UPDATE WEDNESDAY 7.15PM: Police will take no further action after intercepting a truck driving around Bendigo broadcasting the Islamic Call To Pray following noise complaints from the public.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the driver of the vehicle was pulled over by officers on Wednesday about 4pm and issued a warning.
The truck was adorned with Stop The Mosque signage.
UPDATE 4.45PM: The driver of a Stop The Mosque truck touring Bendigo broadcasting an Islamic Call To Prayer has told the Bendigo Advertiser he will be leaving the city on Thursday.
Queensland visitor Charles Mollison has been touring around the city using a truck and speakers he hired in Bendigo and signs made in Queensland to protest against the proposed mosque.
Mr Mollison told the Bendigo Advertiser police had intercepted his truck because of the noise.
“Their prime concern was the speakers and they really amazed me by saying they couldn’t do anything about the signs but they didn’t like it because it was discriminatory,” he said.
“I said, “Hang on, hang on, are you trying to tell me if the sign said, Lets Build a Mosque, it would be okay,” and they said, “Yes”.
Mr Mollison said he was “concerned about the Islamisation of our society”.
“The building of mosques all over the countryside is the Muslim plan to Islamise Australia,” he said.
“There are only 147 Muslims in the whole of the Greater Bendigo area so you have to ask firstly, why would they want a huge mosque that would hold over 1000 people and secondly, you would have to ask for such a small Muslim community how can they raise $5 million and build a $3 million mosque.”
Mr Mollison said he wrote a letter to the City of Greater Bendigo to ask if he needed to apply for a permit to drive the truck around the city.
“The first thing I did was to write to council and ask them what the procedure was,” he said.
“They asked me what I wanted to do, I told them.
“They wrote back and said, “Yes, okay, you don’t actually need a permit to do what you want to do, we have spoken to the police and it’s all cool”.
EARLIER: A police divisional van has intercepted a truck adorned with a Stop The Mosque sign in Bendigo’s central business district.
Police officers spoke to the driver of the truck in Williamson Street for some time.
The truck was earlier travelling through the CBD broadcasting an Islamic Call To Prayer.
A crew from the Ten Network’s The Project following the truck around Bendigo was also at the scene.
The Project is expected to air footage of the truck on Thursday night.