An Australian court has granted Muslims in the northern city of Cairns the right to build a mosque, ending an eight-year battle for the Muslim worship place, reported The Australian on Friday, June 27.
“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.
Muslims applied for the Cairns city council in September 2000 to build a mosque in the city.
An initial approval from the council drew a strong opposition from residents, claiming that the mosque would turn the city into a “hotbed of terrorism”.
When the council gave a final approval in May 2007, residents took the issue to the Planning and Environment Court.
The residents, being advised not to base their case on religious grounds, claimed the mosque’s design does not comply with character provisions in the town plan, and that it would cause heavy traffic in the area.
But the court rejected the claim.
“Its footprint is no greater than some of the other development in the street and its height is about the same as a number of higher houses in the street.”
There are nearly 200 Muslims in Cairns.
In the past years, Muslims were praying at termite-infested ramshackle two-bedroom house on the mosque site.
Australia is home to more than 340.000 Muslims, making up 1.7 percent of its 20-million population.
Muslims have been in Australia for more than 200 years and Islam is the second largest religion after Christianity.
Pleased
Australian Muslims praised the court ruling.
“(We are) very, very pleased,” Abdul Aziz Mohammad, a Muslim leader and the project spokesman, said.
“The judge hasn’t really put any other special conditions on us.”
Mohamed said opposition to the construction of the mosque, which is expected to cost between A$250,000 and A$400,000, was fuelled by Islamophobes.
“I feel there was some anti-Islamic sentiments. This was drawn out in protest letters handed to the council.
“Ninety per cent of the comments in the letters said they didn’t want a mosque anywhere in Cairns let alone Dunn Street.”
The Muslim leader said Muslims have been in Cairns for more than 100 years.
“I’ve been in Cairns for 76 years. I was born and bred here.”
In post 9/11 Australia, Muslims have been haunted with suspicion and have had their patriotism questioned.
A 2007 poll taken by the Issues Deliberation Australia (IDA) think-tank found that Australians basically see Islam as a threat to the Australian way of life.
A recent governmental report revealed that Muslims are facing deep-seated Islamophobia and race-based treatment like never before.
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