"My history is buried there," Len English, from the Friends of St Thomas Church, said.

"My grandparents, my parents, my aunts, uncles, my brother, cousins. Our family goes back 200 years in the district. They came to Camden Park and stayed there."

The Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA) has paid $1.5 million for the St Thomas Anglican Cemetery at Narellan for the graveyard near Camden.

"The church had no right to sell the cemetery land in the first place," said English, who has 33 relatives buried at the cemetery.

"I'm going in to see the local member, if not the Mayor of Camden."

The cemetery, which has capacity for 1900 single plots, has space for almost 4000 bodies.

"We all know they've got to bury their dead somewhere but I think they could have looked around and probably found some ground like every other religion has done in this area," said English.

"We've got a Catholic cemetery, we've got a Church of England cemetery, we've got a general cemetery just out of Camden.

"I've got nothing against migrants but when they want to take over your cemetery …"

Urgent

But LAM president Keysar Trad said the graveyard was of urgent need for Muslims as they are running out of space at other cemeteries.

"It's very difficult actually to get other space," he said.

"We had to purchase this from other religious groups and they have their needs."

Trad said the state government has failed to allocate any land for Sydney Muslims to bury their dead.

"So we have to bury our dead somewhere and naturally, we have to find an alternate site and these days, we have to pay for these sites," he said, pledging to protect existing graves at the cemetery.

Camden was the scene of a fierce opposition from locals to plans to build a Muslim school in the town.

The locals, however, gave blessings for the construction of a Catholic school in the area.

Camden is home to about 150 Muslim families, according to census figures.

In post 9/11 Australia, Muslims, who make up 1.5 percent of Australia's 20-million population and who have been in the country for more than 200 years, have been haunted with suspicion and have had their patriotism questioned.

A 2007 poll taken by the Issues Deliberation Australia (IDA) think-tank found that Australians basically see Islam as a threat to the Australian way of life.

A recent governmental report revealed that Muslims are facing deep-seated Islamophobia and race-based treatment like never before.