Cairns Muslims win fight for mosque

[Mikeyy]

A little news from a town in Australia where I used to live.

THE small but determined Muslim community in Cairns has finally won the right to build the city's first mosque after an eight-year battle against an at-times hostile community and claims the religion was trying to "spread its tentacles" to north Queensland.

Work is expected to begin on the mosque within weeks after the Planning and Environment Court dismissed the final group of objections, noting freedom of religion was part of the fabric of the Australian community.

"It is in the public interest that persons who choose that faith, just as those who choose any other faith, have access to a safe and reasonably comfortable place of gathering and worship," judge Keith Dodds said.

The court's decision comes after Camden council on Sydney's southwestern fringe blocked the building of an Islamic school on planning grounds after a backlash from locals.

Cairns imam Abdul Aziz Mohammed, a former cane farmer and Rotary stalwart whose father moved to the city from India in 1900, yesterday welcomed the decision. He said the ordeal to build the mosque had been the first time he had experienced racism in the 76 years he had lived in the region.
Cairns Muslims win fight for mosque | The Australian