The far-right group involved in an ugly rally in Melbourne last month will take its anti-Islam message to Bendigo next weekend to protest the building of the town’s first mosque.
The United Patriots Front has told supporters that Bendigo would “become a caliphate, unless we stand in the way”, and will hold a protest on Saturday against the planned mosque.
Counter-protest group No Room for Racism say it will be in Bendigo on the same day, with about 1200 people pledging on Facebook to confront the UFP and “stop the racists and neo-Nazis from spreading hate speech”.
The rivals were involved in protests in Melbourne on July 18, which saw violent scuffles break out and Victoria Police deploy more than 400 police officers, use capsicum spay and condemn the behaviour of both groups.
The mosque planned for the outskirts of Bendigo survived a legal challenge from about 15 Bendigo residents earlier this month, when the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal upheld its planning permit.
The UPF has since launched an escalating campaign against the planned prayer, sports and community centre.
A recent video posted to social media, but since taken down, shows UPF organiser Neil Erikson alongside five severed pig heads, describing them as “five Muslim citizens from Bendigo”.
Mr Erikson, who in 2014 wasfound guilty of stalking a Melbourne rabbi in a series of anti-semtic phone calls, and another man then throw a pig’s head to one another like a rugby ball.
The UPF is a splinter group of the anti-Islam group Reclaim Australia and has previously pledged solidarity with Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn.
The group has also produced videos featuring Australia First Party chairman Jim Saleam, who was jailed for three years in the 1990s for organising a shotgun attack on the home of an African National Congress representative.
The UPF has also announced plans to rally outside mosques around Australia on October 10, to coincide with protests against Islam in the United States, Canada and Europe organised by ex-US marine Jon Rizheimer.
The proposed Bendigo mosque has been a contentious issue in the town for over a year, with black balloons anonymously tied to houses owned by local councillors who supported the proposal in June 2014.
Fairfax Media revealed that the Q Society, which describes itself as “Australia’s leading Islam-critical movement”, also held a public meeting in Bendigo in May last year to advise residents how to oppose the mosque.