Excerpt:
A religious leader accused of illegal land clearing on a rural property used for religious prayer has claimed a Western Sydney council is infringing on his group’s religious freedoms by pursuing him over the allegations.
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The conflict between council and the Kara-Alis came to a head last month when three council officers visited the property to provide them with court papers.
A dashcam video tendered to the court shows a man, standing beside Mustapha Kara-Ali, spitting on council staff and attempting to throw a large rock, which hits the fence and then falls to the ground.
“Both men were repeatedly yelling obscenities from the other side of the gate, calling out ‘you dogs, I step on your cross’,” one of the council staff alleged in an affidavit.