Members of Gungahlin's evangelical community are distributing extremist material from overseas in their campaign against the construction of a mosque on The Valley Avenue.

A senior pastor at a Gungahlin evangelical church contacted The Canberra Times and supplied a video of far-right agitator Paul Weston, the chairman of the British Freedom Party. In the eight-minute video, Mr Weston says Islam was "worse than Nazism" and claimed Islamic influence in Britain would lead to civil war.

The Gungahlin pastor declined to be interviewed yesterday, but said the video had been circulated via email through associates in the community.

The pastor added that their church was not involved in the anti-mosque campaign by the "Concerned Citizens of Canberra".

In the video, Mr Weston said: "Islam in its most fundamental form is Nazism in its desire for global supremacy … In fact, Islam is even worse than Nazism".

Canberra Times, 13 July 2012

The video is an extract from a speech by Weston in Toronto in February. If you can stomach it, you can watch it here.

The British Freedom Party has been building links with co-thinkers in Australia for some time. Last November it ran an interview with the leader of the far-right Australian Protectionist Party.

Incidentally, the Canberra Times is holding a poll on the question "Are you for or against the proposed mosque at Gungahlin?" You can vote here.

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ACT planners have been told that women in burqas will scare children in Gungahlin if Canberra's Muslim community proceeds with plans to build a mosque in the area.

The ACT Planning and Land Authority has received more than 50 submissions in response to the proposed development on The Valley Avenue.

It follows a campaign by a group called the "Concerned Citizens of Canberra" that urged residents to object to the development because of its "social impact" and concerns about traffic and noise.

The Canberra Times revealed on Saturday that the group's spokesman, Irwin Ross, is a Christian fundamentalist activist who describes himself as a pastor with Olive Tree Ministries.

More than 30 submissions lodged with ACTPLA object to the development on grounds including traffic, parking, design, lack of consultation and, according to one anonymous submission, claims the mosque is not "compatible with Australian values and Australian law".

But a further 20 Canberra residents wrote to the government in support of the development, some complaining about the anonymous anti-mosque flyers that were delivered to their homes.

One objection to the mosque asks the ACT government if it can "assure the citizens of Gungahlin that this centre will not be taken over by extremists, bent on bringing chaos to our immediate community".

Another claims the sight of women wearing burqas will be "perturbing" for children in the area.

One Gungahlin resident complains Muslims have to: "obey the Koran and therefore Sharia law. This means that Sharia law will always come first and Australian law second".

"I am particularly worried about the women and girls," the resident's letter states.

"In the DA [development application] several rooms are allocated for weekend classes - which means that all the girls from early age on will have Koran lessons and therefore will have no real chance to get integrated in Australian society."

A number of objections use template letters supplied by the Concerned Citizens of Canberra, while several others complain the mosque will create too much traffic congestion.

However, 20 letters urge the ACT government to approve the development, with one submission stating it will "complement the two existing churches".

"As a resident of Gungahlin town centre I would be materially affected by this development," the submission states. As such I strongly support this development. It is appropriate to the town centre, an appropriate design and the road network is designed to handle the surges in traffic."

Another resident complains about the flyer they received from the Concerned Citizens of Canberra and says the group's objections to the mosque are "flimsy at best and outright bigoted at worst".

"Though I am not a religious person I feel that someone should be just as free to build a mosque as a church and having it near Gungahlin town centre seems as good a location as any in the area," the submission states.

A spokeswoman for the Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate said additional submissions were still arriving by post and were being accepted, provided the letter was stamped before the deadline for comment.

Meanwhile, the Australian Motorists Party candidate for Ginninderra Chic Henry said he believed the development would create traffic congestion.

Canberra Times, 10 July 2012

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A key figure in the opposition to the Gungahlin mosque is a Christian fundamentalist activist who lives at least 15 kilometres away from the proposed site.

The secretive participants in the campaign against the mosque have consistently told media and government that they are concerned with local planning issues including traffic and noise.

But The Canberra Times has established that the spokesman for the group "Concerned Citizens of Canberra" describes himself as a pastor with Olive Tree Ministries and hosts fortnightly meetings at a prayer house in Yarralumla.

Irwin Ross, a Higgins resident who lives a 20-minute drive from the proposed mosque site, hosted last Sunday's closed meeting at Gungahlin Library, but it is unclear whether or not he organised the meeting. The meeting was held after the Concerned Citizens of Canberra distributed anonymous anti-mosque flyers to homes in the northern suburb.

A biography for Mr Ross posted on the website of Canberra's Christian radio station 1WAYFM says he has ministered in churches in Australia, the Philippines and Russia and has "a passion to teach and preach on the Hebrew roots of Christianity". Mr Ross hosts fortnightly Passover dinners for a group at the Canberra House of Prayer in Yarralumla.

The Canberra Times contacted Mr Ross yesterday and asked about his activities as a pastor of Olive Tree Ministries but Mr Ross said he did not want to comment.

Associates and acquaintances of Mr Ross in the Christian community said Mr Ross was known around Canberra's churches for his stridently pro-Israel views.

The Canberra Times attended Sunday's Concerned Citizens of Canberra meeting in Gungahlin, but was asked to leave after participants opposing the building of the mosque said media should not be present. After the meeting, one of the participants made threats of physical violence to a Canberra Times photographer.

A detailed document by the group has since emerged that instructs Gungahlin residents on how to lodge objections to the proposed mosque plans. The document asks the ACT government to take into account the long-term effect the mosque may have on social harmony, and states a mosque "seeks to dominate the area in which it is placed".

Submissions to the government in response to Canberra Muslim Community's development application closed yesterday.

"There are processes in place for people to have their say," Multicultural Affairs Minister Joy Burch said. "Everybody has a legitimate right to raise concerns about various projects, but to guise concerns about faith, religion or culture through other things such as traffic – that is not the way we do it here. To me, anything that is biased against developments based on culture or faith is unacceptable."

Canberra Muslim Community president Borhan Ahmed said the organisation had been transparent in its development plans and just wanted to be given "a fair go". He said the development application addressed planning concerns such as traffic and parking and any noise would be minimal because the mosque would not broadcast the call to prayer.

Mr Ahmed said Canberra Muslim Community was happy to meet with the Concerned Citizens of Canberra to discuss any issues they had with the development proposal.

"I would like to say to them, I don't know them, but we don't want any problem with anybody around us," he said. "We are a very peaceful community and we are prepared to have discussions with them if they are open and come to embrace us. We are always prepared to talk to people and address any concerns that they might have."

Mr Ahmed said he believed the group represented a minority of views and he had received "overwhelming" support from the Canberra community for the mosque.

Canberra Times, 7 July 2012

The Olive Tree Ministries to which Ross is attached is presumably the Australian section of this Minnesota-based Christian Zionist outfit. Its founder Jan Markell defended the killing of nine people during Israel's May 2010 attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on the grounds that this was part of "a spiritual battle between God's people and the satanic forces controlling Israel's enemies".

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