Anti-mosque flyer ‘unlikely’ to be in breach of discrimination laws

The ACT Human Rights Commissioner has found a flyer opposing a mosque development in Canberra’s north is unlikely to have breached the Discrimination Act.

The flyer was distributed by a group calling itself the Concerned Citizens of Canberra. It outlined a number of worries about a proposal for the mosque in Gungahlin including the social impact. The flyer raised doubts whether the mosque’s proponents would be good neighbours in the community.

ACT Multicultural Affairs Minister Joy Burch declared the Government supported the mosque and referred the flyer to ACT Human Rights Commissioner Helen Watchirs.

In a decision handed down today, Dr Watchirs found the flyer was concerned with religious issues rather than race and it was also unclear whether it breached vilification provisions. Dr Watchirs said a complainant might have more success in the federal jurisdiction where there was a lower threshold to establish racial hatred.

ABC News, 2 August 2012

See also “Mosque flyer ‘offensive’ but not racist: Commissioner”,Canberra Times, 2 August 2012

‘Australian Christians’ party campaigns against ‘Islamic people pushing their religion, their halal food, their culture, their sharia law’

Australian ChristiansChurch leaders have intervened to try to stop a new political party calling itself Australian Christians.

The party has already registered nationally and in two states and it is running a candidate in this week’s Victorian by-election for the seat of Melbourne.

The national director of Australian Christians, Ray Moran, says the party stands up for Christian values and hopes to put in a strong showing at the next federal election.

But the Victorian Council of Churches says it is astounded that the party has been allowed to register a name which implies that it represents an entire faith.

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Canberra: anti-mosque campaign uses video of speech by British Freedom leader

Members of Gungahlin’s evangelical community are distributing extremist material from overseas in their campaign against the construction of a mosque on The Valley Avenue.

A senior pastor at a Gungahlin evangelical church contacted The Canberra Times and supplied a video of far-right agitator Paul Weston, the chairman of the British Freedom Party. In the eight-minute video, Mr Weston says Islam was “worse than Nazism” and claimed Islamic influence in Britain would lead to civil war.

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Canberra: mosque proposal divides residents

Gungahlin mosque

ACT planners have been told that women in burqas will scare children in Gungahlin if Canberra’s Muslim community proceeds with plans to build a mosque in the area.

The ACT Planning and Land Authority has received more than 50 submissions in response to the proposed development on The Valley Avenue.

It follows a campaign by a group called the “Concerned Citizens of Canberra” that urged residents to object to the development because of its “social impact” and concerns about traffic and noise.

The Canberra Times revealed on Saturday that the group’s spokesman, Irwin Ross, is a Christian fundamentalist activist who describes himself as a pastor with Olive Tree Ministries.

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Canberra: key figure in anti-mosque campaign is Christian Zionist who lives miles away from site

A key figure in the opposition to the Gungahlin mosque is a Christian fundamentalist activist who lives at least 15 kilometres away from the proposed site.

The secretive participants in the campaign against the mosque have consistently told media and government that they are concerned with local planning issues including traffic and noise.

But The Canberra Times has established that the spokesman for the group “Concerned Citizens of Canberra” describes himself as a pastor with Olive Tree Ministries and hosts fortnightly meetings at a prayer house in Yarralumla.

Irwin Ross, a Higgins resident who lives a 20-minute drive from the proposed mosque site, hosted last Sunday’s closed meeting at Gungahlin Library, but it is unclear whether or not he organised the meeting. The meeting was held after the Concerned Citizens of Canberra distributed anonymous anti-mosque flyers to homes in the northern suburb.

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French Football Federation bans hijab despite green light from FIFA

FFF logoThe French Football Federation (FFF) said Friday that it would “not authorise players to wear a veil” while playing for France or in organised competitions, a day after world footballing authorities said the hijab could be worn on the pitch.

“Regarding the participation of female French national team players in international competitions on one hand, and the organisation of national competitions on the other, the French Football Federation reiterates its duty to respect the constitutional and legislative principles of secularism that prevails in our country and features in its statutes,” declared a statement from the FFF.

The FFF’s announcement came after a French MP had urged the government earlier on Friday to ban the Islamic headscarf for women soccer players.

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Canberra: ‘racist’ mosque pamphlet probed

The ACT government will refer a pamphlet opposing the construction of a mosque in Gungahlin to the Human Rights Commission for investigation amid concerns that the flyer was racially motivated.

The flyer was distributed to Gungahlin residents this week, urging them to oppose the development on The Valley Avenue because of its “social impact” and raising concerns about traffic and noise, “public interest” and size.

In a multi-party post-budget estimates hearing yesterday, Labor backbencher John Hargreaves said the pamphlet should be “condemned by the entire community of Canberra as a KKK attack on the Muslim community”.

The flyer, by an anonymous group called the Concerned Citizens of Canberra, asks recipients to attend a secret, closed-door meeting tomorrow about the development. The pamphlet says the address and time of the meeting will only be given to residents who register by email to attend.

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Swan Valley, Australia: mosque plan withdrawn after threats

Mosque in the Valley logoOverwhelming community opposition has crushed a woman’s dream to build a mosque in Henley Brook but not her desire to revive the project one day.

Mosque in the Valley Foundation director Maria Marasigan said negative and retaliatory comments directed toward the current owner of the property they had intended to purchase had made her question the approach to the project, and cease preliminary planning discussions with the City of Swan.

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Melbourne’s northern suburbs regarded as a hot spot for potential terrorists

Melbourne’s northern suburbs were regarded as a hot spot for potential home-grown terrorists, a Labor MP revealed yesterday.

Maria Vamvakinou, whose federal seat of Calwell includes suburbs with high populations of Muslims – such as Broadmeadows and Dallas – said the area had been under surveillance by national security agencies.

“My area, having such a high concentration of Australians of Muslim faith, was an area of interest to the federal police and to ASIO, especially immediately in the aftermath of September 11,” she said. “Most people who live in Broadmeadows, they might be of Muslim background, but they pretty much live ordinary lives.”

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Sydney Islamophobes confronted over ‘burqa’ stunt

Sydney burqa stunt

Ugly scenes erupted between a group of burqa-clad protesters and a Muslim man outside NSW State Parliament in Sydney today.

A group of men dressed in the veiled female garb as a publicity stunt to try and get the outfit banned. Members of the group Faceless ventured into a Sydney CBD courthouse, pub and bank without drawing much reaction, but faced a stronger backlash later outside parliament. “It’s got no place in Australia – it’s an affront to a civilised country like Australia,” Faceless member Nicholas Folkes said of the burqa.

Nine News filmed a man outraged by the protesters, shouting in their faces and pulling off their veils. “That’s what I think of you,” the man said after spitting on the ground. The argument became more heated when a man connected to Faceless referred to the prophet Mohammed as “a rat”.

9 News, 2 April 2012

Folkes (who lost his veil during the confrontation) is the Sydney organiser of the far-right Australian Protectionist Party. Another of the “burqa” demonstrators was APP supporter Sergio Redegalli, the man responsible for the notorious “Say No to Burqas“/”Say No to Fiona Byrne” mural.

See also 7 News, 2 April 2012