of the Aborigines and their eventually wiping out.
In recent years, Lady (Mary) Fairfax won approval to rezone her late husband’s sweeping estate at Camden’s Harrington Park and turn it into residential homes for hundreds of settlers from the crowded city. It was a nice deal: she is reputed to have made several hundred million dollars.
Today’s commercial radio talkback was crackling with the “good news” that Camden had been “saved”. Nice to know that after an uplifting interlude when John Howard was turfed out of office, the nation is back on track, and the Labor Party is ruling from east coast to west coast and from north to south.
The hatred and viciousness and irrational statements spewing from people interviewed by various media outlets in this matter should make every Australian hang their head. I was horrified that such hatred was unmasked in people who would think of themselves as ordinary Australians. The wearing of the Australian flag does not make a patriot!!!
In an article critical of a council development decision there is no critical discourse on the council’s decision.
Are we becoming medieval again? Are we sliding back into some dark age? We must not allow the creation of enclaves/ghettos and generational reinforcement by religious schooling (child abuse). Do we want to be Londonistan? Tear down or deny permission to any school that does not offer exposure to other Truths.
Not to ruin the diatribe but one may want to check their facts before working oneself up into a lather.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23772006-5001028,00.html
..though of course such action would require a caveat: ‘May impinge upon one’s intended dramatic impact and validity of argument’
😉
What a crock. Camden has a long history of fighting off inappropriate developments (McDonald’s was recently driven away a second time). Why should the planning bar be lowered because of the religion of the school’s proponents? There’d be an outcry if an Anglican or secular school with similarly disgraceful environmental credentials was allowed to slip past regulations due to pressure from special interest lobbies.
As Waleed Aly commented this week, most people in Camden (as the rest of the Sydney) are tolerant and indifferent to the religious background of the school, with minority pockets of prejudice being sought out by the cameras. Last I checked the loud woman with the Akubra wasn’t the Mayor of Camden, or any sort of representative of the community.
I expected Crikey to be a little warier of the mainstream media taking the Cronulla Part II racist angle. Serious development concerns aren’t sexy enough to sell papers.