It's not racism, we just don't want foreigners.

[weemadando]

Racism 'not behind Islamic school knock-back'
[img=left]http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200805/r254545_1050871.jpg[/img]
'We don't want Muslims here': Resident Kate McCulloch (ABC TV)

A south-west Sydney council has denied suggestions religious intolerance was behind its rejection of a controversial plan to build an Islamic school.

About 200 residents cheered and applauded last night, when the Camden Council voted unanimously against the Quranic Society's development application for a 1,200-student Islamic school on farmland in the town's outskirts.

The proposal had divided the community and sparked fierce opposition from locals. Some protesters left pigs heads draped in the Australian flag at the site last year.

There were fiery meetings opposing the school. Many people lined up again for the council meeting last night and residents packed the chambers.

The council agreed with a report by council planners that suggested the proposal be rejected because of its effect on the environment and traffic flows.

Outside the meeting, some residents expressed relief there would not be an influx of Muslims in the area, including a woman wearing an akubra hat decorated with Australian flags.

"We just don't want Muslim people in Camden," she said.

"We don't want them not only here, we don't want them in Australia. They're an oppressive society, they're a dictatorship."

Another resident said: "It's not for racist [reasons], just all the crime and stuff that other foreign people bring into the town."

The arguments do not wash with the president of the New South Wales Islamic Council, Ali Roude.

"We have seen a history of reaction from local residents against the establishment of places of worship and schools, so it was not a surprise..." he said

"It does not help the image of Australia because we take pride as Australians, as a country that has succeeded and we've set an example to the whole world that we can all live together.

"But that section of the community - I think they have to come to terms with the reality that sooner or later there will be a change."

Mr Roude says the Quranic Society's development application fulfilled all the necessary requirements.

He says the council has made up an excuse to reject the plan and appease angry locals.

'No choice but rejection'

But Mayor Chris Patterson says cultural issues were not a consideration.

"Camden Council has not made this issue on religion or multiculturalism. It's made it in relation to planning," he said.

"There were a number of issues from traffic through to contamination through to the Department of Primary Industries through to RTA [Roads and Traffic Association] through to the police - a number of issues that meant that clearly this site would not accommodate a school of any denomination for 1,200 students and 120 staff."

A spokesman for the Camden McArthur Residents' Group, Emil Tremshevich, says the council had no choice but to reject the plan.

"We read the report," he said. "It was a comprehensive report which knocked it back on all the nine relevant points as outlined by the application. It's fantastic."

The head of the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board, Stepan Kerkyasharian, says the decision should not be misinterpreted as a victory for prejudice.

"Regrettably, there are people in our society who will exploit opportunities like this to promote their agenda of distrust and of hatred," he said.

"I'm pretty sure the rest of Australia will reject those feelings."

The Quranic Society can resubmit an adjusted application or take matter to the Land and Environment Court.

No supporters of the school addressed yesterday's meeting.

It's shit like that which makes me ashamed to be Australian.

[Zac Naloen]

What is the American South to the Common Wealth?

[DPDarkPrimus]

Isn't all of Australia that isn't urbanized just a big desert, like Texas?

[Resinence]

Isn't all of Australia that isn't urbanized just a big desert, like Texas?

There is a decent amount of open scrubland and bushland away from the urban centers, even rainforests! (silly foreigners ), but yeah, mostly desert. With the kind of people you would typically expect to find in the middle of nowhere. Maybe a little less religious than american hicks, but just as obnoxious and insular.

It really annoys me that they blocked this school simply because it's "dem der muslums", but it just reinforces the fact that they are insular redneck retards (not all of them, most).

[The Grim Squeaker]

"There were a number of issues from traffic through to contamination through to the Department of Primary Industries through to RTA [Roads and Traffic Association] through to the police - a number of issues that meant that clearly this site would not accommodate a school of any denomination for 1,200 students and 120 staff."

The radio also said that most of the students would need to be bought over from the main cities, over an hour's drive away. Why not build the school there, instead of in the middle of nowhere? (Well, middle of Australia )

[weemadando]

Isn't all of Australia that isn't urbanized just a big desert, like Texas?

There is a decent amount of open scrubland and bushland away from the urban centers, even rainforests! (silly foreigners :P), but yeah, mostly desert. With the kind of people you would typically expect to find in the middle of nowhere. Maybe a little less religious than american hicks, but just as obnoxious and insular.

It really annoys me that they blocked this school simply because it's "dem der muslums", but it just reinforces the fact that they are insular redneck retards (not all of them, most).

The quality of people who the TV reports showed at the meeting was fairly telling. Lots of mullets and flannelette.

[thejester]

Isn't all of Australia that isn't urbanized just a big desert, like Texas?

No.

'Desert' is a relative term, even in those browny-green patches there are huge cattle stations - but the quality of the land is obviously pretty poor.

With the kind of people you would typically expect to find in the middle of nowhere. Maybe a little less religious than american hicks, but just as obnoxious and insular.

A school gets blocked in Australia's largest city but it's the country people who are racists.

[Resinence]

Of all the people, you call ME out for defending australians as not racist? Are you fucking kidding me? I hate most of my own countrymen because of racist bullshit. Go find someone else to annoy fuckhead.

[Resinence]

And before I get dogpiled, Camden is 60 kilometers southwest of sydney, so yeah, it's bumfuck nowhere.

[thejester]

Of all the people, you call ME out for defending australians as not racist? Are you fucking kidding me? I hate most of my own countrymen because of racist bullshit. Go find someone else to annoy fuckhead.

No you fuckwit, I was calling you out for making some absurd sweeping generalization that all country people were racist, obnoxious and insular.

And before I get dogpiled, Camden is 60 kilometers southwest of sydney, so yeah, it's bumfuck nowhere.

Melbourne's outermost suburbs would be over ~60 km, they're certainly not 'bumfuck nowhere' compared to the town I grew up in - and even then, that's little more than an hour away from Melbourne's CBD and has luxuries such as ADSL. You want bumfuck try somehwere like Hamilton - just the casual four hour drive from Melbourne. And even then I found the people considerably less obnoxious then you.

[wautd]

Bigots see, bigots do

[Gandalf]

And before I get dogpiled, Camden is 60 kilometers southwest of sydney, so yeah, it's bumfuck nowhere.

Camden is sixty kilometres from the CBD of Sydney. Penrith is fifty kilometres away. Campbelltown is fifty five kilometres away. This is why we have all of those big motorways.

Also, do you really think a 1200 student Muslim school is going to open anywhere that could be considered Bumfuck, New South Wales?

[Mayabird]

even rainforests!

And IIRC, Australians are doing the damnedest to chop down those rain forests as we speak. It's almost like they're racing the other countries to be the first to wipe them out.

[Chris OFarrell]

Camden is Bogen country (aka Australian rednecks). The further west you go from Sydney, the more of them you get. Xenophobia doesn't quite begin to describe a lot of these people.

Of course, there is a lot of Islamic discrimination through the planning processes anyway. I recall recently some groups have tried to build schools in urban Sydney, but they failed to get planning permission mostly because of community snarling (said to be traffic problems, access issues, whatever is convenient).

Now I also think putting a school for 1300 people in the middle of nowhere where the students will have to take a verrry long trip every day IS not easily justified. And as with most Islamic schools these days, I'd love to have a VERY close look at what they plan to teach. Something akin to a Catholic school replacing Catholicism with Islam, thats all good, well as good as ANY Religious school can be. Something more...fundie on the other hand...

Of course, its still pure racism on the part of the Bogens out there. I think they really think they have been 'pushed out' of Sydney by the nasty 'arrabssss', insert 'line must be drawn HERE' speech. I mean these nutjobs dumped pigs heads with Aussie flags all over the proposed site!

[thejester]

even rainforests!

And IIRC, Australians are doing the damnedest to chop down those rain forests as we speak. It's almost like they're racing the other countries to be the first to wipe them out.

What?

[Resinence]

And IIRC, Australians are doing the damnedest to chop down those rain forests as we speak. It's almost like they're racing the other countries to be the first to wipe them out.

What?

Something like 14,000 hectares of forest is logged in tasmania per year, and it's not much better elsewhere in Aus. Apparently it's less than it used to be but it's pretty terrible. The amount of protected forestry is also completely laughable, and the farming methods used on the cleared land are of questionable value, and now have led to serious salinity issues.

[thejester]

And IIRC, Australians are doing the damnedest to chop down those rain forests as we speak. It's almost like they're racing the other countries to be the first to wipe them out.

What?

Something like 14,000 hectares of forest is logged in tasmania per year, and it's not much better elsewhere in Aus. Apparently it's less than it used to be but it's pretty terrible. The amount of protected forestry is also completely laughable, and the farming methods used on the cleared land are of questionable value, and now have led to serious salinity issues.

I would be willing to bet large amounts of money that fire would destroy far, far more forest each year than is logged - for a random figure, in the 2006 Grampians fires 90,000+ hectares was destroyed by fire, in a year that also saw significant burns in the Victorian Alps and the Brisbane Ranges, and that's just in Victoria. Whilst the logging of old growth forests (particularly in Tasmania) sadly continues due to political concessions, to suggest we're in a race with other countries to wipe them out is a bit...extreme.

[hongi]

Some protesters left pigs heads draped in the Australian flag at the site last year.

Talk about a f-ing disgrace on two fronts - the racism, and the fact that they disrespect the flag by pegging two pig heads to it. Not to mention making a mockery of what the flag stands for.

The Quranic Society can resubmit an adjusted application or take matter to the Land and Environment Court.

I urge them to resubmit an application. Build it on another site and watch the whole clusterfuck begin again. The racists among the Camden populace won't be able to hide behind environmental concerns if the Muslims submit a proper application.

[cosmicalstorm]

Im against all forms of religious schools, I dont see the need for them.

[Alyrium Denryle]

What?

Something like 14,000 hectares of forest is logged in tasmania per year, and it's not much better elsewhere in Aus. Apparently it's less than it used to be but it's pretty terrible. The amount of protected forestry is also completely laughable, and the farming methods used on the cleared land are of questionable value, and now have led to serious salinity issues.

I would be willing to bet large amounts of money that fire would destroy far, far more forest each year than is logged - for a random figure, in the 2006 Grampians fires 90,000+ hectares was destroyed by fire, in a year that also saw significant burns in the Victorian Alps and the Brisbane Ranges, and that's just in Victoria. Whilst the logging of old growth forests (particularly in Tasmania) sadly continues due to political concessions, to suggest we're in a race with other countries to wipe them out is a bit...extreme.

No. You are just an idiot. Fire is a natural process that does not actually destroy forest. It recycles it, re-enriching the soil and promoting the long-term health of the forest. Of course the fire policy has been shit across the western world for some time, so the fires are larger than they should be, but still, the only way to reset the clock so to speak is with fire.

WHen you clearcut the forest for farmland or logging, you take out the trees which sequester soil nutrients without putting it back in. You strip mine more than just the trees. If you use it for farmland, the land then gets raped by your agricultural methods to the point that the soil has to be artificially injected with nutrients (like fixed nitrogen) in order for so much as agricultural pests to survive. ANd then, when the farm is abandoned, succession has to happen, but the plants have to find a way to grow on depleated soil.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Im against all forms of religious schools, I dont see the need for them.

I am against them being publically funded. But just because you dont see the need for them does not mean that others do not. If people want to pour their money into mystic bullshit, that is fine, makes my offspring (or rather the offspring of my brother and sister as I myself have a fitness of zero) more competitive in the long run.

[Kanastrous]

"Muslim" isn't a race, it's a faith.

I try very hard not to allow my thinking to be colored by people's, well, color, but someone voluntarily embracing some backwards-ass mystical nonsense, which is certainly more of a force for oppression than a force against it, has made a choice - while of course no one chooses their race.

If the argument is that it's racist because a larger proportion of Muslims probably aren't the of the same descent as most Australian Christians, then I'd like to see how Christians of that descent are treated, before thinking in terms of 'racism.'

[hongi]

Perhaps the more accurate word would be xenophobic.

[Battlehymn Republic]

To be honest, we always hear about xenophobia in the U.S. and the U.K. and the white commonwealths- Canada and Australia and so forth- but are the rest of the Euros so enlightened? Xenophobes won big in Switzerland and Italy recently, after all. And I hear they're on the rise in the Netherlands and elsewhere.

[His Divine Shadow]

Nope. Xenophobia is everywhere, Finland has strict as fuck immigration laws and people like that most of the part. Sweden is facing a new anti-immigrant party thats grown alot lately(think of them as social democrats from the 1950s). France has it's riots and ghettoes (same thing in sweden, entire suburbs are just ghettoes filled with immigrants nowadays, they had their own version of white flight in the 70s and 80s). Pretty much every euro country has similar situations.