Sunday, May 28, 2006

100 Points Of Identification

WESTPAC wants the leaders of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils to prove they were legally elected before it lets new executives access the organisation's bank accounts:

With five of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils' nine state bodies rebelling against the new eight-member board and insisting on fresh elections, the bank is demanding clarification about who is actually in charge.

"We would like a copy of the minutes giving confirmation of the members elected and therefore their authority to appoint signatories to bank accounts," says a letter from the bank dated May 22 and marked "urgent action required".
Westpac only found out AFIC was in disarray from the media. The letter read in part:

"It has come to our attention from newspaper media ... that the elections that were held end of April 06 for new AFIC board members may be in dispute."
Westpac might not have found out at all. AFIC was trying to stop The Australian from publishing stories about them, but:

Yesterday, AFIC failed in a bid in the Victorian Supreme Court to gag The Australian from publishing stories about the organisation after winning an interim injunction last week.
One dares say the bank would like AFIC's first action to be a deposit - they're almost a quarter of a million dollars overdrawn, despite deriving an income from:

...rent on land that houses its five Muslim schools across the country.
plus a very nice annual handout from the public purse:

Malek Fahd, AFIC's largest school in western Sydney, receives $11 million a year in public funds, more than any other private school in NSW.
Eleven million dollars a year.

I'd be interested to know if any other private school in the entire country gets that sort of ride on the public dime.

I also wonder if the private school/religious organisation haters on the Left, particularly NSW Labor MP Ian West or Federal Labor MP Warren Snowdon, will jump up and down over this with the same enthusiasm with which they have attacked the Hillsong Christian Church over a variety of grants for work in the community in spite of no impropriety being proven).

One thinks not.

-- Nick

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