MP 'defending Australia' against Muslim school

[mr friendly guy]

So speaks a homophobic, bigoted wanker

MP 'defending Australia' against Muslim school

Christian Democrats MP Reverend Fred Nile says he is trying to protect Australia's future by opposing the construction of an Islamic school in Sydney's south-west.

The Quranic Society has lodged a $19 million development application for a 1,200-place school at Camden, sparking outrage among many locals.

More than 1,000 people flocked to a community meeting about the school in Camden on Wednesday night, with the riot police called in to control the large number present.

Rev Nile gave a speech about Islam's opposition to Christianity, telling the meeting some Muslim schools overseas had produced terrorists.

The state MP has today rejected criticism from Quranic Society spokesman Jeremy Bingham, who said yesterday "overzealous" Christians needed to remember the crusades were over.

"It's no good putting your head in the sand as they've done in the UK, France and Holland," Rev Nile said.

"Now they have massive social problems [and] I don't want to see those problems in Australia.

"They may not occur, they won't be occurring tomorrow, but they may.

"We may be discussing this on the ABC in 2010 [or] 2020, when people are throwing up their hands saying, 'How did we allow this situation to develop?'"

Christmas concerns

Rev Nile says he is concerned about the Islamic attitude towards Christmas.

"Let's celebrate Christmas and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, which is condemned in the Koran, which is a textbook of Muslim schools," he said.

"The textbook says anyone who serves Jesus Christ, the son of God, is a corrupt or perverted unbeliever, 'God assail them'. That's my concern."

Both Islamic and Christian groups say they do not support Rev Nile's comments.

The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils says his interpretation of the Koran and Christmas is completely wrong.

Council president Ikebal Patel says Jesus is a prophet of Islam, and Muslims in Australia do enjoy and celebrate the Christmas period.

"In Islam, Christmas is a time for relaxing with family, for exchanging gifts," he said.

"It's also a time when you really reflect on the past year and I think its a time when you take your children into the shopping mall and have Santa put them on their laps and you take photos."

Mr Patel has invited Rev Nile to have a coffee with him and learn more about Islam.

Uniting Church president Reverend Gregor Henderson meanwhile says Rev Nile is bordering on religious extremism.

"I think Fred is running the danger of inciting prejudice and distress in the community when there is no need for such fear," he said.

Camden Mayor Chris Patterson says the council expects to make a decision on the school by March next year.

Councillor Patterson says more than 3,000 public submissions have been received opposing the school, many covering concerns about traffic and potential overdevelopment of the site.

But he says a small amount voiced racial and religious opposition.

Christian Democrats MP Reverend Fred Nile says he is trying to protect Australia's future by opposing the construction of an Islamic school in Sydney's south-west.

I am shaking in my boots, clearly this school is a threat to our national security. Geez, why didn't ASIO and Federal police see this? Thank God we have the reverend Fred Nile to do our thinking for us.

Rev Nile gave a speech about Islam's opposition to Christianity, telling the meeting some Muslim schools overseas had produced terrorists.

Opposing Christianity is a bad thing? Since freedom of speech allows the "good" reverend to villify gays and lesbians, and *shock* Christians to villify Muslims and atheists, then it also allows Muslims to give Christianity the same treatment. If they don't like, too fucking bad.

"Now they have massive social problems [and] I don't want to see those problems in Australia.

"They may not occur, they won't be occurring tomorrow, but they may

Appeal to ignorance.

"Let's celebrate Christmas and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, which is condemned in the Koran, which is a textbook of Muslim schools," he said.

"The textbook says anyone who serves Jesus Christ, the son of God, is a corrupt or perverted unbeliever, 'God assail them'. That's my concern."

Let's celebrate that we allow equal rights to women, which is condemned in the Bible, which is a textbook of Christian schools.

The textbook says women should be treated as second class citizens, and that's my concern.

The hypocrisy is so thick its sickening. Obviously Nile doesn't grasp the concept off how people pick and choose parts of their holy book, except when he does it of course.

Councillor Patterson says more than 3,000 public submissions have been received opposing the school, many covering concerns about traffic and potential overdevelopment of the site.

But he says a small amount voiced racial and religious opposition

Since the majority "really" oppose it on public planning grounds (ignoring all those racist banners I see on the news), then the majority can also tell Fred Nile to fuck off, since he is opposing it on racial and religious grounds. I wouldn't hold my breath though.

[Hillary]

Is religious-nuttery that prevalent in Oz then? I'm surprised that an extremist like Fred Nile would get elected as an MP.

Personally, I would also be against this school being built, but purely on the grounds that religious schools, especially single-faith ones, are an appallingly bad idea.

[mr friendly guy]

Over all religious nuts aren't that prevalent, although I have observed they are making a come back.

While I dislike religious schools, I also accept they also have a right to set up one as long as what they do in it is legal. Now, there is a problem though, of teaching their religion to impressionable kids, which is another kettle of fish.

On another note, I am willing to bet these type of people re : bogans were the ones who complained about Italians and Greeks in the 1950s and 60s, complained about Asians in the 80s and 90s taking their jobs, and are now finding Muslims and Africans being the flavour of the month. I wonder what they will complain about next. I personally go for the apes. Its very fitting when bogans complain that trained apes are taking their jobs because they are too stupid to get higher education.

[dragon]

Rev Nile gave a speech about Islam's opposition to Christianity, telling the meeting some Muslim schools overseas had produced terrorists.

What and there aren't any Christain Terrorists? How many people have the Christian religion killed now. Abortion clinic bomers as an example.

[Ubiquitous]

Rev Nile gave a speech about Islam's opposition to Christianity, telling the meeting some Muslim schools overseas had produced terrorists.

What and there aren't any Christain Terrorists? How many people have the Christian religion killed now. Abortion clinic bomers as an example.

Are you denying that Islamic schools in certain parts of the world have not been breeding anti-Christian/Western sentiment over the past decade or so?

Or did you just randomly cut a quote from the article to mouth off on your own agenda?

My opinion is: fuck all religious schools, especially those with old school traditions that spend too much time indoctrinating and not enough time educating.

[Hillary]

Rev Nile gave a speech about Islam's opposition to Christianity, telling the meeting some Muslim schools overseas had produced terrorists.

What and there aren't any Christain Terrorists? How many people have the Christian religion killed now. Abortion clinic bomers as an example.

Are you denying that Islamic schools in certain parts of the world have not been breeding anti-Christian/Western sentiment over the past decade or so?

Or did you just randomly cut a quote from the article to mouth off on your own agenda?

My opinion is: fuck all religious schools, especially those with old school traditions that spend too much time indoctrinating and not enough time educating.

I don't think that's what he's saying at all - merely that it is not ONLY Muslim schools that produce terrorists.

[Lusankya]

For some reason I feel like actually addressing the points in the article.

MP 'defending Australia' against Muslim school

Christian Democrats MP Reverend Fred Nile says he is trying to protect Australia's future by opposing the construction of an Islamic school in Sydney's south-west.

Colour me unsurprised. 90% of the Christian dickery in this country comes from Qld and Sydney, with Family First being the big exception.

The Quranic Society has lodged a $19 million development application for a 1,200-place school at Camden, sparking outrage among many locals.

More than 1,000 people flocked to a community meeting about the school in Camden on Wednesday night, with the riot police called in to control the large number present.

Rev Nile gave a speech about Islam's opposition to Christianity, telling the meeting some Muslim schools overseas had produced terrorists.

And some Churches overseas have produced George W. Bush.

The state MP has today rejected criticism from Quranic Society spokesman Jeremy Bingham, who said yesterday "overzealous" Christians needed to remember the crusades were over.

"It's no good putting your head in the sand as they've done in the UK, France and Holland," Rev Nile said.

"Now they have massive social problems [and] I don't want to see those problems in Australia.

"They may not occur, they won't be occurring tomorrow, but they may.

"We may be discussing this on the ABC in 2010 [or] 2020, when people are throwing up their hands saying, 'How did we allow this situation to develop?'"

And here he is attributing the problems to the presence of Islam, as opposed to racial boundaries, social underclasses and poverty. No! It's clearly faith-based schools that have caused these problems!

Christmas concerns

Rev Nile says he is concerned about the Islamic attitude towards Christmas.

"Let's celebrate Christmas and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, which is condemned in the Koran, which is a textbook of Muslim schools," he said.

Why should he give a damn whether or not they celebrate Christmas? Hell, I wouldn't mind removing Christmas altogether and replacing it with Chinese New Year. More fireworks, just as much food, and if you're a kid, you're guaranteed a red envelope full of money, which is a hell of a lot better than the dodgy presents that I get from my Grandma. I guess she tries, but her presents really are crap.

"The textbook says anyone who serves Jesus Christ, the son of God, is a corrupt or perverted unbeliever, 'God assail them'. That's my concern."

And his textbook says the same about everyone who doesn't. That's my problem.

Both Islamic and Christian groups say they do not support Rev Nile's comments.

The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils says his interpretation of the Koran and Christmas is completely wrong.

Council president Ikebal Patel says Jesus is a prophet of Islam, and Muslims in Australia do enjoy and celebrate the Christmas period.

"In Islam, Christmas is a time for relaxing with family, for exchanging gifts," he said.

"It's also a time when you really reflect on the past year and I think its a time when you take your children into the shopping mall and have Santa put them on their laps and you take photos."

Maybe I'm being optimistic, but if people who can appreciate the true meaning of Christmas like this are running the school, then it can't be too radical.

Mr Patel has invited Rev Nile to have a coffee with him and learn more about Islam.

A good way to handle it, really. By reacting calmly, they make him look like more of a moron.

Uniting Church president Reverend Gregor Henderson meanwhile says Rev Nile is bordering on religious extremism.

"I think Fred is running the danger of inciting prejudice and distress in the community when there is no need for such fear," he said.

At least he's being criticised by the Christian church as well, whatever that's worth.

Councillor Patterson says more than 3,000 public submissions have been received opposing the school, many covering concerns about traffic and potential overdevelopment of the site.

But he says a small amount voiced racial and religious opposition.

I always interpret 90% of the "concerns" about traffic and overdevelopment as closet racism. Why? Because 90% of the time, these "concerns" turn out to be total bullshit. I bet they would have had a damn sight fewer complaints if someone was trying to build "The St Ignatius's Pentecostal Church of the Rapture" of something similar.

[weemadando]

I went to a Christian school. To say that they promoted religion would be ridiculous. We might have had a weekly chapel service, but it certainly wasn't fire and brimstone shit - especially with some of the chaplains we had.

Similarly we had "Personal Development" classes - which contained a pretty feature-packed sex education (starting grade 7), drug and alcohol education as well as a bit of religious studies (not just Christianity, but all major religions).

Within the religious studies it was frequently pointed out by the chaplains that the Bible is just a book. A set of stories which are probably not accurate, but are there as a history of the early days of the religion and set of parables and morality tales of a sort. When one of the fundie kids in my class (there were a few, but there alway are) raised questions like Creationism, even the school Chaplain laughed at them.

If only you could rely on all religious schools to be that well balanced.

To be honest - I'd say that the worst religious schools in Australia are some of the Christian ones. Like where they don't teach the children to read and write "until they are ready to understand" - whatever the fuck that means. But often they don't start learning to read and write until Grade 5 or 6. Which sickens me.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

Rev Nile gave a speech about Islam's opposition to Christianity, telling the meeting some Muslim schools overseas had produced terrorists.

What and there aren't any Christain Terrorists? How many people have the Christian religion killed now. Abortion clinic bomers as an example.

Are you denying that Islamic schools in certain parts of the world have not been breeding anti-Christian/Western sentiment over the past decade or so?

Or did you just randomly cut a quote from the article to mouth off on your own agenda?

My opinion is: fuck all religious schools, especially those with old school traditions that spend too much time indoctrinating and not enough time educating.

Um... what the hell are you accusing him of? His 'agenda' of pointing out that the MP is a fucking idiot?

[The Vortex Empire]

Here's a simple solution. Don't allow any religious schools to be built. Problem solved.

[Darth Wong]

Here's a simple solution. Don't allow any religious schools to be built. Problem solved.

You have to allow private schools, because the public school system cannot be assumed to be adequate for everyones' needs. Once you allow private schools, which are not funded by the government, it's kind of hard to outlaw the teaching of things you find offensive.

Banning religion from public schools makes sense; public schools are paid for with coerced taxes, so they're supposed to be faith-neutral, and the only way to be faith-neutral is to ignore faith entirely. But banning private religious schools goes a bit far. What I would like to see, however, is a ban on hate speech in private schools. But even that would never get passed, because too many religious people feel that their hatred of homosexuals (for example) is an important spiritual belief and should be protected by law.

[mr friendly guy]

update - and the situation is getting nastier with possible Cronulla style riots

Police fear Cronulla-style riots

December 23, 2007 - 9:01AM

There are fears a Cronulla-style riot may be brewing as tensions grow over plans to build an Islamic school in southwest Sydney.

Police are believed to be investigating a series of mobile phone text messages circulating Sydney, purportedly inciting violence.

"We have come together to call for calm after becoming aware of text messages being sent around targeting young Australian Muslims," Independent Centre of Research Australia Youth Centre president Fadi Abdul-Rahman told The Sunday Telegraph.

"Police have confirmed they are investigating.

"We are extremely concerned as this is exactly what happened with the Cronulla riots."

Mr Abdul-Rahman was joined by Uniting Church Minister Dr David Millikan in condemning the texts.

Dr Millikan launched an attack on Christian Democrats leader Fred Nile, whose comments in the past week may be seen as having added fuel to the fire.

Tensions escalated at Camden on Wednesday night at a public meeting to discuss the proposed 1,200 student Islamic school.

At the meeting Mr Nile spoke of Islam's opposition to Christianity and also claimed some Muslim schools overseas had produced terrorists.

Camden Council has received more than 300 submissions on the proposal and will make its decision on the development in March.

Early in November, 1000 residents protested against the school, with some saying it would damage the area's social fabric.

Later in November two pigs' heads were rammed on to metal stakes and an Australian flag draped between them on the site of the proposed school.

AAP

[Zablorg]

The basic fundies' approach towards Islam is summed up by our good friend VenomFangX;

Christians & Jewish martyrs say; "I will die for what I believe". A Muslim martyr says; "you will die for what I believe"....

I would just love to see this dispute settled in court. They wouldn't have a fucking leg to stand on.

[weemadando]

I'm fine with more "Cronulla" style riots.

Bigoted drunkards wearing the flag beating up people of the wrong ethnicity/creed (like targeting Hindu's who they assumed were Muslims).

That kind of riot just makes me sit back and feel happy that such morons can't even do violence right.