You may remember the story of Camden NSW, and how the residents opposed an Islamic school.

I think religious schools are a horrible idea because schools should be promoting education, not promoting the myths of a religious community. And I’d hate to see the public educational system undermined because religions are funding a separate system that pulls students away. (Not that I’m one to talk — my kids go to a Steiner school that I pay for.)

Of course, this situation’s a little complicated. Mainstream Christian religions do a lot with education in Australia, the schools tend to be of high quality, and in most cases the religion is toned down. And it always seemed to me that the Camden protests were based on racism and xenophobia rather than on secular principles. Call me crazy.

The heads of two pigs have been found on stakes at the site of a proposed Islamic school in Sydney’s south-west.

About 6am today, police were called to the site, on Cawdor Road, Camden, where they found the animal remains and a number of other items, a police spokesman said.

The pig heads had been “elevated off the ground” using stakes, he said.

An Australian flag was also strung up between the stakes, according to AAP.

Maybe they were suggesting that the school should study Lord of the Flies.

Well, last week those same Camden folks actually approved a Catholic school.

The Camden residents’ group that fought a Muslim society’s proposal for a school in rural Camden has welcomed a Catholic organisation’s plans to build a school nearby because “Catholics are part of our community”.

The president of the Camden/Macarthur Residents’ Group, Emil Sremchevich, said the Catholic school plan “ticked all the right boxes”, even though he is yet to see its development application.

“Catholics are part of our community so we should be supporting it on this basis alone. We have to welcome them,” Mr Sremchevich told the Herald. “To become part of a community, you need to live in the community. You can’t just turn up.”

Hmmm. ‘Sremchevich’. That’s a funny name. Y’ain’t from around here, are ya?

The Quranic Society said Mr Sremchevich’s comments were racist but he rejected that tag. “Why is that racist? Why is it discriminatory? It’s very simple: people like some things but don’t like other things. Some of us like blondes, some of us like brunettes. Some of us like Fords, some of us like Holdens. Why is it xenophobic just because I want to make a choice? If I want to like some people and not like other people, that’s the nature of the beast.”

He answered his own question. When people make choices that discriminate against people because of race, we call them racists.

It’s reasonable to oppose religious education, especially where this involves the indoctrination of children. But there’s no basis for these people embracing one religious school over another, except their own revolting bias.