Category Archives: Australia

Sydney Islamic bookshop shuts, blaming extremism ‘lies’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Al Risalah Islamic BookstoreAfter being accused of being an extremist and secretive organisation, the Al Risalah Islamic Bookstore in Bankstown, which has found itself at the centre of a media storm in the past year, has shut down.

The closure of the business has been blamed on a vendetta against the bookshop by some community members and alleged ”defamatory” statements made in the media about the store and its patrons.

Lawyer Zali Burrows, acting on behalf of the manager of the bookstore, Wisam Haddad, and three others, has filed a defamation action against Nationwide News, the publisher of The Daily Telegraph, over its coverage of the Muslim riots in the city last year.

”Sex used to sell; these days it’s Muslims and terrorists,” she said. ”My clients are taking a stand against irresponsible media that promote religious intolerance and discrimination that often leaves a carnage of reputations in its wake.”

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Restore Australia to target Queensland church’s interfaith event

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Restore Australia Resist IslamThe head of a movement which opposes multiculturalism is rallying troops to target a Buderim church information event on Islam.

St Mark’s Anglican Church will screen the documentary The Imam and the Pastor on November 2 at 2pm. The screening will be followed by a forum discussion on Christianity and Islam with community worker Dave Andrews and community activist Nora Amath.

Mike Holt, the chief executive officer of Restore Australia, has circulated an email seeking people concerned about “creeping izlamisation” to attend the meeting with coordinated questions.

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Racist graffiti hits Sydney suburb

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ryde anti-Muslim graffiti

Race hate has taken a turn for the worse in Ryde, with anti-Muslim and Asian messages defacing a series of properties linked to tenants of ethnic origin.

The walls, fences and streets of Ryde and Putney have been sprayed with anti-Muslim slogans, while even the laundry of one house owned by Liem Nguyen was daubed with anti-Asian sentiments. Mr Liem owns two of the three properties in Charles St, Ryde, which were tagged with racist and religious statements.

A nearby bus stop on Victoria Rd, opposite St Charles Church, was also hit with anti-Muslim statements as was the footpath in Charles St, opposite the church.

This vandalism adds to a long list of shocking racially-fuelled attacks in the northern district, including two verbal and physical assaults still under investigation by Gladesville Police

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Australia fails to rise up for Danny Nalliah

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rise Up Australia PartyBartholomew’s Notes on Religion reports that, contrary to their grandiose claim that the support they received in the general election would mark a “history making day for Australia”, Danny Nalliah’s rabidly Islamophobic Rise Up Australia Party received a mere 38,856 first pretence votes, representing 0.37% of the electorate.

However, as Richard Bartholomew points out, “the real point of such parties is to gain publicity and to nudge the mainstream parties in a particular direction rather than to win lots of votes; Nalliah is doubtless very happy with how the election went”.

RUAP candidate warns that Muslims will take over Australia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rise Up Australia PartyThe controversial Rise Up Australia Party, known for headline-making, anti-Islam and anti-multiculturalism policies, has endorsed Dale Edwards as their candidate for Leichhardt.

The socially conservative RUAP officially launched their election campaign at the start of August, with Mr Edwards of North Cairns, describing their premise as “to keep Australia Australian. In other words, keep the Judeo-Christian values in place, and one of the main concepts is wanting a multi-ethnic Australia (like we’ve got), but we don’t want multiculturalism, which is the idea of having [migrant] enclaves of people.”

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Q Society launches campaign against halal certification

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Q Society bagWriting in The Stringer (“The latest in racist religious vilification arsenal here in Australia”), Suresh Rajan draws our attention to the latest Islamophobic initiative by the Q Society, the group responsible for organising Geert Wilders’ tour of Australia earlier this year.

The Q Society’s supporters will be handing out free shopping bags on Saturday 31 August at selected supermarkets. The bags state “Halal certification schemes fund mosques, madrassas and jihad”.

The Q Society piously claims that the bags are “designed to generate discussion amongst Australian consumers”. So, nothing to do with inciting fear and hatred of Muslims and their faith, then.

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Liberal leader defends candidate’s burqa comments

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has confessed to finding the burqa “confronting” while defending Liberal candidate Ray King for describing the Islamic attire as a “sign of oppression”.

Asked whether he supported the statements by Mr King, who drew a link between the burqa and criminality at a fund-raiser, Mr Abbott admitted he found it “a very confronting attire. “Frankly, it’s not the sort of attire that I would like to see widespread in our streets,” Mr Abbott told reporters on Saturday, while campaigning in Queensland.

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Sydney: Parliamentary candidate attacks Muslim women who wear veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ray KingA Liberal candidate in a western Sydney electorate where nearly half of voters were born overseas used his campaign launch to urge an end to Muslim women wearing the burqa, drawing a link between the Islamic tradition and criminality.

Ray King, a former Liverpool police commander standing against Treasurer Chris Bowen in McMahon, claimed the burqa was a “sign of oppression”, according to one attendee.

The comments were made in front of guests including the disgraced former detective Roger Rogerson, 2UE broadcaster Jason Morrison and the Assistant NSW Police Commissioner for south-west Sydney, Frank Mennilli.

Also present at the $300-a-head fund-raiser at Candelori’s Restaurant in Smithfield were Liberal Senator Marise Payne, federal Liberal MP Craig Kelly and two members of the Coalition state government, Stuart Ayres and Andrew Rohan.

Mr King’s comments alarmed some Liberal guests as they echoed strident public statements he had made during his policing career, including that migrants should be stripped of welfare to force them to “get off their backside”.

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Council gives go ahead for mosque to be built next to a church in Melbourne

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Melbourne mosque council meetingTensions ran high tonight as a northern suburbs council gave the go-ahead for a mosque to be built next door to a Christian church.

About 1000 locals, many of them members of the church, flocked to the Hume City Council in Broadmeadows to voice their objections at the council decision from about 7pm. More than 1200 objections to the proposed mosque had already been received.

Almost 30 riot police stood guard outside the council, baring pepper spray and accompanied by two dogs. But Broadmeadows Senior Sergeant Pixie Fuhrmeister said no one had been arrested.

A Hume Council spokesman said councillors had approved the planning application by the Shia Muslim Al Sadiq Foundation for the mosque to be built on Kyabram St, Coolaroo as it met the requirements of both local and state planning laws.

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