Guess who's anti-Muslim in Canberra?

[wearestardust]

Iseeyouthere's thread of today reminded me of related matters in Canberra. A proposal to build a new mosque is, predictably, being opposed. Also predictably, the opposition has as an organiser a xian pastor who doesn't live anywhere near the site.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-...706-21n17.html

(highlights of article only)

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.

A biography for Mr Ross posted on the website of Canberra's Christian radio station 1WAYFM says he has ministered in churches in Australia, the Philippines and Russia and has ''a passion to teach and preach on the Hebrew roots of Christianity''.

Mr Ross hosts fortnightly Passover dinners for a group at the Canberra House of Prayer in Yarralumla.

Associates and acquaintances of Mr Ross in the Christian community said Mr Ross was known around Canberra's churches for his stridently pro-Israel views.

The Canberra Times attended Sunday's Concerned Citizens of Canberra meeting in Gungahlin, but was asked to leave after participants opposing the building of the mosque said media should not be present.
After the meeting, one of the participants made threats of physical violence to a Canberra Times photographer.

A detailed document by the group has since emerged that instructs Gungahlin residents on how to lodge objections to the proposed mosque plans.

The document asks the ACT government to take into account the long-term effect the mosque may have on social harmony, and states a mosque ''seeks to dominate the area in which it is placed''.

[rayne]

I would not be surprised if the opposition stated "This city isn't big enough for two religions".

[Aldaron]

You know, it's funny, but I can't remember - EVER - church groups opposing the construction of a new church on the principles of traffic congestion and noise pollution...

[Witticism]

The idiots dropped a flier in my letter box even though I have a no junk mail sticker on my letter box.