A handful of activists are operating a website under the banner of the collapsed anti-capitalist movement Occupy Melbourne to launch bizarre attacks on Islam and the plan for Bendigo’s first mosque.

The occupymelbourne.net website that recently published a series of anti-Islamic posts, branding the religion “a fascist scam” does not represent the 2011 movement whose name it has taken, prominent former occupiers say.

The website has described the Bendigo mosque as a “fascist fortress” that will attract “paedophiles and murderers”, arguing it would also be bad for the economy as “Muslims have huge rates of unemployment and are among the least healthy people in any society".

The authors of the website have also taken swipes at Tony Abbott, bureaucrats, media organisations and other activists, but it was the aggressive attacks on Islam that shocked former activists and non-activists who had once been involved in the Occupy movement.

A planning application for the mosque was passed by a majority of Bendigo councillors last week, drawing heated opposition from conversative campaigners who have offered support and funds to locals to fight the decision.