Councillor denies mosque motion

A CASEY councillor has denied a religion based motion he made to the council on Tuesday evening was motivated by a controversial mosque application in Doveton.
He said he raised the motion because he was concerned following anti-terrorist raids in the south-east.
Councillor Sam Aziz asked the council to invite The Reverend Doctor Mark Durie of the Anglican Church to a general purpose meeting to speak about the dangers of indoctrinated religious intolerance to the values, freedoms and stability of liberal and democratic societies.
He also asked that a representative from the Islamic community be invited to speak on the issue at a future meeting.
It replaced his original motion which asked Pastor Danny Nahlia of Catch the Fire Ministries to be invited to speak at a meeting.
All his colleagues except Cr Rosalie Crestani voted against the motion.
Mayor Amanda Stapledon questioned whether the council was an appropriate place to discuss religious matters.
Cr Wayne Smith said he believed a planning application sparked the motion – a claim Cr Aziz denied.
The City of Casey recently received an application for a mosque in Green Street, Doveton, by Achivision, which will be heard in early 2013.
But the application has already caused concerns with some local residents and leaders of Catch the Fire Ministries, who plan to build a new church in the same street.
The council has received 20 objections, three of which are petitions containing 117, 27 and 68 signatures.
Cr Smith said if the council passed Cr Aziz’s motion, it would be the biggest general purposes meeting in the council’s history and would attract national media attention.
“I don’t believe council is the appropriate forum for this.
“I would be more comfortable considering this motion once the planning application has been considered,” Cr Smith said.
“It’s not the role of this council. Timing is the issue; I don’t think it’s the right time.”
Cr Aziz told the News that it was only a coincidence that he moved the motion before the mosque planning application came to the council early next year.
He said what sparked his move was concerns after recent terrorist raids in Melbourne’s south-east and media reports showing a five-year-old holding a placard about murdering others.
In September a child held a poster stating “Behead all those who insult the Prophet” at violent Sydney protest against an anti-Islamic film.
Cr Aziz also said his move was also motivated by concerns from the community about inappropriate messages given at certain places of worship.
“The community wants to understand at what authority to religious clergy make those statements,” Cr Aziz said.
“The Reverend (Mark Durie) is renowned in comparative theology – he would be a great person to explain underlying issues.
“The whole process was independent of the planning application.”
Cr Aziz said he thought councillors had a right to explore issues regardless if they were seen as “politically incorrect”.
“As soon as you raise an issue about a minority, you get labelled as politically incorrect and try to get silenced,” Cr Aziz said.
“I think we should have a society which is democratic and without fear or ridicule – as long as we (discuss topics) that are in a respectful and non-threatening way where we can conduct dialogue in way which protects the dignity of the other party.”
“The fact that (Cr Stapledon and Cr Smith opposed the motion) proves my point that you can’t raise issues that deem to be politically incorrect in council.”