Muslim policies divide party
Taghred Chandab
Sydney Morning Herald
January 13, 2008
A SENIOR Christian Democrat says the party is bitterly split over calls to end Muslim migration and close all Islamic schools in NSW.
The party's deputy president, Gordon Moyes, has called on the party to consider electing a new leader if national president Reverend Fred Nile can not “see the issue in a new light”.
In a statement posted on his website, Dr Moyes slammed the anti-Muslim policy, saying it was “made on the run” before last year's state election.
“Nothing has divided the Christian Democratic Party as much as public statements and publications calling for a moratorium on Muslim immigration to this country, and the closure of Muslim schools,” he said.
“This was not a policy that came about through careful debate and prayer by Christian Democrat members.
“It was an idea issued in a press release by Mr Nile during his campaign to be elected at the last state election. The issue of the closure of Islamic Schools came about through another press release by Mr Nile prior to the federal election.”
Mr Nile has continued his anti-Muslim attack and now leads a campaign against the Quranic Society's proposal to build a Muslim school for 1200 students near Camden.
Mr Nile, who founded the party in the 1970s, has denied the split. He said the party voted for the 10-year moratorium on Muslim migration and the schools policy was supported by its members though it had not yet been adopted.
But Dr Moyes said party members were angry that it had promoted such a policy.
“It is certainly not democratic in its methodology or Christian in its theological application,” he said on his website.
