From the Australian:
Nationalists to exploit Muslim row
Ean Higgins
December 24, 2007
RIGHT-WING nationalists hope to use opposition to a proposed Islamic school southwest of Sydney as a springboard into local government.
The Australia First organisation, run in NSW by Jim Saleam, has been advertising for members in the town of Camden, where the Quranic Society wants to build a college for 1200 Muslim students.
Mr Saleam yesterday said his organisation would hold public meetings in Camden to build opposition to the school. Australia First planned to run a candidate for Camden Council in September elections, he said.
Mr Saleam, who was jailed for 3 1/2 years in 1991 for possessing a firearm and organising a shotgun attack on the home of Eddie Funde, the African National Congress’s Australian representative, said the proposed school was an exercise in “culture busting”.
Describing Camden as an Anglo-Saxon community, he yesterday told The Australian the school would be the start of an unwelcome Muslim campaign to “smash up the homogeneity of the area”. Mr Saleam was involved in the 2005 Cronulla race riots, claiming his organisation had recruited 120 members for the mob demonstration.
The proposed Islamic school at Camden is becoming a state political issue. It has split one of the longest-established minor parties in the NSW upper house, Reverend Fred Nile’s Christian Democrats.
Mr Nile addressed a rowdy anti-school meeting in Camden last Wednesday, saying the proposal would force thousands of Muslims on to the mainly Christian semi-rural community.
But the only other member of the Christian Democrats to hold a seat in the NSW parliament, the Reverend Gordon Moyes, yesterday said Mr Nile had gone against a recent party state executive reaffirming no opposition to Islamic schools. He hinted he would try to persuade the state executive to sanction Mr Nile.
The school proposal is expected to come before Camden council early next year for planning approval.
Camden Mayor Chris Patterson yesterday expressed concern that the issue was becoming a drawcard for right-wing groups.
“What we don’t want is other organisations attempting to use this as a national issue or an immigration issue,” he said.
NSW police are understood to be worried about the prospect ofethnic violence, holding a confidential meeting with councillors and community leaders late last week.
Of about 3500 public submissions concerning the school, all but about 20 had opposed it, Mr Patterson said.
Premier Morris Iemma yesterday said he was “aware of the opposition” to the school but added that “some of the scenes from (the public meeting on Wednesday) were disturbing”.
Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell concurred with Mr Iemma in saying the proposed school should be assessed according to planning laws, and attacked Mr Nile for stirring up religious tension. “It’s as dumb as pigs’ heads on stakes,” Mr O’Farrell said of Mr Nile’s contribution, referring to a recent incident where anti-school activists placed such macabre objects at the proposed site.
Efforts to contact the Quranic Society were unsuccessful. But the legal representative for the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Haset Ali, yesterday said the school would fill a strong demand for Islamic education and serve as a moderating influence in the Muslim community.
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