By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A PROPONENT of a mosque in Narre Warren North has been given a public rebuff from newly elected Casey councillor Sam Aziz on Facebook.
On his own Facebook page, Cr Aziz posted a knock back to a peace offering from Saarban Islamic Trust adviser James Randall, telling him he won’t “engage in discussion with hypocrites”.
“Your movement supported candidates that openly pushed a ‘Muslims versus the rest of us’ agenda in the (council election) campaign, where I was the main target,” Cr Aziz posted.
Cr Aziz noted Mr Randall’s participation in an Islamophobic Watch video titled Racism and the City of Casey last month.
“On the one hand you say that Casey Muslims have no intention of becoming foot-soldiers for the left, and yet you and others participated in a video again falsely claiming that Casey council’s decision on the mosque was racist,” Cr Aziz wrote.
“My dialogue will be with the leaders of the Islamic community… who won’t insult my intelligence by mounting vicious attacks against me during an election campaign, then come crawling when they are defeated so comprehensively.”
Mr Randall had earlier emailed Cr Aziz an invitation to jointly tackle “divisive hate speech” and “paint a brighter future for our city”.
Mr Randall wrote that Saarban wanted to “correct the mistakes that caused such harm to City of Casey”.
“This will require both sides to come to the table, especially my own side including members of Casey Against Racism.”
After congratulating Cr Aziz on his re-election, Mr Randall wrote that Casey was in need of “helpful dialogue” and “an end to the mudslinging that provoked the negative press”.
The majority of Casey Against Racism members wanted to excise themselves from a “leftist minority” trying to hijack the group, Mr Randall stated.
“It led to the cynical conclusion that they had the intention of sabotaging any hope for a mosque, in order to win them a foothold of support in Casey.”
In April, the trust’s proposed mosque at 365-367 Belgrave-Hallam Road was unanimously rejected by the council, led by then mayor Cr Aziz.
The decision was greeted with rancour, especially by Casey Against Racism, which includes Mr Randall as a member.
Saarban has recently told Star News that it intends to apply for a scaled-down mosque on the same site after November’s election.
Mr Randall told Star News that he would lodge a formal complaint to Casey against Cr Aziz for breaking a pledge of keeping their email correspondence confidential.
“I made the mistake of thinking Sam was a mature adult but I was wrong.”
Cr Aziz said Mr Randall’s complaint was silly because “email is public and open communication”.
“He had asked me for that confidentiality because he was apparently scared or something.”
Cr Aziz said that the council wouldn’t “punish people on account of their stupidity”.
“We will continue to apply the law equally and fairly to everybody.”
Re-elected councillor Rosalie Crestani more than doubled her primary vote on the back of strongly opposing the mosque in her Four Oaks Ward.
Cr Crestani agreed with Cr Aziz’s assertion that the community sent a “very strong message”.
“My gut feeling is my community is very concerned about having any structure there in that location.”
