Going by the rantings of some of those opposed to the building of an Islamic school at Camden, on the outskirts of Sydney, it would seem many of the racist bogans who so enjoyed their day at the beach a couple of years ago, at Cronulla, have now taken up the country lifestyle.   There have been a number of protests about the college, which is currently being considered for planning approval by the local council.  This past week, a meeting attracted something like 900 people, of whom a couple of hundred couldn’t fit into the venue.

Some of the locals had this to say:

MALE PROTESTER: If it does get approved, every ragger that walks up the street’s going to get smashed up the arse by about 30 Aussies.
SECOND MALE PROTESTER: That’s it!
THIRD MALE PROTESTER: Country town, that’s our culture.
PROTESTER: What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, mate.

Country town culture?  By that I take it they look forward to getting pissed, doing burnouts down the main street, bashing a few aborigines, a spot of gay bashing perhaps,  maybe some sheep shagging?  Thats about what I’d expect judging from the rantings of some of the local lads.

And then we had this:

FEMALE PROTESTER: Oh no, it’s in a rural area that’s surrounded by farmland. It’s not an appropriate place for a school. There’s no development there that warrants a school.

OK, so there goes the likes of Yanco Agricultural College and other large schools in the country … near towns that aren’t big enough to support them.  I’m assuming that the anti-school people in the community also want the various Catholic, Anglican and any other religion based schools closed down in their town.  After all, surely its an objection to religious organisations indoctrinating kids thats driving the concerns.  Surely nothing to do with the brown skinned folk likely to send their children to the school and quite likely move into the Camden area themselves?

A couple of weeks ago, some brainiacs voiced their opposition to the school by impaling two pigs heads on stakes at the proposed site and draping them with an Australian flag.  One thing racist bogans do well is debate their points intelligently and coherently.

This week’s meeting was organised by a group called the Committee for Public Affairs Education, which Fred Nile’s Christian Democratic Party seems to be behind.  I haven’t heard much from Fred lately, and I suppose a bit of Muslim bashing is a change from his usual interests related to sex and morals.  Mr Nile was the keynote speaker at the meeting and  told the crowd he opposed the school because Islam opposed Christianity. Mr Nile and one of the meeting organisers, Colin Broadbridge, a CDP member who lives in Campbelltown, denied that the party had staged the meeting.  But the state MP Charlie Lynn, who was also invited to speak, said he had been approached two weeks ago by the CDP and asked to attend. He said Max Cracknell, a CDP Camden branch member, had been the main meeting organiser.  Mr Broadbridge said:

“We are a loose coalition of people; we are people who are prepared to go one step further rather than just carp about something.”

Sure, more like the local chapter of the KKK.

Now there are fears of further Cronulla-like riots over the issue.  Apparently the police are investigating a number of text messages being sent around which supposedly incite violence against moslems.  I guarantee that if anything does happen, we’ll get to see many of the racist bogan dickheads who were at Cronulla, back for round 2.

To those who don’t want the moslems in their community, sure there are some bad ones, but there are also plenty of bad white christians as well.  The vast majority of moslems are good people.

Finally, on a personal note, I went to school in Camden for a while, and my parents worked in the town.  It was a nice place back then.  I’d be disturbed to see that the town has actually turned into redneck bogan-ville.  I hope it isn’t and the views expressed by (admittedly a reasonable number at the protest meeting and at other times I’ve seen this issue covered in the media) some are not the views of the majority.  One challenge for the new Federal government is to wind back the unpleasant and offensive racism which gained a stronger foothold in Australian public life under the Howard government which actively courted racist sentiments, than had been noticeable prior to the last 6 years or so.   Things like Tampa and Cronulla do not paint Australia well in the eyes of the world, and the attitudes behind them need to be renounced and actively discouraged.