PAUL Taylor, a former Senate candidate for Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party, has resigned from the party ahead of launching his independent bid to become Logan's mayor.
Mr Taylor, who also ran as a One Nation candidate for Capalaba in the 2017 state election, appeared with Mr Anning in a campaign video outside Holland Park Mosque to talk about "the Islamification of Australia" leading up to the 2019 federal election.
According to the 2016 Census, Muslims make up 2.6 per cent of Australians.
In the video, Mr Anning said Muslims should not be elected to Parliament while Mr Taylor invoked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as an authority on Islam to support claims it was not a peaceful religion.
"When we hear that Islam is a peace-loving and tolerant religion, by the media, we are being lied to," he said.
"When (Erdogan) hears the words 'tolerant Islam' he finds it ugly and offensive. There is no such thing as tolerant Islam. Islam is Islam.
"We need to listen when Erdogan speaks because he speaks with authority on the subject and he is the spokesperson for Islam on the world stage."
When asked this week if he stood by the comments, Mr Taylor said they were not his words.
"Those are the comments of the president of Turkey. I didn't make that up," Mr Taylor said.
"I have no authority to speak on these subjects."
Mr Taylor said he resigned from the party but did not regret his association with Mr Anning.
"I will not account for everything (Mr Anning) said as he said a lot of things I don't agree with," he said.
"The things he was standing for, a lot of it I agreed with and a lot of other things I didn't know about at the time."
The Cornubia resident, who operates a stonemasonry business, announced his candidacy and released his policy platform at a Logan Ratepayers Association meeting on Monday, October 7.
Mr Taylor pledged to freeze residential and business rates and the salaries of elected officials over the four-year term.
Other policies include compulsory impact assessments for development applications, the creation of a whistleblower hotline to investigate corruption and a Mayor's Fund for donations.
Mr Taylor told the Jimboomba Times it was up to the media to pressure council candidates to support his commitment to freeze their salaries.
"(The media) play an important role in testing the calibre and capability of people standing for office," he said.
"I'm asking for your assistance to hold them accountable and ask them: "Will you stand on a moral platform with Paul Taylor on this issue?
"I view the media as the most powerful weapon we have to give candidates the litmus test of the community."
On freezing rates, Mr Taylor said he had not looked through Logan City Council's finances, but had a track record of good budget management in the corporate sector.
"I want to be careful with what I say, but I'm pretty certain I will be able to cut back on the rates and wind them back," he said.
Mr Taylor will contest the 2020 Logan Mayoral race against Stewart Fleming, John Freeman and Brett Raguse.
