Opponents of mosque get chance to clear air

By Alison Noonan
OBJECTORS to a proposal to build a mosque in Clyde will have the chance to voice their concerns to council.
Residents on Manks Road say an application by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association of Australia to develop a place of assembly on the rural road is completely inappropriate for the area.
They claim the land is protected by a Green Wedge Zone and fear a mosque would bring extra traffic, noise and disturbance to the country town.
Balla Balla Ward councillor Colin Butler said he agreed with their concerns, claiming a mosque was “out of character for the area”.
“It is too rural. The Green Wedge actually allows an applicant to build a place of worship so the applicants for this mosque purchased the land thinking that when the time came they would have no problem getting a permit,” he said.
Cr Butler said they did not expect the uproar the proposal had received from residents and requested the opportunity to state their case to council.
“Nobody is objecting because it’s a mosque but the land is so far out in a rural area. It’s just not worship land,” he said.
“The applicants are part of a minority group who were kicked out of Pakistan because they didn’t believe what the fundamentalist Muslims do.
“They wanted somewhere nice, quiet and rural to establish a second church because they didn’t want people in residential areas to object,” he said.
Cr Butler said residents would be given their say at a special presentation before the Planning Meeting on 11 October.