Biloela or bust! Tamils, torture and political opportunism

Biloela or bust! Tamils, torture and political opportunism

By Ranting Panda, 21 June 2021. 

Australia has a long sordid history of brutalising, torturing, imprisoning, victimising, and demonising innocent people. It started with European settlement, when indigenous peoples were murdered, incarcerated, raped, forcibly removed from the own lands, stolen from their families, and forced into slave labour for little if any recompense. It continues to this day, with an over-representation of indigenous people in prison, and a significantly high number of indigenous deaths in custody. This is a horrendous blight on the Australian character. So it is no surprise, that for more than 20 years, Australia has brutalised, tortured, imprisoned and demonised asylum seekers and refugees. 

Ironically, the leaders of Australia who have implemented and boasted of these brutal, racist policies, claim to be Christian and enjoy the support of many churches. Which is interesting, because the Bible has numerous verses about welcoming migrants into the land and treating them well. 

These leaders also claim to be defending Australia's national interests, even though the National Anthem declares, 'For those who've come across the seas we've boundless plains to share'. These are rather empty words for a government that has shored up its power through demonising migrants. 

Religion and nationalism ... what could go wrong?

There have been numerous high-profile incidents over the last two decades regarding asylum seekers and refugees. What each of these incidents revealed was that the Australian government lied and pandered to racism and xenophobia for political point-scoring by demonising and brutalising traumatised people who had simply requested protection from war and persecution. 

There was the Children Overboard scandal, in which a Senate inquiry found that the Howard government lied about refugees throwing their children into the sea. It wasn't the refugees who lacked morals, it was the Howard government. 

Remember Baby Asha? The Australian Medical Association accused then Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, of state-sanctioned child abuse over his detention of a baby girl and his threats to send her to the desolate detention centre on Nauru. Dutton made false allegations about the girl's mother physically abusing her. 

Most recently, there has been the case of the Murugappan family. Nades Murugappan arrived by boat in Australia in 2012. Priya Nadesalingam arrived by boat in 2013. They were both Tamils from Sri Lanka. Both were seeking protection in Australia. The Tamil couple met in immigration detention and married in 2014. That year they were both released into the community on four-year protection visas. While in the community, they had two children; one born in May 2015 and one in June 2017. The family had settled in the rural Queensland town of Biloela. Nades worked in the local abattoir. The family was doing their best to settle into Australia and be productive members of society. No doubt, they hoped they were worthy of permanent visas. 

Murugappan family (Photo: Semmler, 2021)

In 2018, their temporary visas expired and the entire family was detained by Australian Border Force, even though their two children were Australian-born. The family were transferred to an immigration detention centre in Melbourne. The Biloela township campaigned for their release. The family was popular in the town and welcomed by the community. This is significant, given that rural Queensland tends to be politically conservative. 

On 29 August 2019, after several unsuccessful appeals by the Murugappans, the government placed the entire family on a plane bound for Sri Lanka. However, an injunction was granted before the plane left Australian air-space, prohibiting the family from being removed from Australia because the younger child had not been assessed for a protection visa. The plane landed at Darwin. The family was then transported to the Christmas Island detention centre. In May 2021, the youngest daughter, Tharnicaa, became severely ill with septicaemia. Tharnicaa and her mother were flown from Christmas Island to a hospital in Perth for treatment.

It is not illegal to arrive in Australia without a visa and then request protection because of a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership of a particular social group (Home Affairs, 2020).

Following Sri Lanka's independence in 1948, Tamils have faced discrimination and marginalisation. Tamil's are predominantly comprised of Muslims and Christians. In 1978, the Sri Lankan constitution established Buddhism as the foremost religion, vesting the Sinhalese majority with more rights than others in the country. In 1983, following years of ethnic oppression, Sri Lanka descended into civil war between the Sinhalese government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Around 100,000 people were killed and 800,000 displaced. 

Since the war ended, the Sri Lankan government has increased its military presence in northern Sri Lanka, where the majority of Tamils live. This has increased the fear of persecution for those living there, and for those who wish to return. Sri Lanka has one of the highest rates of enforced disappearances in the world. 

Unfortunately for the Murugappan's, Australian courts have found that they do not have a well-founded fear of persecution. However, this defies the concerns held by the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, and human rights groups, for the safety and welfare of Tamils in Sri Lanka. The United Nations Human Rights Council is investigating allegations of war crimes and human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. There is increasing evidence of Tamils who have returned to Sri Lanka being subject to 'abductions, sexual and physical violence, and state-sanctioned torture'. (Walden 2021)

It appears that the Australian courts' determination is based on flawed country advice regarding the safety of Tamils in Sri Lanka. A British court has challenged the veracity of these country reports used by both Australia and Britain (Walden 2021). Although politically convenient for the anti-refugee policies of the Australian government, these decisions can cost lives. The government inaccurately demonises the Murugappan's as 'illegal', but it should be kept in mind that refoulement is illegal under international law. Article 33 of the UN Refugee Convention states: 'No Contracting State shall expel or return (“refouler”) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion' (United Nations High Commission for Refugees, 2010).

There have been dozens of documented cases of asylum seekers forcibly returned by Australia who have been killed, tortured, detained or disappeared on their arrival in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka (Doherty & Geraets, 2020). The Asian Human Rights Commission has identified more than 400 cases of Tamil and Sinhalese asylum seekers being tortured on their return to Sri Lanka (Doherty & Geraets, 2020).

The government tries to argue that showing compassion to the Murugappans would signal to people smugglers that Australia was 'open for business', and the boats would start up again. This argument is not rooted in fact, but in emotion and fear for political purposes ... again, pandering to xenophobia in the Australian community. 

Australia can show compassion without brutalising and torturing innocent people. The United Nations has determined that Australia's harsh detention of asylum seekers breaches the international Convention Against Torture (Human Rights Law Centre, 2015). Further, Australia's immigration detention policies breach the Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations Human Rights, 2019). 

The Murugappans have committed no crimes, but were detained for years without charge. While they were on protection visas, they did everything that could be expected, including maintaining employment and integrating into the community. The Murugappans are an asset to Australia, they are not a liability, they are not criminals, they are not a burden on society. 

This week, after significant campaigning by human rights groups and the community, the government released the Murugappans into community detention in Perth. However, they are not allowed to return to Biloela despite the contribution they made to the town. 

The government has created an expensive problem through its brutal treatment of asylum seekers. Its refusal to allow genuine refugees to be granted permanent protection visas has resulted in a legacy case-load of more than 18,000 asylum seekers accumulated over the last 15 years or so, to whom the government refuses to issue permanent visas, even though each one of them renews their visas every few years by proving they still face a well-founded fear of persecution (Speers, 2021). The Australian government has spent more than $6 million on the three year detention of the Murugappan family (Mao, 2021). 

Hannah Arendt believed that everyone had the 'right to have rights' and to belong somewhere safe, where their rights will be respected (Hirsch & Bell, 2017). Australia is a country that is generally safe and is a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention, so it should be a safe haven for refugees. Australia should not be eroding people's rights or forcing innocent people into dangerous, and possibly deadly, situations. 

Instead of torturing innocent people, instead of detaining children and their hard-working parents, instead of forcibly removing loyal parents and their Australian-born children, Australia would benefit from the government granting permanent protection visas to Nandes and Priya; a couple who have demonstrated their desire and ability to integrate into the community. 

References

Department of Home Affairs, 2020, Refugee and Humanitarian program - Australia's protection obligations, viewed 20 June 2021, https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/refugee-and-humanitarian-program/about-the-program/seek-protection-in-australia/australia-protection-obligations. 

Doherty, B, & Geraets, N, 2020, Deported to danger and death: Australia returns people to violence and persecution, The Guardian, 14 December, viewed 20 June 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/dec/14/deported-to-danger-and-death-australia-returns-people-to-violence-and-persecution.

Hirsch, A, & Bell, N, 2017, What can Hannah Arendt teach us about today's refugee crisis?, University of Oxford, Faculty of Law, 10 October, viewed 21 June 2021, https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2017/10/what-can-hannah.

Human Rights Law Centre, 2015, UN finds Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers violates the Convention Against Torture, 9 March, viewed 20 June 2021, https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/un-finds-australias-treatment-of-asylum-seekers-violates-the-convention-against-torture. 

Mao, F, Biloela family: Locked up by Australia for three years, BBC News, 10 May, viewed 20 June 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56768529. 

Semmler, E and staff, 2021, Biloela family asylum-seeker girl evacuated from Christmas Island with suspected septicaemia, ABC News, 7 June, viewed 20 June 2021, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-07/biloela-girl-in-medical-evacuation-from-christmas-island/100196456.

Speers, D, 2021, The government has 18,000 reasons not to grant the Murugappan family permanent visas, ABC News, 17 June, viewed 21 June 2021, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-17/government-18000-reasons-not-grant-murugappan-biloela-visas/100220476. 

United Nations High Commission for Refugees, 2010, Convention and Protocol relating to the status of Refugees, viewed 20 June 2021, http://www.unhcr.org/en-au/3b66c2aa10. 

United Nations Human Rights, Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2019,  Concluding observations on the combined fifth and sixth periodic reports of Australia, 1 November, viewed 20 June 2021, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC/C/AUS/CO/5-6&Lang=En.

Walden, M, 2021, Australia deems Sri Lanka safe for Tamils like the Murugappan family from Biloela. But is it?, ABC News, 17 June, viewed 20 June 2021, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-17/sri-lanka-tamil-asylum-explainer-australia-deportations/100213684.

Related Ranting Panda articles 

Peter Dutton versus Baby Asha, AMA & the UN, https://thepandarant.blogspot.com/2016/02/peter-dutton-versus-baby-asha-ama-un.html

Howard's Legacy & the Haughty Hypocrisy, https://thepandarant.blogspot.com/2012/03/howards-legacy-haughty-hypocrisy.html

Refugees represent the vanguard of their peoples, https://thepandarant.blogspot.com/2014/06/refugees-represent-vanguard-of-their.html. 

Australia - aiding and abetting global brutality, https://thepandarant.blogspot.com/2014/12/australia-aiding-and-abetting-global.html.

Seeds of Holocaust: the rise of white supremacy & return of Nazism

Seeds of Holocaust: the rise of white supremacy & return of Nazism



Each year we remember the terrible holocaust that Nazi Germany inflicted on millions of people. For many, the pain isn't confined to Holocaust Remembrance Day; they live it every moment through memories of their personal experience or that of their relatives and friends.

 It is important to remember the Holocaust and the events and motivations that led to it so that never again will the world experience such atrocity.

However, while millions around the world pause to reflect on the horrors of that time, there are some who still deny that it happened or claim it did not happen on the scale reported. Holocaust Deniers are rightfully criticised and vilified for their complete disregard of facts.

Holocaust Remembrance Days reflects on the six million Jewish victims of the Nazi regime. They were the largest people group targeted by Hitler. Yet we should not forget that Hitler's hatred extended beyond Jews, resulting in almost triple that number, around 17 million, being victims of the Holocaust. To ignore the additional 11 million victims, is a form of Holocaust denial. We should not forget the fear and hate that caused an entire nation to commit genocide against people who were perceived as different to them, who were perceived as a threat to them, who were scapegoats used to justify racism, xenophobia, homophobia and bigotry in the name of patriotism and nationalism.

We must not forget the additional 11 million people who were murdered because of their politics, race, sexuality, gender and health. Why do Holocaust Remembrances focus on Jewish people? Because, in 1942, the Nazis implemented the Final Solution which specifically targeted Jews. In fact, the full title of this heinous crime was 'The Final Solution to the Jewish Question'. It deliberately targeted Jewish people and culminated in the death of two-thirds of the world's Jewish population.

From the early 1930s onwards, the Nazis had imprisoned anyone who did not conform to their ways. Although the Final Solution specifically targeted Jews, the detention camps also held socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, gypsies, dissenters, LGBTIQ+ people, unionists, the sick and infirm. The Final Solution was not confined to Jews. These additional 11 million were also victims of Hitler and the Nazi regime.

Source: Holocaust Encyclopedia 

While the wholesale extermination of Jews and other groups began in 1942 with the implementation of the Final Solution, the evolution of this atrocity began almost 20 years earlier. Hitler published his memoir, Mein Kampf, in 1925; a rambling manifesto blaming Germany's defeat in World War I, its economic ills, its military emasculation and its loss of nationalism, on all manner of people, including Jews, socialists and unionists. Once Hitler took power in 1932, he brought the Holocaust to fruition by imprisoning the people groups he'd demonised in Mein Kampf; those he deemed inferior to his idea of racial supremacy encapsulated in his 'ideal Aryan'.

Some of the first people he began imprisoning were Communists. Shortly after taking power, Hitler was spreading propaganda about the danger of Communism, and bolstered this through a number of false flag events, most notably the Reichstag Fire, which Hitler used as an excuse to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree to remove civil liberties and give the government power to imprison anyone  deemed a threat to the Reich. Communists were arrested within hours of the Reichstag fire, even though to this day, it is not clear how the fire started. The Reichstag Fire was also used by Hitler to pass the Enabling Act of 1933 (formally titled 'Law to remedy the distress of the people and the Reich'), which gave Hitler the power to pass legislation without going through the Reichstag, which was the lower house of government.

Hitler motivated the German nation by appealing to their sense of Aryan nationalism, Germany's greatness, its purity and the threats it faced from Jews, socialists, unionists, gypsies and anyone who didn't fit his vision of the perfect Aryan citizen. He infused this message with Christian overtones, often claiming that he was doing the 'work of the Lord'. Germany was a Christian nation and this message of pride, threat and Godly obedience appealed to many conservative Christians.

Hitler softened Germans with fear, hardened them with pride and strengthened them with religious conviction. He gave them a sense of unity, of belonging to something special and powerful. Hitler used Christian language to unify Christians behind his hate-speech. Whether Hitler was Christian or not is irrelevant; most Germans were Christian and they were the ones who committed the atrocities he decreed because according to Hitler, he was 'doing the work of the Lord'.

It is significant to remember the Holocaust in the context of then and now. Today we are seeing an emergence of far-right groups who drive a similar message of hateful bile towards leftists, unionists and environmentalists. While Jews are still part of the hate-speech of many, today's far-right are targeting Muslims as well, and have replaced gypsies with the poor, the unemployed, those requiring welfare.

Islam is under attack across the globe. There is increasing persecution of Muslims at the hands of Muslim and non-Muslim regimes, from brutal oppression in Syria, Egypt and Iran, to pogroms, ethnic cleansing, detention and persecution of 12 million Uigher Muslims in China, to Burma's genocide and ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, ethnic cleansing in Palestine by Israel through its settler programs, indefinite detention and use of illegal weapons such as Dense Inert Metal Explosives and white phosphorous, growing persecution in western nations, such as the United Kingdom, United States and Australia as hate-crimes increase amid bolder and more rancid invectives blaming Muslims for the west's economic ills, crime rates and reduction of civil liberties. Sound familiar?

A four-year study of the abuse suffered by people of all faiths in Australia and the UK, found that Muslims experience violent hate-crimes more than people of any other faith (Hanifie 2019).

The hateful, fear-driven hatred of Islamophobes who accuse Muslims of attempting world domination, of surreptitiously infiltrating western governments, is no different to the same accusations Hitler made of Jews. This is just one quote from Mein Kampf, yet it sounds so similar to the Islamophobic rhetoric of far-right politicians and preachers when they talk about Muslims, sharia law, failure to assimilate and Islam masquerading as a religion:

The Jewish state was never spatially limited in itself, but universally unlimited as to space, though restricted in the sense of embracing but one race. Consequently, this people has always formed a state within states. It is one of the most ingenious tricks that was ever devised, to make this state sail under the flag of 'religion', thus assuring it of the tolerance which the Aryan is always ready to accord a religious creed. For actually the Mosaic religion is nothing other than a doctrine for the preservation of the Jewish race. It therefore embraces almost all sociological, political, and economic fields of knowledge which can have any bearing on this function.(Mein Kampf, Volume 1, Chapter 4).

Hitler was a white supremacist who lamented the weakening of the white race because of breeding with what he considered to be inferior races. In Chapter 11 of Mein Kampf, Hitler stated, 'It shows with terrifying clarity that in every mingling of Aryan blood with that of lower peoples the result was the end of the cultured people'. How does this differ to people who are trying to retain the 'racial purity' of white people. Who can forget far-right politician, Pauline Hanson's stunt to declare 'It's ok to be white', which she proposed to the Australian Senate. The right-wing government of the day, beguiled by Hanson's persecution complex, voted in favour of the motion, only to later recant when they woke up to themselves and realised the origins of this supposedly innocuous saying lay in Hitler's white supremacist hate-speech. This hasn't stopped far-right politicians and groups from continuing to quote it and using it to justify attacks on non-white people, on migrants, on refugees, on Muslims ... essentially, the whole gamut of people groups who Hitler accused of being racially inferior. One of Australia's senators, Fraser Anning, formed his own party on a platform of racial and religious purity.

Why is racial purity so important to these people? What is wrong with being one race, the human race? No ethnicity is inferior to another. It isn't the end of the world if we see different ethnic groups inter-relating. No colour is superior to another. We should welcome unity and despise segregation and exclusion.

It should be noted that Fraser Anning, initially elected to the Katter Australia Party with all of 19 votes, called for a Final Solution to Australia's immigration 'problem'. Katter initially supported him on this, but as it was bleedingly obvious that Anning was referencing the Holocaust. Katter eventually sacked him from the party. Anning and others like him, have praised the white Australia policy to defend Australia's European Christian 'ethno-cultural identity' from becoming a minority.

This reflects the paranoia espoused by the white supremacist who committed the terrorist attacks in Christchurch, massacring 51 Muslims and injuring many others. This massacre was predicated in his largely incoherent manifesto called The Great Replacement which, just like Hitler, accuses other races and religions of insidiously plotting to replace white European Christians through inter-breeding with other races and religions.

Meanwhile, in Asia we see the westernisation of many of their cultures as globalisation expands into those countries, turning them into outposts of the United States. The westernisation of Asia is proceeding at a far greater rate, than the supposed Asianisation of the west espoused by extremists like Pauline Hanson and Fraser Anning.

White supremacy is driven by fear and ignorance. To support the idea that one ethnic group is superior to another, is to either support atrocious eugenics and genocide ... or to be completely ignorant of the ultimate outcome of white supremacy. White supremacist or racist beliefs are not rooted in objective logic. They are group-think for people easily manipulated by threats and fears, regardless of how outrageous. Umberto Eco nailed it when he stated that 'nothing gives the fearful man more courage than another man's fear'. Fear has been used by fascists for years to control the people. James Bovard summed this up when he said, 'As long as enough people can be frightened, then all people can be ruled. That is how it works in a democratic system and mass fear becomes the ticket to destroy rights across the board'.

White supremacists make scapegoats of others of different ethnicity or religion, with scant regard for scientific or historical facts. They fail to consider self-reflection or the role that their own actions have played on the events that they are complaining about. For example, if they are upset about affirmative action or claiming reverse racism, they often ignore the horrendous treatment meted out to people of colour by white people for centuries. Equal rights for others, doesn't mean fewer rights for someone else. Yet, many on the far-right, many conservatives, fear that their rights will be eroded if someone else is granted the same rights. This fear is then manifested in hate for those they've oppressed for centuries.

'Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that'. - Martin Luther King

White supremacists believe in a mythical idea of ethnicity; that there are monocultures. Since the beginning of time, cultures and ethnicities have been mingling. Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating addressed this in a speech in which he indicated that the rise of Pauline Hanson and One Nation had let a 'very ugly, resentful xenophobic cat out of the bag'. Keating went on to state:

'The great tragedy of the shamelessly regressive politics of Pauline Hanson is not so much that it is rooted in ignorance, prejudice and fear, though it is; not so much that it projects the ugly face of racism, though it does; not so much that it is dangerously divisive and deeply hurtful to many of her fellow Australians, though it is; not even that it will cripple our efforts to enmesh ourselves in a region wherein lie the jobs and prosperity of future generations of young Australians, though it will—the great tragedy is that it perpetrates a myth, a fantasy, a lie.

The myth of the monoculture. The lie that we can retreat to it'.

White supremacists, just like Hitler, appeal to nationalism. That it is somehow patriotic to claim one culture is superior to another, to defend this mythical 'monoculture'.

Give up this ridiculous idea of one ethnic group being superior to another. H.G. Wells summed it up with, 'our true nationality is mankind'.

Beware the politician who promotes nationalism at the expense of others.

Hitler blamed Germany's loss in World War One on communists and pacificists. He saw the Treaty of Versailles as a betrayal of Germany by its government. Following WW1, the League of Nations was formed to prevent a repeat of WW1. Hitler viewed it as an organisation that was opposed to Germany. Hitler used nationalism to provoke animosity against the League of Nations (or League of Oppressed Nations as he called it), while scapegoating those he blamed for Germany's ills, namely communists, pacifists and Jews. In channelling the right-wing politicians and preachers of today, Hitler blamed the pre-war press for injecting pacificism into Germany at a time when the world was gearing for war. He called the worst poison that can be imagined. He blamed the League of Nations for teaching the people a 'miserable morality' to make the people 'modern'. All of this to make Germany 'ripe for the slave's yoke of international capital and its masters, the Jews' (Hitler 1925, p. 221). How is this different to our current preachers of hate who bemoan 'post-modernism' and its control by leftists, in the same way that Hitler bemoaned modernism and its control by Marxists. Today's far-right detests the United Nations and attacks the 'lefist' media ... while promoting fake news through its own right-wing media channels that have scant regard for fact and which encourage the right-wing's persecution complex. In Britain this has played out through Brexit, in which many Britons blamed Britain's economic ills on migrants, refugees and the European Union.

The father of modern fascism, Benito Mussolini, opposed socialism and democracy, stating that 'Fascism denies, in democracy, the absurd conventional untruth of political equality dressed out in the garb of collective irresponsibility, and the myth of "happiness" and indefinite progress'.

The popularity of Mussolini, Hitler and other despots was firmly rooted in their 'us versus them' rhetoric. Hitler popularised the persecution complex wrapped in nationalistic fervour and the gullible people gave Hitler popularity and established his power.

Think it can't happen again? In Australia, conservatives justify the continuing indefinite detention of innocent people who came to Australia seeking asylum from persecution and war. While conservative Christians gloated over the election of Scott Morrison because he worships at a Pentecostal church, at least 11 asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru, attempted suicide because of the complete despair at any hope of compassionate treatment by the Morrison government and its 'Christian' values. Thousands of refugees on bridging visas in Australia fear deportation to the countries they escaped. Where is the compassion from the Christians, the conservatives who voted for Morrison? Few stood up against this treatment, because the refugees were not European Christians, but predominately Muslims from Africa, the Middle East or South Asia. A United Nations report identified systemic abuse and torture in Australia's detention centres. This should be a concern, considering the shift in Australia's politics to the far-right, where politicians are elected on platforms of white supremacy, anti-Islam, racism, anti-migration and scare campaigns based on an invented persecution complex that causes conservatives to believe they are being oppressed by minorities, political correctness, LGBTIQ+ people, environmentalism, socialism and pacifism.

And of course, these far-right types bemoan 'cultural relativism' as a threat to morals, families and truth. Iranian political activist, Shirin Ebadi, observed, 'the idea of cultural relativism is nothing but an excuse to violate human rights'.

In the introduction to his book 'Nein!: Standing up to Hitler 1935-44', Paddy Ashdown observed the similarities between Nazi Germany and the political trends of today: '... you may be struck, as I was ... by the similarities between what happened in the build-up to World War II and the age in which we now live. Then as now, nationalism and protectionism were on the rise and democracies were seen to have failed, people hungered for the government of strong men; those who suffered most from the pain of economic collapse felt alienated and turned towards simplistic solutions and strident voices … ‘fake news’ built around the convincing untruth carried more weight in the public discourse than rational arguments and provable facts'.

Remember the Holocaust.

Remember the 6 million Jewish victims and the 11 million others who didn't comply with the Nazi criteria for Aryan perfection.

Remember the fear, exclusionism, lies and hatred that manipulated an entire nation to commit one of the gravest atrocities the modern world has seen. Recognise that it is happening again and challenge it before it is too late.


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The terrorism empowered by far-right politics, media and religion

The terrorism empowered by far-right politics, media and religion

On 15 March 2019, an Australian far-right, white supremacist massacred 50 innocent Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Prior to the massacre, this terrorist released a rambling manifesto that he called 'The Great Replacement'. To be frank, it sounds like the maiden speech of Pauline Hanson or Fraser Anning ... or a poor translation of Mein Kampf. It blamed Muslim migration for the woes of the western world. His manifesto acknowledged US President Donald Trump as a 'symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose'. 

That he was Australian is no surprise. Australia has become known globally for the hate-fuelled, fear-mongering, far-right rhetoric and actions of many of its politicians. Hence his manifesto sounded so similar to the garbage spouted by politicians such as current prime minister Scott Morrison, former prime ministers, Tony Abbott and John Howard, and a raft of front-, back- and cross-benchers, such as Petter Dutton, Pauline Hanson, Fraser Anning, Cory Bernardi, and George Christensen, to name but a few. It's not just rhetoric. Australia has imprisoned innocent asylum seekers and UN-declared refugees indefinitely without charge and tortured them, confining them to remote islands; out of sight, out of mind (Doherty and Hurst 2015). A generation forgotten and abused so conservatives can harvest the votes of xenophobes.

For years, conservative politicians, media and voters have been accusing Islam of being violent, of fomenting terrorism, of treating murder as a religious tenet, of condoning pedophilia and of trying to take over the world. While these right-wingers were apoplectic with rage over their perceptions of violence in Islam, they didn't see the extremism that they were fostering, that they were responsible for. Just like the poor crab being slowly boiled to death, Islamophobes have focused on Islam and not noticed just how radical they were becoming.

Until Christchurch, 15 March 2019! 

That day one of their own unleashed a murderous terrorist attack that killed 50 people and left dozens injured. Many of these Islamophobes expressed horror at the attack and even changed their profile pix to cute little koalas hugging a sad kiwi. How fucking rich is it that these arseholes have previously demanded the banning of Islam, halal, the burqa; they have praised people who have vandalised mosques and thrown pig's heads and blood into sacred areas, that have torn burqas or other head-coverings off women walking in the street, that have mocked Muslims from the floor of parliament, in the street, on TV and in social media. Some of these very same people are now hand-wringing and asking where such hatred could come from. Mind you, not all of them have expressed sympathy. There are some deadshits who think it great that this brain-dead racist would kill so many people. 

Australia's conservative media has long portrayed Islam as evil. The Murdoch rags, such as the Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph, published 2891 anti-Islam articles; almost eight articles per day attacking one religion - Islam (Brull 2018)! The world's media has noticed the radicalisation of Australia where right-wing political parties and media outlets blatantly target Muslims (Taylor and Noack 2019).

Anyone who dares defend Islam or criticise the main-stream media's inaccurate and racist reporting is treated as some lefty, politically-correct snowflake. Yet for all their brazen talk, the right-wing are driven by fear. They are running scared, seeing every Muslim as a terrorist, accusing them of trying to take over the world through halal easter eggs. Sensitive little petals, these conservatives. They issued rape and death threats against Sudanese-Australian engineer, Yassmin Abdel-Mageid for an innocuous tweet about Anzac Day (Zhou 2017). Yassmin eventually left Australia because she did not feel safe here. These right-wing snowflakes believe every lie told to them about Islam, about refugees, and then when one of their own goes on a murderous terrorist attack, rather than self-reflect about the role they played in his radicalisation, they blame the victims. Victim-blaming is pretty typical of the right-wing. As are extremely violent outbursts at the slightest insult, with Nobel-prize winning Paul Krugman detailing that these outbursts are predominantly occurring from the right-wing (Moran 2019).

Queensland Senator, Fraser Anning is most notable for a pathetic media release on the day of the Christchurch terrorist attack, in which he expressed his horror, then immediately blamed Islamic migration for it. In the context of such horror, this amounts to hate-speech. It was designed to justify the actions of the terrorist, not to express remorse or sympathy for the victims. The following day, 17 year old William Connolly casually walked up behind Anning and smashed an egg into the back of his head (Winter 2019). One of Anning's henchmen who wrestled the boy to the ground, was Neil Erikson, a white supremacist who attacked a church last year for daring to defend Muslims and refugees. There is a warrant out for his arrest in New South Wales. Disturbingly, many right-wingers are more upset about the egg being thrown, than they are about the Christchurch massacre or the radicalisation of everyday Australians. 

Fraser Anning gave a speech in parliament that called for a final solution against refugees (Murphy and Remeikis 2018), invoking memories of Hitler's final solution that resulted in the genocide of millions of Jews, socialists, dissidents, gypsies and anyone who didn't fit his idea of what a German citizen should look or act like. He also praised the White Australia policy and declared in his maiden speech that Muslims should be banned from migrating to Australia, while European migration should be encouraged. He is a white supremacist. He regularly attends neo-Nazi rallies with the likes of Blair Cottrell, who called for a photo of Hitler and a copy of Mein Kampf to adorn every Australian classroom. You still wondering why the Christchurch terrorist was Australian?

A petition was established calling for Anning to resign (Price 2019). Of course, he is too arrogant to do that, however, it is encouraging that more than one million people signed the petition in 48 hours ... keep in mind that Anning only received 19 votes at the last election: loser.

Fraser Anning's response to the Christchurch terrorism event on 15 March 2019

Fraser Anning's response to the Christchurch terrorism event on 15 March 2019

Australia's conservative political parties have drifted so far to the right, that they are in the realms of Nazism. They encourage white-supremacy through fear of the other, through propagating xenophobic messages that whip people into a frenzy.

This is driven by the mistaken belief that Australia is being taken over by Muslims. The Christchurch terrorist reflected about a takeover of western nations by Muslims. Pauline Hanson and other right-wing politicians have ruminated on the same thing. Is this really a threat? According to the Pew Research Centre, just 3% of the world's Muslims live in developed regions, such as Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan (Pew Research Centre 2011). This body of research identified that migration from Muslim majority countries has declined sharply over the last 25 years. In the mid-90s, Muslim-majority countries were losing population at a rate of 160 per 100,000 per annum (0.16%). By 2010, this had declined to 42 per 100,000 per annum (0.04%). The report identified that there would be further declines in migration from developing nations that have a Muslim-majority population as economic conditions improve. Migration in western nations is likely to increase by 180 per 100,000 per annum (0.18%). This is hardly a take-over. For Australia, Muslim growth was around 0.12% in 1990. Over the years this has been declining, and is predicted to only be (0.07%) by 2030. So why do they believe there is a Muslim takeover? In 2010, the Muslim population in Australia numbered 399,000, which is about 1.6% of the population. By 2030, it will likely be 714,000 based on net birth-rates and migration, while Australia's population is forecast to have grown to 30 million, so Muslims will account for 2.4% of the population. This is less than 1% growth in Muslim population in 20 years. Australia's population growth is currently forecast at 1.6% (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2018). Muslim population growth in Australia will be less than Australia's net population growth, so based on that, Muslims will never be a majority in Australia ... not what any critically thinking person would consider an invasion or take-over. 

Many of Australia's far-right politicians who exploit xenophobia and white supremacy also claim to be Christian. Many right-wing Christians are more than happy to attack Islam and take its scriptures out of context. Quote distasteful biblical scriptures and these same Christians will try to provide context. They will say that the Koran promotes violence, yet their own bible calls for the killing of every man, woman and child. They will say that Islam promotes paedophilia, yet the bible says to kill every man, male child and female who has slept with a man, but for the young girls (children) who have not been with a man to be taken into sexual slavery ... then there is the issue of God getting a pre-teenage and betrothed Mary pregnant with Christianity's namesake (Jesus, in case you missed the memo), which raises all sorts of questions about paedophilia, adultery, and consent given her age and the power imbalance. Oh, is there no context? Context is not a luxury that racists allow Muslims to provide.

These Christians will claim the Koran promotes violence and terrorism, yet Christianity has been responsible for most of the wars of the last 1,000, including some of the biggies that most of us are familiar with in recent times, such as World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf Wars I and II, and Afghanistan. These wars killed hundreds of millions of people during the 20th and 21st centuries, far more than have been killed by Islamic terrorism - yet these Christians will ignore that and continue spreading hate and lies about Islam. 

Actually, the bible bangs on about hate-speech. It tells Christians not to do it! Scriptures like Proverbs 12:18 - 'There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing'. Proverbs 11:9 is one of my favourite, considering that Evangelical Christianity has proven itself redundant with the willingness of many of its leaders to embrace the lies and hate-speech of Donald Trump and the far-right. This scripture declares them to be godless: 'with his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbour, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered'. All that white supremacists want to do is destroy anyone who is not white, European, Judeo-Christian ... and right-wing Christianity is going along for the ride, as it has done for some time. Nazi Germany is a case in point.

Hitler used Christian-speak to whip Christians into committing horrendous crimes against Jews. Read Mein Kampf and see the similarities between what Hitler said, what today's conservatives speak and what the Christchurch terrorist wrote in his idiotic manifesto.

Christians funded Islamic holy-war in Afghanistan under the Soviets during the 1980s (Cooley 2002), yet Muslims get the blame, while Christians conveniently ignore their role in terrorism. Out of this, we saw the rise of the Taliban, Al Qaeda and eventually ISIS. Christians then ignore and lie about the role that their own had in the rise of global terrorism - instead, they blame Islam. So much for the religion of peace and truth when many Christians are not interested in either peace or truth. Oh yeah, there is also the claim that Christianity is the religion of love, yet many Christians revel in sharing hate against Muslims.

The day after the Christchurch massacre, a Christian radio host named Bryan Fischer defended the attack as 'vigilante justice' because 'Islam has to be stopped'. (Stone 2019). Apparently, terrorism is fine as long as it is waged by Christians.

The radicalisation of the Australian terrorist responsible for the Christchurch killings, has been coming for a long time. Far too many Australians have been saying exactly what he said in his manifesto. Hanson rose to power in 1996 on a Mein Kampf-like platform (don't believe me? read the book). Her white supremacist platform was later comandeered by John Howard to win elections on fear-mongering of Muslim refugees. Australian hip-hop band, The Herd aggressively called out Australia's racism & hate-speech in 2003 with their brilliant song, 77%. Sadly, right-wing snowflakes were more offended by the song's strong language than they were by their own government's lies, demonisation, persecution and physical and mental abuse of innocent people. Australia needs to wake up to itself. Islam isn't a threat, right-wing extremism is.  

The Christchurch terrorist's rambling manifesto showed that he was emboldened by Donald Trump and it repeated much of the hate-speech spewing forth from Republicans in the United States Congress (Fuller 2019). It was telling that Trump condemned the terrorist attack, and then immediately condemned migration by using the same rhetoric the terrorist used to demonise migrants (Blumberg and Blumenthal 2019). Immediately, following the attack, Trump tweeted a link to an anti-Islam website (Vidal 2019). This is from a president who thinks neo-Nazis and Klansmen are 'very fine people' (Gray 2017). Trump claims there is no rise in white nationalism (Campbell 2019), even though 98% of terrorist attacks on US soil are by white nationalists(Kivel 2019). Meanwhile, globally, there has been a surge in deadly attacks on Muslims (Al Jazeera 2019a). With such a rise in Islamophobic attacks, one would expect a corresponding increase in reporting of these acts, but no! Islamist terrorism received 357% more coverage than terrorism by non-Muslims; there are an average of 105 headlines per Islamist attack, compared to 15 headlines when the perpetrators are non-Muslim (Chalabi 2018). 

The United States is on a downward spiral into far-right extremism. Three years ago, the US voted AGAINST a United Nations resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism over freedom of speech (CBS News 2016). Seventy-five years ago, the United States battled against Nazis, today it defends them.

The Christchurch terrorist's manifesto railed against Islamic immigration. For years, Australia's conservative politicians have lied about Muslim refugees, equating them with terrorists, even though they are often victims of terrorists. Only a few weeks ago, senior ministers of the government, including Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton, and the Finance Minister, Matthias Cormann, made the ludicrous claim that refugees (less than 1000 of them) would force Australians off hospital waiting lists; a claim which has been debunked as baseless (Das 2019). It is pure fear-mongering and evidence of the blatant lies the federal LNP has been ramming down the throats of Australians. Morrison has previously claimed there is a benefit in exploiting anti-Islamic sentiments to gain votes (Taylor 2011). No wonder, there is so much hatred of migrants and why someone became radicalised enough to murder 50 Muslims.

The Christchurch terrorist modelled his attack on that by Anders Breivik in Norway (Werleman 2019). In his manifesto, he declared support for other mass murderers, but emphasised his idolising of Breivik. Christian and far-right extremist Breivik, killed 77 socialist students to fulfil his hatred of leftists and migrants. Both elements that Australia's conservative politicians and media are constantly railing against. 

Interesting that the Christchurch terrorist wasn't on any terrorist watchlist and authorities said he was not known to them, even though he'd been planning this for some time and had travelled to North Korea, Pakistan, Bulgaria and Turkey as part of his preparations (O'Grady 2019). If it was a Muslim planning such an attack or travelling to those countries, Australian authorities would have been all over it and he would have been arrested immediately. But hey, white privilege.

Hard-right conservatives are running around upset that people are blaming them for the Christchurch attack. 'We're not all like that'. Oh the irony! They don't show such nuance when attacking Islam. 

Hours after the Christchurch terrorist attack, a Muslim man was assaulted with a hammer and batten in an Islamophobic attack in London (Al Jazeera 2019b). The following day, in a case exemplar of white privilege, a 23 year old moron deliberately drove into the gates of a Mosque near Brisbane, yelling anti-Islamic hate (Garcia 2019). The Queensland Police Commissioner excused him because he was drunk so therefore, it was not a hate-crime! Had a Muslim done that to a Christian church, he'd have been arrested and charged with terrorism. White privilege!

Thankfully, most Australians have expressed horror and revulsion at the attack. The Christchurch terrorist perpetrated the very act that he detests Muslims for. Clearly, not a very intelligent specimen. If anything, it is clear that he is projecting his own hatred, animosity and violence onto people who are actually peaceful and tolerant. He isn't the only one. 

While the Christchurch terrorist is apparently a 'lone-wolf' attacker, he should not be considered in isolation. White supremacy is a global issue that is on the increase (Anderson 2019). When the President of the United States defends Nazis and empowers white supremacist terrorists, there is a significant international problem. These extremists carry on about the danger of immigration, while exporting their terrorism to the world.

What can be done? Stop normalising hate-speech. Stand up against the fear-mongering, demonisation and racist rhetoric of these horrid politicians who pretend to be Christian but instead are driven by hate-filled agendas. Instead of Christians losing their collective shit over halal Easter eggs, how about they invite Muslims to their churches, their homes, into their lives and get to know them as friends and family, not as the enemy. 

Love your neighbour!

References

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