We’ll take Catholic school - not Muslim
9/9/08
Move to build a Catholic school in Camden, in Sydney’s south-west, have been welcomed by the same community group which vocally opposed plans for a Muslim school. The president of the Camden/Macarthur Residents Group, Emil Sremchevich, told Fairfax the Catholic plan “ticks all the right boxes”, even though he was yet to see its development application. “Catholics are part of our community so we should be supporting it on this basis alone,” Mr Sremchevich told Fairfax. “To become part of the community, you need to live in the community. You can’t just turn up.” Mr Sremchevich said he was not being racist.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24317102-26103,00.html
Tags: Australia, Religion Christianity
September 10th, 2008 at 4:24 am
If this took place in a real ’secular and liberal democracy,’ then surely this is a form of racism. Below is what wikipedia points out are the points (those relavent to this article) of a liberal democracy (like Australia) has, as per the theorist Larry Diamond:
1. Citizens have multiple channels for expression and representation such as diverse independent associations and movements which they have the freedom to form and join.
2. Individuals have substantial freedom of belief, opinion, discussion, speech, publication, assembly, demonstration and petition.
3. Civil liberties are effectively protected by an non-discriminatory, independent judiciary
whose decisions are respected and enforced by other centres of power.
4. Citizens are politically equal under the law.
5. Minority groups are not oppressed.
Please get back to fundamentalism of your own laws, and speak nor wish not of your fellow citizen. In the US, even today, this would probably warrant a federal investigation into violating the civil rights of others, and corruption at the governmental level of those running the township that allows this kind of hate to exist, with impunity and justification — but of course. This is not an anti-Catholic slam; even in Catholicism, which promotes pluralism as well (at least today), this practice would appear to be that which is oppressive. 5pillar.wordpress.com