What English philosopher Roger Scruton calls the modern culture of self-repudiation arrived last week in the Sydney beachside suburb of Bondi.
The NSW Land and Environment Court decided to block the construction of a new synagogue near Bondi Beach because of fears it might attract a terrorist attack. Waverley Council, in the Prime Minister’s electorate of Wentworth, agreed that a synagogue created unacceptable risks to users and other members of the public. On that basis, we may as well shut up shop in the West, tell the Islamist terrorists they have won and start buying black Islamic State flags to signify our complete cultural capitulation.
Waverley Council, best known for police-state-style recycling, and running bushcare groups and tours through Waverley cemetery, has tried to deny any role in the decision. Freedom to practise religion? Whoa, we’ll kick that one upstairs. But there’s plenty of culpability to go around here. As the court’s decision makes clear, the council claims the site is unsuitable for a synagogue because of the potential risk to users and other members of the general public. And the court agreed.
Jewish leaders are correct to condemn these craven decisions by the council and the court as an infringement on the ability of Jews to practise their faith. Local rabbi Yehoram Ulman, spokesman for Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe, which sought permission to build the synagogue, says: “It implies that no Jewish organisation should be allowed to exist in residential areas. It stands to stifle Jewish existence and activity in Sydney and indeed, by creating a precedent, the whole of Australia, and by extension rewarding terrorism.”
Read the full article by Janet Albrechtsen at The Australian (subscription only).