By Brendan Rees, Cam Lacadou-Wells, and Kyra Gillespie
A Casey councillor has been accused of “making a fool of himself” after a minute silence was held for victims of the Christchurch massacre.
During a council meeting on Tuesday 19 March councillors and the public gallery stood for a minute’s silence following the horrific shooting in New Zealand last Friday.
However, Cr Sam Aziz controversially then called for a minute’s silence to honour the lives of those lost in a recent Nigerian attack and a terrorist attack in the Philippines.
“It’s imperative upon us to also acknowledge everyone who has perished,” Cr Aziz said.
“I’m sure that all the members of the Muslim community present here in the gallery would unhesitatingly join me in honouring their memory in this way.”
After a minute’s silence, Cr Aziz rose again in the council chamber requesting councillors to take a further minute silence “to actually honour the memory of those that we haven’t remembered and those that have got no one to remember them.”
Maureen of Narre Warren North, who attended the meeting, said she and her husband were “appalled” by Cr Aziz’s behaviour.
“He got up and made an absolute fool of himself and council as far as we were concerned,” she said.
Maureen, who asked not to publish her surname, said they “had no problem” in paying tribute to the Christchurch victims.
“Obviously it upset the other gentleman (Cr Aziz) and he had to put all these other things which took all the relevance of the first minute silence,” she said.
“It was a waste of time; it was disrespectful in the end for everybody.
“It just didn’t make sense. It reminded us of a Monty Python skit.
“I’ve spoken to Councillor Crestani and she said yes she was appalled and the Mayor was also upset and it would never happen again,” Maureen added.
Adam Sadiqzai, a community leader and a proud Muslim, said he was disappointed by Cr Aziz’s comments.
“It’s so disheartening that we have paid, elected representatives that are divisive and politically point scoring at a time that’s so inappropriate,” Mr Sadiqzai said.
“Those kinds of comments undermine the gravity of what’s happened in New Zealand and normalising these horrible events. They’re essentially saying, ‘Well, it’s okay that happened, because all of this happened’. It just makes no sense to me.
“No life is more valuable than another. Our leaders should be preaching compassion, love and acceptance rather than hate and division.”
After all three minute silences, Cr Aziz told the chamber: “We will take a minute silence every time we need to grieve collectively with humanity and share the sorrow of those that are simply innocent victims of rampant crime.”
Cr Wayne Smith said the further minute silences by Cr Aziz seemed a “bit of an attempt” to diminish the Christchurch tribute.
“You’d have to ask Sam (Aziz) about his motives,” he said. “I was hoping it would be handled differently.”
He praised the community outpouring of support for local mosques after the Christchurch events.
To the credit of councillors, no opposition was expressed against the minute’s silence, he said.
“I’m sure there were some who were not happy about it.
“Everyone in the gallery participated in it. The outcome was OK in the end.
“It was the right thing to do.”
Mayor Amanda Stapledon has been contacted for comment.
