It's been a long while since I last posted, much has happened during that time. However, I'm now back and I will endeavour to post regularly once again. My first new topic is yet again about Haters. This time haters of all things Islamic, Melbourne Anglican vicar Mark Durie. (Read his article below.)
The Honourable Vicar comes out with the old "Islam is a religion of Hate and Violence" article, and of course all the red neck yobbos in "White Anglo Australia" come to his defence. Now don't get me wrong here, there are many good white Anglo Australians who are well educated and cultured. However the vast majority of the "Haters" in Australia come from that "White Anglo" background. Remember the Cronulla Riots ? Or better still do a survey on racism is South East Asia about Australia and who they find to be racist.
The good Vicar fails to understand the religion and makes all the usual arguments, he fails to mention that out of the thousands upon thousands of Muslims living in Australia, there has yet to be any act of terrorism. Note I say any "ACT" of terrorism, and not planned acts of terrorism.
I don't count the few Afghanis who shot up some train in the early 1900's at Broken Hill NSW in relation to World War I in a futile attempt to enter that war on the Ottoman Empire's side. I may have the details wrong there but you can check it up. Other than that one incident I don't know of any event in Australia where a Muslim group or groups have acted out an event of terrorism. (That's even if you could consider those Afghani's actions back in the early 1900's as terrorism).
However, lets look at some actual groups committing acts of terrorism in Australia ;-
Malik Mumtaz Hussain QadriSalman Taseer, shouts religious slogans while being taken away by police after he was presented at a court in Islamabad. Photo: Reuters
OPINION
Those who denounce critics of Islam should allow that, like all global faiths, Islam has its detractors and a religion will be judged on what its followers say and do.
There is a debate going on about Islam. The question being asked is: Does Islam itself - not just poverty or social exclusion - provide ideological fuel for extremism and violence?
Melbourne Anglican vicar Mark Durie.
Vicar Durie's part time job.
It is all too tempting to promote one-dimensional explanations of religious violence. Monash University doctoral candidate Rachel Woodlock said on this page on Wednesday that social exclusion was the root of Islamic radicalism.
On one hand, there are those who, like Woodlock, demand that critics of Islam be stigmatised as ignorant, right-wing racists. On the other hand, Islam's problems cannot be simplistically reduced to social or economic factors.
Violence in the name of Islam is well-attested in nations in which Muslims are dominant, and it is non-Muslim minorities that suffer the exclusion. It does not do to argue that religion has no relevance to such events.
In Muslim-majority Pakistan on December 3, Pakistani imam Maulana Yousuf Qureshi, in his Friday sermon, offered a $6000 bounty to anyone who would murder Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who has also been accused of ''blaspheming Allah''. Pakistani minister for minorities Shahbaz Bhatti and Punjab governor Salman Taseer were subsequently assassinated because of their opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy laws.
These laws are supported by Pakistan's Islamic elites. The killer of Salman Taseer, Mumtaz Qadri, was praised by religious leaders from mainstream schools of Pakistani Islam, and when he was being led to court on January 6, 400 Muslim lawyers showered him with rose petals, offering him their legal services free of charge.
There has also been a rush of recent assaults on Copts and their places of worship in Egypt, sparked by a wild tirade by a leading Egyptian cleric.
Closer to Australia, there have been well-publicised attacks on Ahmadiyah Muslims in Indonesia, including brutal murders. These were undoubtedly influenced by a theological belief that Ahmadiyah adherents are apostates from true Islam. Although prominent Indonesian leaders were quick to express abhorrence for the attacks, many Indonesian Muslims have called for Ahmadiyahs to be outlawed.
These events demonstrate the ugly effects of stigmatising minorities, and it would be deplorable to simple-mindedly extrapolate the religious views of Pakistani, Egyptian or Indonesian Muslims and apply them to Australia.
However, it is irrational to insist that any and everyone who seeks to expose the religious roots of such hatred must themselves be decried as haters.
All over the world, every religious belief is disliked by someone or other. Christianity has its prominent detractors, too, from Bertrand Russell to Richard Dawkins. A Google search for ''Evils of Christianity'' yields tens of thousands of hits.
Australians can be thankful for a culture of tolerance, which has been carefully nurtured over decades. Tolerance is strengthened when people are able to debate ideological issues freely - especially those which impact profoundly on human rights - without being shouted down.
Victorian Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Nettle, in his findings on the case of the Islamic Council of Victoria v Catch the Fire, pointed out that criticism - or even hatred - of a religion should not be conflated with the hatred of people who hold those beliefs. It is one thing to promote tolerance, quite another to mandate it.
Perhaps the most powerful evidence against Woodlock's thesis - that it is exclusion, and not religion, that drives some Muslims to terrorism - is the fact that across the globe the most diverse religious minorities do not resort to violence, even when persecuted.
There are no Falun Gong terrorists in China, despite all the bitter persecution. The same can be said for persecuted Christians in many nations.
Even in Australia, many ethnic and religious groups have been subjected to disadvantage and exclusion, but none have produced the level of terrorist convictions of our own home-grown Islamic radicals.
It is a bitter pill for the vast majority of Australian Muslims to swallow that their faith has been linked, globally and locally, to religious violence.
Unfortunately, this link cannot be dismissed as the product of media prejudice or ''Islamophobic'' propaganda. It is in part an issue of some Muslims behaving very badly, and their often strident claim is that they do this in the name of religion.
Taking such claims seriously and debating them publicly must not be equated with stigmatising law-abiding and peaceable Australian Muslims.
Mark Durie is a Melbourne Anglican vicar, human rights activist, and author of The Third Choice: Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom.
The Honourable Vicar comes out with the old "Islam is a religion of Hate and Violence" article, and of course all the red neck yobbos in "White Anglo Australia" come to his defence. Now don't get me wrong here, there are many good white Anglo Australians who are well educated and cultured. However the vast majority of the "Haters" in Australia come from that "White Anglo" background. Remember the Cronulla Riots ? Or better still do a survey on racism is South East Asia about Australia and who they find to be racist.
The good Vicar fails to understand the religion and makes all the usual arguments, he fails to mention that out of the thousands upon thousands of Muslims living in Australia, there has yet to be any act of terrorism. Note I say any "ACT" of terrorism, and not planned acts of terrorism.
I don't count the few Afghanis who shot up some train in the early 1900's at Broken Hill NSW in relation to World War I in a futile attempt to enter that war on the Ottoman Empire's side. I may have the details wrong there but you can check it up. Other than that one incident I don't know of any event in Australia where a Muslim group or groups have acted out an event of terrorism. (That's even if you could consider those Afghani's actions back in the early 1900's as terrorism).
However, lets look at some actual groups committing acts of terrorism in Australia ;-
- Jack van Tongeren fire bombings and other incidents,
- Sydney Hilton bombing (Ananda Marga – Ross Dunn and Paul Alister Tim Anderson),
- Melbourne Turkish consulate bombing 1986 by Christian Armenians,
- Murder of Turkish Consul Sarik Ariyak & Driver Engin Sever 12 Dec 1980 by Armenian Christians,.
- Peter James Knight murdered a security guard,
- Many many attacks on Mosques and Synagogues.
One only need google the above details and you will find all the necessary information readily available on the net. You don't even need to research the old fashion way via libraries, journals or original source documents because they are so well known.
There have been far more acts of terrorism committed by Christians and other groups in Australia as compared to Muslims. Are all people of the Muslim faith good, NO of course not, I am not defending my religion here. What I am doing is putting things into perspective. One of the comments at the end of Vicar Durie's article stated, "Not all Muslims are Terrorists, but ALL Terrorists are Muslim" well from the above examples found in only a matter of minutes on the net rather than detailed research shows "NOT ALL TERRORISTS ARE MUSLIM"
So I ask the good Vicar and all his Red Neck Yobbo Bogan supporters out there who is the more dangerous here in Australia ? Who are you more likely to be killed by ? A Muslim Terrorist or a Terrorist from another faith ? (Regardless of how small a probability, you have a higher probability of being killed by a coconut falling on your head then a terrorist in Australia BUT the question is rhetorical and academic)
You see I don't blame the good Vicar entirely, (Not because he reminds me of the old Dave Allen comedy show) I blame the Western Media. All too often they focus on all the evil deeds done by certain Muslims and forget all the good deeds done by Muslims in Australia and world wide.
For example, John Ilhan the richest man under 40 years of age in Australia prior to his death was Muslim, employing thousands of Christian and other Australians, Ahmed Fahour former CEO of the NAB, Safwan Khalil, Aziza Abdel-Halim. A.M. NSW, Fadle El-Harris NSW, Hussam Elmaghraby VIC, Subhi Alshaik NSW, Dr Bircan Erbas VIC, Mustafa Ally QLD, Nazeem Hussain VIC, and many many others.
However most normal Australians (I'm not referring here to the brain dead, moronic, red neck yobbos with I.Q.s lower than room temperature here) would know very few if any at all of the above listed names let alone the many other Muslims who have contributed significantly to the Australian Community.
Why you may ask ? Answer: The media, because who wants to know how many people John Ilhan employed or what sports event a Muslim represented Australia in ? These just don't sell papers or draw viewers.
It's better to report on "Jihad Jack" or "David Hicks" (who may I add is NOT a terrorist) the true terrorist in those unfortunate circumstances is the U.S. Government. Can anybody in Australia imagine incarcerating a person under the conditions he was in at Guantanamo Bay without even being charged for five years ? How is that fair ? How does that stand up to our legal system the common law system and it's values ? But lets not go there that's another topic entirely.
Why you may ask ? Answer: The media, because who wants to know how many people John Ilhan employed or what sports event a Muslim represented Australia in ? These just don't sell papers or draw viewers.
It's better to report on "Jihad Jack" or "David Hicks" (who may I add is NOT a terrorist) the true terrorist in those unfortunate circumstances is the U.S. Government. Can anybody in Australia imagine incarcerating a person under the conditions he was in at Guantanamo Bay without even being charged for five years ? How is that fair ? How does that stand up to our legal system the common law system and it's values ? But lets not go there that's another topic entirely.
So in short most Muslims I know blame the Western Media for the biased view and stereotype they cast Muslims in, not the poor simple idiots that have no inquiring mind referring to themselves as true patriotic Australians. Unless their skin is black those red neck yobbos will never be "True Patriotic Australians" now I'm not even going to go there either because that again is another topic entirely.
Cheers to my mates from a Muslim Australian.
Muslim violence a fact, not prejudice
Mark Durie
SMH March 25, 2011 Malik Mumtaz Hussain QadriSalman Taseer, shouts religious slogans while being taken away by police after he was presented at a court in Islamabad. Photo: ReutersOPINION
Those who denounce critics of Islam should allow that, like all global faiths, Islam has its detractors and a religion will be judged on what its followers say and do.
There is a debate going on about Islam. The question being asked is: Does Islam itself - not just poverty or social exclusion - provide ideological fuel for extremism and violence?
Melbourne Anglican vicar Mark Durie. Vicar Durie's part time job.
It is all too tempting to promote one-dimensional explanations of religious violence. Monash University doctoral candidate Rachel Woodlock said on this page on Wednesday that social exclusion was the root of Islamic radicalism.
On one hand, there are those who, like Woodlock, demand that critics of Islam be stigmatised as ignorant, right-wing racists. On the other hand, Islam's problems cannot be simplistically reduced to social or economic factors.
Violence in the name of Islam is well-attested in nations in which Muslims are dominant, and it is non-Muslim minorities that suffer the exclusion. It does not do to argue that religion has no relevance to such events.
In Muslim-majority Pakistan on December 3, Pakistani imam Maulana Yousuf Qureshi, in his Friday sermon, offered a $6000 bounty to anyone who would murder Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who has also been accused of ''blaspheming Allah''. Pakistani minister for minorities Shahbaz Bhatti and Punjab governor Salman Taseer were subsequently assassinated because of their opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy laws.
These laws are supported by Pakistan's Islamic elites. The killer of Salman Taseer, Mumtaz Qadri, was praised by religious leaders from mainstream schools of Pakistani Islam, and when he was being led to court on January 6, 400 Muslim lawyers showered him with rose petals, offering him their legal services free of charge.
There has also been a rush of recent assaults on Copts and their places of worship in Egypt, sparked by a wild tirade by a leading Egyptian cleric.
Closer to Australia, there have been well-publicised attacks on Ahmadiyah Muslims in Indonesia, including brutal murders. These were undoubtedly influenced by a theological belief that Ahmadiyah adherents are apostates from true Islam. Although prominent Indonesian leaders were quick to express abhorrence for the attacks, many Indonesian Muslims have called for Ahmadiyahs to be outlawed.
These events demonstrate the ugly effects of stigmatising minorities, and it would be deplorable to simple-mindedly extrapolate the religious views of Pakistani, Egyptian or Indonesian Muslims and apply them to Australia.
However, it is irrational to insist that any and everyone who seeks to expose the religious roots of such hatred must themselves be decried as haters.
All over the world, every religious belief is disliked by someone or other. Christianity has its prominent detractors, too, from Bertrand Russell to Richard Dawkins. A Google search for ''Evils of Christianity'' yields tens of thousands of hits.
Australians can be thankful for a culture of tolerance, which has been carefully nurtured over decades. Tolerance is strengthened when people are able to debate ideological issues freely - especially those which impact profoundly on human rights - without being shouted down.
Victorian Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Nettle, in his findings on the case of the Islamic Council of Victoria v Catch the Fire, pointed out that criticism - or even hatred - of a religion should not be conflated with the hatred of people who hold those beliefs. It is one thing to promote tolerance, quite another to mandate it.
Perhaps the most powerful evidence against Woodlock's thesis - that it is exclusion, and not religion, that drives some Muslims to terrorism - is the fact that across the globe the most diverse religious minorities do not resort to violence, even when persecuted.
There are no Falun Gong terrorists in China, despite all the bitter persecution. The same can be said for persecuted Christians in many nations.
Even in Australia, many ethnic and religious groups have been subjected to disadvantage and exclusion, but none have produced the level of terrorist convictions of our own home-grown Islamic radicals.
It is a bitter pill for the vast majority of Australian Muslims to swallow that their faith has been linked, globally and locally, to religious violence.
Unfortunately, this link cannot be dismissed as the product of media prejudice or ''Islamophobic'' propaganda. It is in part an issue of some Muslims behaving very badly, and their often strident claim is that they do this in the name of religion.
Taking such claims seriously and debating them publicly must not be equated with stigmatising law-abiding and peaceable Australian Muslims.
Mark Durie is a Melbourne Anglican vicar, human rights activist, and author of The Third Choice: Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom.
