Far-right group holds anti-Islam rally in Melbourne

The protest was organised by the The True Blue Crew, an anti-immigration group in Australia

Nearly 200 hundred people gathered in Melbourne’s outer west to protest against the rise of Islam in the area.

The protest was organised by  The True Blue Crew, an anti-immigration group, at Hannah Watts Park, on High Street at Melton, about 35 kilometres west from Melbourne's city centre.



The group is protesting against the “rise of Islam in Melton” after a mosque was approved in the suburb last year. True Blue Crew leader, Kane Miller, said the group was fighting the “Muslim development” in the area. “We don’t think a Muslim-only estate is a wise thing,” Miller said.

“It’s a wake-up call. If you want to be in Australia, you should have to live like an Australian.”

Further, United Patriots Front leader Blair Cottrell said he wanted to “raise awareness about the Islam-only estate going up” in Melton. “There’s a foreign power establishing itself in the community,” Cottrell said. “It’s my job to let people in the community that it’s happening.”

However, opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the protests were divisive and unnecessary. Speaking to reporters in Melbourne he said: "Australia is a diverse country and I don't believe in fomenting religious paranoia or hatred — that's not the way this country works together"



Earlier this year, a firebomb attack outside an Australian mosque destroyed a car parked outside a mosque and Islamic college in the Perth suburb of Thornlie.

Anti-Islam sentiment became more prominent in Australia last year as concerns mounted over homegrown extremism and citizens travelling to Iraq and Syria to support militant groups.

This article originally appeared on Herald Sun.