Muslims still feel welcome in Bendigo despite anti-Islam rally, says mayor

Hundreds of anti-Islam protesters who gathered to decry the planned construction of a mosque in Bendigo failed to make Muslims feel unwelcome there, the town’s mayor says.

A rally on Saturday organised by the far-right United Patriots Front attracted about 200 people, who carried Australian flags and signs urging the town to “say no to the Islamisation of Bendigo”.

The UPF was involved in an ugly anti-Islam rally in Melbourne last month and told supporters that Bendigo’s first mosque would lead to an influx of Muslims who would turn the town into a “caliphate”.

Demonstrators were met by an equal number of left-wing counter-protesters and a large number of police were deployed to stop them from clashing.

Despite the display of anti-Muslim hostility, Bendigo mayor Peter Cox said the town was proudly multicultural and the protest did nothing to change that.

"[Muslim residents] have taken it all in their stride ... they know they are welcomed,” Cr Cox said.

“The vast majority of them that I’ve spoken to feel supported by the wider Bendigo community.”

Cr Cox said he supported people’s right to protest and express their political beliefs, but was frustrated that outside groups like the UPF were influencing the debate.

“What’s annoying is that outside people with political agendas are trying to influence a mosque development in Bendigo,” he said.

“They’ve got a much wider agenda than just regional Bendigo and it’s just so sad that their thoughts are so narrow and that they use a wonderful town like Bendigo to their advantage.”

None of the UPF’s organisers are from the town.

However Bendigo woman Julie Hoskin, who has led the local push against the mosque, did address the crowd on Saturday and a large number of people in the crowd put their hands up when asked who was from the area.

But Cr Cox said most Bendigonians agreed with his council’s support of the mosque.

The planned mosque survived a legal challenge from about 15 Bendigo residents earlier this month, when the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal upheld its planning permit.

The UFP, which counts among its organisers a man found guilty of stalking a Melbourne rabbi in a series of anti-Semitic phone calls, is now planning protests at mosques across the country in October to coincide with anti-Islam rallies in the United States, Canada and Europe.

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