A TRIP to Melbourne's Islamic Museum of Australia to educate members of the Bendigo community about the Islamic faith could be on the cards in the future, according to the City Of Greater Bendigo.
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City director of planning and strategy Prue Mansfield was prompted with the suggestion by radio presenter Jon Faine earlier this week during his morning show on ABC 774.
Ms Mansfield, who was talking with Mr Faine about the residents who appealed to VCAT against Bendigo council's decision to approve a permit to build a mosque, indicated the City had similar plans in the pipeline.
On Thursday Ms Mansfield said while there were no set plans in place such a bus trip was not out of the question, pending VCAT's final decision about the mosque permit.
"We'll certainly think about it," she said.
"We won't go there until a VCAT decision has been reached."
Ms Mansfield said the City could only invite community members to attend, and there was no guarantee the invite would be taken up.
"As I said to Jon, it's up to them to accept it," she said.
Mayor Peter Cox said if people demonstrated they were open to learning about different cultures and religions and wanted the trip, he would likely join the excursion.
"If people make a conscious choice about such a visit, that would be most welcomed," he said.
"If that was offered and accepted, I would perhaps go down with them.
"I would welcome such a dialogue between people with different beliefs."
Cr Cox said while educating people about matters of faith was not a role council was responsible for, it still crossed over with issues where local government did have a role to play.
"Council has a role in facilitating harmony within the community, would such an exercise try and achieve that, it could be an important role council could play," he said.
But he said education was ultimately about individual choice.
"The first thing about education or learning about different aspects of life is making a choice about whether you want to learn it or not," he said.
"If you don't want to do it, you won't learn anything."