Australians Object to New Islamic School

November 6, 2007

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Independent Online

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=nw20071106095214301C580442&set_id=

Hundreds of people have protested against the building of a new Islamic school on the outskirts of Australia's largest city, local officials said on Tuesday.

Around 1 000 people held a meeting late on Monday to object to the proposal by the Quranic Society to build the 1 200-place school in Camden, a satellite town southwest of Sydney.

Large parts of southern Sydney are now heavily populated by Middle Eastern migrants, many of them Iraqi Muslims, but opponents deny any anti-Muslim bias.

"Let the people decide," Emil Frenchevich, the organiser of Monday's meeting, told national radio.

Another protester, local lawmaker Pat Farmer, said: "It's more an issue of council consulting with the local people in their area to be able to have a say in what goes in their area."