Bendigo mosque backers ask non-Muslims to help fund the project



THE backers of a controversial plan to build a mosque in Bendigo want non-Muslims to help fund the project.

Australian Islamic Mission Victorian spokesman Dr Seyed Sheriffdeen said his group would ask government authorities, local businesses and other organisations for assistance.

“If you look at the facility it’s an asset for the local community in Bendigo,” he said.

“We will ask the local community to support this, they are the stakeholders of this project.”

The Shire of Greater Bendigo has approved the plan, but opponents have appealed to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal with the hearing due to start this week.

Dr Sheriffdeen said his group would challenge a council permit condition not to allow political discussion on the mosque site, saying it was discriminatory.

“If I am building a church or a synagogue or a temple, if it’s a condition of Australian law we agree,” he said. “We don’t want to be treated differently because of the mosque.”

Community tensions intensified earlier this year when the council approved the project, despite opposition from a well-organised protest group.

Dr Sheriffdeen said he didn’t mind local opposition, but was concerned when outsiders got involved.

The group’s national vice-president Siddiq Buckley said that Western society tended to exclude Muslims.


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