Just a few examples of where your one-eyed, far-right, über Christian politics is taking us, Prime Minister…..
There’s a hashtag doing the rounds on Twitter – #wearascarfday – urging people to don a scarf in support of Australia’s Muslims. There’s a perception – and not just amongst well-meaning lefties – that life is about to become very difficult for our Muslim community…..
for the Muslim community, the majority of which is peaceful and happy to be a member of Tony Abbott’s “Team Australia”, the raids and the rhetoric around them are not so easy to accept.
Many Muslims see themselves as unwanted, viewed with suspicion, the enemy. They see their kids, especially the males, being singled out and watched, along with ridiculously simplistic and offensive media reports about their communities and their way of life and protests about the intended building of mosques as well as arguments mounted by ignorant politicians (well, one in particular) about the need to ban the burqa.
Fear creates intolerance and since 9/11 Muslims have lived with this.
Yet still, when genuinely frightening evidence is offered of a genuinely frightening threat to innocent people, as it was during yesterdays dramatic raids, people ask why young Australian Muslims are so angry they gravitate towards a militant cult masquerading as a religious movement and claiming to be a state. What they don’t do, is tell themselves that the number of these angry young men is very small and that the vast majority of Muslims are peacefully living in the Australian community, as productive and aspirational as the next non-Muslim family.
Nor do they accept that being Muslim, even in largely tolerant Australia, can be a gruelling life experience.
At one point
police were booed as they ordered a protester to get down from a stage as he
spoke of beheadings and his fears over a mosque.
Protesters
questioned what happened to freedom of speech in Australia.
The crowd
cheered as supporters lifted the man onto their shoulders so he could continue
speaking.
Among those
protesting the mosque were One Nation, Christian bikie gangs, opponents of
halal meat certification as well as representatives from some local churches.
The Sydney Morning Herald 21 September 2014:
Mareeba mayor Tom Gilmore said the mosque had been part of the community since the 1950s and labelled the incident “entirely unacceptable”.
“I don’t think it’s ever been defaced before,” he said.
Cr Gilmore said a large group of “highly respected” Muslims had lived in the community since the 1920s.
DESPITE pleas for calm from the Queensland Premier and senior police, Muslims – particularly women – have been targeted in a series of hate attacks.
The Sunday Mail can reveal Muslim women are being singled out, including one victim who had coffee thrown in her face while she was stopped at traffic lights south of Brisbane.
The woman said a man in a car pulled up beside her and callously doused her in coffee before driving off along Beenleigh Rd.
“I was terrified,’’ she said. “I feel unsafe. I feel like a stranger in my own country.”
Other Muslim women have been abused and threatened, with one told to take off her headscarf – or hijab – at West End by a man who wanted to burn it.
The women did not want to be identified, and all believe they are “collateral damage” from recent police anti-terrorism raids which have fuelled fear and suspicion across the nation.
Sarah, 30, said she’d been waiting outside a shop in Logan Rd at Underwood with a 12-year-old girl when insults were hurled at her by a man riding past on a pushbike.
“He yelled f--- jihad, f--- off, go back home you c--- and continued to verbally abuse us,’’ she said.
In the next 20 minutes she was abused twice by other men. “It’s quite frightening to hear such vile language and hatred. I was fearful,’’ she said.
Stacey, 27, said she had copped offensive insults online.
“I’m a seventh generation Australian,’’ she said. “My family are as Australian as you can get and I’m scared.”
A CATHOLIC priest has been criticised by some of his own parishioners for his attempts to douse the fires between protesters for and against a mosque in Maroochydore.
Father Joe Duffy, the Maroochydore Parish priest, wrote a letter to the Daily apologising for the "absurd and offensive demonstration" last Saturday outside the Stella Maris Church.
But his heartfelt letter didn't strike a happy chord with some members of his church.
Father Duffy said he had received a letter from one parishioner warning he was inciting further "beheadings" and "chopping nuns' breasts off".
As images of the raids are beamed across Australia, far right groups are hoping for a return of the violence against Muslims seen during the Cronulla riots, writes Andy Fleming.
Last week’s police raids on properties in Brisbane and Sydney, reportedly the largest “anti-terror” raids in Australian history, have given anti-Muslim activists in Australia an enormous boost. Understood as representing dramatic confirmation of the threat posed to Australia by Islam, the raids also placed Islamophobic groups in the spotlight, chief among them the Australian Defence League (ADL).
Speaking on ABC’s Q&A on Monday night, one Muslim woman reported having received death and rape threats from members of the ADL….
An Islamic
school in Sydney’s south-west was targeted by a man wielding a knife.
Police were
searching for the man who reportedly entered Al-Faisal college in Minto just
after 2pm on Thursday, asked if it was a “Muslim school” and threatened a
female teacher and student with a knife.
Primary
school students hid under their desks while those from the high school were
gathered in a prayer hall as the school went into lockdown, one mother said.
The mother,
who did not wish to be named, said she was greeted by a swarm of police when
arriving to pick up her children.
“I am still
pretty much in shock,” the mother said. “I am keeping my younger two [children]
home tomorrow. One doesn’t want to go back there.”
Although most
schools are on holidays, classes there finish on Friday and students get an
extra week’s holidays later in the year, she said.....
A 19-YEAR-OLD
man wrongly identified by Fairfax Media as terrorism suspect Numan Haider says
he fears leaving his house.
ABU Bakar
Alam, 19, a Year 12 student who works part-time at a fast food restaurant, said
the ordeal has turned his life upside down.
"I'm
really scared," he told SBS Radio.
"I can't
go anywhere. I haven't been out all day. I can't do work, I've cancelled my
shift. I don't know when I'll be back at school and work.
"I've
had such a good name as a student, as a worker. It's a terrible thing to
happen."
Mr Alam said
his grandfather moved to Australia from Afghanistan but returned to help
rebuild the war-torn nation. He died in a suicide bombing in 2006.
"We came
here to have a better life, better future and not be known as terrorists,"
he said.
Mr Alam said
he was shocked, then angered, that Fairfax Media had incorrectly identified him
as the man shot dead following an altercation with anti-terror police outside
Endeavour Hills police station on Tuesday.
"I told
my dad and my whole family was really angry, upset for accusing my family, for
the bad image which we've never had."…
A member of
the Australian Defence Force who
told police he was attacked by two men of Middle Eastern appearance
outside his north-western Sydney home has now withdrawn his complaint.
NSW Police
issued a statement on Friday announcing the "allegation of assault has now
been withdrawn".
"NSW
Police will continue to examine the circumstances that led to the allegation
being brought to their attention," the statement said.
The
41-year-old man told police he was threatened and assaulted by two men while
wearing his full uniform at Bella Vista at 6.30am on Thursday.
The man, who
suffered minor bruising, reported the matter to police and then attended Kings
Cross police station in person later on Thursday.
He described
his attackers as being of Middle Eastern appearance.
Defence force
chief Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin apologised for the incident.
"On
behalf of the Australian Defence Force, I would like to apologise to the
Australian community and in particular the Middle Eastern community for any
angst this has caused," he told reporters in Canberra.
New South Wales police have been moved to reassure
Australians that text messages claiming members of Islamic State (Isis) are
knocking on people’s doors and marking Christian houses are a hoax, as concerns
grow about the threat the extremist group poses.
The text message
states: “There are members if Isis going door knocking on homes. They greet you
with ‘Salam Alaykom’, and then pretend they are trying to collect money for
orphans. They come with a black folder and ask you if you want to donate. I
have just had one approach me at home just 2 hours ago. Please - do NOT Talk to
them or open for them.”
