Council approval for the construction of a mosque in the regional Victorian city of Bendigo has prompted a vicious, racist backlash against Muslims, the council and anti-racist activists. Local bigots have teamed up with the fascist group United Patriots Front, which has participated in a number of anti-Muslim far right demonstrations in Melbourne since the start of the year.

But many local residents are angered that fascists are trying to use the town as a recruiting ground. They have formed a group, the Bendigo Action Coalition, which is committed to keeping fascism at bay and campaigning against racism and bigotry in the town.

Vashti Kenway from Red Flag and the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism in Melbourne spoke to activists from the group about the racist backlash and what they are doing to stop it.

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What’s the background to the current battle in Bendigo?

Bendigo doesn’t have a mosque (although there is a small room at the local university where Muslims can pray), and a planning application to build one was submitted to the council, which voted on its approval in June 2014. Prior to the council meeting, local residents began receiving anonymous letters in their mailboxes warning about the “dangers” of having a mosque in our town and telling people to attend the meeting to protest.

Some councillors who spoke out against the Islamophobic rhetoric had ominous black balloons tied to their mailboxes as implicit threats.

Despite the angry jeers of the overwhelmingly elderly, white crowd at the June 2014 meeting, the council approved the mosque in a 6-2 vote. Since then, objectors to the planned mosque have been looking for any way to prevent its construction.

The mosque was initially opposed on planning grounds, but these have been resolved. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal conducted a thorough review of the council’s decision in 2014, which considered all evidence put before it de novo. VCAT found that the existing objections were groundless and based only on opinion. In order to indicate significant social impact, some objectors simply stated that they did not want the mosque near them and it should be built closer to the CBD. VCAT found that the proposed property was suitable for the purpose and all legitimate planning concerns had been addressed.

A few local residents who regularly attend council meetings object to the mosque and aren’t necessarily associated with any group or organisation. There are several purportedly local Facebook pages that are predominantly focused on this and related issues.

Queensland-based group Restore Australia, led by former One Nation candidate Mike Holt, has sponsored Stop the Mosque in Bendigo and the Victorian chapter of the Patriot Defence League. A Restore Australia spokesperson told Fairfax Media in 2014 that they refer to these groups as “our foot soldiers on the ground”. Restore Australia also claims to have hired the lawyer to challenge VCAT. Its sub-group, Islam4Infidels, works closely with the Q Society, the Defence Conservative Action Network and Concerned Citizens chapters, tracking mosque applications to look for opportunities to oppose Islam.

What is behind the opposition to the mosque?

The opposition is based largely around the fear that it is a step towards establishing sharia law in Bendigo. Although the objectors have raised ostensibly reasonable concerns about traffic, noise and other seemingly benign planning issues, their desire to prevent the mosque from being built is fundamentally based on their fear of Muslims. And that’s not something they’re ashamed to admit.

The anti-mosque movement in Bendigo is a relatively small but extremely vocal group of local soccer mums and uneducated, old, white men. It’s the same demographic of easily frightened people who are susceptible to pro-war propaganda anywhere. The sentiment around Bendigo has always been just to ignore them or laugh at them from a distance because they seemed so ineffectual, but ever since they caught the attention of the United Patriots Front (UPF), many Bendigonians are very concerned.

There are reports of bullying and harassment towards those who support the mosque and oppose racism and Islamophobia. What is the nature of this?

The UPF’s ideology is similar to that of racist extremists abroad, such as the Greek Golden Dawn party and other neo-Nazi groups. As such, the UPF’s message often reaches an international audience. Prior to the UPF becoming involved with Bendigo’s mosque issue, discussions about this topic in places such as local news articles and Facebook pages were often heated, but overwhelmingly showed Bendigo as a welcoming and egalitarian place.

Since the UPF invited themselves to Bendigo, the people who speak out against the anti-mosque rhetoric have been opened up to a world of vitriol, violent threats and abuse from Islamophobes from literally all over the world.

I’ve received messages from people both local to the area and as far away as England calling me things such as “rat”, “disgusting” and “disgraceful” – but this is incredibly mild compared to the threatening, violent language used towards me and other participants in a recent counter-rally to the fascists. It’s not uncommon to see a string of online comments beginning with someone saying, “Can anyone ID this person?” and followed by someone else saying “I’ll kill them if I find them” and finally someone posting the person’s full name or more.

What happened at the council meeting on Wednesday, 16 September?

The council held one of its weekly meetings in the Town Hall. The meeting was attended by a large number of anti-mosque activists wearing placards with postcodes around their necks to counter any claims that they’re not from the area. While the local newspaper reported that the protesters “stormed” the meeting, the anti-mosque activists claim that they were already waiting and seated before the meeting began.

As is typical for local council meetings, the proceedings opened with questions from the public. The questions largely centred on accusing the mayor of ignoring the townsfolk. The situation became increasingly volatile with anti-mosque protesters yelling and hurling insults at the mayor. Within 45 minutes, the police arrived and began telling anti-mosque protesters to leave.

How have local anti-racist activists responded?

On 10 October, the UPF is returning to Bendigo, and it’s no longer clear whether they’re coming for the purpose of protesting the mosque or just using it as a basis for spreading their own brand of hatred. In response, the Bendigo Action Coalition has been campaigning to spread awareness of who the UPF are and why it is important to resist the presence of a group like that in our town.

As well as championing the cause through social media, we’ve been plastering our town with posters and creating and distributing pamphlets and leaflets filled with information about the rally, the UPF and how people can show their support.

Why do you think a counter-rally is important?

The UPF is planning a rally here because they know they will have people show up to listen to them. Many of the people who will attend are merely local anti-mosque activists who have been misled and overwhelmed by the saturation of pro-war, anti-Islam propaganda in the commercial news media.

In our moderately progressive town, casual Islamophobia is the most extremist ideology that’s openly espoused – but the UPF is using that as a platform to spread much more dangerous rhetoric.

We are staging a counter rally because we want everyone in the town, the country and the world to know that the people of Bendigo will never accept the presence of neo-Nazis, extremist thugs and violent bigots. Everyone else is welcome!