Far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders could learn a lot about the strengths of multiculturalism during his Australian visit, community and religious leaders say.

Mr Wilders will give speeches in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth this month about what he calls the "Islamisation of Australia".

A coalition of 24 groups – including the AFL and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne – issued a joint statement in Melbourne on Monday, reinforcing their support for Victoria's "multicultural and multifaith community".

"We have a collective responsibility to respect our fellow citizens and preserve the social cohesion and harmony that characterise Victoria and makes our society great," the statement says. "We welcome challenging ideas and debate, however, inciting hatred and animosity towards specific cultural or faith-based communities has no place in Victoria."

State Multicultural Affairs Minister Nicholas Kotsiras says Mr Wilders could learn a lot from his visit to the state. "I find it amazing that someone could travel 16,000 kilometres to tell us why he and his party have failed in his own country," he told reporters in Melbourne. "If he wants to come to learn and to educate himself about the success of multiculturalism and diversity, Victoria is the place to be."

AAP, 18 February 2013

See also "Cold reception for anti-Islam campaigner", SBS, 18 February 2013

There will be protests against Wilders' visit in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.

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The RCMP is investigating the possibility of a hate crime after several piles of bacon were found outside a mosque in Port Coquitlam, B.C.

Police say it's the second such act of vandalism and mischief at the Islamic Society of British Columbia mosque and Islamic Centre in the last 18 months.

Society president Saad Bahr said Tuesday it's clear the action was intended to offend, but his group would welcome the opportunity to speak to those responsible and have them learn about Muslim beliefs. "We believe that whoever is responsible for this act does not know us and does not understand what we stand for," Bahr said in a news release.

Coquitlam RCMP Supt. Claude Wilcott said police are disturbed someone would deliberately choose to target the society. Wilcott said investigators haven't been able to eliminate the possibility that the two incidents were motivated by hatred. "We want to send a clear message that we take this type of activity seriously and it won't be tolerated in our jurisdiction."

Police were called to the same mosque in March last year after someone spray painted two racially offensive words on the outside wall of the mosque.

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Jamie Chung said the act could just be a stupid practical joke, but for now police are looking at the possibility it was a crime directed at the Muslim religion. Chung said the bacon was scattered around the property in piles of four or five pieces each. "It is very deliberate if [they] spread them out in several different places. It is not just someone walking by and dropping a package of bacon on the sidewalk."

The property is equipped with closed circuit cameras and investigators are in the process of reviewing the video.

Police are also seeking the public's help in trying to find who dumped the bacon, which was discovered last Wednesday, Chung said.

The Coquitlam RCMP has been working with the Islamic Society of B.C. and the Integrated Provincial Hate Crimes Unit on the investigation.

CBC News, 2 October 2012

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