The totally expected decision to reject the application for an Islamic school seems to have drawn ignorant statements on one side and ridiculous statements on the other.
A few months from local government elections, such a decision allows the Qur’anic society to take its case above local politics. Had council granted them approval, the Fred Niles of this world would have been handed a free kick to campaign on an anti-Muslim platform, they would have been able to recruit many helpers from the couple of hundred residents opposing the development. If they do win seats on council, God forbid, Camden could be thrown into unprecedented stagnation. Council’s decision in the lead-up to an election is a decision that gives all sides a second chance.
The residents can reflect on this victory and the 51,000 plus silent residents who sat back and watched a couple of hundred of their own driven by ignorance and unreasonable fear may now feel a certain impetus to be heard and to ensure that the 200 do not do permanent damage to the image of Camden.
The silent majority of residents needs to ensure that this minority driven by ignorance does not hijack their town. I am certain that this majority would be feeling quite ashamed of comments like:
“We just don’t want Muslim people in Camden” or in “Australia” or comments suggesting that this would bring Hezbollah into Camden.
“My kids can’t read Islamic, how are they going to go to that school, it’s all crap,”
If the silent majority do not act, there will still be a chance for outsiders like the Christian Democrat’s Fred Nile or the Libs Charlie Lynn coming back to town and stoking ignorance in their efforts to influence the voting patterns of the Camden residents.
Of course the reaction of the Camden residents cannot in any way excuse ridiculous statements from some Muslims responding to the council decision; one ousted “leader” is quoted in the SMH suggesting that such a decision can lead to children being sent to backyard teachers who may be “very extreme”, another representative, this time of an “independent” Muslim “think-tank” fell into the trap of describing the decision as a “victory for racism”, a third went so far as to challenge the residents by telling them that change will come and they’d better come to terms with that.
As a Muslim, with all due respect to these so called leaders, I am just as concerned by their comments as the residents of Camden would be with the comments from their own extremists. While I am not labelling any of these leaders as extremists, I do understand why some Camden residents have asked for an apology.
For the silent majority of Camden residents, I apologise for what some fellow Muslims have said about your town, we should never generalise about you or stereotype you or broad-brush the entire town; we complain when it is done to us, we should never do it to you.
Stepping aside from the “them” and “us” of the two sides already quoted, I thought it good of Cardinal Pell to come out demanding a “fair go” for Muslims. It would be wonderful to see the other churches in Australia following suit.
The Gold Logie has to go to the president of the Anti-Discrimination Board, Mr. Stepan Kerkyasharian, he summed it all up beautifully:
“Regrettably, there are people in our society who will exploit opportunities like this to promote their agenda of distrust and of hatred.”
“my kid can’t read islamic” – says it all, really. You feel like asking if they can read christian. (well, not on Crikey anymore, didn’t he leave? (that was a tongue-in-cheek comment. (I feel bad about having to explain that. (I feel worse about nesting comments this deep)))
ITS ABOUT MUSLIMS ITS ABOUT RACE BIGOT BIGOT BIGOT
For F Sake! This the same as yesterday with no improvement. For a story on a development application that a council has decided not to approve there is little in this story about the decision.
Nah, just play the race card instead of journalism, heaps easier hey. No need to look at previous decisions involving other schools, the environmental and public transport concerns, and whether the council’s decision had merit.
All i have gleaned from Crikey is that there are some people in Camden racist against Muslims. Awesome work guys, keep it up.
Keyser Trad need not worry about me ‘coming back’ to Camden to ‘stoke ignorance’ on the decision to reject an Islamic school for 1200 students – in a town that has less than 100 Muslim families. I live in Camden, Keyser. I can understand why Camden residents might appear as a silent majority to you because you wouldn’t hear much from your home or office somewhere in metro Sydney. They aren’t a silent majority to me mate. I live with them, work with them, attend meetings with them, socialise with them, try and help them in whatever way I can – and I listen to them. I can assure you they are not silent on this issue. They were not silent when the Council called for submissions on the proposal – 3083 opposed it and just 23 supported it. It did not even get the support of the local Muslim community here in Camden! At the Council meeting the development was rejected by 9 votes to 0 by Councillors who are in touch with Camden residents on a daily basis. We refer to the process as ‘democracy’ Keyser. You can play your ‘reverse-racism’ card as often as you like – you can mock us and the democratic process as much as you want from the city side of the Nepean River, but we will defend our right to have a vote on important issues impacting on our local environment. Camden veterans have fought for that right in two World Wars and numerous other conflicts – it’s why our Diggers are in Afghanistan today.
Hello Keysar,
As a Camden resident and member of the Camden Residents Group that successfully fought the proposed Muslim school, I thought I’d offer some comments – as the Group has received a huge amount of imput on the issue, and have provided Council with extensive planning and development input on the issue.
Keysar, I think you’ve got it all wrong mate. You don’t know the views of Camden people – there is no silent majority here on your side, and when you don’t live here and make this claim it doesn’t reflect well on your credibility.
The development was very poor and the Quranic Society did not seek Council advice on the suitability for this site for a large school – they only sought Council advice after the land purchase, and were informed by Council that the site was unsuitable for their intent. Irregardless of this advice from Council, a building application was put in.
This school site was rejected previously by a State Government committee, who was seeking to re-locate old Camden High which was required to be relocated due to contamination found on the old school site.
Camden High was relocated some 1 kilometre further up the road on a site that was substantially larger, had no impairments to traffic visability and had adequate frontage for all vehicular movements, etc. etc.
This site was also not flood affected and was wholly above the Maximum Flood event line.
The Quranic’s site is flood affected in regards to the MFE line. The lower third of the site would be underwater if an MFE occured.
There is much more information that can be forwarded. But one post at a time.
This development was poor quality development we don’t allow in Camden.
We’ve knocked back McDonalds twice on planning grounds and there is no way that we will allow a religious minority to get preferential treatment on the development issues in Camden.
We can spot a bad development from a country mile away!
The proposal went through Council assessment and anyone who has read the Council Report would know what a bad development it was for that site. Only Camden residents have seen the plans of the large industrial sized school buildings on a prominent heritage locations. And anyone who coments on any aspects of this issue should first view the plans, the site and the relevant planning documents before offering any comment.
Its not some little 20 pupil school. This school has 66 classrooms and at 25 pupils per class can hold over 1600 pupils. With teacher and staff complement, close to 1800. Buildings up to 11 meters tall and a total length of 400 meters long. All buildings are well over maximum allowed height limits.
The Muslim lobby always said, it should be based on planning and development grounds and not on religion.
And now that Councillors have knocked back the proposal 9 : nil on planning and development grounds, the racists name calling from the Islamic side has intensified. Talk about bad losers.
It is un-Australian, when a proposal is knocked back by Council on planning and development grounds that the losers including the quranic Society’s Imam, Fouad El Chami, calls Australia a backward country and the Islamic lobby goes into histerics. I could not imagine the Catholic Church responding like this if they proposed this development and it would have been rightly knocked back as well.
By the way, internal Camden Catholic School, St. Pauls, also looked at this site, when it was up for sale and rejected it as unsuitable.
It looks like a case of an ameteur group taking advice from pro-development shonky group, being sold a site totally unsuitable for anything much more than grazing cattle or goats.
The site itself according to records had an old knackery on it, now demolished.
Councillors had no choice but to knock this back on planning and development grounds. The report against it was devistating. The 5 state Government Departments required to be consulted all rejected the site as unsuitable. Councillors had no other choice.
The upcoming Council elections had NO bearing on Councillors decisions. It had to be rejected Unanimously as I predicted on planning and development grounds.
There are no Muslims living in Camden township according to the 2006 census, with some 100 families living in the Local Govt. Area mainly on the fringes of Liverpool and Campbelltown. While this will change, there is no demand for a Muslim School in Camden by the Local community.
And just briefly on the schools proponents, the Quranic Society, Keysar. You were quoted as saying their religious stream, Tablighi Jamaat, were a disgrace for their actions in the Sefton Mosque with the Mosques Imam, saying they verged on extreme.and they made a court confirm death threat against the sitting Imam.
Mate. If you don’t want them where you live, we certainly don’t want them
Is this the same Keysar Trad who defends Hezbollah, says of Australia that “The criminal dregs of white society colonised this country and the descendants of these criminal dregs tell us that they are better than us.”
The man who supports the terror group “Nidal ul Islam” and claims Osama Bin Laden has been “misrepresented.” And then there are his lies following the comments made by his demented Sheik Al-Hilaly who said that if a woman is raped it is usually her own fault, Trad said that Hilaly was talking about adultery, not rape. A complete lie. The man’s many public statements show he is a Jew hater, a liar and an unapologetic misogynist. Keysar Trad should be the last man to preach tolerance to anyone. What next from Crikey? Bill Henson on raising children.