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1. As a Catholic of quite advanced years I can remember discrimination, abuse, categorisation (you can't be a good Australian with an Italian Pope) and so I sympathise with the Moslem application for their school. In my school days we - Catholic children - were isolated within our local communities. It's up to the Moslems - work to integrate within your communities, set out to "become good Australians", control your young people, and it will come good - in time. It took us years.

   Posted By: gloria healey

2. "Not fitting into the rural landscape." What a load of intolerant rubbish. It wont be long before the area is rezoned to accommodate the expanding Sydney South West and there will be no "rural landscape". I hope that the Mussies hang on to the property and make a bundle on its resale.

   Posted By: Peter Harrigan

3. This is good news. The march of Islam must be stopped somewhere. As for the lefty-trendies who will write in their support - beware, your tolerance will only result in giving power to the most intolerant of all religions in the world.

   Posted By: Michael Bernard

4. We are not a Christian country,
   if we were, we won't allow such bigotry to be put on such horrible display.
   I'm just glad that my Catholic church is not a signatory to that horrible letter; but not speaking out against the bigotry of the other churches is perhaps implicitly in some ways to condone their actions. Yuck.

   Posted By: TJ Lawson

5. I have lived in the Middle East and I am definitely against having an Islamic School in a beautiful little country town like Camden where my husband grew up many years ago when the Churches were shared for different Christian denominations. I am certain this would never be allowed in the Middle East as they think they are the only true religion and the rest of us are infidels and will never see the Kindom of Heaven. This is not the way of our teachings and I certainly do not want our Australian children to be thought of that way.
   How can we trust that they will teach their children our Australian values of life?
   I was not born in Australia but this is the greatest place on earth so why spoil it?

   Posted By: Georgina Poulus

6. We can't stop them from building a school purely on religious grounds. They have every right to educate their kids in a muslim school just as I have every right to educate mine in a Catholic school. We should not be bigots and we certainly shouldn't discriminate against others based on their religions. Let us follow the true teaching of the church when it comes to such issues

   Posted By: charbel

7. The issue here is, like Bass Hill - which was sham and shamefully approved by the same Court - should the law allow people to buy land that is specifically not zoned for schools and then have it rezoned when planning laws specifically dictate otherwise.
   
   At Bass Hill, a third party bought it for residential development (to avoid State Govt policy of not privatising State School land for use by private schools) and then just as quickly on-sold it to another Muslim School.
   
   All you people prepared to let this statutory abuse of process to continue should read up a bit more than on leftwing news reports.
   
   By the way, any Catholic worship and school sites been approved in Indonesia lately?

   Posted By: James Knight

8. Has some one got a problem with reading English? The school was knocked back in the NSW Land and Environment court on Environment grounds. End of story. Religion has nothing to do with the decision. Edward.J.

   Posted By: Edward J

9. I have lived and worked in Bahrain and traveled to its Arab neighbouring countries. All are Islamic but some are more strict than others when it comes to the Koran and Islamic practices. Don't shed too many tears for the Muslims of Camden because Christians are mistreated and abused, as are their places of worship, in many Muslim countries and most ordinary Muslims say and do nothing about the injustice. Also in most (but not all) Arab countries, if you are a resident as opposed to just being a tourist you are disadvantaged if you are known to be a Christian. I don't think Muslims in Christian or Western countries can cry foul if they are discriminated against because they dish out far worse treatment to Christians in Islamic countries. Never forget the currently persecuted Christians of Western New Guinea.

   Posted By: paul.arlington@gmail.com

10. This month's ANNALS magazine, produced by the MSCs of Kensington NSW, has an article on the persecuted Catholics of India who had their parish church burnt to the ground. The land is being used now to build a Hindu Temple. The Christians who fled,and who are now returning to their village, are being told to submit to degrading and undignified procedures in the market place, at communal baths etc that they never had placed upon them before.
    This is an example of an ongoing hate crime by some Hindus against our fellow Catholics.

    Posted By: Michael Webb

11. See how many bigots are out here already... exactly why we are not a Christian society.
    Forget about the commandments "Love your neighbour as yourself"
    ... why not begin to propagate "Hate your Muslim neighbours" "Do horrendous things to those who hate you and persecute you...." Is that what Jesus taught???
    Sometimes I wonder whether Jesus' ultimate example of a sacrificial stance for peace, justice and love was worth it.
    
    Just look at how so many his followers do exactly the opposite of what he teaches… they mount murderous wars, hate and judge their neighbours with moralisms (because they’re muslims, jews, gays, aborigines, etc etc), accumulate obscene amount of wealth, reject and discriminate those who seek asylum and refuge, allow racism, islamicphobia… the list just goes on and on and on.
    
    

    Posted By: TJ Lawson

12. I live in Indonesia, the world largest Muslim country. Islam is not a 'religion' in the sense say, that Catholicism is. It is a religion but also equally a political system, a legal system, an ethical system an economic system and a military system. It seems to me that a big question is this: Can such a combination of integrated systems which form the whole we call 'Islam' sit comfortably in a (largely secular) western democratic system of government and culture - or, of its nature, will there be inevitable clashes of outlook and practice?
    When Muslims choose to move into a western democratic region and system, can Islam enable them to live according to the existing rule of law that guarantees the rights of every citizen, or do they become a state within the state with their own sharia law, which in turn, they would want others to live by? Indonesia is touted as a moderate Muslim nation. I don't know what that means. It has many laws that would gob-smack the majority of Australians and simply would not be tolerated back home. They send people to prison here for 'heresy'. A young mother has been in custody and is at present on trial for complaining to her friends via email about the treatment she received in hospital. If found guilty she could be sent to prison. My christian neighbours tell me the prospects of building a new church are slim because of regulations disposed against building churches. But a new mosque is going up in our neighbourhood. As someone who has grown up in a western democracy, I find much that is 'muslim' here would simply not be tolerated in the Australia. The worst of it is that the local muslim authorities in our area have slapped a 500% tax on alcohol because they disapprove of it. Now that's really worrying.
    
    

    Posted By: Phillip Turnbull

13. Irrespective of how badly muslims treat christians in their own lands (and it is pretty bad, I should know for my house was destroyed 3 times in the space of 10 years living in a pre-dominantly muslim region in lebanon), we are still called to love them, forgive them and be kind to them. It is a fact that many muslims convert to christianity because of the way local christians conduct themselves and above all we should be praying for them.
    
    If the school has been rejected on environmental grounds, then end of story. However all I am saying is that we shouldn't discriminate against them purely on religious grounds.

    Posted By: charbel

14. Hey, TJ Lawson, since when has it been "my Catholic church"? Then perhaps this claiming of it for yourself helps explain why you reject her teachings and invent your own. But then again, that makes me wonder why you bother with calling yourself Catholic at all.
    Curiouser and curiouser . . .

    Posted By: Marian

15. Marian, desperation and intolerance have many names, one of them being 'running out of ideas and arguments- resorting to humiliation, insults and exclusion'. Sad.

    Posted By: TJ Lawson

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