Monday, May 26, 2008

Resisting a Madrassa in Camden

Camden is a town of about 50,000 people in New South Wales that has recently stumbled into a spot of bother about Muslims and their planned Islamic school. Feelings about the school among local residents are running high: last fall two pigs’ heads with an Australian flag draped between them were left at the site of the proposed school.

According to the BBC:

Town moves against Islamic school

With its lace curtain bungalows and steepled Anglican church, the once tranquil town of Camden in New South Wales seems the most improbable of settings for a row that combines race and religion.

Proud of its rich history, the town promotes itself as “the birthplace of the nation’s wealth”, for it was here, in the early 19th Century, that the sheep and dairy industries first began to flourish.

Now the town, which lies on south-west fringes of Sydney, is confronting a very 21st Century issue: the proposal to construct an Islamic school for some 1,200 Muslim pupils.

Behind the proposal is the Sydney-based Quranic Society, which has purchased 15 acres of land on the fringes of town, and produced detailed plans and designs.

The Quranic Society (which, according to The Sydney Morning Herald, is also known as Dar Tahfez El-Quran) has left only a small footprint on the Internet. By trying various internet searches, the only mentions I can find — besides news stories and blog entries about the proposed school — are bare-bones directory listings like this one :
- - - - - - - - -
Name: Quranic Society
Category: Islamic Organisation
Phone: 97591616
Address: 42 Haldon Street, Lakemba, NSW 2195

In the USA, tracing the pedigree of an organization like this one usually reveals it to be a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate backed by Saudi money. Presumably the same holds true for many of the seemingly innocuous Muslim “charitable” organizations in Australia.

The residents of Camden are not giving in without a fight:

Camden council is currently deciding whether to grant planning permission and allow the controversial development to go ahead.

[…]

Back in November, more than 1,000 local people took part in a public meeting. Many participants expressed themselves with little regard for political correctness.

“This has to be one of the nicest places in New South Wales,” said one woman, who has lived in Camden for the past nine years.

“Everywhere is being destroyed. Why don’t we tell the truth. They’re wrecking Australia. They’re taking us over,” she said.

“Why hasn’t anyone got any guts? They’ve got terrorists amongst ‘em… They want to be here so they can go and hide in all the farm houses… This town has every nationality… but Muslims do not fit in this town. We are Aussies, OK.”

Some of the loudest cheers of the night greeted a speech from a local man in his late 70s.

“Can I just say this without being racist or political?” he said. “In 1983, in the streets of London a parade by Muslims chanted incessantly ‘If we can take London, we can take the world’. Don’t let them take Camden.”

And this is significant:

When the chair of the meeting invited anyone in favour of the development to speak up, no one stepped forward.

No local resident was willing to speak up in favor of the school. So where are its proponents? Evidently most of them are not residents of Camden:

Camden does not harbour a large Muslim community — census figures suggest about 150 families.

Most of the pupils at the proposed school would therefore be bussed in from Sydney, a journey that takes about an hour each way.

So one would expect there to be about 300 or so school-age Muslim children in Camden, yet the school’s pupils will number four times that many. Perhaps the strategy of shipping them from Sydney to a relative backwater is to draw less attention to what is going on.

The BBC is careful to note that the issue risks being co-opted by dangerous right-wing extremists:

Many locals fear that the campaign is being hijacked by right-wing, nationalist groups with their own agendas.

The Australia First organisation has been advertising for members in Camden, and says it plans to field a candidate in September’s local elections.

And, needless to say, Australia has its share of dhimmi multiculturalists ready to weigh in with the usual formulations:

One speaker implored the crowd to stick to planning issues, and not let the campaign be contaminated by racism or xenophobia.

For the time being, the racists and xenophobes in Camden seem to be winning. The Council will rule on the issue tomorrow.


Hat tips: Lugundum and Steen.

13 comments:

Findalis said...

If they give in to the Muslims the people of Camden lose. And it is an election year. So the politicians need to wonder if they should be PC or cater to the will of the people.

It will be interesting to see how they vote.

Zenster said...

So one would expect there to be about 300 or so school-age Muslim children in Camden, yet the school’s pupils will number four times that many.

Let's do the math: 300 x 4 = 1,200 pupils. We'll go with a moderate class size of 20 pupils. With six different classes per day that equates to some 10 classrooms. Now, add in the auditorium, administrative offices, gymasium, playing field and all the usual acouterments like a pool and HVAC and suddenly we're looking at a cool 20 MILLION to 30 MILLION dollars minimum. Oops! I forgot the on-site mosque, we'd better pump in another 5 MILLION for that little architectural jewel and now we're talking some serious moolah.

Where's it all coming from? And why?

Hell, a tiny little 1/10th acre playground near my house cost a whopping HALF MILLION DOLLARS to build. This Muslim boot camp, er ... madrassa is certainly going to spike through the $20,000,000 mark. What is the motivation for dumping so much money into some backwater location?

Like the Virginia and Tennessee enclaves, could it be a desire to escape scrutiny? Few other explanations present themselves. With so much money to throw around, land prices can't be that strong of an issue.

The BBC is careful to note that the issue risks being co-opted by dangerous right-wing extremists

Seeing as how the BBC makes Ken Livingstone and George Galloway look like "dangerous right-wing extremists", this really isn't saying much.

heroyalwhyness said...

Using information provided by Baron above, there appears to be some effort to either imply a muslim presence exists in that area, or to keep the public in the dark - intentionally.

Google the street address. There are two entries for "Rissalah College". Neither link gives you specifics but the second provides this instruction:
If you got this page, you might have requested an old page that has been removed, or your browser is accessing the old website. Best thing to do is to click here --> http://www.rissalah.nsw.edu.au (and once your there, click on and hold down CTRL button on your keyboard and while you are holding it, click on F5... this will REFRESH (or reload) the new website with the correct and updated links)-Thanks! Rissalah College web team.

Rissalah (aka a message) (bablefish translation from Dutch)

Hmmmmmm. Perhaps this is, as you say - the camel's nose under the tent syndrome - aka demographic/prostylization campaign.

Joanne said...

Why can't these Muslim children be educated in the public school sytem like everyone else and be taught Islam at home or in their mosques? It is bad enough they build their mosques.

It is ludicrious to allow Muslims to build schools funded by terrorist supporting countries. They seem to know the importance of brainwashing children from an early age before the children realize what they are being taught is evil.

I hope the Aussies put their feet down, and do not allow the building of the school, even if it means spreading a little pig manure about. Someone has got to start standing up for their own, in their own countries.

Nilk said...

Aus muslim take on this.

Also, Baron please check your email.

cheers

Frank said...

http://camden.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/reject-islamic-school-council-report-says/775511.aspx

Nilk said...

Here is the report recommending the rejection of the proposal.

It's a pdf, and long and involved, but worth a read.

There is a council meeting tonight to decide on whether they will accept it or reject it.

randian said...

.

Nilk said...

First things first, yay beauracracy!

The council unanimously rejected the proposed school.

Next round is the appeal.

heroyalwhyness said...

The link provided by scottsa offers a poll posting the following current results:
Q: Did Camden Council make the right decision to reject the proposed Islamic school?

Yes
(59%)
No
(25.6%)
We'll see after the court case
(15.4%)


There are also links to previous articles on this subject as well as open discussion which reveals a few bits of additional information.
This council takes it's responsibility very seriously, having objected to 3,042 of 3,083 applications submitted in 8 mos.
According to a comment by Bobby at 5:36:56, there are currently 150 muslim families residing in this community - but the request is for a school based on islamic studies which could accomodate 1200 students.

A comment by Tim T at 2:56:39 discloses that the Campletown community has a significant muslim population and would likely bus students from there, or the Oaks, Oakdale and Picton communities - each over 15 minutes or more driving distance.

Putting this in perspective, according to a comment placed by Nomes 6:44:38, the entire Camden Township is home to only 1500 people.

I applaud the Camden Council for their unified and professional approach to this application.

Profitsbeard said...

Because Islam is an anti-Universal Declaration of Human Rights imperialistic ideology promoting a global, theocratic tyranny, this fact should have precluded allowing any of its adherents into any country that respects basic human rights.

Once you permit the influx of such de facto Mohammedan invaders and colonizers, you have already halfway lost the battle.

Bargaining with them over small details like these "schools" (indoctrination centers for Islamic imperialism and intolerance) merely permits the Muslim believers to work toward their ultimate goal -of dominance and rule- by stealthier means.

By failing to know their enemy (by reading the Koran), the leadership in the West has given Mohammadism carte blanche to form Fifth Columns everywhere, under the guise of "mosques" and "religious schools".

Darrin Hodges said...

I actually got to have a say on this issue on national tv, see Have a look at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/video.htm

scroll down to the Camden school segment.

Findalis said...

What I saw on that clip was a bunch of Dhimmis praising Multiculturalism and condemning Australian culture.

As I have said many times:

Islam is not a race, it is a religion.
You can change your religion, people do it all the time.
You cannot change your race.
If I could change my race, G-d knows that I would stop being Human and become Klingon in a heartbeat!

Until the Dhimmis learn that, there is no hope for them, or for the world at large.

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