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Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs
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The Development Impact of Mosque
Location on Land Use in Australia:
A Case Study of Masjid al Farooq in
Brisbane
Yasmeen Vahed & Goolam Vahed
Published online: 04 Mar 2014.
To cite this article: Yasmeen Vahed & Goolam Vahed (2014): The Development Impact of Mosque
Location on Land Use in Australia: A Case Study of Masjid al Farooq in Brisbane, Journal of Muslim
Minority Affairs, DOI: 10.1080/13602004.2014.888284
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2014.888284
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The Development Impact of Mosque Location on Land
Use in Australia: A Case Study of Masjid al Farooq in
Brisbane
YASMEEN VAHED and GOOLAM VAHED
Abstract
The rapid growth of Australia’s Muslim population over the past three decades has
presented a challenge to local governments to find ways of accommodating their
needs, particularly providing spaces to build mosques. Yet in many parts of Australia,
mosque applications have been opposed by local communities and consequently such
applications are usually declined by local councils. Many Muslims believe that Isla-
mophobhia and racism are behind such refusals. This paper examines the role of
urban planning policies in determining the location, architectural form, and the use
of mosques, and their impact on the local community, through a case study of the
Masjid Al Farooq in South-East Queensland. It seeks to understand whether
urban planning policy as well as urban planners can become a tool of integrating
the community and, if so, how. This case study reveals that there is no provision
in urban planning policies specifically for places of worship. Such applications are
treated the same as all others even though they have a very different purpose.
Places of worship form an integral part of community and can be crucial at a time
when political leaders seem to be placing emphasis on family and social cohesion.
Marginalising places of worship will continue to disenchant segments of the popu-
lation and make them feel like “outsiders”. Given the contemporary global political
climate, there are no easy solutions. This paper makes policy suggestions that govern-
ment, planners, and community leaders can embrace so that mosques and those who
worship in them are seen as part of the community.
Introduction
Increasing religious diversity of Australia’s largest cities is presenting a challenge to local
governments to find ways of forging new forms of spatial and social belonging.
1
Australia’s
Muslim population has grown rapidly over the past three decades. For many Muslims,
mosques constitute the pivot of their lives. Mosque complexes are places of high activity
as they are used five times a day for congregational prayer in addition to hosting a range of
other social activities. Yet in Australia, as in many parts of the Western world, mosque
applications have been vigorously opposed by local communities. There has been little
research into the effects of urban planning policy upon non-Christian religious groups
in Australia and this paper examines the role of urban planning policies in determining
the location, architectural form, and the use of mosques, as well as their impact on the
local community, based on a case study of the Masjid Al Farooq in Kuraby, a suburb
of Brisbane in South-East Queensland (SEQ). A broader aim is to establish similarities
and differences between Islamic and contemporary planning and whether, and how,
places of worship can be accommodated in present-day Australia. Key questions that
Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 2014
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2014.888284
© 2014 Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs
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emerge are: Can urban planning policy become a tool of integrating the community? If so,
how? Are there specific policies for religious facilities and what role do these play in pro-
viding an institutional setting for contestation over religious institutions? What are the
modes of interaction between planning authorities and applicants who make a claim
upon public space for places of worship? Are planners sufficiently qualified to understand
the nature of religious applications?
This paper is based on both qualitative and quantitative approaches as well as the
mining of archival material. Newspapers such as The Australian;Sydney Morning
Herald;Courier Mail, and The Age were consulted via their websites; the website of the
Brisbane City Council (BCC) was accessed and personnel contacted, to examine its plan-
ning instruments and policies with regard to places of worship in general and the devel-
opment application of Masjid Al Farooq in particular; statistics were obtained from the
Australian Bureau of Statistics’via its website; office bearers of the Mosque were inter-
viewed to establish the history of the mosque; primary data were collected through the
completion of questionnaires by residents living in the vicinity of the mosque; and
there was visual observation of the mosque and surroundings.
Muslims in the Australian Landscape
White Labour Policy
While Muslims as a percentage of the overall Australian population remain relatively
small, the Muslim population has grown rapidly over the past two decades in real
numbers. Muslims are also conspicuous because of their residential concentration, mani-
festation of religious practices in public spaces, and global concerns around their place in
Western countries. Contemporary debates about the place of Muslims in Australian
society must be seen in the context of long held fears that the country was becoming Asia-
nised. Modification of the White Australia Policy in 1956 to allow non-European entry
into the country to address the labour shortage led to an influx of migrants from Asian
countries as well Muslims from Turkey, Lebanon, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia,
and Indonesia.
2
While migrants from Asia are distinct from the majority receiving
Australian society, international geo-politics has given these differences an added edge
in the case of Muslims who constitute less than 2% of the Australian population but
whose numbers more than doubled from 148,096 (0.9% of the Australian population)
in 1991 to 340,390 (1.71%) in 2006.
3
According to the 2006 census, a third of
Muslims were Australian-born and over 80% were concentrated in New South Wales
(168,761) and Victoria (109,370). The number of Muslims in Queensland (20,321)
was comparatively small, but about two-thirds were concentrated in the wider Brisbane
area.
Contemporary Perceptions of Muslims
Negative mainstream public perception of Muslims in Australia may be attributed to
watershed incidents such as the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York on 11
September 2001 by Al-Qaeeda, the Bali bombing (2002) in which many Australian
lives were lost, and race riots in Cronulla, Sydney, in 2005. Contemporary issues such
as the arrival of mainly Muslim asylum seekers by boat and the wearing of the niqab
(face covering) by Muslim women are perpetuating negative stereotypes about
Muslims who have faced increased verbal and physical harassment over the past
2Yasmeen Vahed and Goolam Vahed
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decade.
4
According to Rane et al. the discourse of politicians, media, and commentators
points to
…perceived incompatibility of Islam with the broader Australian public. Much
of this commentary has espoused a remarkably negative and overly reductive
picture of Islam and its adherents.
5
Opposition to Mosque Development in Australia
The word “mosque”originates from the Arabic masjid which literally means a place for
prostration before God. Muslims are required to perform obligatory salah (prayer) five
times daily. While salah (prayer) can be performed anywhere, there is greater reward in
offering it congregrationally, which signifies the cohesiveness of the ummah (global
Muslim community). Mosques are not built solely for prayer. They are comprehensive
in their function. Many modern mosques have amenities such as medical clinics,
libraries, gymnasiums, adult classes for women, madrassas for children, drugs awareness
programmes, and funeral services.
6
There has been strong opposition to mosque development in Australia over the past
decade. In 2003, for example, the Baulkham Hills Shire Council rejected an application
from an Islamic group to build a mosque in Annangrove in north-western Sydney. This
was overturned by the Land and Environment Court in New South Wales. Justice
J. Lloyd warned that the consenting authority should “not blindly accept the subjective
fears and concerns expressed in the public submissions [which] appear to have little
basis in fact”.
7
Laura Buggs has written that opposition to Islamic schools in Camden
and Bankstown in metropolitan Sydney was based on arguments that the schools
would be incompatible with the surrounding environment; the absence of Muslims in
the area; and a “moral panic”about increased crime. Such concerns are absent when
Catholic or Anglican schools are built. Residents’real fear, however, is that the schools
would attract Muslim families to the area and change its racial and religious compo-
sition.
8
In Camden, community opposition was so intense that in 2007 two pigs’heads
were lodged onto metal stakes at the site.
9
In response to these and other refusals of mosque applications, Dunn, Klocker, and
Salabay opine that:
…opposition to mosque development in Sydney had depended heavily on
stereotypes of Islam as fanatical, intolerant, militant, fundamentalist, misogy-
nist and alien.
10
In contrast to other parts of Australia, opposition to mosque development has been
muted in Queensland where there have been few written submissions and no coordinated
local community opposition to development plans.
11
Australian Planning Policies on Places of Worship
The establishment of places of worship, and especially one involving a religion that is
viewed with suspicion, is a challenging proposition because of its impact on land use.
Contemporary urban planning, which has its origins in the USA where suburban
sprawl was criticised for creating car dependency and for leading to social isolation, pro-
moted neighbourhoods that were diverse in terms of use and populations; had increased
The Development Impact of Mosque Location on Land Use in Australia 3
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possibilities for walking and public transit (compact cities); and accessible public spaces
to develop “community”.
12
Leonie Sandercock critiqued modernist planning for hom-
ogenising people’s values and placing emphasis on the material as opposed to the aes-
thetic. Contemporary cities are changing as a result of global migration, which has led
to social diversity, indigenous peoples’demands for rights, and pressure from organised
civil society for citizenship and civil rights. Sandercock calls for planners to place the
socio-cultural dimension of human life at the centre of planning, a vision that she
refers to as “Cosmopolis”. She urges planners to understand power relations in
society, break out of the existing planning mould, and adopt new and bold ideas and prac-
tices.
13
The researchers agree that principles of diverse neighbourhoods, reduced depen-
dency on automobiles, and liveability should be taken seriously, and within that scheme
provision can be made for mosques.
Australian Planning Policies
Australia has centralised land use planning policies. While multiculturalism rights are
included in Australian legislation, such rights can be denied to minority groups
through exclusionary land-use policies that deny applications for the development of
places of worship by framing such applications as land-use issues rather than as furthering
the freedom of religion, thus circumventing the implications of multiculturalism.
14
There
are three tiers of government in Australia: Federal, State, and Local. State governments
are responsible for town planning but implementation occurs through local governments.
During the 1990s, there was an expansion of statutory
15
regional planning across the
state. The SEQ Regional Plan 2009–2031 governs development in Kuraby. SEQ is
one of the fastest growing regions in Australia; its population having reached 2.8
million in 2008 and expected to grow to 4.4 million by 2031.
16
Development is
managed by the Sustainable Planning Act (SPA) no. 26 of 2009, which replaced the Inte-
grated Planning Act (IPA) (1997). While the IPA had established performance objec-
tives, called “desired environmental outcomes”, in which there was no prohibited
development as long as established zoning goals were met, the SPA can restrict or prohi-
bit development as decision-makers must achieve ecological sustainability.
Places of Worship in Brisbane
The Brisbane City Plan (2000) does not deal specifically with places of worship. According to
BCC Town PlannerEve Vickerson, “Places of Worship”are defined as “Community Uses”.
Chapter 3 of the City Plan states that “land in the Community Use Area may be either pri-
vately or publicly owned and accommodates a range of community uses”.
17
This includes
cemeteries, community facilities, education, health care, and railway activities. According
to Vickerson, Community Use Applications are assessed against the relevant sections of
City Plan 2000 only. Impact assessable applications require public notification, in which
members of the public can make submissions which the assessment manager has to take
into consideration during the assessment process. Planning proposals are monitored by
the IPA established regulatory body, IDAS (Integrated Development Assessment System).
18
Mosques in Queensland
The number of mosques has grown steadily in Queensland due to the expanding Muslim
population. There are now mosques in Mareeba, Cairns, and Townsville in Far North
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Queensland; at Mackay and Rockhampton in Central Queensland; in Bundaberg, the
Gold Coast, and there are around 13 mosques in Brisbane in such suburbs as Holland
Park, Lutwyche, Eagleby, Darra, Algester, Rochedale, West End, Logan, Kuraby, and
Bald Hills, which opened in April 2005. In addition, there are prayer facilities at the
Brisbane International Airport, the Dreamworld theme park and the Harbour Town
Shopping complex. Muslims in Gympie have also acquired a property and are in the
process of establishing a mosque. Unlike many migrants and refugees of other faiths, par-
ticularly Christians who in most instances arrived to readymade churches, Muslims had
to establish institutions from scratch.
Suleman Sabdia has been witness to the rapid growth of Islam in SEQ over the past
three decades. Sabdia, who was born and educated in South Africa, migrated to Australia
in 1978. A chartered accountant by profession, he spent two years in Adelaide before
relocating to Brisbane in 1981. Over the past three decades he has been involved in
the Islamic Society of Holland Park, Islamic Council of Queensland (ICQ), and the
Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC). Sabdia’s recollection points both to
the growth of mosques as well as their importance for Muslims:
The first objectives of the Muslims was mosques …If I can mention that in 1981
there was one mosque in Brisbane and that was Holland Park. Its committee
members comprised largely of Muslims from Pakistan and a sprinkling from
Fiji. There was one lone Bosnian member of the committee. So the preoccupa-
tion of those early Muslims was to have a Musjid of their own and they were pre-
occupied with this. The Fijian committee established the Islamic Society of
Darra; the Arabs started the Islamic Society of West End; the Bosnians
started the Islamic Society of Rochedale which is now called Islamic Society
of Eight Miles Plains; and I think that occurred for the best part of the first
twenty years. It is only after that that the Muslims felt the need for other insti-
tutions for the benefit of the community and they saw the need for Islamic
schools, Muslim women got together and developed the Women’s Muslim
Association to meet the requirements and needs for women’s issues.
19
The Mosque in Kuraby
The Masjid Al-Farooq in Kuraby was established by migrants from South Africa,
Zimbabwe and Zambia, who began arriving in Australia from the mid-1970s. By the
mid-1980s approximately 30 Muslim families were living in the Eight Mile Plains area.
The need for a suitable place to pray and educate their children became urgent and
the Islamic Madressah of Sunnybank Ltd. was formed to locate suitable facilities. The
committee purchased an Anglican Church at 1408 Beenleigh Road, Kuraby, at the
end of 1989. The decision to purchase the church was pragmatic since it bypassed the
myriad of bureaucratic development challenges as the land was already designated a
place of worship. The population of Kuraby, according to the 1991 census, was 1003.
The City Plan described Kuraby as a “Potential Development Area”with densities of
up to 25 dwellings per hectare “encouraged”. Planners thus envisaged residential devel-
opment in the vicinity of the mosque but probably did not expect that many of the incom-
ing residents would be Muslims. The City Plan also envisaged “construction of an
overpass and redirection of Beenleigh Road at the existing railway level crossing.”
20
Thirteen donors funded the purchase of the property.
21
The building initially func-
tioned as a madrassah and subsequently a jamaat khanna.
22
During the fasting month
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of Ramadaan the nightly taraweeh
23
prayer was performed communally. To perform the
taraweeh prayer, huffaz such as Hafez Suleman Moolla, Hafez Hathurani, Mawlana
Hamadullah Bhutto, and Rashid Omar were brought from South Africa for this
purpose. Some of these visiting luminaries implored the trustees to perform communal
prayer on a regular basis, and the first Jumuah congregational prayer was performed by
Mawlana Hamadullah Bhutto c. 1994.
24
Refurbishing the Mosque
The original building was a simple wooden structure, dilapidated in parts. It was 75 years
old and the Committee put a new roof and added two classrooms at the back. The trus-
tees realised that this building was inadequate and began a fund-raising drive to build a
new structure.
25
Funds were collected over a period of six years and Charles Ham &
Associates lodged plans to the Council on 19 October 1995 on behalf of the Committee
to build a new double story building to be used as a “Place of Public Worship”(mosque).
A statutory declaration was lodged on 9 November 1995. According to Yusuf Limbada,
the design deliberately tried to keep the principles of the “Queenslander”so that it would
not look out of place in its surroundings. They also built a moderate minaret, unlike the
minarets at some other mosques which cost a fortune, so that it and the mosque would be
less conspicuous.
26
The proposal met with the broad aims of the development plan, but
the Council had to consider several issues. Section 18.5 of the Town Plan required car
parking spaces at the rate of one per 12 sq. metres of gross floor area (GFA). Council
allowed for 24 spaces as opposed to the 43 required by the regulation because street
parking was available and the Kuraby Railway Station, located 280 metres from the
mosque, has public car parking facilities. Another consideration was whether the
Railway Level crossing intersection would pose a traffic problem. According to Council’s
report, “the proposal …will not have an adverse impact”. Of significance is that when the
statutory declaration was submitted, there were no public submissions. Council officially
granted permission for the proposed development in May 2000.
27
Dr Craig Emerson,
then member for Rankin, acknowledged the sterling work on the local community in
developing the mosque when he stated in a Parliamentary debate on 22 March 2004:
I want to pay tribute to the wonderful contribution the local Islamic community
makes in our area. The Kuraby Mosque was established in 1987.
28
Around
2,000 people are associated with the mosque. Worshippers at the mosque
were born in over 15 different countries, including South Africa, various Euro-
pean countries, New Zealand and Australia. General attendance at the mosque
is around 100 for morning prayers, 150 in the evenings and 500 on Fridays. The
Islamic community embraces the local community and schools with open days
at the mosque. Some members of the Kuraby Mosque belong to the local
Islamic Women’s Association, which offers support to both Islamic and non-
Islamic members of the community, including respite care and nursing care
…. This is a vibrant Islamic community and its members make a wonderful
contribution to and are marvellous citizens in our local area.
29
The Role of the imams
One of the problems faced by Muslims in Australia was finding suitable imams who were
well versed in theology to lead the congregation. In the formative years, the imams were
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imported from overseas. Mawlana Hamadullah Bhutto of Pakistan was the first full-time
imam of the mosque, serving from c 1994–1998. When he departed to pursue business
interests, Feizal Chotia was appointed imam and religious instructor in December
1998, shortly before the mosque was redeveloped. Chotia, who was 28 at the time, was
a graduate of the Madrassah Arabia Islamia in Azaadville, South Africa, as well as a
graduate of the Rand Afrikaans University where he completed a BA (hons.) degree in
Islamic Studies. Chotia was affiliated to the Jamiatul Ulama (Council of Theologians)
of South Africa and had taught in madrassahs and Islamic schools, and conducted
Islamic educational programmes for teenagers in South Africa and in Perth before
moving to Brisbane.
30
Chotia left shortly after to open his own madrassah on the Gold
Coast.
Chotia was replaced by Mawlana Yusuf Peer, who served the mosque from 1999 to
2001. Mawlana Peer completed his hifz in Pakistan and studied Islamic Theology at
the Al Azhar University in Egypt. He taught for a few years in South Africa until an
offer was made for him to take up the position in Brisbane. Mawlana Peer’simamate
coincided with the growth of the mosque from a fledgling institution into one of the
most highly patronised mosques in Brisbane. Mawlana Peer left at the end of 2002 to
join the Islamic School. For several years Dr Mohamed Abdalla and several other
imams filled this role on a part-time basis until another South African trained imam,
Akram Buksh, took over the imamate of the mosque in 2007.
The reason for tracing the Imams of the mosque is to illustrate two points. The first is
that contrary to perception of imams as powerful individuals who wield enormous influ-
ence on the wider Muslim community, the imams of the Kuraby mosque have enjoyed
short tenures and, as paid employees of the mosque, mainly fulfil roles pertaining to
prayer and education. Second, there is a national debate about foreign trained versus
locally trained imams. The relevant point is that often imams are brought from overseas,
mainly from South Africa in this case, because those who control the mosque are familiar
with their ways. Such imams do not have a negative influence and are not out of touch
with Australian realities since Islam is a minority religion in South Africa as well.
September 11 and its Aftermath
Masjid Al Farooq, or the Kuraby Mosque in Brisbane, did not escape the ramifications of
the September 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York. The mosque made inter-
national news when the old building was petrol bombed on 22 September 2001.
Dr Abdalla lived close to the mosque and describes what happened:
I was the second person to see it, really, because the window of the bedroom of
my son overlooks the mosque, so my wife woke up at about quarter to three in
the morning at the sound and the light of the fire. She was quite frantic and
scared, so she woke me up. I jumped out of my bed ... and through the
window I saw the huge fire, and of course we realised it was the mosque that
was on fire. My first fear was [for] myself and the neighbours who are so
close by. I called the fire brigade and then straight away went to my neighbours
who are a couple of elderly Australian people, knocked at their door at that time,
and they opened it and I said, "Are you okay? Come to our house if you are
frightened." They said, "No, we are fine". The old lady said, "I was going to
put the fire out with the hose!" And then I went to check on the other elderly
lady who lives very close to the mosque, she’s about 85 years old, and she
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was shaking, and she was very frightened. Having confirmed that the fire is not
close to us, I came straight to the mosque. The fire brigade was already here,
and then I started calling the members of the congregation, the Muslims, and
I think within half an hour we had about 10, 15 brothers, within a couple of
hours we had about 60 people here.
31
According to Dr Abdalla, the attack was not entirely unexpected:
We’d been having a lot of threats, and a lot of people coming around, I mean,
even physically people daring to come. There’d be 40 or 50 of us standing out
there and some people would come and, you know, they’d break the bottle and
start threatening ... of being killed, or we’re coming back to get you, and things
like this. So we were anticipating that something like this was going to happen.
32
Many Muslims expressed hurt over the attack on “their”mosque. According to then
Imam Yusuf Peer, felt a sense of deep injustice at what had happened:
Something that has been bombed and taken away without any justice it’s totally
wrong. Of course any place of worship to be bombed or to be gutted down or to
be vandalized is totally, you know, devastating, and totally unacceptable.
This feeling of pain was shared by many Muslims, as reflected in the following montage of
reactions:
33
.There ’s been a lot of disappointment hurt obviously, a religious place is always a
focal point for any community, and this has struck at the heart of the Muslim com-
munity, being the mosque. I must say there has been anger, but not directed at any
particular person or persons, but we understand the climate that we live in.
.You cannot really describe such a feeling because this is not your house. I mean,
you might have a different feeling if you see your house burning, but this is the
house of God, the house of Allah has been burned.
.Because I attend this mosque every day, when it actually happened it felt like
someone was saying, “Your house has actually been burned down”, that ’s the
way it hit me, you know that ’s the way I felt.
.My children literally live at the mosque, this is their place where they play around.
They spend the entire afternoon here after school. What if these children were in
the mosque? They have been scared, because they would have gone on a camp out,
and when they came back there was no mosque there. They were shocked. They
just came home—normally they talk about what a wonderful camp it was, but this
time it was, “Oh, Mummy, I don’t believe it.”
.There were a lot of Korans (Qur’ans) and books that were in the children’s names
that were burnt, and children are very possessive of their things. They were trau-
matised, they were crying, because this institute was very, very dear to them. And I
think they have sort of grown up a little bit in the matter of a few weeks, and they
always remember the day, because 11th September was the bombing, 22nd Sep-
tember was their bombing.
.My son, three years old, he does not know anything about the fire, but now at
home he ’s building a mosque with his building blocks, and then he drops it
and he says, “The mosque is burnt”. And I say, “I’m going to the mosque
now,”and he says, “I can’t come with you. Maybe the naughty man will burn
me.”
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The mosque management did not exploit the bombing for publicity. According to trustee
Mahmood Surtie, whatever was affected by the fire “was removed the very next day. We
felt that we don’t want this thing to be embedded in the minds of the young children who
were in this madrasah, and we didn’t want any more negative publicity”.
34
Dr
Mohammed Abdalla, now head of the Griffiths University Islamic Research Unit,
emphasised that many in the wider Australian community:
showed their goodwill. We had a church that came to us and said, “We are ready
to give you 30 men to guard your mosque.”We had people come with flowers to
the mosque, we had people come wanting to clean the mosque for us.
35
In the weeks and months following the bombing, several political figures visited the
mosque, including then federal Labor leader Kim Beazley, State Government minister
and local member, Stephen Robertson, and Uri Themal, Director of Multicultural
Affairs in Queensland. During his visit to the mosque on 28 October 2011, Labor
leader Beazley said:
One of the things that is making this country a great country is the unity of all
our communities - that we have a community built on many cultures, on
many races, and on many religious backgrounds. And the ability for all of us
to exist with one another, to take pleasure in each other’s achievements and
beliefs, is central to Australian civilisation now. I think it’s enormously impor-
tant in these troubled times that we are a united community. I must congratu-
late you on the way that, despite the problems that you’ve confronted, you’ve
come together as a community, that you bear it without bitterness, and that
you want only to express the fellow feeling that you have with all your fellow
Australians in these times. That’s a magnificent contribution.
36
Christian–Muslim Relations in Kuraby
According to Dr Abdalla, in the years since September 11, local Muslims began to
engage the surrounding community rather than withdraw into a shell in order to
“break the fear of the unknown, otherwise we will become exclusivist, and we’ll
develop a ghetto mentality, and that is not positive for the Islamic community”.
37
The approach of the Mosque leadership was to engage the surrounding community.
As Dr Abdalla points out:
…my personal advice to the Muslim community was that we should not allow
fear to stop us from interacting with the wider community. This is the only way
we can begin to break the fear of the unknown, we have to explain to people,
otherwise we will become aloof, we’ll become exclusivist, and we’ll develop a
ghetto mentality, and that is not positive for the Islamic community …. Our
faith should not stop us from going out there and explaining to people. It’s
not about conversion, it’s not about forcing people into the faith, it is just to
create understanding which leads to harmony and leads to a better pluralistic
society.
38
“Open day”interfaith meetings, participating at meetings of Rotary clubs, engaging the
Queensland Police, and arranging mosque tours for schools are all parts of the activities
carried out by the local Muslim community. According to Dr Abdalla, the response of the
public has been positive: “When people come inside and see the way we worship and that
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everything is normal, that we are actually human beings after all, they become quite sur-
prised.”Masjid Al Farooq provides a fulcrum around which local community life
revolves. The education of children was the primary concern of founding members
and the madrassah occupies a pivotal part of the activities on most afternoons. In addition,
education classes are held for women; a lecture/sausage sizzle is held on Saturday eve-
nings to occupy the youth productively; while guest lecturers from overseas visit the
mosque on a regular basis. Fund-raising Barbeques and auctions are held annually at
the Wally Tate Park to raise funds. The mosque draws a large number of attendees
daily, with the highest attendance on Friday afternoons.
The Mosque Expansion
Rapid population growth has made it difficult to accommodate worshippers at peak
times. The population increased from 1003 in 1991 to 1673 when the application for
the development of the mosque was lodged around 1995, and reached 6692 in 1991.
The number of dwellings increased from 330 in 1991 to 2243 in 2006. The first count
of Muslims took place in 2001. There were 276 Muslims. Over the next five years
there was a 200% increase to 804. Housing construction has been ongoing since 2006
and the population at the end of 2011 census, we estimate, was around 9000–10,000,
with a substantial increase in the number of Muslims. This is based on personal obser-
vation about the number of Muslims moving into the area. The growing Muslim presence
in the community is evident in the increasing numbers of Muslim shoppers at the Under-
wood Shopping Centre and the profusion of butchers and restaurants catering specifically
for Muslims. Population growth has resulted in the mosque being congested at certain
periods of the day (mainly around sunset), week (Friday), and during special religious
occasions, such as the month of fasting (Ramadan).
Problems of Overcrowding
During peak periods many worshippers cannot be accommodated within the mosque and
management decided to effect changes to ease overcrowding. At a pre-lodgement
meeting with the BCC on 13 May 2010, Council ruled that the proposed development
was an Impact Assessment Material Change of Use Application and requested a
Traffic Assessment Report; Noise Impact Assessment; and Code Compliance
Report.
39
The proposed change was defined as “development”in terms of Section 2.2
of the SPA and made subject to Code Assessment. Section 2.5.1 requires Council to
seek the “views of the surrounding community”, while Section 2.5.2 requires public noti-
fication. The development application, lodged in February 2011, included a deck over
the existing car park, which was to be semi-enclosed to minimise potential acoustic
impact, an enclosed main entry foyer, additional washroom facilities, lift, and covered
entrance walkways on the western side of the building. These changes were considered
by the applicants to be consistent with the SPA 2009; SEQ Regional Plan 2009–2031;
and the City Plan.
The application stated that a Traffic Assessment was not necessary because the mosque
was accessible by public transport and that the development would not increase traffic as
most attendees lived in the immediate vicinity and walked or cycled to and from the
Mosque. The development was not intended to increase the number of worshippers
but accommodate the increase in attendees due to more Muslims “living and/or
working in the area”. The proposed deck was intended to accommodate the existing
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“overflow”of worshippers during peak periods when many were forced to pray in the car
park and on the open air grassed area in front of the mosque.
Council Reaction to Mosque Application
The Application was submitted on 11 February 2011. Eve Vickerson, Council’s Assess-
ment Manager, wrote on 14 March 2011 requesting the GFA of the existing and pro-
posed development in order to determine the number of additional car parking spaces
required
40
and actual times when the deck would be used. She advised that direct
access to the mosque from the proposed “side entries”on the western boundary would
not be supported and amended plans should remove these. Public notification of the pro-
posed development was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the SPA.
Letters were mailed to surrounding properties on 28 March 2011; notices were erected
on the mosque property on 29 March 2011; and an advertisement was placed in the
Courier Mail on 29 March 2011. The public had time to comment until 20 April 2011.
Only three submissions were made in opposition to the development.
41
Opposition to the Extension Plan
It is striking that the proposed development did not generate the same level of opposition
as witnessed in other parts of Australia. The three submissions pointed specifically to the
logistical problems created by the presence of the mosque rather than the character of
Muslims per se or Islam as a religion. There is a strong focus on traffic congestion,
parking problems, and noise, while stressing acceptance of Muslims in the community.
This is in contrast to Sydney where Dunn et al. point out, “opposition to mosque devel-
opment had depended heavily on stereotypes of Islam as fanatical, intolerant, militant,
fundamentalist, misogynist and alien”.
42
Vickerson responded on 1 June 2011 that
Council required a traffic impact report; requested details on the activities carried out
at the mosque, and insisted on additional on-site parking spaces as the enclosed
balcony was considered GFA. On 14 June 2011, the mosque submitted a revised plan
omitting the deck, the central point of its proposed development, suggesting that it had
conceded defeat on the original development plans.
Survey of Local Community
43
Twenty residents were surveyed to assess the attitude of the residents of Kuraby towards
the mosque, and its impact on the community. Data were collected through face-to-face
interviews, as well as through questionnaires which were placed in the postal boxes of
houses in the vicinity of the mosque. All 20 respondents live fewer than 3 kilometres
from the mosque; most lived in the area for longer than f5 years (1 individual lived in
the area for 51 years and 2 others for over 30 years); and there were 11 women (55%)
and 9 men (45%). Thirteen respondents described themselves as being of “Anglo-
Celtic”background, while five were of “South Asian”background. An assumption is
made that the majority of those who described themselves as “Anglo-Celtic”are Chris-
tian. According to the 2006 Census, 58% of the residents of Kuraby were Christian
and 12% were Muslim. In terms of gender, age, and religion, the sample was broadly
representative of the general population of Kuraby.
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Results
The questionnaire sought to establish the perceptions of safety given the growth of the
Muslim population in the area. The overwhelming majority (16 of 20 respondents)
described the area as “safe”or “very safe”, suggesting the absence of the “moral
panic”that has emerged as a key discourse around the presence of Muslims in other
parts of Australia. Thirteen of the 20 respondents said that they had some knowledge
of Islam. Only 6 of the respondents knew Muslims through direct contact with them,
the others relied on newspapers, the radio, and television for information about
Muslims. Since 16 of 20 respondents had Muslim neighbours, this suggests that there
was little direct contact between Muslim and non-Muslim neighbours. That the media
seems to be crucial in shaping perceptions about Muslims is a concern, for various
studies have alluded to anti-Muslim bias in the media. Respondents’acknowledged
that there was a negative perception of, and racial prejudice against, Muslims in the
wider Australian community, and those who knew Muslims personally held a more posi-
tive attitude. Most respondents felt that Muslims were not unusual but tended to keep
aloof, lacked humour, and did not mix easily with the wider society. They also pointed
to cultural difference such as dress, gender segregation, and face covering as factors creat-
ing a distance.
On the whole, while respondents may not be intimate friends with Muslims, there was
no obvious animosity. Nineteen of the 20 respondents described their neighbourhood as
“multicultural”; most felt that Kuraby was orderly, peaceful, and clean; but that in the
process of expansion, the suburb has lost its sense of “community”. The tenor running
through their comments was that while the suburb did not have racial or religious
tension- or crime-related problems, Muslims tended to mix with fellow Muslims and
coalesce around the mosque. There was no conflict with the non-Muslim segment of
the community but little to draw people together.
Attitudes towards the Mosque
All the respondents were aware of the presence of the mosque in the neighbourhood, with
one person remarking “you have to be blind or deaf not to know”. Only 6 of the 17 non-
Muslim respondents had visited the mosque, however, suggesting that mosque auth-
orities need to engage better with the local community. The majority of respondents
felt that the mosque generated traffic, noise, and parking problems, but it did not drop
property prices or increase crime rate, draw unwelcome persons, or led to Islamic funda-
mentalism. The majority did not find the structure imposing and were happy with its
location. For most residents, the main concern was the additional traffic and parking pro-
blems during prayer services, such as the Friday afternoon congregational prayers and the
nightly prayer during the month of Ramadaan which attract large number of workers.
The responses to the questionnaire suggested that, on the whole, the presence of
Muslims and the mosque has not stirred the same passion as in other parts of Australia.
Residents were generally accepting of Muslims and regarded them as worthy of citizen-
ship. Although visibly Muslim, the researcher was treated with courtesy and warmth by
those who were interviewed. However, the mosque is a source of irritation because of
the traffic and congestion, and respondents tended to focus on these problems. The ques-
tion that arises is what can be done to address the logistical problems in a way that is sat-
isfactory to those for whom the traffic is a problem and for Muslims who need to attend
the mosque.
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Recommendations
While mosque debates have been explosive in many parts of Australia, opposition in
Kuraby has been subdued and tends to focus on practical objections concerning
traffic, noise, and parking, rather than being expressed in racial, religious, or cultural
terms. In returning to the key questions, it is clear that the mosque has had a dramatic
impact on land use in Kuraby, some of it direct and some indirect. A proportionately
larger number of Muslims live in Kuraby than in Brisbane as a whole. According to
the 2006 census, 12% of the residents of Kuraby gave their religion as Muslims, as
against 1.1% in Brisbane. Clustering around the mosque underscores its importance to
Muslims—they function as “community centres”, places where Muslims pray, socialise,
educate their children, prepare the dead for burial, get married, and collect money for the
needy. The mosque has had an indirect impact on the types of businesses operating in the
area –butchers, restaurants, Islamic schools, specialty clothing stores.
Local Planning Authorities and “Places of Worship”
Local planning authorities have not adopted policies specifically for “places of worship”.
Development proposals are assessed against stringent Council regulations contained
within existing planning instruments. The presence of religious communities who
attend places of worship several times a week, or even each day, requires a rethink.
Most of the tension surrounding Masjid Al Farooq is due to traffic and parking conges-
tion. The presence of an open-level railway crossing less than 50 metres from the mosque
is a major contributory factor to traffic in the late afternoon/early evening when multiple
activities take place at the mosque site at the same time that there are more frequent stops
at the railway crossing. The obvious solution is to address this crossing. City Plan 2000
mentions “the construction of an overpass and redirection of Beenleigh Road at the exist-
ing railway level crossing”. However, according to the BCC website this has been put on
hold. It is the contention of this study that an overpass will resolve the bulk of the traffic
problems, congestion, and even parking around the mosque. The area at the crossing
would become a cul-de-sac, eliminating traffic build up and create additional parking
spaces. In the absence of such a bold step, traffic problems could flare into unnecessary
confrontation that may be portrayed as religious in nature.
Planners and Social Commitment
Development decisions are taken by local councils. Council rejected the two entrances
that lead to the Wally Tate Park in 2011. Given that many attendees park at the
Kuraby Station and Wally Tate Park, these unobtrusive entrances would facilitate move-
ment in and out of the mosque and eliminate pedestrian traffic on Beenleigh Road. A
query to the Council was met with the explanation that it is against policy to allow
private property entry to Council land. This is short sighted in the context of this particu-
lar development. Leonie Sandercock’s call to planners to adopt a socially committed
approach that will make a difference to the quality of life of the heterogeneous peoples
who live in most cities in the world today is apposite.
44
Leaving the status quo will com-
pound the situation. An earnest attempt must be made to address the problem.
The mosque already exists and the problems cannot be resolved by ignoring them.
Some action has to be taken. In the short term, it is recommended that plans to construct
an overpass in Kuraby be resuscitated; parking problems be addressed through creative
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thinking, such as building suitable additional parking in the car park area of the Wally
Tate Park or extending the parking facility at the railway station. Mosque authorities
can approach the Council with such a proposal. The Federal government could also be
approached for funding from one of its programmes aimed at community improvement.
Once additional parking has been provided, a resident parking permit scheme can be
introduced in nearby streets to prevent mosque attendees from inconveniencing resi-
dents. Mosque authorities should engage with the local community about the mosque
and its role in the community. In the mid-to-long term, the local Muslim community
in Kuraby should engage with the Council with a view to locating a suitable site to
build a second mosque because the Muslim population is continuing to increase and
the present mosque cannot accommodate them all.
Embracing Multiculturalism
More generally, planners should receive training on the cultural and religious needs of
minority groups. Furthermore, development requests should be seen as validation of min-
ority cultural rights and not simply as a matter of urban policy. This is a delicate task, for
recognition of diversity should not essentialise religious groupings. For example, there is
concern about Muslims congregating in certain areas. This thesis has argued that this is
to a great extent driven by the need to reside in proximity to a mosque. Thus building of
smaller but more mosques that are spread out may reduce Muslim residential concen-
tration. This raises the thorny issue of funding, for many Muslims are recent migrants or
refugees, and lack resources to build and sustain such facilities. In the interests of long-
term cohesion it may be a worthwhile project for the Federal government to consider
some form of subsidisation. “Town hall”style discussions involving planners, local politi-
cal authorities, mosque management, and members of the local community, to discuss
proposed development applications may help to avert potential conflicts.
Conclusion
The City Plan should make provision specifically for places of worship. The contention is
that all planning applications are treated per diem. Even though places of worship may
attract significant number of people into an area, it is different to an application to
build a stadium or park or clubs. The traffic generated is different, the volume of
traffic is different, and even noise level emitted by these venues differ significantly.
Such places form an integral part of the community and can be crucial at a time when
political leaders seem to be placing emphasis on family and social cohesions. Marginalis-
ing places of worship by placing them on the outskirts of suburbs will not be sending out
the correct message—they should be visible and accessible. There are no easy solutions.
One possibility applicable mainly to Greenfield sites is to set aside land in residential areas
(just as land is set aside for parks and recreational facilities) for places of worship and
assess them on the basis of performance criteria. Another approach may be to require
developers to set aside land for community uses in addition to parks. More thought
needs to go into working out the exact mechanics of this. Changing design and architec-
ture of such building sites makes people uncomfortable because it is a sign of cultural
change. Assessments must ensure that the size, type, and architecture of any development
is consistent with the built form of the surrounding area and that sufficient car parking,
landscaping, setbacks, etc. is accommodated, so that mosques do not appear as out of
character.
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NOTES
1. L. Sandercock, Sustaining Canada’s Multicultural Cities: Learning from the Local, Ottawa, ON: Breakfast on
the Hill Seminar Series, 2004. Quoted in Narcisa Medianu, “Diversity and Urban Citizenship in Cana-
dian Cities”, Paper presented at the Simons Foundation Harbor Centre, 15 November 2007. Accessed
May 18, 2011. <http://journals.sfu.ca/humanitas/index.php/humanities/article/viewFile/18/22>.
2. P. Kivisto, Multiculturalism in a Global Society, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2002, pp. 34–43. See
also A. Moran, Australia. Nation, Belonging, and Globalization, London: Routledge, 2005.
3. A. Saeed, Islam in Australia, New South Wales: Allen & Unwin, 2003.
4. See S. Poynting, “The Irresistible Rise of Islamophobia. Anti-Muslim Racism in the UK and Austra-
lia Before 11 September 2001”,Journal of Sociology, Vol. 43, No. 1, 2007, pp. 61–86 for a discussion
on the rise of anti-Muslim racism in Australia in the period from 1989 to 2001. The paper argues that
the rise of Islamophobia after 11 September built on existing patterns of racism, which evolved from
anti-Asianism to anti-Arab racism to anti-Muslim racism. Also see N. Kabir, Muslims in Australia.
Immigration, Race Relations and Cultural History, London: Kegan Paul, 2005. For Kabir, perceived
threats posed by Muslims includes them taking jobs, lowering the standard of living by “contami-
nating”Australia through intermarriage, and rebelling in the future. Kabir concludes that: when it
comes to consideration of race, religion and nationalism what overrides race and religion is national
security. [Some] will continue to discriminate against Muslims as an out-group, as long as the con-
flict with members of the Islamic world, such as Iraq or militant Islamic groups, persists (p. 330).
5. H. Rane, N. Mahmood, B. Isakhan, and M. Abdalla, “Towards Understanding what Australia’s
Muslims Really Think”,Journal of Sociology, Vol. 1, No. 21, 2011, pp. 1–21.
6. S. Zaimeche, Education in Islam: The Role of the Mosque, Manchester: Foundation for Science,
Technology, and Civilisation, 2002. Accessed October 10, 2011. http://www.muslimheritage.com/
uploads/ACF2C23.pdf.
7. H. Mourad, “The Development and Land Use Impacts of Local Mosques, Bachelor of Planning
thesis”, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, pp. 36–38.
8. L. B. Bugg, “Religious Freedom and the Right to the City: Local Government Planning and the Rejec-
tion of Islamic Schools in Sydney, Australia”, Irmgard-Coninx Stiftung Twelfth Berlin Roundtables
on Transnationality: Cultural Pluralism Revisited, Religious and Linguistic Freedoms. Berlin,
Germany, International juried essay competition, 2009. Accessed August 5, 2011. <http://www.
google.co.za/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4SKPT_enZA405ZA405&q=Religious
+Freedom+and+the+Right+to+the+City%3a>.
9. E. Murray, “Sydney Islamic School Rejected”,Sydney Morning Herald, 2 June 2009. Accessed August
15, 2011. <http://www.smh.com.au/national/sydney-islamic-school-rejected-20090602 btfo.html#ixz-
z1Ueuc7B75>.
10. K. M. Dunn, N. Klocker, and T. Salabay, “Contemporary Racism and Islamaphobia in Australia:
Racializing Religion”,Ethnicities, Vol. 7, No. 7, 2007, pp. 564–589.
11. Ibid.
12. P. Gordon and H. W. Richardson, “A Critique of New Urbanism”, Paper presented in November
1998, Meeting of American Collegiate Schools of Planning, Pasadena, CA. Accessed May 11,
2011. <http://www-bcf.usc.edu/pgordon/urbanism.html>.
13. L. Sandercock, Cosmopolis II: Mongrel Cities of the 21st Century, London: Continuum, 2003,
pp. 211–212.
14. L. Bugg and N. Gurran, “Urban Planning Process and Discourses in the Refusal of Islamic Schools in
Sydney, Australia”,Australian Planner, Vol. 48, No. 4, 2011, pp. 281–191.
15. “Statutory”means that plans are required to follow a legislated planning process that includes man-
datory components, and is afforded a suite of non-mandatory implementation tools (DIP).
16. Department of Local Government and Planning, Queensland. Accessed July—September 2011. <http://
dlgp.qld.gov.au/>.
17. E. Vickerson, correspondence by email, 25 July 2011, <Eve.Vickerson@brisbane.qld.gov.au>.
18. IDAS is an acronym for Integrated Development Assessment System which was established by the
IPA 1997. This regulatory system establishes a common statutory system for making, assessing,
and deciding development applications, regardless of the nature of the development, its location in
Queensland or the authority administering the regulatory control.
19. Interviewed by Goolam Vahed.
20. Brisbane City Council 2011, The Brisbane City Plan (2000), Chapter 4. Accessed June—September
2011. <http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/planning-building/tools-forms/city-plan-2000/city-plan-2000
document/index.htm>.
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21. The first group of trustees was made up of the Sabdiya brothers Suleman, Hoosen, Yusuf, and Sikan-
der of South Africa; Iqbal Omar, Memood Nathi, Hajee Badalla, and brothers Yusuf, Ayub, and
Ebrahim Limbada of Zambia, Iqbal Patel of Zambia, and Ahmed and Yusuf Hussein of Zimbabwe.
22. Jama’at Khana translates literally to a “congregational place”. Jama’at means a congregation and
khana means place, hence a jamaat khanna is a place where Muslims gather to offer communal
prayer. This could be once a week to offer the Friday Jumuah prayer. For example, workers in Bris-
bane city rent premises to offer the jumuah prayer which has to be offered communally to be regarded
as jumuah. A mosque is a place dedicated permanently for prayer. It is formally designated as a mosque
by a committee in charge and has to offer the five daily prayers communally.
23. Taraweeh prayers, according to Hanafi Muslims, comprise 20 rakaats performed in pairs of two. This
prayer is performed after the nightly Esha prayer and it is customary to complete a khatm, that is, com-
plete the recitation of the entire Qur’an during the month. Thus, the person leading the prayer has to
be able to read the entire Qur’an by rote.
24. Telephonic interview, Ismail Moolla, 27 July 2011.
25. Telephonic interview with Yusuf Limbada, 19 July 2011.
26. Ibid.
27. Records obtained from the Brisbane City Council. The approval was based on plans numbered
196TP01B received 20 November 1997; 196TP02A (received 22 September 1997), 196TP03A
(received 22 September 1997), 196TP04 A (received 22 September 1997; 196WD01C (dated 6
August 1999) and 196TP01B received 20 November 1997. Frank Andrews, Assessment Manager,
Development Assessment Team South, approved the project on 9 December 1997 based on rec-
ommendation dated 3 December 1997 by Amanda Mahoney, Planning Officer, Development Assess-
ment Team South. The Islamic Society of Sunnybank Ltd. Submitted DRS/USE 707618 on 3 May
2000. “Decision Notice”under section 3.5.15 of the IPA 1997 was issued on 19 May 2000 when the
Council Delegate Decision was made. Permission was given for development under section 3.5.33 of
the IPA 1997.
28. According to most trustees, based on oral testimony, the mosque was established in 1989.
29. Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, Hansard 22 March 2004. Accessed July 14, 2011.
http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/reps/dailys/dr220304.pdf.
30. Crescents newsletter, 1 December 1998.
31. These voices were broadcast on the programmes “Encounters”on ABC Radio, produced by David
Rutledge, 28 October 2001. Accessed July 2011. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/encounter/stories/2001/
404240.htm
32. Ibid.
33. These voices were broadcast on the programmes “Encounters”on ABC Radio, produced by David
Rutledge, 28 October 2001. Accessed July 13, 2011. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/encounter/stories/
2001/404240.htm.
34. Ibid.
35. Mohamad Abdalla on Kuraby Mosque, Brisbane, “The Religion Report”, ABC Radio, 30 March
2005. Accessed July 14, 2011. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/relrpt/stories/s1339992.htm.
36. These voices were broadcast on the programmes “Encounters”on ABC Radio, produced by David
Rutledge, 28 October 2001. Accessed July 13, 2011. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/encounter/stories/
2001/404240.htm.
37. Ibid.
38. Mohamad Abdalla on Kuraby Mosque, Brisbane, “The Religion Report”, ABC Radio, 30 March
2005. Accessed July 14, 2011 http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/relrpt/stories/s1339992.htm.
39. Pre-lodgment Meeting Minutes, 13 May 2010. http://pdonline.brisbane.qld.gov.au/MasterView/
modules/applicationmaster/default.aspx?page=wrapper&key=A003010235.
40. Table 12 in Transport, Access, Parking, and Servicing Planning Scheme Policy requires car parking
rate of 1 space per 10m2.
41. http://pdonline.brisbane.qld.gov.au/MasterView/modules/applicationmaster/default.aspx?page
=wrapper&key=A003010235.
42. Dunn, “Contemporary Racism and Islamophobia in Australia”,op. cit.
43. The survey was carried out by Yasmeen Vahed in 2011 for her honours thesis for her Degree in Town
Planning at the university of Queensland.
44. Sandercock, Cosmopolis II, op. cit., p. 233.
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