The Islamic Human Rights Commission is urging all campaigners to take urgent action against forthcoming anti-terror legislation in Australia.
Category Archives: Australia
Paris heat not from Muslims
“The riots, described as France’s worst since May 1968, have been linked to the threat of radical Islam. But both descriptions are misleading. The violent unrest is better compared to the riots that burnt down African-American ghettos across the United States in the 1960s. ‘It is nothing to do with radical Islam or even Muslims’, says Olivier Roy, research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and one of the world’s leading authorities on political Islam. He says that although many rioters are from Muslim backgrounds, ‘these guys are building a new idea of themselves based on American street culture. It’s a youth riot – they are protesting against the fact that they are supposed to be full French citizens and they are not’.”
James Burton in The Age, 8 November 2005
Hate wave hits Muslim women in Australia
Muslim women in Australia are enduring a rising wave of violence and intimidation. Women wearing headscarfs have been spat on, sworn at and assaulted while hate graffiti such as “Kill Muslims” and “Muslims Out” has appeared in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. In the past two weeks, two Muslim women have been attacked in daylight.
In one, a milkshake was hurled at a Muslim woman as she waited at a Sydney Rd tram stop with her three children. In the other a man swerved at a Muslim woman and shouted: “F— off terrorist” while she was crossing the road carrying her baby. There are also reports of Muslim girls being spat at and abused by drivers.
Islam is the problem – Mark Steyn
“I found myself behind a car in Vermont, in the US, the other day; it had a one-word bumper sticker with the injunction ‘COEXIST’. It’s one of those sentiments beloved of Western progressives, one designed principally to flatter their sense of moral superiority. The C was the Islamic crescent, the O was the hippie peace sign, the X was the Star of David and the T was the Christian cross. Very nice, hard to argue with. But the reality is, it’s the first of those symbols that has a problem with coexistence. Take the crescent out of the equation and you wouldn’t need a bumper sticker at all.
“Indeed, coexistence is what the Islamists are at war with; or, if you prefer, pluralism, the idea that different groups can rub along together within the same general neighbourhood. There are many trouble spots across the world but, as a general rule, even if one gives no more than a cursory glance at the foreign pages, it’s easy to guess at least one of the sides: Muslims v Jews in Palestine, Muslims v Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims v Christians in Nigeria, Muslims v Buddhists in southern Thailand, Muslims v (your team here). Whatever one’s views of the merits on a case by case basis, the ubiquitousness of one team is a fact.”
Mark Steyn in The Australian, 4 October 2005
Aussie Muslims say targeted by new terror laws
Australia is to impose draconian counter-terrorism laws after Prime Minister John Howard won unanimous support from state premiers Tuesday, September 27, for the laws dubbed unfair by Muslims.
Trying to justify the new laws, Queensland state premier Peter Beattie told a news conference, “In many sense the laws that we have agreed to today are draconian laws, but they are necessary laws to protect Australians,” Reuters reported.
Describing the legislation as “unusual laws because we live in unusual circumstances”, Howard said the London bombings in July had brought home the “chilling reality” that “terrorist attacks” could be staged by a country’s own citizens, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“We are worried there are people in our country who might just do this,” Howard told a news conference after a meeting with the Council of Australian Governments.
The laws include tighter checks on citizenship applicants, jail terms for inciting violence, detention of suspects without charge for up to two weeks, and curtailing suspects’ movements and contacts for up to a year.
They also will provide police with greater stop, search and question powers. But they will be reviewed after five years and include a 10-year “sunset clause”, after which they would have to be dropped, altered or renewed, Howard said.
A prominent moderate Islamic leader, Keyser Trad of the Islamic Friendship Association, immediately condemned the laws and said they targeted Muslims. “They have the potential of creating a fascist state and have the potential to divide society dramatically,” he told AFP.
“I am quite frightened by these laws,” he said, suggesting that they could be used against people who criticized government policy such as the deployment of troops to Iraq.
Muslims want Australian PM to stop inciting hatred
Muslims rallying in Sydney say the federal government’s proposed anti-terrorism laws would be a major infringement of their rights. Hundreds of members of the Muslim community met at Punchbowl, in Sydney’s south-west, to demonstrate their concerns that the federal government’s actions were inciting hatred towards their culture.
Federation of Australian Muslim Students and Youth (FAMSY) National president Chaaban Omran said Prime Minister John Howard had failed his community by not doing enough to stop anti-Muslim discourse. Mr Omran said the recent London bombings, calls by politicians to ban Muslim headdress in public schools and the media’s negative portrayal of the religion were feeding a growing prejudice. But he described Canberra’s proposed new anti-terror laws as be the largest infringement on the rights of Muslim Australians.
Earlier this month, Mr Howard flagged a new package of security measures, including tighter checks on citizenship applicants, jail terms for inciting violence and police powers to detain suspects without charge for up to a fortnight.
“Instead of coming out with practical steps to address terrorism, these laws will just work to create more intolerance towards Muslims,” Mr Omran told AAP. “As Australians, we just want to be treated like everyone else, we don’t wish to have all these laws set out that will lead to us becoming targets.”
Australian Muslims condemn terror, anti-Islam hysteria
Australian Muslims condemned on Sunday, September 11, terrorist attacks against civilians and pledged loyalty to the country, while accusing new anti-terror measures of fueling anti-Muslim hysteria.
“These were warriors from an Islamic background that hijacked Islam,” Keysar Trad, the president of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, told the National Security and Harmony Summit in Sydney University Sunday, reported Agence France Presse (AFP).
“They hijacked our lifestyle and our freedoms. And the spin machine of Western governments is exploiting these hijackers of Islam, these murderers.”
Australian Muslim leaders gathering for the meeting observed a minute of silence to remember the victims of 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, which claimed almost 3,000 lives.
Islam Online, 11 September 2005
See also ABC News, 11 September 2005
The type of cover-up freedom lovers need not fear
“Whenever the spotlight turns on the Muslim community, it is usually in relation to a negative act: terrorism, local crime or accusations of Islamic demagogy. Muslims seem to find themselves at the centre of every problem – the obscure or negative is magnified and, like in some grotesque circus show, Muslims become the ‘other’. Once again, Muslim women’s dress, and in particular the hijab, is under attack. Bronwyn Bishop labelled it an act of defiance, and then in the same breath opined that women who wear the hijab are as free as slaves.”
Amal Awad in the Sydney Morning Herald, 31 August 2005
Australian politician defends call for headscarf ban
Liberal backbencher Bronwyn Bishop has defended her push to ban Muslim girls from wearing headscarves at public schools, despite widespread condemnation from school groups, Muslim leaders and fellow politicians.
“I think it is because a lot of people are thinking about it and I think it’s time people stood up to be counted,” Ms Bishop told ABC radio. “It has become the icon, the symbol of the clash of cultures, and it runs much deeper than a piece of cloth. The fact of the matter is we’ve got people in our country who are advocating – and I’m talking about extremist Islamist leaders – the overturning of our laws which guarantee freedom.”
Ms Bishop said she had no problem with members of other faiths adorning themselves with religious symbols, such as Christians wearing a cross or Orthodox Jews a yarmulke. “I have no concerns about people who wear a cross or people who wear a skull-cap because I haven’t heard any leaders of those communities stand up and say the very fabric of our society should be overturned,” she said.
Australian Secondary Principals Association president Ted Brierley said it was a non-issue among schools. “I’m not aware of any schools that are making this an issue,” he said.
Muslims who want Islamic law told to leave Australia
Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law should get out of Australia, a senior government minister has said, hinting that some radical clerics might be asked to leave.
Australia was a secular state and its laws were made by parliament, Treasurer Peter Costello told national television late Tuesday.
“If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you,” said Costello, who is seen as heir-apparent to Prime Minister John Howard.
“I’d be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws governing people in Australia, one the Australian law and another the Islamic law, that that is false.
“There’s only one law in Australia — it’s the law that’s made by the parliament of Australia and enforced by our courts. There is no second law.
“If you can’t agree with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go to another country which practices it, perhaps, then, that’s a better option,” Costello said.
Asked whether he meant radical clerics would be forced to leave, he replied: “Where a person has dual citizenship, it might be possible to ask them to exercise that other citizenship. That might be a live possibility.”