HATEWATCH/BLOG: Some groups deserve to be vilified ...

At the Herald Sun website, there are some groups that one is not allowed to vilify. And then there are some groups that one is encouraged to vilify. Sometimes they can be identified according to race, sometimes according to presumed ancestral religious affiliation. Sometimes it's a case of either/or. Sometimes in can change in less than an hour.

At 6:16am this morning, Andrew Bolt seemed to have discovered that crime bosses can change their religious affiliation even when they’re dead. Andrew arose to blog about the murder of a Sydney drug boss. He cited this Daily Telegraph article which named Sydney crime figures Abdul Qadier Darwiche, Danny Karam and Michael Kanaan. His blog entry, headlined “Not all felafels and homous (sic.)”, began with this line:

Marvellous how some groups are making their way in their new Sydney home.

Bolt abruptly ended the post after reproducing the relevant excerpt from the Tele article. It seems Andrew was intending to make an issue of the ethnic group involved - the mention of “felafels and homous (sic.)” along with the names of certain crime figures was a clear indication that Bolt’s “some groups” referred to Lebanese migrants, whether of Sunni Muslim background (such as AQ Darwiche) or Christian (such as M Kanaan and D Karam). Bolt was effectively casting aspersions on Lebanese migrants in general, among them this Bulldog champion, the Queen's representative in New South Wales, and some Victorian kid whose ancestors came from the Beka'a Valley.

But then around 40 minutes later, Bolt decided that Kanaan and Karam had suddenly changed their religions. In Karam’s case, the change of faith may have taken place during the 11 year period since he was murdered.

Hence Bolt changed the first sentence of his blog to read:

Marvellous how some Lebanese Muslim groups are making their way in their new Sydney home (emphasis mine).

After citing the Tele paragraph, Bolt added this sentence ...

Time to hold some politicians and policies to account.

... before citing two paragraphs from a January 2007 story in The Australian about how former Prime Minister Fraser was warned about the consequences of accepting certain migrants who didn’t have “the required qualities”.

Bolt’s fine-tuning of his original blogpost made more logical sense when its racism was more ecumenical. Muslim Lebanese aren’t the only Lebanese who eat “homous” (sic.) and felafels. In fact, felafels are also a popular dish in Turkey, Syria and Israel.

And if you thought that was weird, check out the blogpost from 5:13am where Bolt manages to somehow link the arrest of a man on murder charges in England to a number of South Korean tourists murdered in Yemen. Perhaps Andrew should limit his blogging to office hours.

Disclaimer: In case it matters, the writer’s parents were born in Delhi.

UPDATE I: As expected, Bolt's comments have generated a storm of xenophobic comments, which Bolt is quite happy to allow to be aired. Here are a sample:

Many wonderful Lebanese Christians left Lebanon because the influx of Muslins ruined their once wonderful country and cause the destruction of their city by using its country as a base to attack Israel. The same Lebanese Christians who felt the country and emigrated to Australia have been warning us for years not to let any Lebanese Muslims in for they will surely do the same here. We should have heeded their warning!

George P of Albert Park (Reply)
Mon 16 Mar 09 (11:47am)

So there were no indigenous Lebanese Muslims living in the area now known as Lebanon. Apart from the fact that this remark is deeply racist (and hence perfectly legitimate comment for a newspaper that regards itself as being above the law), it is also profoundly ignorant. But the ignorant racism doesn't end there.

Mick replied to George P
Mon 16 Mar 09 (05:26pm)
Yep, my Leb mates couldn’t believe that the Oz Govt decided to let these Leb/Syrian Muslims in. It never makes sense to accept refos from both sides of a conflict, and in this case, it’s the Muslims who caused the trouble, and isn’t it the case every time?

So all the troubles in Lebanon were caused by these foreign Muslims. And Lebanese Muslims always cause the trouble everywhere they go. Everywhere. Each and every place. No exceptions. This is racial vilification, Andrew Bolt style. But Andrew doesn't have the guts to write this stuff himself. He has his minions write it. Then he moderates it and lets it on.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf


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