Anti-racists fight to defend Narre Warren mosque

A new battle over freedom of worship is brewing in Melbourne’s south-east. A planning application submitted by a local Muslim community for a permit to build a mosque and, later, a school has met organised racist opposition.

The proposed site is in Narre Warren North, a semi-rural suburb at the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges. Adjacent to rapidly growing outer suburbs, Narre Warren North is part of the city of Casey, one of the fastest growing municipal councils in Victoria.

The project, Melbourne Masjid, will provide a cultural and social community hub with plans to include sporting facilities, space for community functions, a library and a leisure centre for seniors. Zain Shah, president of the Saarban Islamic Trust, the group applying for the permit, is dismayed at the opposition to the mosque.

“We really didn’t expect such a reaction”, he told Red Flag. The mosque is needed for Urdu-speaking Muslims primarily from Indian and Pakistani backgrounds, for whom there is no mosque with services conducted in their language. “Current mosques cannot cater for Casey’s 13,900 Muslims”, said Zain. “Many have to use community rooms and private houses.”

It’s little wonder that the far right is getting a hearing when its hate speech is barely distinguishable from that found in the mainstream media.

Local racist opposition was quickly identified, fanned and organised by far right racists such as the Christian fundamentalist Rise Up Australia Party, as well as the United Patriots Front, which is the fascist core of Australia’s far right movement. A meeting in a community hall was attended by at least 600 people on 14 March, many of whom were from outside the area, including from Bendigo, where racists have waged a concerted campaign against a mosque over the past year.

A Facebook hate-page has attracted nearly 10,000 likes. The page explicitly calls for local residents to submit formal objections to council. It is replete with a full list of potential objection grounds and an access link to the objection form. The council has received 780 so far. These objections have been overwhelmingly generated by the racist hate campaign.

One Facebook post is a vile rendition of the Old MacDonald nursery rhyme, featuring terrorists, burqas, female genital mutilation and Muslims here, there and everywhere. As for post comments, everyone is a lay expert on Islam, convinced that mosques are Trojan horses for various dastardly forms of social, cultural and political subterfuge; places where children are taught to hate all non-Muslims; vehicles of “jihad by stealth”.

Old articles about mosque applications are posted to give the sense that mosques are going up “everywhere”. The truth is that there is a significant shortage of mosques in Australia. Kevin Dunn, professor of human geography and human studies at the University of Western Sydney, has calculated that in Sydney there is a church for every 1,600 Christians, yet only one mosque for every 4,500 Muslims.

The racists also prey on insecurities in adjacent suburbs that have higher unemployment and lower incomes than Narre Warren North. They claim that more Muslims mean falling house values, a timeless appeal to struggling mortgage holders. Aside from the inherent racism in this argument, the proposed mosque site is in a green wedge zone, specifically set aside for non-residential infrastructure such as schools and places of worship.

It’s little wonder that the far right is getting a hearing when its hate speech is barely distinguishable from that found in the mainstream media. On 5 April, channel Nine’s A Current Affair aired a segment titled “Mega mosque”, set to sinister music, in which the inevitable “terrorism breeding ground” connection was made.

Reporters used terms like “huge”, “giant” and “super-sized” eight times in a six-minute segment. Narre Warren North was described as a “quiet Aussie suburb”, code for “white”. This is despite the fact that 120 different nationalities are represented in the municipality. An owner of an adjoining property claimed the mosque will be “frightening to the people of the area”. There being no such thing as a phobia of “looking at buildings”; we know that the correct term is Islamophobia.

This case is part of a worrying trend. The Newcastle Muslim Association is currently jumping through hoops to get a mosque application through council, now “softening” its design by removing the minaret and domes from plans and including more trees, essentially to hide the mosque. Imagine if this were a requirement to build a church! It is a racist disgrace.

Local anti-racists and activists from Campaign Against Racism and Fascism recently met with mosque applicants to launch a campaign to defend this Muslim community’s right to build a place of worship. Stephanie Saunders, president of local group Casey Multi-Faith Network, attended.

“I’m here to work towards peace in our community”, she said. “I believe racism is a dangerous weapon used against a lot of groups of people.” We’re gearing up for a fight!