I am surprised that Mr Sremchevich feels able to comment on the proposal, since it has not yet been lodged with Council. This proposal will now not come before Council until after the election on 13 September. As a Councillor I will consider all relevant matters in relation to the application. An important issue which is immediately apparent would be the condition of Macquarie Grove Road and Kirkham Lane, and the impact of increased traffic on those two roadways and their intersections with Cobbitty Road and Camden Valley Way respectively. I don't think we should start "ticking boxes" until we see the detailed proposal and reports from Council's professional staff.

Muslim Youths Muslim youths are angry, frustrated and extremist because they have been mis-educated and de-educated by the British schooling. Muslim children are confused because they are being educated in a wrong place at a wrong time in state schools with non-Muslim monolingual teachers. They face lots of problems of growing up in two distinctive cultural traditions and value systems, which may come into conflict over issues such as the role of women in the society, and adherence to religious and cultural traditions. The conflicting demands made by home and schools on behaviour, loyalties and obligations can be a source of psychological conflict and tension in Muslim youngsters. There are also the issues of racial prejudice and discrimination to deal with, in education and employment. They have been victim of racism and bullying in all walks of life. According to DCSF, 56% of Pakistanis and 54% of Bangladeshi children has been victims of bullies. The first wave of Muslim migrants were happy to send their children to state schools, thinking their children would get a much better education. Than little by little, the overt and covert discrimination in the system turned them off. There are fifteen areas where Muslim parents find themselves offended by state schools. The right to education in one’s own comfort zone is a fundamental and inalienable human right that should be available to all people irrespective of their ethnicity or religious background. Schools do not belong to state, they belong to parents. It is the parents’ choice to have faith schools for their children. Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. There is no place for a non-Muslim teacher or a child in a Muslim school. There are hundreds of state schools where Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be designated as Muslim community schools. An ICM Poll of British Muslims showed that nearly half wanted their children to attend Muslim schools. There are only 143 Muslim schools. A state funded Muslim school in Birmingham has 220 pupils and more than 1000 applicants chasing just 60. Majority of anti-Muslim stories are not about terrorism but about Muslim culture--the hijab, Muslim schools, family life and religiosity. Muslims in the west ought to be recognised as a western community, not as an alien culture. Iftikhar Ahmad, londonschoolofislamics

From my reading that letter doesn't look like an outright premature endorsement of the plans, so much as an endorsement of the processes undertaken so far - consulting with Camden Council before lodging a DA was something the Qur'anic Society never bothered to do for their school at Cawdor. Our local member Geoff Corrigan gave his early opinions on the church's school plans last week in your paper - without any accompanying story attempting to embarrass him or make him look silly.

I've read your newspaper storey and now the web site and after reading the whole letter from the group, their letter makles absolute sense. The muslim school size and site was wrong fdor camden and anyone looking at his letter would know what was right and what wasn't. i dont like your constant muslim sob stories. why dont you print this letter in your paper instead of hiding it on the web site?

Who really cares what the Camden/Macarthur "Residence" group thinks about anything, let alone the proposed catholic school.(you would think he would know what his own group stood for!!)

This individual, Emil Sremchevich, is obviously out to lunch. The comments he gave to SMH were riddled with arrogance and delusion. He says, speaking on his choice to endorse a Catholic school and not a Muslim school: "Why is that racist? Why is it discriminatory? It's very simple: people like some things but don't like other things. Some of us like blondes, some of us like brunettes. Some of us like Fords, some of us like Holdens. Why is it xenophobic just because I want to make a choice? If I want to like some people and not like other people, that's the nature of the beast." How did anybody ever agree to let someone who is capable of spurting off such platitudes to lead an organization, albeit one that really doesn't matter in the bigger scheme of things? I'm not going to use the "r" word, but I will say that people like him are a scurge on society.

Stremchevich gives Camden its racist label. (see SMH 9/9/08) We do not want him or his opiniated minority group to speak on our behalf. Residents against Camden/Macarthur "Residence" Group

LBW, if no one cares about the CMRG why did the adveriser do a full web story and refuse Mr Schremchevich's request to print his letter to the editor in full in the paper? do you think this is honest journalism?

the fact that this stupid council refuse to build a muslim school for bemusing reasons but let a catholic school get built is one of the biggest outrages people who protested or were against the bulding of this school should be ashmaed with themselves.

Maybe we need to review the meanings of "A Fair Go" and "Equal Opportunity" in Australia... or Camden for that matter.