Media Mullah

BLOGS: Andrew Bolt rolls out the insanity ...

2009-08-05T09:22:00.000-07:00

Things haven't been easy for Andrew Bolt since John Howard left the Lodge. Terrorists haven't cease to exist, but anti-terror raids are no longer occasions for politicians and respectable media to say and write remarks attributing responsibility to entire sections of the Australian community based on their ethnic or ethno-religious heritage.

During his press conference following the recent terror raids in Melbourne, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd refused to even identify a particular ethnic or ethno-religious group. As The Age reported:

He warned against any backlash against any ethnic groups in the wake of the latest arrests.

Mr Rudd said that the terrorist threat came from a small number of individuals "who should in no way be taken as a wider reflection of any group in Australian society".

Instead of demonising minorities and fighting cultural wars, the Rudd government prefers to focus on practical measures such as continued surveillance and increasing security at military installations.

Even The Australian editorialised as follows:

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland acted responsibly yesterday in pointing out that the broader Islamic community should not be seen as terrorists. The majority of Muslims do not support terrorism and have integrated successfully into Australian life where they are valuable members of the community. If anything, such people have an even stronger interest than other Australians in seeing terror stamped out.

With so much sanity now surrounding popular debate about national security, it seems Andrew Bolt may have lost the plot just a tad ...

The alleged terrorists arrested in Melbourne yesterday were all Muslims, from either Somalia or Lebanon. They weren’t Baptists or Greenlanders, Buddhists or Swedes. In fact, if you wanted to confirm a stereotypical profile of a modern terrorist, this pretty much fitted the bill.

So what would be the stereotypical profile of the victims of modern terrorism? Would they be Baptists, Greenlanders, Buddhists or Swedes?

And so, for some reason, Andrew Bolt now founds himself to be in a headspace where to be a terrorist it it's no longer enough for you to be a Muslim. You have to be a Lebanese or a Somali Muslim. I guess that lets Usama bin Ladin off the hook.

Which leads me to ask Andrew Bolt the obvious question ...

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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BLOG/HATEWATCH: Andrew Bolt allows his imbeciles freedom to spread hate ...

2009-07-11T02:31:00.001-07:00

As we've shown on this blog over and over again, Andrew Bolt's idea of sensible discourseincludes even some of the most xenophobic comment. His analysis of events in Xinjiang in Western China attracts the usual array of fruitloops.

The situation in the Xinjiang (or East Turkestan) autonomous region of Western China is extremely complex. There is conflict between Han Chinese and indigenous Turkic Uighurs. Then there are other smaller Turkish tribes (such as Kazakhs) caught in the middle. This conflict crosses ethnic, religious, tribal and class divides, and the complexity of the conflict has not been lost on readers of Andrew Bolt’s blog on the Herald Sun website. Consider these mature and considered reflections:

I was wondering which way you’d jump on this one. Keep in mind that the uighurs probably started the violence - however justified it might be - and they ARE muslim, remember.
Matthew of Canberra (Reply)
Thu 09 Jul 09 (09:45am)

Devlin Carnate replied to Matthew
Thu 09 Jul 09 (05:34pm)
It looks like the ChiComs are battling another form of totalitarianism to come: Jihadism.
Yet another restive Muslim minority with grievances, seizing upon an incident of alleged mistreatment by authorities to stage a riot. Yet hardly no one notices any kind of pattern, or any hint of the Islamic supremacist notion that it is offensive for Muslims to be under the rule of non-Muslims.
So in what sense are the Uighurs the target here? It looks as if they are fairly efficiently targeting the Han Chinese. …

While I normally respect Greg Sheridan’s opinion, I disagree with his analysis on the Uighurs. Greg is not looking at the big picture i.e. everywhere on Earth that Islamic culture meets another culture, there is conflict …

And that’s just this century. Why would Muslims behave any differently in China? … Now they have then gone on a rampage killing dozens of ethnic Chinese. The ethnic Chinese have now responded in kind. I think it is entirely appropriate that the Chinese are cracking down on the Muslims.
I believe what is now happening in China is exactly what will happen in Europe within the next ten years. Muslims will commit atrocities against the indigenous population and eventually the locals will have had enough and retaliate. It will be a low key civil war. Whether it escalates or not will depend on whether the European governments crack down on the Muslims or the locals.
jupes of west coast (Reply)
Thu 09 Jul 09 (07:22pm)

I wonder if News Limited chief John Hartigan had his employee Andrew Bolt in mind when he said recently the blogesphere was saturated with people and opinions ...

... of such limited intellectual value as to be barely discernible from massive ignorance.

UPDATE I: Speaking of Xinjiang, here is an interesting analysis of the use of buzzwords by media outlets, comparing the treatment of Tibetans and Uighurs.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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BLOGS: How Bolt and Blair might spin this murdered woman's story ...

2009-07-10T22:01:00.000-07:00

Serial tabloid hate-mongers Andrew Bolt and Tim Blair love plucking out stories not widely reported in Australian media about violence against women. Actually, not about violence against women in particular or indeed violence against women in Australia. But rather, about violence against non-white nominally Muslim women, preferably by non-white nominally Muslim men. And not with the intention of showing sympathy toward the women themselves, but rather (especially in Blair's case) to poke fun at a tragic situation.

But one incident of violence against a non-white nominally Muslim woman seems to have passed them by. I wonder why.

IT WAS while Marwa el-Sherbini was in the dock that the accused strode across a Dresden courtroom and plunged a knife into her 18 times. She had been recalling how the man had insulted her for wearing a hijab after she asked him to let her son sit on a swing last year.

Her three-year-old son, Mustafa, was forced to watch as his mother slumped to the courtroom floor.

Why wouldn't Andrew Bolt write about this incident? I mean, there's plenty here for him to write about. You'd think Andrew could at least write ...

This incident shows how European Muslims just aren't integrating and instead are imposing their dress codes on others. The backlash is natural. We could see that here soon also.

Yes, an Egyptian pharmacist living in Germany is stabbed by a white-skinned European man. It somehow doesn't fit Bolt's stereotype. As for Tim Blair, he'd might even argue that the police officer was right.

Even her husband, Elvi Ali Okaz, could do nothing as his pregnant wife was killed by the 28-year-old Russian stock controller who was being sued for insult and abuse. As Mr Okaz ran to save her he, too, was brought down, shot by a police officer who mistook him for the attacker. He is now in intensive care in a Dresden hospital.

Blair would argue that Muslim men are usually the ones bashing up and beheading Muslim women. I can only imagine what commenters on his blog might say.

What does she expect? She's lucky they didn't turn her into compost. That's what I'd do.

Perhaps Blair and his commenters would even sympathise with Alex W's sentiments.

Unemployed Alex W. from Perm in Russia was found guilty last November of insulting and abusing Ms Sherbini, screaming "terrorist" and "Islamist whore" at her, during the Dresden park encounter.

Or maybe Alex W had been spending too much of his time reading News Limited blogs.

UPDATE I: One of Tim Blair's main informants, a certain Sheik Yermami, has this to say about the sorry saga. And it seems Yermami has similar comment moderation methods to Blair, having allowed this chilling remark to remain:

An infidel! July 12, 2009 at 3:56 am
*Where is the outrage? Where are the violent riots, the carbeques, the attacks on Muslims?

It will happen. Like a coiled spring it will unleash at the correct moment. Unlike the hot headed Muslims who carry on for a short while and usually end up killing one another. This will be a massive societal reaction to the murderous monstrocity known as Islam, and will last for a very long time.

I guess it did take their ilk 6 years to murder 6 million Jews. That was a fairly long time.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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MEDIA: The Oz finally manages to find an Iraqi to support the Iraq war ...

2009-06-01T20:05:00.001-07:00

The op-ed section of The Oz today published a piece by one Omar Fadhil Al-Nidawi, a Baghdad-trained dentist.

And where did The Oz manage to find an Iraqi prepared to write such absurdities? Certainly not in Iraq. Al-Nidawi now lives in the United States. Clearly the war has served his interests quite well.

Others serving his interests well are certain US far-Right loopy groups such as the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, whose website includes among its "favourites" PajamasMedia.

Then there is al-Nidawi's own blog whose links include the Jawa Report, Instapundit, JihadWatch, Little Green Footballs, Michelle Malkin, RightWing News, Tim Blair and a host of other far-Right fruitcakes.

In other words, al-Nidawi's online buddies include the types who would happily support torturing people in Abu Ghraib prison and who are known for their pathological hatred of anything linked to Arabs and/or Islam.

So if you're an Iraqi and you want to get published on the Opinion page of The Oz, you obviously have to follow the party line. Thankfully not all sections of The Oz follow the party line. Because if they did, The Oz wouldn't read more like FoxNews than one of Australia's best newspapers.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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BLOG: Daily Telegraph editor's devastating refutation ...

2009-05-31T22:20:00.001-07:00

Tim Blair, Opinion Editor of the Daily Telegraph, provided a devastating refutation to the suggestion that his blog allowed racist and xenophobic comments to be moderated and posted onto his blog. He posted this refutation on another far-Right blog. Here is Blair's refutation.

By the way, there's another thing besides manufacturing outrage that gets Irf out of bed in the morning. I've heard it's a Caterpillar 966G Series II loading shovel.

My God, the terrifying logic of that response!

Of course, Blair doesn't need to use this logic at work. No doubt all staff at the Daily Telegraph satisfy his criteria for acceptable physique. Because if they don't, they should keep their distance from him.

The wonderful thing about all this is that questions about the underlying racism and xenophobia Tim allows onto his blog, when made in public, clearly get under his skin. Hence they should be asked again and again and again. And not just to Blair but to all his colleagues. Xenophobia isn't acceptable, even if Blair thinks it is. And the "shut-the-f*ck-up-you-fat-sh*t" response from Blair also becomes a bit tiring after a while.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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COMMENT: Truth, lies & the Jerusalem Prize ...

2009-05-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

On the May 7 episode of ABC TV's Q&A show, there was an interesting exchange between author Randa Abdel Fattah and columnist Greg Sheridan.

GREG SHERIDAN: I don't believe criticism of Israel is generally labelled as anti-Semitism. I reject absolutely the proposition of the question. However, I do think anti-Semitism has swept back both into the western world and the Arab world. Many scholars have examined anti-Semitism in the Arab world. Notorious tsarist forgery, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which is meant to show Jewish conspiracy to control the world, figures prominently on Egyptian television, in Saudi Arabia and so forth. You Google the Hamas Charter, you'll see that the Jews control the Rotary Clubs and the Lions Clubs in order to enact their vicious conspiracies and so forth. It's perfectly legitimate to criticise Israel, as it is any other nation, when it does something wrong. But the insane, absolutely over the top emotional hostility towards Israel from people who couldn't care less about 300,000 Darfuries, aren't fussed about the status of women in Saudi Arabia, couldn't give a bugger about the 300,000 people in North Korean gulag, but Israel somehow is their enemy - there is something going on there which is psychological and very nasty.

TONY JONES: Randa?

RANDA ABDEL-FATTAH: I totally disagree with that. I know you've said before that being anti-Israel is fundamentally irrational and evidence of psychological and ideological dysfunction...

GREG SHERIDAN: I've never said that. No, I've never said that.

RANDA ABDEL-FATTAH: When you accepted the Jerusalem Prize for being a supporter of Israel...

GREG SHERIDAN: Yeah. Yeah. I never said that Randa. That's just untrue.

RANDA ABDEL-FATTAH: Well, I...

GREG SHERIDAN: That's a lie, Randa. That's a lie.

RANDA ABDEL-FATTAH: I've got it in print. I'll show you after the show.

GREG SHERIDAN: Yeah, well it may be in print, but I never said it, I can tell you that.

Mr Sheridan said that he never said these words. His column on 3 May 2007 must have been a figment of our collective imaginations. Here are some excerpts:

... recently I did get a remarkable piece of mail. It told me that if I would
accept, I would be awarded the Jerusalem Prize.

Sponsored jointly by the Israeli Government and the local Jewish community, it is awarded to people who have supported Israel conspicuously.

Since I believe that Israel is a democracy in good standing I was delighted to accept the award, which has been won by sundry heads of government, foreign ministers, social democrat and conservative European politicians and many others over the years ...

Anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment are all different, yet they are all intimately related. They draw from diverse sources, yet they are all, in their virulent forms, fundamentally irrational and evidence of psychological and ideological dysfunction rather than genuine analysis.

And so, as I look outside my window and admire the latest fleet of Qaantas pigs taking off, I cannot help but wonder why Randa could tell such clear and obvious lies on national television.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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BLOG: More violent racism on Bolt's Herald Sun blog ...

2009-05-14T18:15:00.000-07:00

I thought we'd re-visit some of Andrew Bolt's golden oldies.

Andrew Bolt never liked Barack Obama very much. Back on April 05 2009, he castigated Obama for his policy on Afghanistan. Bolt's commenters went further. Here's the very first comment.

Actually the only solution to Afghanistan is to stop recognising it as a legitimate sovereign state while it allows islam to continue its illegitimate rule. The now destroyed Buddhas of Bamyan a testimony to a successfull buddhist society, are yet another example of islam ruthlessly destroying societies.

History has proven the choice is simple - destroy islam - or destroy societies.

tony of coburg (Reply)
Sun 05 Apr 09 (04:41pm)

So we really have only 1 choice in the world. We can murder (or forcibly convert) all those we deem Muslim before they destroy civilisation. The Herald Sun moderators haven't yet deleted this remark, and I doubt they ever will. Maybe they think all Muslims look something like this dude.

But wait - there's more!

joeallen replied to Margaret
Mon 06 Apr 09 (10:34am)
Margaret, we don’t want a war, but the islamics sure do. And have for the past 1400 years. While the Europeans don’t fight, the muslims are taking over their cities. Europe is more concerned about keeping its citizens comsuming heroin, cocaine, and opium that comes from Afghan. That is why the Europeans don’t want to fight. Of course, last century Germany caused 2 world wars that took in excess of 100 million lives. And have a look of how things have deteriorated in Sweden and Finland in the last 3 years as the Muslims burn burn and burn hospitals, Christian schools, and western religion churches in these countries. After all, in the past 1000 years, the muslims have invaded Europe several times. Now they are doing it by immigration, and this is proving far more successful, due to European ideals. These ideals will lead to the extinction of white christian europeans. We are being warned and ignoring the current situation.

Pfft. Geez, Andrew, do people need to fail an IQ test before commenting on your blog? A large portion of Muslim migrants in Western Europe are from Bosnia. The last time I checked, Bosnians were not exactly of the same skin colour of Colin Powell.

Bolt blogs more about how to deal with Afghanistan here. And as always, the ferals are allowed full freedom to unleash their genocidal stuff. Here is an example.

Joe replied to Kiwi
Tue 07 Apr 09 (11:51am)
Let’s just carpet nuke the whole country. That way the Brigadier get’s his instant wish, namely the insurgency is completely finished, and the peaceable part can take place of rebuilding.

Perhaps Joe should stick to plumbing and leave foreign policy and defence to the experts.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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BLOG: Andrew Bolt on Hawaiian holidays for terrorists ...

2009-05-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt has (I presume inadvertently) used his blog to promote a far-Right conspiracy theory about Muslims.

Bolt cites the allegedly conservative blog Qohel on a proposal by the Hawaii Legislature to introduce an official annual "Islam Day" on September 24. Qohel in turn refers readers to a far-Right conspiracy theorist posing as the "Canada Free Press" for "more detail".

And what does the CFP have to say? Here's how their "report" commences.

Muslims have just tricked the Hawaii Legislature into celebrating Islam on September 11.

To get an idea of just how loopy this CFP is, go to their search feature and type in the words Obama Muslim. Be prepared for nonsensical articles like this and this.

Bolt, of course, would never subscribe to any conspiracy theory concerning Muslims imposing an agenda on Hawaii or the rest of the United States. After all, it's not as if Bolt would make the kinds of far-fetched remarks that far-Right nutters would make. You know, remarks like this:

If adherents of this faith hadn’t killed so many Americans, would it have attracted this kind of fawning?

Of course, Bolt did say all that. His comments echoed the views of two Republican representatives in Hawaii as reported by the Associated Press on 7 May 2009.

Hawaii's state Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday to celebrate "Islam Day" — over the objections of a few lawmakers who said they didn't want to honor a religion connected to Sept. 11, 2001.

Those Senators were right. But then, they were in the minority. What can one say about the rest of those damned Hawaiians? In the mind of Andrew Bolt and his conspiratorial nutter sources, terrorists (i.e. Hawaiian Muslims) have successfully held a gun to the head of the Hawaiian Senate. The terrorists have won. We should have seen it coming. Head for the hills!

UPDATE I: Those winderful people at the Crikey Pure Poison blog have done some thorough research on the Hawaiian Islam Day proposal which, far from being an annual event, was supposed to be a one-off. Read more here.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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BLOG: The Taliban are coming to Auburn ...

2009-05-03T09:54:00.000-07:00

Tim Blair, opinion editor of the Daily Telegraph, links to a report in the Dawn, Pakistan's oldest newspaper, about the dreadful treatment of the tiny Sikh community in the Orakzai Area of Pakistan by the Taliban. He then allowed the following comments reflecting not on the Taliban but also upon the vast majority of the Taliban's victims:

Pretty much proves the point that Islam is a criminal enterprise writ large.

If youse is not with the gang, then youse have to pay the gang protection money.

As it the case here - said in black and smudge.

MarkL
Canberra

MarkL of Canberra (Reply)
Sun 03 May 09 (08:08pm)

Was Mark L talking about Islam as a faith? As law? As people? Was he saying that all Muslims are criminals? That they behave in the same manner as mafia-like gangs?

But it doesn't stop there. Heck, why limit it to Taliban-controlled parts of Pakistan?

Jazia, coming to Auburn soon.
boy on a bike (Reply)
Sun 03 May 09 (08:57pm)

kae replied to boy on a bike
Sun 03 May 09 (10:22pm)
I also wonder how long it will be.

Chronic anti-Semite and racist Daniel Lewis couldn't help himself.

Next time you hear an apologist for Islamism saying how well the Jews and other minorities are treated in Muslim countries, remind them that these groups are forced to pay Jizya for the privilege of not being killed.

There is an argument that Centrelink is seen as effectively paying Jizya, on behalf of the infidels, to residents of Lakemba who regard themselves as superior. Centrelink regards them simply as long-term unemployed.

Daniel Lewis (Reply)
Sun 03 May 09 (09:44pm)

Tim Blair allows this stuff onto his blog because he regards it as normal and reasonable speech. It's normal to describe all Muslims as part of an organised criminal gang. It's ok to suggest that this gang is present in Sydney suburbs.

When I ckicked onto Tim's blog, I noticed a banner advert from The National Australia Bank. My bank fees go toward printing this hate-speech.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

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BLOG: Racists against racism ...

2009-04-21T07:17:00.000-07:00

Well it's great to see Andrew Bolt lashing out against the UN Conference on Racism, accusing it of racism merely for allowing Iran's fruitcake premier to speak. This from a columnist who claims Victorian police are deliberately hiding the extent of crime by African migrants, who moderates comments calling for the destruction of entire nations and who thinks that only black-skinned people can be indigenous Australians.

And what kind of morons congregate around this mediocre tabloid blogger? How about this happy clappy ...

Eric replied to Barrie
Tue 21 Apr 09 (11:26am)
The europeans have soled themselves out to Islamic oil Barrie. This started under DeGaul, post WW2, it is merely gaining momentum now.
Well, the bible does prophesy that the world will turn against Israel, and we appear to be seeing that in our lifetimes. God help those nations who stand against his people, it boggles my mind that Christians can stand against Israel when they claim allegiance, at least in name, if not in spirit, with their messiah.

Indeed many evangelical interpretations of Biblical prophecy also state that Jesus will return to earth to finish off the job Adolf Hitler couldn't quite finish. Then of course you have apologists for South Africa's apartheid regime.

Dr Paul Fidlon replied to Barrie
Tue 21 Apr 09 (03:35pm)
... What does it say of a South African government permitting yet another anti-Semitic conference to be held in South Africa itself AND inviting arch-terrorist Ahmadinejad to address the conference?
Can’t imagine the old white South African government doing anything like this.

I thought "Durban II" was actually being held in Geneva. But still, the old white South African government always knew how to put racists in their place. And what better way to fight racism than with good old-fashioned genocide?

The Muslim world has invented nothing in the last 800 years but are now gathering nuclear weapons to point at the decadent west. Its about time we got a little generous with our nuclear technology and levelled a few of our foes before its too late.
Rossco of Newcastle (Reply)
Tue 21 Apr 09 (08:35am)

And if genocide doesn't work, perhaps nuclear war might be an appropriate step.

Q: What is flat, lifeless and glows in the dark in the Middle East?
A: Iran, after Israel finally loses patience.
WhaleOilBeefHooked (Reply)
Tue 21 Apr 09 (10:58am)

But out of all this bigotry, one lonely voice of reason stood out.

We have survived Pharaoh, the Romans, the Christian pogroms, the Ottomans, the Soviets and the Nazis. Their empires are dust, and we’re still here. We have nothing to fear from a stupid little conference and a jumped-up chickenhawk like Ahmadinejad.

So touching Andrew, your support for Jews when they’re thousands of miles away in their ancestral homeland, more numerous, prosperous and secure than at any time in the last few millennia.

Yet I can predict how you and your readers would have reacted, if you’d been around when my grandparents arrived in Sydney in 1939, by boat, uninvited, stateless, no passport, no English, telling their stories of persecution in German (and this was in the days before the world knew about the existence of death camps).

You’d be calling for the boat to be turned around and my grandparents “sent back where they came from”, wouldn’t you? That’s the reception your readers really have in mind for people like my grandparents.

Given your attitude towards the persecuted elsewhere in the world, and your unwillingness to help those who come to these shores in need, I can assure you that Israel and the Jews do not need your particular brand of “support”.

Mercurius Goldstein of Sydney (Reply)
Tue 21 Apr 09 (07:13pm)

I am with Mercurius!

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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HATEWATCH/BLOGS: More enlightened and informed comment on asylum seekers at the Herald Sun ...

2009-04-19T23:39:00.000-07:00

Here are some classics from page 2 from Andrew Bolt's blog on the most recent load of asylum seekers ...

Who really cares, they all should have gone up in flames.
And no rescue effort for the survivors, that will stop em doing these things.
Zarth of mulgrave (Reply)
Fri 17 Apr 09 (09:16am)

Try this one people.....were they all refugees seeking asylum or were some of them suicide refugees hell bent on making a statement and possibly inflicting casualities on Australian naval personnel.
The incident is too bizzare to think it was an accident.
Spinfx of Melbourne (Reply)
Fri 17 Apr 09 (09:37am)

I do hope Australia won’t get themselves into the huge problems many European countries now find themselves in. It is a bit of an advantage that we are ‘an island’, and a bit more difficult to cross border.
This very morning I read from Norway about a pair of asylum seekers caught out. Arrived independently in the country, without papers.
Woman claimed she had been held for years as a sex-salve in the jungles of Burundi.
They both joined up again in Norway after being apart for a certain period.
Only an observant policeman discovered their false identity. He discovered a wedding photo with the pair, the bride in a quite fancy wedding dress cutting their wedding cake, with their true names on the impressive wedding cake.
Also police in Oslo yesterday said the 40 odd cases against violence and rape in the city against Norwegian females over last couple of years were all by these new foreigners, high on the list were Somalis and Kurds. Some of them repeat offenders.
Another problem they have, gangs get created among these various groups, like Pakistani against African gangs, and narcotics is very common among them.
The general population is generally getting pretty fed up with it all.
Concerned ex-Scandinavian. of Brisbane. (Reply)
Fri 17 Apr 09 (09:49am)

And now from page 3 ...

bushka replied to Stew
Fri 17 Apr 09 (02:00pm)
they are not all desperate asylum seekers. There is quite a few questions to be answered. With this lot why were they all men? Don,t they value women?? With the lot before why were they all well dressed?
Is someone from Australia perhaps sending money to enable some to pay people smugglers???? Moslem friends???

More to come.

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HATEWATCH/BLOGS: Enlightened and informed comment on asylum seekers at the Herald Sun ...

2009-04-19T21:28:00.000-07:00

Again, no commentary required for some of the fruitloops attracted by this paranoid post:

KRudd now has blood on his hands.
Anyone organising a party for a teenager at home knows that they have to be very careful to restrict invitations to only the type of people welcome, ensure that an open invitation is not broadcast and provide proper security - all with the objective of baring undesirables from crashing the party. Therefore, the question I have is, are Australians happy to have a Prime Minister running the country who demonstrably couldn’t even safely organise a child’s party?
Wake up Australia of Pennant Hills (Reply)
Fri 17 Apr 09 (06:01am)

gonfalone replied to Wake up Australia
Fri 17 Apr 09 (11:36am)
... These boat people are not “asylum seekers”; they are COLONISERS.
Ponder this: Jemaah Islamiah’s Abu Bakar Bashir: “The Islamic faithful in Australia must endevour to bring about an Islamic state in Australia, even if it is 100 years from now,” ...
To allow more of these people in is national suicide.
Islam delenda est!

Wake up Australia replied to Wake up Australia
Fri 17 Apr 09 (12:10pm)
... It is well known that the people smugglers tell the invaders that when they consider that they are assured of being rescued they should destroy their boat (and all identification of course). Therefore seeing that at the time of the explosion there was two Australian navy personnel on board of the vessel I think it is safe to assume that these people were quite happy to murder Australians - are these really the sort of people you want living next door to you???

MMM....Sad times ahead....well if our PM makes it easier for these people to attempt to land on our shores for a free ride,expect more of this to come! Now you have to ask..are these the type of person/s we want as refugees? From their point of view - Hey get a boat ride to Ozzie, free housing, free medical, free dental, free education and some spending money every fortnight....Yeah this is the lucky country....providing your not Australian
that is !!!!!!
Margy of Qld (Reply)
Fri 17 Apr 09 (06:16am)

Harry Buttle replied to Poor Self Funded Retiree
Fri 17 Apr 09 (07:51am)
The policies of the Australian Govt killed those people. John Howard had put in place measures that stopped people smuggling cold.
KRudd removed those policies and put in place policies that rewarded people smuggling.
He put those people in that boat and it led to their deaths.
The question now is “will KRudd be prepared to accept responsibility and reimpose the Pacific solution, or must more people die?”

tony of coburg replied to Bonni
Fri 17 Apr 09 (08:43am)
... Asylum seekers on boats are breaking Australian law - understand. They don’t have rights - and should be towed out into deeper water - or bakc to whereever they just came from.

The newer refugees are from a totally different mind set and refuse or can’t adapt to
Australian ways and it is this lack of assimilation which makes them unpopular.
It is hard to understand why Moslems don’t stay in Indonesia which is an Islamic
country. As well, there are legal facilities for them to apply for refugee status in that country but they queue jump and Australia has to pick up the
pieces.
Scales of Justice of Melbourne (Reply)
Fri 17 Apr 09 (07:31am)

PG replied to Scales of Justice
Fri 17 Apr 09 (08:35am)
And it might be pertinent to think of Lebanon here. The Christians let in the Muslim
refugees and later became refugees themselves because of the very Muslims they let in. This will be Australia’s fate, except for one thing - very soon there will be no Christian countries for us to run to.

And that's just page 1. More to follow.

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BLOG: Aliens from the Planet Blair ...

2009-04-19T02:52:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if there's any point providing commentary to this imbecilic comment left by just one of the many fruitcakes congregating around the Daily Telegraph opinion editor Tim Blair's blog. The bullsh*t stinks for itself.

In relation to a story about an Iranian refugee who copped a 2 year suspended sentence for trying to set ire to a workmate after found to have been suffering from depression, consider this:

The should throw the stupid judge into prison with the idiot muslim and let events take their course.
Peter Wicks of Melbourne
Fri 17 Apr 09 (02:45pm)

Lovely.

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BLOG: In Andrew Bolt's world, only a nigger can be a boong ...

2009-04-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

Andrew Bolt is obsessed with race and colour. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's something he picked up from Dutch conservatives who settled in South Africa and established a somewhat discredited system of social organisation. In case you're a bit uncertain of what I'm referring to, check this sign out ...

Anyway, Mr Bolt seems to think that in Australia only dark skinned persons can count as indigenous people. He has been playing this line all along, pretending that he has a greater say in how people identify themselves. Mr Bolt would like indigenous people to refer to him for definitive advice on whether they are indigenous enough. And the sole test he will use is one of physical appearance, of colour.

It may only be a matter of time before Mr Bolt starts measuring a Jewish person's Jewishness by their physical appearance (the size of their nose perhaps?).

Maybe he'll determine that I am not really of Indian heritage because I look too Turkish. And perhaps the bloke pictured below should really be deemed a member of an al-Qaida cell. Heck, the beard and the turban (and indeed the sword) are dead giveaways! And check out that huge mosque across the water.

Anyway, enough humour. Time to get depressed as you read the disgraceful comments on Bolt's blog. Bolt clearly doesn't like descendants of the first Australians very much, and he seems to hate racial vilification laws even more. Which explains why he has allowed these insulting remarks to be moderated and published.

I will not reproduce these disgusting remarks. I hope Andrew Bolt and the Herald Sun are prosecuted for racial vilification.

UPDATE I: This educational institution advertises on the Herald-Sun website. Drop them an line and ask whether they want to continuing funding Andrew Bolt's hate-speech.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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BLOG/HATEWATCH: Piers Akerman and friends comment on African retards ...

2009-04-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

Piers Akerman, Senior editor at Sydney's Daily Teleraph provides a crucial history lesson on how to deal with pirates. You can pick up the general vibe of Akerman's solution from the subtle headline:

Let the cannonball fly and hang them high

The moderated comments of Akerman's commenters are even more subtle.

Reality check people.
In the pirates we are dealing with illiterate stone-age savages who come from a racial group whose average IQ is in the 60s (retarded). There is a reason why Africans did not invent the wheel, writing, or any system of government above the tribal level.
There is only one way to deal with these pirates that will make an impression on their dull minds: freaking kill them and the horse that they rode in on ...
Anything else will be viewed as weakness and they will continue to laugh at the foolish and weak white man . . . and they will be correct to do so.
CarlT of Gold Coast (Reply)
Mon 13 Apr 09 (07:59pm)

What is the stupid Ruddistic UN doing about Somalia? Will the Union-Labor Party bring the poor starving Somalis into Australia? Very likely.

If they or their wives are fat in Somalia they are crooks and pirates. Hang or chop the hands off all the fat ones. Leave the Skinny’s.
Sink any Somali vessel with a motor. Sails only ...
john allen of Southport Qld (Reply)
Mon 13 Apr 09 (09:13pm)

Witness the enormous respect the Daily Telegraph has for the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act and the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act. After reading the blogpost and the comments, I couldn't help but wonder whether it was yet another case of ...

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BLOG: Blair sources story from pro-Nazi nutcase ...

2009-04-12T01:54:00.001-07:00

Daily Telegraph blogger Tim Blair will go to any extent to source a story to spread hatred against a group he hates. Blair is even prepared to acknowledge he obtained a story from the blog of a notorious Nazi supporter.

(Via Sheik Yer’ Mami)

And who is Sheik Yer'Mami? What kind of material does Yer'mami publish? Well, his website currently carries this poll:

Are you convinced now that Obama is a Marxist Muslim?

°No way!

°More Marxist than Muslim

°More Muslim than Marxist

°Muslim ueber alles!

Feel free to check out this link where the "Sheik" tries to prove that the President of the United States is "still" a Muslim. Read some of the comments on this racist blog.

Welcome to Blair's world.

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COMMENT: Greg Sheridan's anti-Semitism?

2009-04-11T10:05:00.000-07:00

I learned something new today. I learned that Amharic, the language of Ethiopia is actually a Semitic language. So it is directly related to other Semitic languages - Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic.

I also learned Foreign Editor for The Australian Greg Sheridan has this to say about a group of Semitic people.

Most Arab political cultures are awash in the most bizarre paranoia and conspiracy theories ... Much of the paranoia in Arab culture has a racial element.

On what basis can Mr Sheridan make such an extraordinary remark? Does he speak Arabic? Has he made a detailed study of Arab political cultures and/or the political content in Arabic literature, Arab cinema or Arab art? And just how paranoid is the Arab political culture? Would it share the same degree of paranoia as, say, Andrew Bolt's side of the blogosphere? Or how about Fox News?

This is an extraordinary claim for the foreign editor of a broadsheet newspaper to make. But then, Sheridan's other arguments in his column made little sense. For instance ...

But the real purpose of Obama's speech was his broader pitch to the Muslim world. Much as I love Indonesia, it probably is true that this had a greater resonance in the Arab world by being delivered in Turkey (not that Turks are Arabs) than it would have had if it had been delivered in Jakarta. The speech was carried live on al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya television networks.

Yes, and? Is Sheridan suggesting that Indonesians also don't have access to cable and satellite TV channels? Or don't Indonesians have access to the internet, where they could have watched the speech on the President's own channel on YouTube?

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BLOG: Murdoch columnist from Australia's biggest selling newspaper publishes comment about future Obama assassination ...

2009-04-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

It just amazes me what kind of stuff Andrew Bolt allows onto his blog. The sheer venom for the US President that Bolt likes to whip up. It's one thing to criticise Obama's response to the global financial crisis. It's one thing to criticise him for showing more respect to a Saudi monarch than a British one.

But where the hell did this come from? And why did Bolt allow it on?

It still amazes me that the people voted in someone with links to Islam, especially with 9/11 still fresh in their minds.I have always thought there is a bullet out there with Obamas name on it and still wouldn’t rule it out.He’s definately walking a tightrope bowing and scraping to his Islamic friends.
RonB (Reply)
Sat 11 Apr 09 (12:14pm)

Are Bolt's hounds suggesting Obama's flirtation with longstanding US allies and NATO members should lead to his assassination? Does Bolt regard the assassination of the US President to be normal discourse? Has the Herald Sun's star columnist completely lost the plot??

Apparently Rupert Murdoch is an American citizen ...

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BLOG: Why Obama is a Muslim abortionist ...

2009-04-10T08:07:00.000-07:00

I always thought easter was a time for piece and love, when Christians share the joy of salvation. But when it comes to America's Christian President, all the peace and love disappears from some allegedly Christian quarters.

On Planet Bolt, you can hear all kinds of theories about the President of the United States. Bolt is upset with Obama for appointing Vatican ambassadors who allegedly support a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy.

Fair enough. Bolt perhaps subscribes to a wacky insistence in an absolute prohibition in abortion that would see a 9 year old girl raped by her stepfather forced to give birth to the child. But what does all this say about Obama? Let's take a peak at the conversation on Bolt's blog:

The bizarre thing about this, is that Turkey is not an islamic state - it is in fact a secular democracy (and a successful one at that) - which actually has a HUGE problem with islam and islamic militancy - (armed gards at shopping cenres are not uncommon)
tony of coburg (Reply)
Fri 10 Apr 09 (07:12am)

So having armed guards at shopping centres is a sure sign of the existence of a huge problem with Islam. I've seen a fair few armed guards at shopping centres in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Brazil. Imagine the world's future caliphs who drink beer and/or do the haka and/or enjoy ice hockey and/or samba.

Chris M replied to tony
Fri 10 Apr 09 (07:57am)
He claims to be a Christian but acts rather like a Moslem; well I guess that’s reasonable given that is how he was brought up. A good proportion of Americans believe BO is a Moslem and I tend to agree with them.

Bolt's true believers believe Obama is a Muslim. I wonder what Andrew thinks. Care to share that with us, Mr Bolt?

Now criticising the US President was once a sign of anti-Americanism in some circles. Bolt certainly subscribed to this view once. Not anymore.

nilk replied to txjohn
Fri 10 Apr 09 (08:00am)
The man is a disgrace to his office.

Mick Gold Coast QLD replied to txjohn
Fri 10 Apr 09 (01:21pm)
I would add “transparent” and very, very un-clever ...
This clown will self destruct sooner rather than later.

Indeed, Bolt's cyber-Nazis are now looking for masonic conspiracies in all this. Yep, whoever wins, the masons always win!

barney fife replied to Pete
Fri 10 Apr 09 (02:16pm)
pete
america is a masonic nation, the one dollar bill alone should reveal that to you if your not into studying history.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6534861207969567641

Aah, the love Bolt's buddies feel for the United States of America ...

The gall of the man, to offer people who believe in killing off the unborn. It’s either that or incredible stupidity on his part.
Would be nice if the Pope would refuse to meet with the most pro-death president in America’s history. Such a man deserves neither respect nor time, imho.
MK (Reply)
Fri 10 Apr 09 (08:16am)

mike of cnbra replied to MK
Fri 10 Apr 09 (11:47am)
I don’t think its possible to despise a man as much as obama ...

The moron is still campaigning, sucking up to one and all. Maybe running for king of the world or something.
He is also an incredibly nieve twit with no understanding or respect for reality and thousands of years of tradition.
It’s all about him.
Zog (Reply)
Fri 10 Apr 09 (08:34am)

This clown is a total disaster.
Peter of Chadstone Vic (Reply)
Fri 10 Apr 09 (08:45am)

Obama seems to be stacking the White House with dark-skinned evil people. We all know how scared the far-Right (especially the Dutch Right) are about darkies.

he’s quite happy to employ Muslims though. I read a very disturbing article the other day how Obama has appointed a large number of muslims to work in the White House - sorry can’t find the source.
lethal of WA (Reply)
Fri 10 Apr 09 (10:43am)

Pfft. Poor Andrew. Even at Easter time, he is surrounded with fruitloops.

UPDATE I: Here's Jon Stewart's take on this nonsense ...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

Faith the Nation

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Economic Crisis

Political Humor

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HATEWATCH: Stereotyping is bad but murder and racial vilification is perfectly OK ...

2009-04-10T00:59:00.001-07:00

Today is Good Friday. A time when Christians remember God's mercy.

But for Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt, Good Friday is as good an opportunity as any to incite racial and religious vilification, to engage in hate-speech and to publish incitement to murder and violence.

Under the heading "Stereotyping is bad", Bolt writes a few words to encourage his regulars to leave messages inciting violence against ... well ... "them". And who are "them"? Well, take your pick. It could be Muslims. It could be Pakistanis. It could be British Pakistanis or British Muslims. It could be people from the Middle East living in Auburn or Bankstown. Plenty of comments about Enoch Powell's infamous rivers of blood speech.

Wake up Australia replied to Alan of Sydney
Fri 10 Apr 09 (10:12am)
... If Hitler had actually succeeded in his invasion it is hard to imagine the UK having any of the race/religion problems it has today - problems that will ultimately destroy its heritage totally. But I suppose are a lot of people who will not mourn the passing - and of course what is left today of the traditional ‘Aussie’ way of life?

Yep, only Nazism can save "our" way of life. These are Andrew Bolt's Nazis, and the Herald Sun has become a place where they can vent their spleen.

... Australia should learn a lesson from this and ban any Pakistani muslim from entering Australia, for any reason whatsoever.The risk is not worth the university fee.Let them get on with their primitivism, where they belong,back home.
nigel of richmond (Reply)
Fri 10 Apr 09 (09:36am)

And who needs trials? After all, such luxuries should only be reserved for "our" criminals, not for "them".

The Special forces should be used to eliminate these miscrants. The cost of trials in these days of GFC would be a complete waste of time and money. They want to die in their warped jihadist way, let them die but in a cost effective way.
Howzat of Sydney (Reply)
Fri 10 Apr 09 (09:37am)

I grew up near Bankstown, Auban, Punchbowl, Lakemba, and they were nice little Aussie towns; now they look like scenes from the middle east. Multiculturism we thought would add something to our Aussie culture, but instead it is destroying our culture. The majority of Muslims cannot become like us and have no desire to do so, it would be “un-Islamic”. No, we must give ground to them; and that’s the truth. It’s like a cancer, invading every cell of our traditional way of lif, until it takes over the whole body. Our experience of Islam will not be any different to Englands.
Kerry of Brisbane (Reply)
Fri 10 Apr 09 (02:36pm)

Andrew would say this himself if he had half a chance. He has said it a fair few times on national television. Who knows how many times he's said it on radio?

Maybe he says stuff like this dude ...

By now, many readers will be rather upset and angry that this kind of stuff is being published. Who can we contact to complain?

Well, you can start with the man himself:

Andrew Bolt
BoltA@heraldsun.com.au

Then there is his Editor:

Matthew Pinkney
Editor
Herald-Sun
PinkneyM@heraldsun.com.au

Also feel free to contact any of the major advertisers for the Herald Sun website.

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MEDIA: Getting cross over the cross ...

2009-04-08T23:13:00.000-07:00

The Daily Telegraph ran a front page story on the eve of Easter about a hospital chapel being stripped of its crosses and bibles.

WORSHIPPERS at one of the state's largest hospital chapels have been ordered to get rid of crucifixes and Bibles and pull down religious pictures and symbols for fear of offending other religions ...

Hospital managers ordered the ban on symbols of any kind because the chapel was increasingly being used by a number of different faiths.

The Mayor of Mosman has stepped in by issuing this fatwa.

But Mosman Mayor Dominic Lopez said angry patients were offended that the chapel no longer represented a holy place.

"I used to sit there and pray when my wife was dying of breast cancer and look at that cross," he said. "Now it is just a hall and the decision is bulls ... You either have a chapel or you don't. It's offensive to have a church or chapel and not have a cross in it." ...

"Some two-bit bob bureaucrat has made the decision, just like when someone decided we couldn't sing Christmas carols anymore in schools," Mr Lopez said.

"You walk in to the chapel now and it's like walking into a backyard shed.

"It's offensive."

We hope Clr Lopez's prayers were answered. Seeing his wife in such a condition must have been a terrible ordeal for him. But seriously, suggesting that only a place of worship with a cross can be considered "a holy place" would surely be offensive to Seventh Day Adventists and Mormons, let alone Jews, Sikhs and followers of other faiths.

And so why did the board of one hospital make this decision?

The hospital defended its decision to ban all Christian and non-Christian symbols, saying it was appropriate to appease all religions. Each faith is allowed to display their symbols during services but they must be taken down and stored out of sight afterwards ...

The hospital defended its decision to ban all Christian and non-Christian symbols, saying it was appropriate to appease all religions. Each faith is allowed to display their symbols during services but they must be taken down and stored out of sight afterwards ...

A hospital spokeswoman said it was appropriate to "move with the times".

"The chapel is now best described as a multi-faith chapel where people of all faiths feel welcome," the spokeswoman said.

"The decision was made to display the symbols of each faith, for example the chapel's cross and Bible, during specific services and ceremonies only.

"These important religious symbols are appropriately stored and used regularly."

The Tele also ran an editorial on the story which expressed a particular viewpoint without apparently trying to offend anyone.

The non-religious are more inclined simply not to care about Christian images or documents. Likewise, followers of other faiths are more concerned with their own religious icons.

Yet Royal North Shore Hospital management is so concerned that people may take offence at the display of bibles and crucifixes, among other Christian totems, at the hospital's chapel that they have been removed. This is imbecilic. And, moreover, absolutely unnecessary.

A quick check with other faiths revealed no particular concern at the presence of Jesus-based items at the hospital chapel.

It's true. No one was really all that offended. No one felt terribly strongly about it. Apart from the folk at the Daily Telegraph. How so? Simple - it was a slow news day. Nothing like a manufactured controversy.

UPDATE I: The Tele's Opinion Editor blogs on the issue here. As usual, Mr Blair has his regular array of neo-Nazis, far-Right fruitloops and white-supremacists leaving paranoid and unmedicated comments about how "the West" has "caved into minorities" thanks to a conspiracy between those two nebulous groups known as "the Left" and "the Muslims". Tim's buddy, Daniel "Irf is stalking me by mentioning my suburb despite the fact that I mention in letters to the editor I get published at least weekly!!" Lewis goes troppo about how nasty Muslims are:

Keysar Trad, from the Islamic Friendship Society, said Muslims would not be offended to use a multi-faith chapel and see images of the cross.

Tell that to the Muslim Students at RMIT, who have indicated precisely that.
Dan Lewis (Reply)
Thu 09 Apr 09 (08:52am)

Daniel, of course, doesn't seem to realise that the RNSH board's decision to remove crucifixes and bibles was supported by a young Christian chap who works for the Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Council. How did I know that? Because on page 2 of the April 9 edition of the Daily Telegraph appears the following words:

The Australian/Jewish Affairs Council [sic.] supported the hospital, saying more people would be likely to use the chapel.

Bren Carlill, a policy analyst, said some from other religions might be offended.

"The fact that they are willing to go to such lengths to encourage religious communities to worship is great,: he said. "There are people from lots of different groups who almost like getting offended - and then there are the other people who fon't get offended."

I couldn't find AIJAC's support for the Hospital board's decision mentioned anywhere on the Tele website. I could, however, find a fair few comments insinuating that suc decisions are all the fault of the families of Muslim patients who are deemed to be programmed to mimic the behaviour of some wackos overseas.

Should I go to Blair's blog and remind his online morons about a prominent Jewish organisation supporting the hospital decision to "De-Jesus" (as Blair puts it) the hospital chapel? Perhaps not. It might unleash more unmedicated comments about how Christian Australia is caving into the multiculturalist agenda of those nasty Jews.

Let's be frank about this. Nazis may have Muslims. But Nazis hate Jews more. And they proved it at least 6 million times during the last world war.

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BLOG: Andrew travels far and wide ...

2009-04-08T04:04:00.000-07:00

Andrew Bolt reminds his readers why he is so tolerant:

A further thought: I’ve lived in or visited some 50 countries now ... My observations confirmed my suspicions that in fact Australia was not half as racist as [some] people ... believe. Not in comparison to others, that is.

True. But why do Australia's few remaining racists and bigots congregate around Andrew Bolt's section of the blogosphere?

Let's look at a story from March 29 2009. Now under normal circulstances, if you met someone of overseas origin who had lived in Australia for some 34 years, you’d hardly describe them as a new migrant. You’d hardly describe Australia as their “new home”.

Unless, of course, your name was Andrew Bolt and you worked for the Herald Sun.

For some reason, Andrew sees a group of 600 thugs belonging to a violent homophobic vigilante group as somehow representative of all persons who migrated from Beirut in 1975. The Sydney Morning Herald reported the group calling itself the “Muslim Brotherhood Movement”.

So who are these 600-odd men? How old are they? When did they arrive in Australia? Where do they come from? Bolt claims they’re from Beirut, though the Herald describes them as being

... young street fighters of Middle Eastern descent.

The last time I checked, the Middle East extended well beyond the city limited of Lebanon’s capital. A large number of Lebanese Muslims come from places outside Beirut such as Tripoli, Tyre and Balbeck. A large number of Lebanese Christians still live in Beirut.

But that doesn’t stop Andrew Bolt from trying to turn bikie and similar gangland phenomena as having racial and religious overtones. But he needn’t say too much. His commenters will say it all for him, even if it means endorsing other forms of thuggery.

mareeS replied to Shebs
Sun 29 Mar 09 (10:34am)
This is what Cronulla 2005 was about, but the softhearts chose to paint it as racism.
A group of young Australians drew a line in the sand and said “We’ve had enough of this.” They were smeared by media and the apologists as rednecks and haters.

MattR replied to Shebs
Sun 29 Mar 09 (01:36pm)
... Exactly, Cronulla was a reaction to these Muslim criminals. However, the media decided to portray the rioters as racists and bigots. They were simply acting out of frustration ...

Nevillew replied to Andrew
Sun 29 Mar 09 (05:37pm)
They bring their baggage with them and then pass it on to their children. It takes many generations to get it out.
I have been watching it for 65 years.

65 years of Lebanese Muslims living in Australia since 1975?

It must be wonderful for Andrew Bolt and the Herald Sun to be able to live in a bubble where they aren’t bound by racial vilification laws applying to their advertisers.

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BLOGS/RACISM: Thank God my father doesn't live anywhere near the Herald Sun Taliban ...

2009-04-07T08:44:00.000-07:00

My parents’ eyes have been glued to the TV screen watching Pakistani cable TV reports about the gruesome so-called “punishment” of a 17 year old girl being publically lashed in the Swat region of northern Pakistan, currently ruled by the Taliban. The Sydney Morning Herald (via the LA Times) reports the incident “has galvanised the nation, drawing protests from human rights groups, denunciations from the Government and expressions of revulsion from Pakistanis” (including overseas Pakistanis like my Dad).

Yet this awful Taliban action has galvanised an unequal and opposite reaction from certain sick and demented folk whose comments are regarded as perfectly fit for publication by moderators of one Herald Sun blog:

The whole place should be nuked.
Just start again.
Then Pakistan.
Don’t laugh. Think about it for a second- what hope has the free world
got against radical islamists?
Mrs Robinson (Reply)
Sun 05 Apr 09 (01:44pm)

JayGee replied to Mrs Robinson
Sun 05 Apr 09 (02:43pm)
I agree. This is just ANOTHER manifestation of the savagery that is tolerated by this mob.

AussieTraveller replied to Mrs Robinson
Sun 05 Apr 09 (03:11pm)
Amen to that sister!!

Futureproof replied to Mrs Robinson
Sun 05 Apr 09 (03:34pm)
As seen on a T-Shirt, “Nuke ‘em all and let God decide”

How dare you draw attention to the brutal plight of women in Afghanistan, Andrew.
I’m off to tell Scott Bridges and Jeremy Sears so they can publish another blog entry condemning you.
Abu Chowdah (Reply)
Sun 05 Apr 09 (02:51pm)

And this blog boasts one million hits per month. If these comments are any indication of the Herald-Sun readership, Dad should be happy he’s not living in Victoria, let alone the Swat valley!

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BLOGS: Bolt's brain-dead buddies ...

2009-04-05T08:13:00.000-07:00

After following Andrew Bolt's blog commenters for some months, it's clear to me that a prerequisite for commenting on minority ethnic or religious groups is failing an IQ test. There are some seriously stupid people leaving comments on Bolt's blog. Why does he entertain them? Is he hoping to feel more sensible by surrounding himself with stupid people?

Bolt's least favourite minority group is ... well ... it's hard to say. I've never read him say anything nice about Somalis, Sudanese, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and/or Muslims. So in a typical post about nasty Muslims allegedly accusing Christians of being racist, Bolt allows the following beauties to pass his moderation test:

A ‘phobia” is having an irrational fear of something.
When you look around the globe and see that the majority of atrocities involve muslims and someone else, having a fear of muslims is entirely “rational”.

So Christians, Hindus, Buddhists etc are NOT Islamophobic!
Even in predominantly muslim countries like Pakistan, there are daily atrocities of muslims killing other muslims. Look at the ethnic cleansing of black african muslims who aren’t on the same scale as other muslims.
Islam IS the PROBLEM.
geoff from the west (Reply) Sun 05 Apr 09 (03:43pm)

Those wretched Muslim suicide bombers controlling the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam. And what about the FARC Islamic militia? Islam is the problem. Not violence. Not terror. Not extremism. Believing in one God and praying 5 times a day (something many Muslims don't do) is the problem.

But here's my favourite. Nothing like an injection of some good old-fashioned bestiality.

Koran justified beheadings, suicide explosive murderers and clerical rules for fornication with livestock.....but Who Cares?

You have a PR problem, dhimmi.
TT (Reply) Sun 05 Apr 09 (04:04pm)

Is this TT fellow accusing Muslims of being a bunch of Kiwis? Anyway, as it's the season for economic meltdowns, try this for sensible economic analysis:

Nick Charles replied to winston
Sun 05 Apr 09 (08:52pm)

There are no impoverished Western countries, you dork. That’s because they were all founded on Christian principles. They’re only becoming poor - both spiritually and economically - now they’re post-Christian. But they at least still have strong armies, that’s why they don’t get invaded (except via multicultural immigration).

No, brainstrust, Muslims invade weak impoverished countries such as Somalia and Ethiopia. Recent enough for you? ...

You really need to get out more ...

Yes, we need to get out more. As in outside the Milky Way and onto whichever planet Nick Charles is living in. Christian countries all rich? I could start by asking what on earth is a Christian country, but let's assume Nick refers to countries the majority of whose occupants see themselves as belonging to a Christian denomination.

The last time I checked, Central and South America were not regarded as part of the Third World. Neither were the Philippines, East Timor, Haiti, Iceland, Ethiopia, Armenia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Croatia or Georgia. Israel has a very strong currency, but it isn't exactly a Christian country.

But why are we even talking about this stuff anyway? Who cares about whether following a particular religion brings prosperity or not? What kind of imbecilic forum would host such an imbecilic discussion?

Why, Andrew Bolt's online forum, of course.

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MEDIA: Herald Sun slaps a face-veil on Tanveer Ahmed ...

2009-04-01T03:27:00.000-07:00

Today Andrew Blot has written a completely new article. He’s never written anything on this topic before, whether on Monday or last Friday. It’s a fresh change for his regular readers who relish his exercise of free speech (including readers like me who are banned from commenting on his blog).

Today Andrew Blot writes on why a certain minority refuses to integrate. Take your pick as to which minority it could be – Somali, Sudanese, African, Aboriginal, Muslim, Torres Strait Islander – they’re all the bloody same.

These friggin minorities simply refuse to behave. Allow me to illustrate using Dutch conservatives. Look at their record overseas – establishing apartheid in South Africa and establishing colonial rule in Indonesia so nasty that the Indonesians preferred Japanese occupation during WWII. And these days, these Dutch conservatives recruit Somalis who lie and queue-jump to get visas.

(At least there's one Somali Blot doesn't hate.)

And what about Australia? Well, there’s that nasty Dutch conservative columnist Andrew Blot who cannot spell simple names like Tanveer Ahmed. For some reason Bolt (okay, I’ll spell it correctly now) spells Dr Ahmed's name as “Tanver”.

Heck, the rest of us true-blue Australians make an effort to spell people’s names correctly. Why can’t Bolt learn to assimilate?

Normal Aussies try not to draw conclusions about entire groups on the basis of completely non-related incidents. Then again, if you’re like Andrew and determined to hate a group, Professor Google can provide you with lots of examples of the dirty deeds which the preferred objects of your hate engage in.

It’s completely ridiculous to claim that 360,000 people from 60 different countries living in different parts of Australia could all have “poor English, poor skills, poor assimilation, poor education of women or a rejection of our society”. On what basis does Bolt write in this crap? After appearing on an ABC TV show with a white-skinned half-Aussie half-Kiwi academic? And after reading just one media report about one Queensland University of Technology researcher? And after comparing these two with the experience of one Bangladeshi-burn psychiatric registrar whose name Bolt cannot spell properly?

(And after supporting an employer's alleged right to discriminate against a Muslim trainee?)

And so we have the ridiculous spectacle of a former sports writer for The Age trying to prove a “group” of 360,000 people are uneducated and have poor English skill using evidence of encounters with a psychiatric registrar and two academics from that same “group”. And what graphic does the Herald Sun's online editor believes best represents all these people?

Yep, Dr Tanveer Ahmed regularly wears one of those.

So who funds this hate-speech? The last time I checked, Bolt’s blog featured a banner advertisement from ANZ. Perhaps it’s time Australians of Lebanese, Muslim, Somali, Aboriginal, Sudanese, Torres Strait Islander etc etc extraction (and those Aussies who find xenophobia offensive) switched banks.

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BLOGS: Imagine a dinner party at Andrew Bolt's place ...

2009-03-30T00:38:00.000-07:00

I always dreaded dinner parties when I was growing up. My parents would invite their Indian friends (Sikhs, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Parsees etc), and I'd have to put up with boring discussions about politics, religion and cricket. Or my father would invite his academia friends and/or postgrad students, in which case the talk would be about this symposium or that academic journal.

I wonder what they talk about at dinner parties hosted by the Bolts. If his blog is anything to go by, Bolt's dinner time discussions would revolve around why white Aussies are victims of nasty Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and/or Muslim and/or African and/or Sudanese and/or Somali victimhood/crime/lack of assimilation etc.

It's hard to find Bolt saying anything nice about anyone. His blog seems to attract an assortment of whingers whingeing about how little they whinge compared to other whingers of a slightly darker skin pigmentation.

In Bolt's world, the white man lives in fear of imminent attack. Everything is black and white, especially in terms of skin colour. Imagine a dinner at the Bolt household with this kind of (allegedly reasoned) discussion:

I would say that most Australians have a healthy dose of Islamophobia simply because they fear being either…

a. Blown up
b. Shot
c. Raped
d. Assulted
e. Intimidated
f. Spat-upon
g. Insulted

Rosemary of Queensland (Reply)
Mon 30 Mar 09 (07:12am)

I never knew Patricia Ilhan engaged in all that nasty stuff. Anyway, here's more from dinner guest Rosemary.

Rosemary replied to Rosemary
Mon 30 Mar 09 (10:45am)

I would also like to add that as far as I am concerned, the Islamophobia that is present is entirely the fault of the Muslim community both here and overseas.

By not controlling, civilizing and moderating their young males, and by not casting out the radicals in their midst they have, by their silence and shameful inaction brought upon their heads the consequences of being mistrusted by the general community.

She's right. Let's look at the young males in my family. One studying medicine, the other dentistry. Both teetotallers, though not teetotalitarians. And then there is this disgraceful example of uncivilised and unmoderated Muslim manhood.

Bolt's dinner guests have some fascinating insights into the legal and political systems of other nations.

lethal replied to David Mon 30 Mar 09 (10:37am)
... in Muslim nations there is no separation of church(mosque) and state (and islamic (sharia) law often prevails) ...

Yep, plenty of sharia law in action in Turkey, Bosnia and Albania. And Pakistan is known for its strict Islamic code, especially on TV.

And, of course, lawlessness and violence can only be met with lawlessness and violence.

These cowards as we all know are only brave when there’s 20 of them on one. They go to s#%t when faced with equal numbers.Look what happened at Cronulla, That kept em quiet for a while. The law needs to evolve to deal with this ...
Des Lyxic of Oak Flats (Reply) Mon 30 Mar 09 (09:52am)

What drives Bolt's guests to spew forth such rabid nonsense? One wonders whether Bolt's dinner party might descend into something resembling this ...

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BLOG: Bolt gets freaky ...

2009-03-26T23:16:00.000-07:00

You have to admire Andrew Bolt. He genuinely believes in freedom of speech. Including on the internet.

Well, I thought he believed in freedom of speech. But on Q&A last night, Bolt was caught out badly on the ongoing debate on internet censorship. Bolt was caught out trying to push for legislation to extend internet censorship beyond child pornography and onto politics.

Andrew Bolt said last night that the government should also go after "jihadist" material.

ANDREW BOLT: ...should anyone be able to watch and publish and distribute anything at all they like? Anything at all. Like, I don't know, a father having sex with his children. Fritzl, the guy in Austria, videos of him having sex with his daughter. Anything like that, you think there should be absolutely no barrier. Jihadist material. Anything.

An audience member caught Bolt out:

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Andrew you really raise my ire with your comment about jihadists, because that's my worry. When does - we don't see the list. We don't know what's on the list and when do we know what's going to get added to the list? And the next thing is not just kids at Monash getting arrested for reading books, it's somebody who goes to a - the issue of paedophilia, reprehensible, yeah, we're in agreement but you just said jihadist. Now, why can't somebody under the ideas of democracy and freedom of speech visit a jihadist site? If it's racial vilification, if it's an incitement to genocide, there's issues in Australia, but we're still talking about freedom of speech--

At this point the Minister Stephen Conroy, whom Bolt was up until this point defending, rejected any call for political censorship on the internet.

Bolt wants political censorship on the internet. Yet Bolt's own blogging practices show to what extent Bolt cannot even comply with existing laws in such areas as racial vilification. Bolt cannot even comply with his employer's Publication Guidelines. How would he comply with political censorship? Unless he wanted to censor everyone else but not himself.

Bolt came out of the episode looking like a goose, and he knew it. He needed to take out his frustration on someone. But he did he choose? A politician?

No. True to form, Bolt blew the dog whistle. His usual gang of racists and bigots are always ready to say what Bolt would like to so (and so often does). Bolt accuses Susan Carland, a descendant of the First Fleet, for allegedly not coming clean with the ABC audience about an allegedly dominant "rejectionist strand" within Australian Muslim circles. Bolt tried to pin Carland into a corner and allege that her comments to a Malaysian newspaper concerning her conversion experiences were somehow identical to Bolt's fear-mongering and hate-speech.

Bolt's attempt to put forward his "Muslims are different" argument (which is virtually identical to the rhetoric of European far-Right parties) failed miderably. He even dragged his father into the discussion.

ANDREW BOLT: Susan, can I just point out when my father came here from Europe as a migrant and then he started teaching immigrants like the Italians and Greeks, I think you're wrong. The suspicion that you say was - this is just what we're seeing a similar version of what those immigrants faced - I think it's completely wrong. That's ahistorical. It's not my experience of it. I'd also point out there are, in fact, more Buddhists in Australian than there are Muslims and we don't hear anything about that. We don't invite Buddhists onto this panel - or Tony doesn't invite Buddhists onto this panel to...

MALE SPEAKER: Next week.

ANDREW BOLT: He's invited you and your husband and, you know, Miss Australia and people like that, but he doesn't do it with Buddhists. There's specifically something in the community itself, as well, and I think, to be honest, you mentioned this yourself in an interview with the Malaysian Star Newspaper only a couple of years ago, where you said within the community, being a new convert from Christianity, you face the calls, from within the community, you shouldn't do this and you shouldn't do that and you shouldn't make friends with people who weren't Muslim and you should withdraw from society and everything that was haram and you said this was a problem for you and I think that's an acknowledgement there is, in fact, a problem within the Muslim community, a rejectionist strand, which is what makes this different. And I hate to be blunt, I hate to foster - you know, have all these people jeering...

SUSAN CARLAND: No, you don't. No, you don't.

Somehow I could detect some sarcasm from Susan there. Like many of us, Susan will have read the comments on Mr Bolt's blog and read exactly what Bolt fosters.

Bolt must have felt so distraught at his flimsy performance last night that he decided to post not one but two posts attacking fellow panellists. The first, of course, was against Ms Carland whom he claims had contradicted herself. On the show, she said that the rejectionist strand represented a minority among ordinary Muslims.

SUSAN CARLAND: The quick response would be absolutely there are people, a very small minority of people, within the Muslim community that are reluctant to engage with the wider community, but this is more...

ANDREW BOLT: You put it as a majority in this interview and ...

Andrew writes on his blog:

And when I pointed out that in her interview ...

Interview? Did Ms Carland do an interview with the Malaysia Star newspaper? Nowhere in the report did Star reporter Shahanaaz Habib talk about any interview.

Speaking at a dinner talk during the conference, organised by the Muslim Professionals Forum and the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry, Carland, who was named Australian Muslim of the Year in 2004, was brutally honest about the treatment of converts at the hands of “born” Muslims.

The reporter was at a function where Ms Carland was speaking. This was no interview. But what about the allegedly dominant "rejectionist strand"? Ms Carland spoke about the treatment converts often get at the hands of "born" Muslims. This was a discussion about relations between cultural Muslims and those who adopt the faith of their own free will.

The list of unreasonable pressures on converts includes telling converts to leave their so-called haram jobs immediately, even if the person had no other source of income.

The newbies are asked to give up hobbies like painting, photography, dancing or playing instruments. They’re advised to move out and sever ties with their kafir (infidel) family and non-Muslim friends, while female converts are urged to get married as soon as possible.

They are often expected to give up their own cultures and take on Arab, sub-continental, Malay or other cultures because these are deemed to be more “Islamic”.

Carland, a lecturer at Monash University in Melbourne, described these demands as not only unreasonable but also “very dangerous” as they made things unnecessarily hard for the convert.

The English language used in both the article and in Ms Carland's quoted statements is fairly straight forward. Apart from the non-Muslim families of converts who choose to follow such absurd rules, how does all this affect non-Muslims? How on earth could Bolt read this as some kind of reflection on an alleged monolithic Muslim mass that allegedly refuses to integrate into mainstream society? What kind of English did Bolt learn at school?

Bolt encourages his readers to judge Ms Carland's alleged dishonesty and double-speak. And as always, Bolt always ensures that the discussion never becomes personal.

I’d like to see her in the full black bee-hive hat instead of the glittery silver number she had on last night. After all, complete submission to the beliefs is what it takes to be a good Muslim. At the moment, she’s just a mouthpiece...for herself. She represents very little other than the new face of opportunism. A real muslim woman living a real life should’ve been on the panel, not her ...

I wonder who’s funding her efforts.
Little Ted of Qld (Reply)
Fri 27 Mar 09 (12:39pm)

I was extremely thankful that Mr Bolt was there and cut straight through the bullshit rhetoric spewed by the Islamic community and their apologists ...
Guffman of Coffs Harbour (Reply)
Fri 27 Mar 09 (12:39pm)

And is so often the case with hate speech, threats of violence raise their ugly head.

Habib replied to nigel
Fri 27 Mar 09 (03:36pm)
... Islam is a backward regressive religion for ignorant and cruel individuals - I will never understand why we let the violent stone age peasants that practise it into Australia ... I believe a jihad should be declared on muslims as they are non believers in our way of life ... they have been the enemy of civilizations like ours for centuries yet we let them here in their hordes - such weakness of mind will surely cost us dearly until we learn to treat such threats with the force they require.

Charming. Nice of Bolt to moderate this remark. Anyway, let's get back to the extraordinary reasoning and logic behind Bolt's supporters:

I watched her on the Q and A web site this morning and wasn’t impressed at all by her but I suspect she thinks she looks pretty good in that hijab and a very fashionable hijab it was, too ...
doc molloy of brisbane (Reply)
Fri 27 Mar 09 (01:08pm)

Lin replied to FOEHN
Fri 27 Mar 09 (04:55pm)
How on earth would Carland know what it was like to grow up in a group discriminated against - she is a white Australian? Did she become a Muslim just so that she could be part of a marginalised group, feeling a little left out?

And Bolt allows a Nazi-era slur used commonly against European Jews to now be recycled against Muslims.

Perhaps Carland was practicing Al-taqiyya - the practice of Muslims blatantly lying to non-Muslims. Al-taqiyya means that infidels cannot believe anything told to them by any Muslim ...
Annabelle of Sydney (Reply)
Fri 27 Mar 09 (01:54pm)

I always wondered whether the close association between the Dutch Right and the Nazis could have survived the Second World War. Anyway, some interesting observations were made about those nasty lefties ...

As for Susan Carland - you exposed her as naive and/or intellectually dishonest. The patent fact that the West needs to acknowledge about Islam is that it is the only religion (in fact it is a social and political system first and religion second) that has a developed doctrine and theology that mandates violence against unbelievers. Furthermore, violent jihad is and has been a defining characteristic of Islam since its beginnings in the seventh century ... The whole ‘Islam is a religion of peace’ movement that is propagated by leftist academics, politicians and journalists needs to be exposed for the intellectual fraud that it is.
Petey of Highett (Reply)
Fri 27 Mar 09 (02:51pm)

Those blasted leftwing politicians. One commenter got to the heart of the matter and summarised Bolt's rather paranoid argument.

Why is it that when you ask somebody who they are they usually will say australian, Italian etc. When you ask a muslim the same question they never say they are Australian or Turkish etc, only that they a muslim. This is the problem, muslims think they are special and don’t want to mix with mainstream society. Being muslim is the only identity they know.
John of Vic (Reply)
Fri 27 Mar 09 (03:13pm)

Muslims are one huge monolith, and they're all out to invade our countries, eat our children, kill our pets, sh*t in our toilets and wipe their backsides with our copy of the Herald Sun so that it makes more sense.

The thing that Australians have to understand is that for a muslim, Islam is their family, their past, their identity and their culture. As such Islam and Allah will ALWAYS come before friends, non-muslims, Australia, Australian laws, non-Islamic laws ... The majority, MAJORITY of muslims will not being overtly fundamentalistic jihadists do accept or quietly condone the true integrity of their fellow brothers who have taken Allah’s word to where they themselves are unable to ... I have worked with muslims and for a muslim-owned company ... I have NEVER met any muslim that represents the best of us humans.
green of sydney (Reply)
Fri 27 Mar 09 (04:35pm)

But by far the freakiest bit of Bolt's blogpost is where he cites comments left on Ms Carland's Facebook address.

UPDATE
Susan Carland’s Facebook community isn’t doing much to prove me wrong, or her the face of a religion of peace:

So now Andrew is obsessed not just with Ms Carland's religious choices. He is also obsessed with finding out who Ms Carland's friends are and what they post on her Facebook page. This is seriously scary stuff.

Poor Andrew Bolt seemd to have completely lost it.

UPDATE I: Bolt believes in freedom of speech, unless you disagree with him. Here is something that appeared on the right hand column of his blog recently ...

Irfan says: Watch out, everyone. Andrew wants to politically censor the internet. Seriously, though, you did come out looking like a prize goose. That explains why you’ve…

But when you go to the actual blog in question, this is what you see ...

SNIP - BANNED
Irfan
(Reply)Fri 27 Mar 09 (07:38pm)

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BLOGS: Those RMIT almost-suicide-bombers ...

2009-03-22T23:10:00.000-07:00

Andrew Bolt generally doesn't directly cast aspersions or makes insinuations about entire groups. He generally poses questions and leaves it to his commenters to take things furthsr. But on this occasion, Bolt just couldn't help himself.

Is this about faith - or about power?

Yep, Muslim students and staff who want a private space to perform their prayers are seeking to take over RMIT and turn it into a caliphate.

RMIT University’s acting pro vice-chancellor (students), Maddy McMaster, explains why this secular university won’t cave in to demands for yet more ...

(... emphasis mine.) Selfish cretins these Muslims are. They just keep demanding. They're never content.

... the Muslim students are demanding the university build them the de-facto mosque that Melbourne-city Muslims won’t build themselves.

Bolt knows this is a complete lie and fabrication. The students and staff are only asking for a dedicated room. They aren't asking for a huge building with minarets and a dome. But what's wrong with telling lies if it generates hatred against an undesirable group?

Can’t share. Won’t share. Demanding more than their share. Is this the authentic face of young Muslims in Australia?

Can vilify. Will vilify. Thinking himself above all human rights and anti-vilification legislation. Is this Andrew Bolt the authentic face of columnists at the Herald Sun?

If Andrew Bolt's blog is anything to go by, it certainly is. Here's what one commenter wrote about overseas students coming to Australia:

uptothebackteeth replied to George P
Mon 23 Mar 09 (02:51pm)
Commercial realities.. my foot!!I’ll see them in hell first.You don’t pander to zealots at any time. You keep giving an inch and they’ll keep taking the miles, and the demands will never end. What’s next on their agenda...Deny some other race they don’t like an education or some other extreme position. I could care less how much money they import each year.

A fairly mild start. But it gets better.

Terry replied to George P
Mon 23 Mar 09 (03:23pm)
I really don’t care how much they are paying, if their presence undermines civilised values in Autralia, let them go somewhere else. In case you don’t get that - these are racist bigots, and we don’t need them in our places of learning. Period, end of story. We certainly don’t need to feed from their pockets.

And of course, it doesn't matter if you were born and brought up in Australia. Your motives must necessarily be interpreted in light of the actions and attitudes of overseas actors over which you have absolutely no control.

Gerry Murphy replied to Sasha
Mon 23 Mar 09 (02:01pm)
They do unlike the reception a Christian would receive in an Islamic country. It’s about the perception that their demands are unreasonable, and they are. It fits a tiresome pattern of incessant grievance mongering and special pleading that will never be satisfied.

Still, at least we can be grateful that these nasty foreign beedy-eyed protestors aren't doing what their kind do overseas.

Hey, at least they are protesting and not using Suicide Bombings.
Nathan (Reply)
Mon 23 Mar 09 (12:43pm)

Hey, at least Andrew Bolt is just moderating racist comments and not imposing apartheid in Australia in the manner some other consevatives of Dutch origin had done in South Africa and Indonesia. Woops, was that offensive? Moving right along ...

These blasted people don't belong in our country.

john n replied to scotty
Mon 23 Mar 09 (01:58pm)
Yes and there are lots more and many mosques -right back where they belong ,in their Islamic countries ...

lethal replied to DALTS
Mon 23 Mar 09 (01:12pm)
... They say we discriminate against them then turn around and ask for special treatment that keeps them separate from the rest of us dirty infidels. Trouble is, Muslims see themselves as superior to the rest of us filthy infidels - they really want to be treated as better than us.

Daniel Lewis (of Rushcutters Bay fame) then decides to inject some prejudice from another blog ...

Daniel Lewis replied to DALTS
Mon 23 Mar 09 (02:36pm)
... Vexnews has more (note my comments).

Yes, the in-house counsel at Herald and Weekly Times Pty Limited should note these comments.
Perhaps long-time employees may recall a time when other minorities were baited in this fashion. Or maybe not. Andrew Bolt's friends certainly don't.

frank replied to Susan of Victoria
Mon 23 Mar 09 (04:24pm)
Unlike other migrant groups who want to share their culture this lot are different,in that they seem to want to come in and tell us how we should be living,eating drinking,dressing, worshipping and not only get offended but get even aggressive if we dont conform to their ways.

They really don't belong in our country, do they Andrew?

They can find all the Muslim prayer spaces they’d need in an Islamic country where, I’m sure, they’d be happier, May Allah speed them on their way.
Bob Up of Beaumaris, Vic (Reply)
Mon 23 Mar 09 (12:58pm)

I could go on and on. It must have been like this for German Jews reading newspapers during the 1920's and '30's. This is the level of discourse from Australia's biggest selling newspaper.

Also, in case you are wondering, one of the Herald Sun's advertisers is the World Society for the Protection of Animals. Feel free to forward any racist and xenophobic comments moderated by Bolt and his minions to their e-mail address: wspa@wspa.org.au. Ask them whether they are happy for their advertisement to be placed on the same page as this xenophobic filth.

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HATEWATCH/BLOG: Andrew Bolt's bloggers want to KILL ALL MUSLIMS ...

2009-03-22T01:55:00.000-07:00

Kill all Muslims? Bomb all Muslims? Murder 1.2 billion people? Blow up over 55 states? Even this guy finds such talk unconscionable.

But Andrew Bolt and his buddies at the Herald Sun don't. President Obama wants to send a message to the Iranian people. But the message from Bolt's buddies to anyone living in an OIC member state is clear:

In the Islamic world, they look at negotiaions as surrender.
the Dean of Doonside (Reply) Sun 22 Mar 09 (09:52am)

Barry of Round replied to the Dean Sun 22 Mar 09 (10:52am)
Insightful.
Best bomb them in that case.

Larry replied to the Dean Sun 22 Mar 09 (01:10pm)
Barry of Round, bombing them, back to the stone age where their politico-religious philosophy belongs, would indeed be the only thing they understand.
Islam has no such thing as a peace treaty, just hudna, to be entered into when weaker than the opposition, and only lasting long enough for them to gather the strength to have another go.
You don’t negotiate with that, you shoot it.

Those companies choosing to advertise on the Herald Sun website should consider whether their sponsorship of such messages will further their export sales in countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

Andrew Bolt regards the massacre of over 1 billion people as perfectly acceptable discourse. So does the Herald-Sun.

Enough is enough. It wasn't enough for Bolt to cast aspersions on Australians of Sudanese, Somalis, Lebanese and other backgrounds. Bolt has allowed his blog to become a place where people can incite violence and murder against others.

Bolt should be sacked.

UPDATE I: I am informed that one of the blog moderators has now removed the offending remarks.

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BLOG: Those blasted Africans in their leopard skins who marry nice white Murdoch girls ...

2009-03-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

You don't have to go far into Tim Blair's blogging past to see that he and his buddies are such huge friends of persons from non-European backgrounds. Just read this classic remark about Rupert Murdoch's daughter:

Elisabeth is the smartest one of the lot—apart from her unfortunate first marriage to the son of some African diplomat. Even that was worth it for the picture of Murdoch at the wedding, surrounded by his new in-laws in leopard skin traditional dress. Anyway she dumped Bongo and married one of the Freuds—leading James to remark in his wedding speech that the groom had better be well endowed because his sister was accustomed to a black man! ...
Posted by Phranger on 2005 07 29 at 11:37 PM

Yep, absolutely no racism there. I'm sure Mr Murdoch and the family will be most impressed. Can't wait to read what Blair and his mates say about Wendy ...

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BLOG: You can always choose your housemate ...

2009-03-21T00:10:00.000-07:00

Some weeks back, the people at the Pure Poison blog decided to issue an apology to Tim Blair:

... it was suggested by a writer on this site that enthusiastic Pure Poison critic “WB”, a character who although we haven’t seen him or her before appears intimately familiar with old allegations about our pasts, had been making comments from Tim Blair’s private IP address. The post, now removed from the Crikey site, included speculation on the identity of WB, concluding that it was Blair. Tim denies this flatly, and notes that people in the same house would share an IP.

Emphasis mine.

Yep, some person calling themselves WB uses Blair's private IP address. And let's read what WB has to say on a variety of issues:

... Name a great Palestinian artist. And I don’t mean some ‘conceptual’ wanker whose art is all about ‘the occupation’ I mean art, beauty, perfect rendering of vision and delight, Titian, Rembrandt, heck, even Bacon, that kind of art. There isn’t one. 60 frickin’ years, 3 generations, and no artistic achievement, not one painter? Did the eviiil joooos take the paintbrushes and the paint away? No. The Palestinians never bothered - too busy lying about their terrible starvaaation and genociiiide .and the awful naaaaaaqba ... if it seems as if I am angry at them, I am. Cos they should be better than suicide bombs and shooting “collabrators” and slaughtering Olympians. And it’s 2009 and they’re still not.
WB (Reply)
Sat 21 Mar 09 (01:36am)

An entire nation turned into a bunch of unartistic murderous whingers with strange accents. And this type of racial slur was happily published by Blair.

You can't choose your relos, Blair, but you have chosen your flatmates. And you are judged by the company your keep. If you moderate this racist trash on your blog, notwithstanding what you should know are the provisions of State and Commonwealth legislation dealing with racial vilification, and notwithstanding your own publication guidelines, it shows you regard racist hate-speech as acceptable.

A person who regards racist hate-speech as acceptable. Can we regard such a person as a racist?

UPDATE I: An anonymous commenter has claimed that WB is in fact the person behind the "WogBlog" and is Blair's female friend. I cannot confirm or deny whether that is the case, and quite frankly don't particularly care.

UPDATE II: So apparently the Palestinians have no artists, no writers, no one of any significance other than people who shoot Olympians and people alleged to be on the Shin Beth payroll. No doubt WB considers these people to be eskimos. And each of these people are Russians. And look at how devious and sleezy those Palestinians are for taking credit for this brilliant Italian poet. Yep, you just cannot trust those Palestinian terrorists.

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HATEWATCH/BLOG: Blair's blog buddies roll out the Nazi-style hate-speech ...

2009-03-19T23:29:00.001-07:00

For centuries leading upto the Holocaust, the dominant prejudice in Europe was anti-Semitism. European Jews were the subject of all kinds of suspicion, from blood libels to the suggestion that Judaism allows its followers to relinquish their promises and contracts. One common Jewish ritual prayer was often cited as evidence that Jews could break their promises and hence where inherently untrustworthy.

Today's bigots reproduce that prejudice against the faith which bares the closest resemblance to Judaism. Some Muslim sources, especially those in the shia tradition, speak of taqiyya, a special teaching which allows a Muslim to hide his or her faith in times of severe persecution.

Anti-shia polemicists from sunni circles sometimes use the idea of taqiyya as a tool to discredit shi'i Islam and to make the outlandishly silly claim that shia Muslims cannot be trusted and have some secret agenda to take control over Muslim institutions and countries.

Yet the bigotry of sunni supremacists is nothing compared to the extreme bigotry and prejudice of the nazis that congregate around Tim Blair's blog hosted by the Daily Telecra ... woops ... Telegraph. Blair happily entertains and allows onto his blog the rants of those whose prejudices he shares, or at least which he considers within the ballpark of acceptable discourse.

Hence, the recent incident involving Sheik Hilaly has given Blair's buddies an excuse to unleash the kind of Nazi-era bigotry Blair's blog is famous for. Here is a sample:

What does the Koran say about an imam lying to manipulate infidels?

Well, it’s all ok...taqqiya means not a single word his outfit says can be trusted.
TT (Reply)
Thu 19 Mar 09 (01:56pm)

Who are "his outfit"? It's obvious. Then Daniel Lewis, ever a defender of even the worst Israeli atrocities, happily repeats the Nazi-era slur against a group he loves to hate.

Daniel Lewis replied to Daniel Lewis
Thu 19 Mar 09 (05:52pm)

... Keysar Trad should be along shortly to offer the usual lost in translation defence.

Please sir, may I have some more hyperlinks?

Once again, Blair's buddies take the Tele back to the 1930's. Just replace "Jew" with "Muslim" and you can almost hear the thugs marching down Kippax Street.

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

2009-03-15T20:49:00.000-07:00

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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BLOGS: It's all black and white ...

2009-03-11T23:46:00.000-07:00

Reporting crime statistics isn't an easy job. The Victorian police haven't been as proficient in this area as they could be. Hence when the Victorian Opposition Leader asked the Victorian Ombudsman to look into the matter in April 2008, it was taken seriously. You can read the Ombudsman's full report here.

The goals of the Ombudsman's investigation are summed up in his report as follows:

... it was my view that uncertainty regarding the validity of crime statistics and police numbers needed to be resolved. Ongoing debate about the integrity and accuracy of this data could undermine public confidence in Victoria Police and have a deleterious effect on the quality of public debate regarding law and order issues.

My investigation was concerned with two key issues. Firstly, do Victoria Police crime statistics accurately reflect the community’s experience of crime as it is reported to police? Secondly, can the public have confidence that the information about the number and availability of police in Victoria is accurately reported?

I confess that I haven't read the full report. I'm not sure if Herald Sun blogger Andrew Bolt has. However, he's already drawn some conclusions.

And what are these conclusions? Do they merely concern the alleged massaging of crime statistics? Was it just about police numbers? In fact Andrew's concerns are also about whether ...

... the crime rate among African refugees was not higher than for everyone else ...

... and about how ...

... police and court protocols in dealing with minorities.

Again, I admit I haven't read the full report. But it might have been useful for Mr Bolt to have pointed out precisely where the Ombudsman talks about crime amongst African and other minorities.

Andrew's commenters have less hesitation in pointing the fingers ...

rick9 replied to Barry Bones Wed 11 Mar 09 (05:40pm)
stats on whites are easy to find, and are not being hidden by PC police management. When the ‘force’ tries to shy away from doing their job and becomes an instrument of mushy multiculturalism, society has a BIG problem

Second alleged murder in Adelaide by African men. Both against fellow Africans. That is 2 murders this past year for an ethnic group only numbering 2000.
crime rep (Reply) Wed 11 Mar 09 (07:29pm)

And so a legitimate discussion about crime statistics and police numbers becomes an exercise in trying to prove that African migrants are more crooked than the rest of us. But don't dare call this racism lest you be accused of being "PC" or "bleeding heart" or a "lefty". Or worst of all, a "Muslim".

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BLOGS/HATEWATCH: Bolt's bloggers on African and Pakistani taxi-drivers ...

2009-03-08T21:13:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the Pure Poison blog on the Crikey website for alerting these to its readers. The following racist comments have been on Andrew Bolt's blog since November 2008. There is simply no excuse for these comments to have been published in the first place. Unless, of course, Bolt and his friends at the Herald Sun don't regard these comments as racist.

rossco replied to Tony
Wed 26 Nov 08 (07:24am)
Of course there’s one simple solution - don’t get into any taxi with a black driver.

Er, Andrew, how is this comment not racist?

On the offchance that I ever visit Melbourne I’ll be definately ensuring that any cab I catch has a non-African driving it. I’m not being racist, just practical - its hard enough to keep one’s cool when city driving is pretty full-on at the best of times, what with road-rage and traffic congestion and idiot drivers making foolish and reckless decisions. The last thing a passenger needs is to be worried that their taxi driver may go ‘postal’ on them (or other drivers) due to the stresses he is enduring during the course of performing his job. Not a good decision by that tribunal, and will certainly have broader consequences. Rosemary of Queensland (Reply) Wed 26 Nov 08 (07:24am)

Yep, nothing racist about that. But why stop at race? Why not double the prejudice with a good old fashioned dose of sectarian hate-speech?

Relax infidels, you are just as safe in this brothers cab as in any other fundamental Moslem’s one. Islamic Rage Boy of Insane.... or fulfilling Mo's obligations? (Reply) Wed 26 Nov 08 (07:57am)

Religion does tend to make things a little to complex. How about we just keep things black and white.

Simple. Just don’t accept a cab driven by an African. Rod of Singapore (Reply) Wed 26 Nov 08 (08:32am)

What could be simpler than that, Rod? Maybe this ...

If I see ANY African driving a taxi , I will not entering it. Many do not speak or read English, have no idea how to drive safely and certainly do NOT know anything about the cities they drive in. Oh.. once again...no apologies ..
frankly fed up of melbourne (Reply) Wed 26 Nov 08 (12:59pm)

And so once again the Herald Sun has become a forum where all kinds of crazy xenophobes can have their say.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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BLOGS/HATEWATCH: Blair's buddies call for terrorism and mass conversion ...

2009-03-07T23:20:00.001-08:00

What kind of blog comments are worth moderating and posting? In Tim Blair's case, they include comments that support terrorism (assassination of world leaders) and mass conversion of people to Christianity.

Blair, opinion editor of Sydnet's Daily Telegraph, hasn't been a happy man of late. At around 7:50pm on the evening of 24 February 2009, he called me to advise I’d made an error in Crikey. Apparently I’d claimed Blair had alleged anonymous leftist were leaving nasty messages on his blog to make him look racist. Blair said that it was not he who made this claim. It was Andrew Bolt. Blair subsequently wrote on his blog about my error, also speculating about my “body weight”.

Blair. of course, doesn’t have nasty leftists on his blog. One of his posts on the terrorist attacks in Pakistan carried this interesting comment exchange:

Nora Charles replied to Brett_McS
Wed 04 Mar 09
(04:08pm)
Ann Coulter had the right idea in her column on September 13, 2001.
We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.

hayesy replied to Brett_McS
Wed 04 Mar 09 (04:15pm)
... Nice try, troll.

Walter Plinge replied to Brett_McS
Wed 04 Mar 09
(04:31pm)
hayesy - you’re a newcomer to this forum I see.
Norah is a long-standing contributor of the highest integrity. Most definitely not a troll.

Infidel Tiger replied to Brett_McS
Wed 04 Mar 09 (04:59pm)
When Coulter first said that it sounded crazy. Now, not so much.
Apparently the comment wasn’t serious. Yeah, right. And apparently supporting terrorism makes you someone of "the highest integrity".

Nora Charles replied to Brett_McS
Wed 04 Mar 09 (05:01pm)
Hi hayesy, The quote from Ann is accurate. My use of it is somewhat tongue in cheek. I’m sorry for the confusion ...

murph replied to Brett_McS
Wed 04 Mar 09 (10:35pm)
I agree Norah. I said on Sept 11 2001, that we should establish beachheads in Morocco, Lebanon & Basra and conduct a war of annihilation as we did with the Nazis and the Japanese in WW2 - destroying and demoralising their culture and their will. We should have let the Indians off the leash as well. The war should have been taken directly to them.
The fact is that we are going to have to do this at some time anyhow. We should have done it whilst we have the upper hand.

The Ann Coulter line of invasion, assassination and forced conversion is up there with her claims that Canada sent troops to Vietnam and that Jews need to have their faith perfected ...

And in case xenophobia and genocide is your cup of tea, you can read plenty more comments comparing Muslims to Nazis and calling for their elimination at Andrew Bolt’s blog.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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HATEWATCH: More blog madness at the Herald Sun

2009-03-03T23:18:00.000-08:00

Andrew Bolt has blown the whistle, and the dogs of war, hatred, genocide and xenophobia have come out barking on his blog. His post entitled Cricketers shot (as if the policemen, the 2 by-standers and the Pakistani umpire were just killed and wounded by aliens from the Planet Fnkjgmnv) again shows the madness that is blogging at News Limited tabloids ...

craig of brisbane shares with us his sophisticated analysis:

You nailed it Andrew - the ‘role of Islam’. It’s true that not all Muslims are terrorists. But for some reason, out of all the worlds faiths, Islam seems to produce the most terrorists. The question has to be asked why. I can’t think of many places in the world that has conflict that doesn’t have ‘Islam’ lurking around somewhere. The Christian reformation brought on critical thinking and interrogation of belief. That has never happened with Islam. And it won’t happen, because Muslims are forbidden to question their faith. But they need to. And if they don’t, someone else should. Islam needs to come under vigourous and public interogation. Mohammed and some of his activities need to be publically exposed and interrorgated. Very hard questions must be asked of Muslims in a very public way. Muslim children should be taught some of the more unfavourable parts of the Koran so they can make balanced desicions as they get older.
Interrogation of belief will upset some - but if it forces muslims to think - then so be it.
craig of brisbane (Reply)
Tue 03 Mar 09 (10:25pm)

Indeed. Why blame lax security when it is so much easier to blame religious texts? And we all know what profound impacts the Reformation left on Christians in South America and the Eastern Orthodox lands. Generalisations are so much fun.

Another chap named adam of bris had this to say:

Its getting SeriousLy hArd to ignore what is Most obvious.
adam of bris (Reply)
Tue 03 Mar 09 (10:46pm)

Yep, blame it on the religion of those who died. Makes lots of sense.

Queensland seems to have a fair share of wackos leaving messages on Bolt's blog. Here is what JimmyB of Brisbane has to contribute to the debate:

All immigration by muslims from ME countries should be banned forthwith. Any mad mullahs preaching jihad against western society should be deported yesterday. Shake Rattle and Roll Hilaly should be the first to go. Any apologists should accompany them on thear trip home and stay with them.Anyone of Christian,Hindu, Buddhist faith/religion are quiet welcome. Before I’m labelled a racist or bigot, my wife is Hindu and I’m RC.
JimmyB of Brisbane Wed 04 Mar 09 (01:33am)

Some poor chap named Simon at Albert Park tries to inject some reasoned discussion. Here he goes ...

ANDREW -
Could I respectfully say that bigotry like this only inflames conflict & the divide between people for the long-term - it does nothing to help anyone, it does nothing good.
I am born in Australia, decended from the First Fleet, I speak english, have white skin, pay my tax and work for a living. And I am a Muslim who attends the Mosque every Friday.
If I knew confidently - that another Muslim was intending to do something insane like this - then I would contact the Police, no doubt whatsoever.
My observation of the Muslims I know, are that they are harmless, read a lot and probably would not be involved in a pub-fight, let alone know which end of a gun to point. We are happy to be law-abiding citazens and we are offended when the media generalizes about us and makes a huge controversy about the smallest mistake any of us make.
Please modify your viewpoint.
Simon of Albert Park (Reply) Wed 04 Mar 09 (07:22am)

I'm not quite sure why Simon bothered. Here is what he gets in reward for his respectful submission:

Dave replied to Simon Wed 04 Mar 09 (09:47am)
As soon as someone starts their post on this blog with “Andrew” you just know it is some condescending prat who feels the need to educate us all.
Can I as you a question; those who were wise enough in the 1930’s to question the Nazis were they also “bigots”?

Mattmax replied to Simon Wed 04 Mar 09 (09:57am)
Are your Friday prayers conducted in English? What Mosque do you attend ? I’ll come and attempt to corroborate your assertions. Is any Friday OK?
Otherwise what you say reads like a lot of tosh or some snazzy trolling.

Dale replied to Simon Wed 04 Mar 09 (10:14am)
Simon,
Thank you for sharing your point of view (and that of your local community) but surely you cannot deny that there is a serious problem within the worldwide Muslim population.
Your viewpoint that those around you are law abiding peaceful citizens and Andrews viewpoint that Islam holds a role in polital violence are not at odds and neither requires adjustment.

Mattmax replied to Simon Wed 04 Mar 09 (01:47pm)
P.S Simon I will see at the Mosque on Friday . Is it OK if i bring a Jewish friend who understands Arabic?.I guess as there are no sacraments we can’t offend just by attending and listening in silence?

Dave of Bathurst has recently travelled in Dr Who's machine to prehistoric times ...

The one thing you are confronted with as soon as you point out just how backward and violent Islam is, is someone saying “Look at the Christians with their Crusades and Inquisition”. Yes we must condemn religious violence no matter where it comes from. However the Crusades etc. Were hundreds of years ago, how many Catholic suicide bombers and mad gun do we have today? So let’s put that stupid counter “argument” behind us and look at the very real problem with Islam and start doing something about these cavemen.
Dave of Bathurst (Reply) Wed 04 Mar 09 (07:23am)

Amongst all this madness, there were two sensible comments:

Let’s just have the “Islam vs. the rest of the world match” that the madmen seem to want and get it over with.
perturbed of NSW (Reply)
Wed 04 Mar 09 (09:16am)

The crazy factor on here is even worse than usual.
This thread suggests
1) Genocide as a solution to Islam- not a distinction between radical and mainstream Islam either.
2) That Muslims are “subhuman”
3)That to suggest that Bush is at all to blame for the radicalisation and growing crisisin Pakistan for the last… 8 years or so… is somehow an intellectual stretch.
You people are stark raving mad. Your stupidity and ignorance is approaching that of radical islam- which only a proper, nuanced approach will ever come close to resolving. More will be achieved by funding a secular education system in Pakistan than sowing fields with salt ever will.
And the moderators here should lose their jobs for allowing the carthage comments through, especially when further comments meant that ignorance was no longer an excuse.
Phoebus (Reply)
Wed 04 Mar 09 (02:37pm)

And here is my comment on all this, which I doubt Andrew Bolt will allow to be published:

I wouldn't bother, Phoebus. Andrew Bolt has blown the whistle and all the dogs of genocide, xenophobia, racism and bigotry are barking like crazy.

The Herald Sun's advertisers would never get away with having such hate speech published on their servers. I know this because I'm an employment law solicitor who has acted for companies and government departments that have disciplined staff for making racist remarks on e-mail servers and intranets. I've also acted for workers who have been disciplined and/or sacked for sending online content deemed racist.

The Herald Sun publishes comments that, 70 years ago, would have been published in German, Dutch and other European papers about Jews.

The Herald Sun thinks it is above the law. Its advertisers should not have to fund such hate-speech. I suggest copies of these comments should be printed out and posted to all Herald Sun advertisers. Perhaps when the money stops rolling in, Andrew Bolt and his colleagues will change their ways.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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BLOG: Bolt blames Islam, ignores terror victims ...

2009-03-03T04:21:00.000-08:00

I've already referred to the genocidal comments Andrew Bolt and his colleagues at the Herald Sun have allowed to be published on his blog. But what did Andrew Bolt himself have to say?

Bolt's response can be read here. At the time of writing this, there are 11 updates to his initial post. Update 11 contains these words ...

I think the apologists are running out of excuses. The US, we were told, brought 9-11 on itself through its aggression. We invited Bali on ourselves by siding with the US. India provoked the Mumbai slaughter by discriminating against Muslims. But the Sri Lankans? How on earth can even the barking mad blame them for this? Now, can we start discussing the role of Islam in political violence, and without the usual shut-ups of “racist!”.

So while terrorists have attacked cricket, Bolt wants to talk theology and its alleged role in promoting terrorism. But how serious is he about terrorism? After all, what can terrorism be if not the slaughter of innocents? Yet in his entire post, not even once does Bolt mention those killed in this attack. He doesn't spare a word for those brave Pakistani police officers and the 2 innocent passers-by who died in the attack.

Bolt wants to blame Islam and the Koran at a time when the victims' relatives will be reciting chapters from the Koran and praying to God that these victims are shown God's mercy and entered into paradise. Bolt wants to blame the religion of the victims.

Bolt has given the green light for the miscellaneous bigots that crowd his blog to spray their filth on the Herald Sun's website. But before that, Bolt and his buddies must moderate what are clearly the comments of trolls:

Ah, the rich and vibrant tapestry that is Islam. Every day another majestical experience...
Infidel Tiger (Reply)
Tue 03 Mar 09 (03:58pm)

kristof replied to Infidel Tiger
Tue 03 Mar 09 (06:11pm)
oh come on, these sorts of things happen all over the world and you are blaming islam? this is really terrible and cant be defended BUT people get slaughtered in every isla.. oops sorry every country every day what is so special about a bus in lahore? are you racist?? islam would never permit this. it must be jews. this could happen in a christian country and it could be nuns and you are drawing strings..... sammer will explain.

Still, who needs trolls when naked hatred will do the trick?

One disagreement, Andrew. It isn’t Pakistan that’s being lost. It’s everywhere there is islam. Including right here in Oz.
Appeasement was the entrance door to WW2. Now it beckons another even larger conflict.
Terry of Sydney (Reply)
Tue 03 Mar 09 (04:07pm)

Red Baron replied to strange days indeed
Tue 03 Mar 09 (07:21pm)
What do you mean by “Pakistan being lost?”
Pakistan was never “won” in the first place. Pakistan is build on Islam and nothing but Islam, it never had an economic base, it doesn’t have a language or culture of its own, it seceeded from India and is dependent on the jiziyah, the tribute from Western, infidel countries that have sustained it till now.
Its the same in Bangladesh.
Pakistan is another failed state. Because of Islam.
But hey, call me ‘racist’ or ‘Islamophobic’- like I care!

No, clearly Red Baron doesn't care. After all, this is his blog. And the moderators of this blog have no problem with hate-speech, even if they have a problem with swearing:

Verax replied to Bill
Tue 03 Mar 09 (06:04pm)
SNIPPED - swearing.

And then there is this classic.

Apart from Double dealing, Hatred, Misery, Depravity and Fanaticism what else is Pakistan famous for? ...
JV of North Essendon (Reply)
Tue 03 Mar 09 (05:42pm)

Well, I realise this isn't quite relevant to the present discussion, but Pakistan is famous for producing some world-class cricket and for manufacturing cricket equipment. Anyway, back to the hate-speech:

Perhaps a few people of all kinds will now begin to wake up to the horror that is islam.
Appeasement has to stop in all Western nations and these multitude of muhammadans, who we keep being told are a minority, who have hi-jacked the ‘religion’ must be imprisoned and sent back to their respective nations.
A halt has to be called on immigration of muslims to Western countries. I’m sorry for any who genuinely want out and would integrate, but they must really stay and rectify their own lands.
We have imported enough trouble and it has to stop if we want to continue to have freedom of speech, freedom of action and just plain decency.
I, for one, don’t want to see my children growing up under the yoke of islam, which is an evil political ideology not a religion.
Marilyn LeBez of Australia (Reply)
Tue 03 Mar 09 (05:54pm)

I'm sure Bolt would have allowed a similar comment about Jews during the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. No? He wouldn't have? I'm glad. Because such a comment would have been grossly unfair. But when it comes to certain groups Bolt isn't exactly fond of, fairness can go get ...

Tonight the ABC had the story of the Sri Lankans shooting followed by kev’s 20
million rebuilding gift. My conclusion, muslims declare war on the world and the
world say’s, here’s more money, so you can do a better job.If this is not a
declaration of war, God only knows what it is, just as well the Indians didn’t
go.
ark (Reply)
Tue 03 Mar 09 (07:54pm)

What’s the excuse of the
muslims this time? Occupation? Foreign policy? What is it now?
Ben of
Springvale (Reply)
Tue 03 Mar 09 (07:55pm)

And then there are some crazy people who still think Colonel Gaddafi is some kind of pro-Islamist terrorist involved in a deep dark conspiracy ...

Ironic but significant - the attack was made near the GADDAFI stadium…
Could someon please tell me what exactly is so attractive about the Islamists to people who refuse to “see” them?
Is it the cunning way they use weapons or what?
dowp (Reply)
Tue 03 Mar 09 (08:25pm)

This is freedom of speech, Andrew Bolt style. Throw the statutes out the window. Defend democracy while ignoring the rule of law. Regard yourself as above the law. And start pointing fingers at 1.2 billion people before anyone has even named a suspect and any group has claimed responsibility.

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BLOGS: Eight Pakistanis die but Bolt's bloggers want more to die ...

2009-03-03T02:18:00.000-08:00

Well, the news from Lahore isn't good. Sri Lankan cricketers and their Australian coach wounded in a terrorist attack on Pakistan's cultural capital. Six Pakistani police officers were shot dead, as were two bystanders.

And Andrew Bolt's friends want more to die. Pakistan is a nation of 200 million people. But at the Herald Sun, it's clear that wiping Pakistan off the world map isn't regarded as terribly extreme. Here are the first 2 moderated comments ...

Pakistan was lost many years ago, Andrew. Probably around
the time it was a created as nation for Indian Muslims. Pakistan
has long been a safe haven for terrorists and they are hiding there
in droves waiting to some out. India was
right in its verbal attack on
Pakistan after the Mumbai massacre and if India
sees fit to go to war with
Pakistan, then we should support them.

George
P of Albert Park
(Reply)
Tue 03 Mar 09 (03:55pm)

Peter of Mt Eliza
replied to George P
Tue 03 Mar 09 (08:30pm)
Time for a Carthaginian solution.

If you don’t understand, brush up on your history. It works. Brutal -
yes. Effective - Yes

The Cathaginian solution? What did the Romans do in Carthage? Well, Carthage was a city in northern Africa on the Mediterranean coast. Its ruins are located in what is now Tunisia. The city was destroyed by the Romans in 146BC. According to this report:

The city was besieged, and after two years of furious fighting was stormed and sacked and utterly destroyed.

And what happened to Carthage? What did the Romans accomplish at Carthage? Writes Ben Kiernan:

Rome soon began a three-year siege of the world's wealthiest city. Of a population of 2-400,000, at least 150,000 Carthaginians perished. Appian described one battle in which '70,000, including non-combatants' were killed, probably an exaggeration. But Polybius, who participated in the campaign, confirmed that 'the number of deaths was incredibly large' and the Carthaginians 'utterly exterminated'. (In 146, Roman legions under Scipio Aemilianus, Cato's ally and brother-in-law of his son, razed the city, and dispersed into slavery the 55,000 survivors, including 25,000 women. Plutarch concluded: 'The annihilation of Carthage ... was primarily due to the advice and counsel of Cato' ...

Its policy of 'extreme violence', the 'annihilation of Carthage and most of its inhabitants', ruining 'an entire culture', fits the modern legal definition of the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention: the intentional destruction 'in whole or in part, [of] a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such'.

And what kind of thinking led to the complete destruction of Carthage? According to Ben Kiernan:

Some features of the ideology motivating the Roman destruction of Carthage in 146 BC have surprisingly modern echoes in 20th-century genocides. Racial, religious or cultural prejudices, gender and other social hierarchies, territorial expansionism ...

Peter of Mt Eliza has posted a comment calling for the complete annihilation of Pakistan as a nation. He calls upon readers to brush up on their history. I've just brushed up on mine. The results are frightening.

The Herald Sun newspaper has moderated and allowed a comment to be published on its most popular blog of its star columnist which calls for genocide. This is Australia's biggest selling newspaper, part of a multi-billion dollar media empire.

UPDATE I: Why stop at Pakistan? Just murder all those bloody Muzzies. Announce a genocidal war of Armageddon-proportions on the Herald Sun's most read blog. Allow your hatred to be read by over 1 million readers per month. This is where Peter of Mt Eliza left off ...

Heretic replied to George P
Tue 03 Mar 09 (10:16pm)
Have to agree Peter. In my readings of history,
the only ruler who came close to destroying islam once and for all was Genghis
Khan, when his forces swept accross central asia. And he didn’t do it by being
nice. He did it by simply laying waste to everything in his path. Legend has it
nothing bigger than an insect survived wherever his forces passed. One day soon,
the jihadists will push the US, or India, or Israel too far, and their
supposedly peaceful supporters will pay the price.

murph replied to George P
Wed 04 Mar 09 (12:57am)
Cartago delende est!
Islamabad delende est!
Mecca delende est!
Medina delende est!
Damascus delende est!
Jeddah delende est!
Tehran delende est!

Brett Coster replied to George P
Wed 04 Mar 09 (01:24am)
Ah, yes Peter: genocide, the, shall we say,
Final Solution?
And the Boltaverse moderators let that through?

Peter of Mt Eliza replied to George P
Wed 04 Mar 09 (08:30am)
Dear Brett Coster, Quite different to the
“Final Solution”. Circumstances quite different. Solution quite
different.
Read your history and try and wrap your mind around the
differences. Hint: Google Punic Wars.
Not Genocide - that’s what the
Islamic extremists would want to visit upon all unbelievers.

nigel replied to George P
Wed 04 Mar 09 (10:04am)
Just heard a commentator, from Pakistan, trying
to put the blame on India.They are so pathetic that their first thought is to
try and pay India back for accusing Pakistan based terrorists of being
responsible for the recent attack in India.Funnily enough they were.Pakistan’s
only successful business export is islamic terrorists and Britons now live in
fear and have to spend countless millions weeding out and tracking, home grown,
or imported Pakistani killers.They have caved in to the extremists internally
and their political and civil society is amongst the most corrupt in the
world.Britain did India a favour by getting rid of these islamic crazies, all
those years ago.However having them on your borders has cost many lives."Drop
the bomb,kill them all”.

A quick lesson in Latin - delende est means "must be eliminated".

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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HATEWATCH: Ethnic crime and xenophobia on Andrew Bolt's blog ...

2009-03-02T02:15:00.000-08:00

Andrew Bolt is somehow able to link three Sydney incidents on his blog:

1. A number of boys going on the rampage at a Catholic independent school in Auburn;

2. A 16 year old boy who might be charged with murder by police; and

3. A brawl at a Sydney cinema.

And what was Bolt's conclusion?

That police seem to play down the violence, and that the tired counter-accusation of racism is used, only makes clearer some of the reasons we got to this point.

Er ... um ... the reasons? What are those reasons? And what does racism have to do with it? Why bring race into it?

Perhaps some of the comments on Bolt's blog have something to say about this ...

These are the sons or grandsons of the men who reduced Beruit to rubble. Governments have allowed them into this country and need to explain their actions to the average Australian who is going to bear the brunt.
Observer (Reply)
Mon 02 Mar 09 (02:38pm)

Yep, they all came from Beirut. Not Tripoli or Baalbek or the Chouf Mountains. But why stop at identifying cities? Why not go for entire religions and regions?

Alan of Sydney replied to tony
Mon 02 Mar 09 (03:25pm)
Hmmm.
Catholic School targeted in Auburn, hotspot Muslim and Pacific Islander trouble spot.

And let's throw in some homophobia for good measure.

Case replied to Wacko
Mon 02 Mar 09 (05:46pm)
Lok at it in a positive light-Sydney leads the rest of Oz again.
Well, at least as far as mardi grARS it does!

Those poor victims who went to Cronulla Beach and shouted "F*ck The Lebs" and "F*ck The Wogs" must be exonerated. And what better place than on a blog hosted by Australia's biggest selling newspaper?

the rioting outside a cinema screening a film about Lebanese (muslim )gangs has me puzzled. As the film industry is very left wing in its views, and the left blame the Cronulla riots on the white Aussie boys, and blame all of us for the failure of muslims to integrate ( we are so racist you know), surely the film will show the lebanese gangs as poor, hard-done-by, misunderstood and gentle fellows who just want to be like the rest of us apart from downtreading their women folk and pack-raping white girls.. so who is objecting to the film? could it be white Aussies? surely not? if it’s the nice lebanese Muslims what would they be objecting to? have they actually seen the film?
lethal of WA (Reply)
Mon 02 Mar 09 (03:20pm)

Returning to migrants from a certain nearby region ...

Pacific Islanders are probably the most common suspects in Sydney home invasion imo using their bulk.
Crime Rep (Reply)
Mon 02 Mar 09 (03:36pm)

Crime Rep replied to arnie
Mon 02 Mar 09 (06:41pm)
There is an element for sure. Islanders are heavily over-represented in home invasions.

There’s been a few other incidences of Islanders invading homes.
Mostly pistol whipping people and robbing them.
The worst was in the Suburb of Claymore where a woman was raped deliberately in front of her kids. This was a few years ago. The one man caught was named [name deleted] ...
Crime Rep (Reply)
Mon 02 Mar 09 (03:42pm)

So if you are from Beirut, are Lebanese, Lebanese Muslim, Pacific Islander and/or homosexual, the Herald Sun has just allowed you to be vilified. Now if any of the Herald Sun's advertisers allowed their employees to place such filth on their intranets or their e-mail servers, they'd be in huge trouble. But this is the Herald Sun. Its staff are above the law. It is a company above the law.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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MEDIA: Yet another tabloid Muslim monolith story ...

2009-03-01T23:46:00.001-08:00

The Daily Telegraph ran a story today about a woman wearing a judge’s wig backwards who was forced by her dad and an imam to get married to a Canadian man. Serious. Here is a picture of the women with some other women dressed as judges.

Assuming the report is correct (and yes, I know that is a difficult assumption to make given we are talking about the Tele), the following points arise out of this story:

# The woman is an Australian citizen aged 27 years and working as a public servant.

# The woman first met the man, a divorced financial planner aged 39, when he arrived at the airport.

# The man was a divorcee from Canada.

# The woman was said to come from “a traditional Islamic family”. No clues are given as to the women’s ethnic, linguistic or cultural background.

# Three years after meeting the man, the woman again met him at her home.

# An imam of undisclosed ethnicity also attended the woman’s home on that occasion. He was found to have tricked a woman into signing some papers.

# The "couple" thought the papers were for an engagement.

# The papers in fact included a marriage certificate.

# There are two quotes in the story, these being ...

We are a traditional patriarchal family and it would not be appropriate for me to question my father or the imam.

... and ...

because in our culture it is not acceptable that women speak to men not in their family.

# The words “appropriately” (relating to the bride’s dress as ordered by her father) and “bundle of papers” (referring to the papers brought by the imam to the family’s home.

# The woman and man both agreed to the "engagement" off.

# The woman approached the court to have the marriage annulled under the Family Law Act, and her application was successful.

# The marriage was never consummated.

According to the Daily Telegraph, this story was yet another example of a monolithic "Muslim" culture. Yet none of the quotes from the woman’s brother or from the woman herself indicate anything about their religion. Yes, culture is mentioned. The brother even said that their family was “a traditional patriarchal family”. But any element of Islam or Mulimness was inserted by the reporter and/or editor.

Apart from the presence of an imam, what exactly about this story made it Muslim? Would this have been a "Christian" story if the marriage celebrant had been a reverend? Did the applicant or her family members refer to religion? Did the judge refer to religion? Here is how the Tele reported the judge’s observations:

The names of the couple and the imam have been suppressed by the Family Court. It is not the first Muslim "marriage" ruled void by the court.

Justice Nahum Mushin said there had been previous similar cases, including one in which the couple became married when all they thought they were doing was becoming engaged.

What did Justice Mushin say about religion? We only know the context which the Tele reporter decided to place the judge’s words in. The judge mentioned “similar previous cases”, but did he say that these cases involved Muslims?

The Tele has manufactured yet another “Muslim” story, trying to paint this as an example of a singular “Muslim” culture that simply doesn’t exist. This was the Tele’s goal, and it certainly achieved this goal judging by the comments accompanying the story. Just check out some of these moronic and almost xenophobic comments which have been moderated by the Tele on its website ...

Islam is not a religion,its a culture,ideology...
Posted by: Charity Box of Canberra 9:44am today
Comment 20 of 23

The whole philosophy of Islamic culture is one centred around male insercurity and their need for control to compensate for their inadequacies. If Islam was a culture based on equality millions of women all over the world would actually be enjoying life a lot more, for example, not having to hide their face because their 'husband' is afraid some other bloke might want to shag them.
Posted by: meremale of Lara 9:24am today
Comment 17 of 23

Scottie of 'Nulla is right, i mean, it's not just Muslims that do this its....... oh...... Bahai? wait.... no, Catholics..... no... Buddhists?... um... Scientology people?.... never mind.
Posted by: Bob of Melbourne 9:12am today
Comment 15 of 23

These people should be abiding by Australian laws and customs not some islamic law that doesnt exist in Australia. If they dont like that they should go home.
Posted by: Daniel of Sydney 8:27am today
Comment 7 of 23

The Tele has used stereotyping and prejudice to generate hits on its website, to attract readers and therefore advertisers. It has then moderated comments that further this prejudice.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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HATEWATCH: Herald-Sun moderates hate-speech on Andrew Bolt's blog ...

2009-02-28T23:52:00.000-08:00

Andrew Bolt hates stereotypes. He never engages in spreading them. he never suggests or even implies them. And he certainly never allows them to be perpetuated by persons congregating around his blog.

Bolt and the Herald-Sun team are extremely careful to ensure that racist and xenophobic comments appear on blogs hosted by them. The Herald-Sun is well aware of its legal and ethical responsibilities in this regard. For this reason, only hate-free comments are allowed. Here are a sample ...

This post confirms what us bloggers from the right have been saying for so long. Yet our lefty opponents kept telling us we were mistaken.

These are the sons of men who left Beirut in rubble, and whom Malcolm Fraser decided to accept here - on refugee visas!

mh (Reply)
Sun 01 Mar 09 (11:34am)

OK, that must have been an exception. I doubt the Herald-Sun would allow anymore such remarks to be hosted on their site. Let's continue ...

Brett_McS replied to mh
Sun 01 Mar 09 (01:48pm)
Exactly, mh. And does this film in effect slander the Christian (Maronite) Lebanese who came over in the 50s and 60s on their own merits - mostly professional people - and who have fitted in well and contributed greatly to Australia? We know who the trouble makers are and they’re not “Lebanese” - they’re Muslim Lebanese.

See, this isn't racial vilification. It's ethno-religious vilification. Lebanese Muslims are "the trouble makers". All of them. Each and everyone of them. Continuing ...

Well I don’t know of course but you get the impression that there is a number or an above average percentage in the Lebanese/Arab/ Muslim of South West Sydney who are short tempered, relatively thick, criminal, and fundamentally violent with a huge sense of undeserved entitlement as compared to other communities.

Age of Stupid (Reply)
Sun 01 Mar 09 (12:34pm)

And then there is some classic historical revisionism to reinforce the racism.

My Lebanese mates are not Arabs. They are descendants of the Phoenicians, which race dwelled in Lebanon well before the Arabs arrived (though this type of fact tends to be ignored by lefties, unless Aborigines are involved).
What’s even more relevant, they are not Muslims, they are Maronite Christians. It’s the Muslims that cause trouble, as Bret_McS has pointed out elsewhere.

Mick of Wiley Park (Reply)
Sun 01 Mar 09 (02:55pm)

MEDIA: The future (if any) of metropolitan newspapers ...

2009-02-22T23:44:00.000-08:00

A host of American newspaper groups has gone broke. The New York Times has been forced to mortgage its own premises. And now Fairfax has posted a $365 million loss for the first half of this financial year. Why is all this happening? Apparently classifieds revenue has hit an all time low.

Imagine waking up one day without the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Australian Financial Review.

If the Howard government's policies couldn't destroy media diversity, it seems the Global Financial Crisis could well kill off private media organisations one at a time.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf

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CRIKEY: What a Muslim looks like, by the Daily Telegraph ...

2008-11-26T02:09:00.001-08:00

An oldie but a goodie ...

Yesterday’s front page of The Australian carried a story headed “Muslim refugee home rental probe” about an investigation into the allegedly dodgy involvement of the Islamic Council of NSW in a NSW Department of Housing scheme for refugees.

People who engage in this sort of behaviour should be exposed regardless of their ethnicity or religion. The ICNSW is one of three competing Councils vying for representative status of Muslim New South Welshmen and women.

The story was repeated in The Oz today and also reported in the Daily Telegraph yesterday. The Tele’s website carried the following graphic showing a woman wearing a face veil:

What the …? A woman wearing a face veil? Was this a story about women? Or about belly dancers? Or about veiling practices? Not exactly.

The Oz for its part carried a photo of Ali Roude, the ICNSW vice-chair at the heart of the scandal.

You’d think by now that I'd be used to this kind of inane stereotyping. But this time it really got on my nerves. So I rang the Tele and spoke to their online editor Ricky Sutton yesterday afternoon.

The conversation started out OK. I asked Ricky why, of all the possible images he could put with the story, he used this one. After all, it was a story about the alleged abuse of community housing by two blokes. Here’s my recollection of how the conversation went:

RICKY: Look, it’s a story about Muslims and refugees and that. So we had to use a Muslim image. What’s wrong with that?

ME: What do women in face veils have to do with Muslims?

RICKY: Well, don’t all their women wear that kind of stuff?

ME: Really? And do you have any evidence to back it up?

RICKY: Listen, if it had been a story about a housing scandal in the Church of England, we’d have run a picture of a crucifix.

ME: So you’re saying that a woman’s head dress is the equivalent of a crucifix. Isn’t that a bit tabloidish?

RICKY: Now you’re the one doing the stereotyping. Are you saying the newspaper I work for is a tabloid?

ME: Well, yes. As a matter of fact, I am.

It all got a little Middle Eastern from there. I pointed him to each story and showed how each graphic made sense. A story about John Howard showed a picture of Howard. A story about the RAAF showed a picture of a fighter jet, etc.

It makes me wonder: how would you illustrate a story about The Daily Tele's approach to Islamic issues?

First published in Crikey on Wednesday 8 August 2007.

Words © 2007-08 Irfan Yusuf

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UPDATE: Old stuff ...

2008-11-26T02:06:00.000-08:00

I'll be posting more old stuff I've written elsewhere. Sometimes I'll add some comments but usually not.

In case you didn't know, I'm in the process of writing a book and having it published. My editor has almost finished editing my manuscript, so I'll be working on that for a fair while (as in 2 weeks or so).

After all that, hopefully this blog will have more original stuff.

Enjoy!

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

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MEDIA/CRIKEY: FoxNews accuses Mattel of producing jihad doll ...

2008-10-12T20:55:00.000-07:00

Prominent toy manufacturer Fisher-Price, a subsidiary of Mattel, is accused by some American parents of selling a baby doll that preaches an Islamic message.

One parent told a sceptical Associated Press reporter in this video that the doll is saying "Islamin is the light”.

I’d hate to think what it would say if played backwards.

FoxNews’ report ("Parents Outraged Over Baby Doll They Say Mumbles Pro-Islam Message") was less sceptical, making an issue of how the manufacturer ...

... didn't immediately respond to FOXNews.com's requests for comment.

Yep, immediate silence is guilt. As if worries over Matel’s share price were clearly less pressing for the company’s PR spin-doctors.

And how much does Mattel really care about FoxNews’ latest al-Qaida conspiracy? Type the word "Islam" into the press release search engine and find out for yourself.

First published in the Crikey daily alert on Monday 13 October 2008.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

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COMMENT: AAP's Arabic language skills on show ...

2008-10-07T04:01:00.000-07:00

AAP reported a story about a Nigerian man who married 86 women and kept them simultaneously as wives. The man was being prosecuted by one of Nigeria's state sharia courts which implement sections of Islamic sacred law. In the case of Muhammadu Bello Masaba, the 84-year-old with 86 wives, the relevant sharia court judge has ordered that his case be referred to a secular magistrates' court.

The AAP also reported (emphasis mine) that ...

The case of Masaba, an Islamic cleric, captured public attention some three months ago when he admitted to having 86 wives.

The revelation attracted sharp criticism and indignation from Islamic clerics with the Jama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI), the Nigerian Muslim umbrella body that slammed a fatwa, or death sentence, on Masaba.

The word fatwa has been translated as "death sentence". I'm not sure where AAP managed to generate or manufacture this translation.

Even someone with the most elementary knowledge of Arabic knows that the term fatwa has little or no relation to death. The Arabic word for death is mawt, and the word for killing is qatl. Neither of these words have an relation to fatwa.

Indeed, the term fatwa refers to an influential but non-binding legal opinion on the application of Islamic sacred law to novel situations. Islamic sacred law's criminal jurisdiction does contain a small number of offences carring capital punishments, known as hudood. Little novelty is involved in these areas of criminal law.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

COMMENT: On the moderation of racist and bigotted comments on blogs Part I

2008-09-25T21:40:00.000-07:00

To what extent should bloggers be held responsible (whether legally or morally) for comments left on their blogs? This is an extremely contentious issue, and one I've previously written about in a piece for Crikey which can be found here.

Amateur bloggers (such as yours truly) don't have the time and resoyrces to immediately deal with offensive, defamatory or racist comments. In the case of the Planet Irf blog, the period between offensive comments being posted and removed can be days if not hours. But what about well-resourced blogs?

I now want to explore a few blogs where I've featured from time to time. The first blog I wanted to examine is Tim Blair's blog on the Daily Telegraph website, published by Rupert Murdoch's Nationwide News. The website is owned by News Digital Media Pty Limited.

Paragraph 13 of the website's Terms & Conditions states ...

Contributing Content

13. When you submit content to News in any format, including any text ..., you grant News a non-exclusive, royalty free, perpetual license to publish that content ...

15. You warrant that you have all of the necessary rights, including copyright, in the content you contribute, that your content is not defamatory and that it does not infringe any law.

16. You indemnify News against any and all legal fees, damages and other expenses that may be incurred by News as a result of a breach of the above warranty.

These terms don't state that the owner of the site has no liability for comments posted on blogs which are defamatory or infringe anti-discrimination, racial vilification or other laws. Rather, they state that, should a plaintiff commence legal proceedings against News Limited, Nationwide News, the editor, the blogger and/or other entities associated with he website, News Limited can seek indemnity from the person posting the comment.

The publisher's liability in this regard is also affected by the comment publication guidelines which include:

4. News will determine, at its discretion, whether to publish (or remove from a site) any of your content ...

7. News may edit your content in its discretion.

8. You warrant that: ...

(d) your content, your provision of your content to News and the use by News of your content, in each case as contemplated in these terms and conditions, does not breach any law (including laws relating to privacy, intellectual property and defamation) or the rights of any person;

10. On providing your content to News for publication in any media, you indemnify News and its officers, employees and agents against any damage or loss made against or suffered by any of those indemnified arising, in whole or in part, as a result of:
(a) the publication by News or a person permitted by News of your content; or
(b) a breach by you of these terms and conditions.

From all these guidelines, terms and conditions, we can reach the following conclusions:

a. The publishers of the site are legally responsible for comments submitted to and published on blogs.

b. The publishers and any employees responsible for moderating comments, as well as their editor-supervisors, are legally liable for any defamation or other breach of law.

This is the legal liability situation. But what about issues relating to journalism ethics? And balancing freedom of speech with freedom from vilification? What do we make of comments being moderated and allowed onto blogs and stories notwithstanding the fact that they promoting ethnic-based violence?

To be continued ...

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

CRIKEY: New SBS show mired in muslim stereotypes ...

2008-09-24T01:44:00.000-07:00

There’s more to the SBS documentary Embedded With Sheik Hilaly than just the documentary itself. The embedded person was 26 year old Dave Zwolenski from Brisbane. Yet Dave was drafted by SBS almost at the last minute.

The original star of the show was to be Melbourne stand-up comic and youth worker Mohammed el-Leissy, formerly of the Fear Of A Brown Planet fame and now about to launch an on-stage comedic gameshow called Who Is Abdul Smith at this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival. El-Leissy first heard about the proposed documentary via a social networking site. He applied successfully for a role starring in the show, and was flown upto Sydney some 4 times, including a 2-month stint during which he approached various Muslim sects and their leaders. He also visited Camden to visit local Muslims.

El-Leissy told Crikey he’d developed an extensive list of Sydney Muslim contacts which he handed to the producers. The original idea was for El-Leissy to embed himself with more radical imams such as Sheik Abdussalam Zoud.

El-Leissy was to "hang out with rough guys, go on jihad camps and similar stuff". On one occasion, the producers asked him to attend a male-only barbecue where he’d accuse Zoud’s crowd of being sexist before asking why no women were present. El-Leissy refused, believing such questions just played into stereotypes (heck, why can’t a bunch of Aussie blokes have a bbq without sheilas spoiling the fun?). He explained this to the producers, who said that if he couldn’t ask these questions, they had a non-Muslim guy who would. They then sacked El-Leissy.

As it turned out, their Brisbane chap also didn’t get a chance to even appear with Zoud, let alone ask these tough questions of his young male followers. El-Leissy says that Zoud’s crowd wouldn’t touch the show with a 10-foot barge pole.

Still, when you can’t convince anyone to participate in a caricatured picture of Muslims, you can always rely on human headlines like Sheik Hilaly and his interpreter. Their attempts to justify Hilaly’s catmeat comments were just painful to watch, as were the attitudes expressed by other more conservative Muslims on the show.

Narrator Dave said his goal was "to understand what being a Muslim is really like". In relation to issues like marriage and gender relations, I doubt any but the most conservative of culturally Lebanese Muslims would relate to what Dave discovered.

The Age reviewer wasn’t terribly happy with the show accusing its makers of “entrenching prejudices and ignorance”. The tiny number of Hilaly-lovers congregating on this online forum were much more upbeat about the show.

Words Copyright © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

CRIKEY: No prejudice at the Courier Mail, just bloody Muslims ...

2008-09-14T21:15:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, the Editor of the Courier Mail David Fagan addressed a Brisbane journalism conference organised by the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA). My notes from the conference show Fagan declaring that newspaper journalism consists of great pictures with good words attached. As if readers want the kind of stuff Little Golden Books were made of. Fagan also declared that his paper was not in the business of inciting prejudice.

On the same day, buried on Page 22 of the Courier Mail, was a story headed "Muslim game outrage". The headline on the online edition was "Anti-Muslim computer game stirs wave of anger". On the Saturday archive index, the headline is "Computer game riles Muslims".

Yep, no prejudice here. Just another story about those bloody Muslims yet again getting angry (and possibly violent) about being criticised. Heck, why be offended by a computer game where players get to engage in "modern religious genocide"? What's wrong with a game about "killing as many Muslims as possible, ranging from terrorists and civilians to Osama bin Laden, even the prophet Mohammed and Allah"? As if Jews or Christians would be offended by a game about massacring them.

But Mr Fagan will insist that the various headlines to this story weren't written to generate such responses. Try believing that once you've read the 100-plus comments left on the Courier Mail website, the bulk of which refer to Muslims getting unnecessarily sensitive, hating free speech, invading our country, killing us if they had a chance, why don't they get as angry as when one of them blows up a church? etc etc.

The game's developer describes it as intending to

... mock the foreign policy of the United States and the commonly held belief ... that Muslims are a hostile people to be held with suspicion.

In other words, it was all satire, a case of Team America becoming Game America. Just like the Lindsay pamphlet, only worse. At least one computing magazine disagrees.

The game's instructions made reference to the "Muslim race". The developer now says he doesn't believe Muslims have racial or genetic defects. I sure hope no one at the Courier Mail believes this either, even if their ultimate employer seems to.

First published in the Crikey daily alert for Monday 15 September 2008.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

COMMENT: Why the Pope cares more about sexual abuse victims than some News Limited editors ...

2008-07-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

Certain columnists and editorial writers from The Australian and other News Limited newspapers has been complaining about ABC Lateline's reporting of the mishandling of sexual abuse complaints made by victims and their families to the Catholic church. Apparently in their eyes, reporting on such matters on the eve of World Youth Day represents an attack on all Catholics and an attempt to tarnish a week of religious festivities for Catholic pilgrims who have gathered in Australia from across the world.

You can catch a summary of that criticism at the ABC Media Watch website here. You can also read a rather sad attempt at a critique of Media Watch here.

Some people at The Oz think that criticising Catholic clergy on the eve of World Youth Day represents an assault on WYD pilgrims and Catholics in general. They seem to think that Catholics are so sensitive that they are unable to handle such reporting. They also assume that Catholics, by and large, are quite happy with the way the Church handles sexual abuse by clergy.

I can understand devout Catholics like Angela Shanahan asking why such matters should be covered at this stage. However, for The Oz editorial writers to ask such questions is sheer hypocrisy.

The Oz editorial writers and columnists had no hesitation in pilloring Hilaly when he made comments disparaging of rape victims. The Oz never cared about the fact that the breaking of its story virtually coincided with Muslims celebrating the holiest day of their religious calender - the Feast of Purity (Eid al-Fitr) to commemmorate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

Worse still, The Oz sheeted the blame for Hilaly's comments to Muslims themselves. Neither ABC Lateline nor Media Watch suggested that ordinary Catholics should be held responsible for the insensitive remarks of Bishop Fisher about the rape victims and their parents.

Indeed, when I suggested that reporting overkill in The Oz was making it harder for ordinary Muslims to pressure imams and religious leaders to remove Hilaly, The Oz editorial accused me of seeking to cover up "Islamic excesses" and even claimed I condoned the kind of radical speech that led to bombings in London and Madrid and the assassination of Theo Van Gogh.

The Oz editorialists aren't against bashing of believers. Nor are The Oz editorialists concerned about defending rape victims. Rather The Oz editorialists will only defend the sentiments of believers it selects. However, The Oz editorialists are happy to do to Hilaly exactly what they accuse the ABC of doing to the Catjolic church.

I urge The Oz editorialists to grab a copy of the al-Mawrid and look up the meaning of the Arabic word nifaaq.

COMMENT: A word of advice to readers of News Limited papers ...

2008-07-22T08:15:00.000-07:00

Please, please, please. Whatever you do, try not to talk about the insensitivity of Catholic clergy toward sex abuse victims on a News Limited paper's website. You'll be accused by some of their prominent editors and columnists of being anti-Catholic and part of a nasty Fairfax/ABC conspiracy.

If you really want justice for sex abuse victims, pray to God that Pell and Fisher convert to Islam and one of them becomes Mufti. Then watch as The Oz, Tele etc lash out on their insensitivity and lack of Australian values. Or even better - pray that God transforms them into Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders and watch the media and political circus begin.

Just remember the golden rule - some newspapers only criticise clerical insensitivity when displayed by clerics of the "wrong" religion or race. Funnily enough, this golden rule applies to virtually all MP's as well.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

MEDIA: Piers Akerman declares the Pope a fearmongering disbeliever?

2008-07-18T09:47:00.000-07:00

Columnist for the tabloid Daily Telegraph Piers Akerman has discovered the dangers of religious stereotyping. In a blog post dated 14 July 2008, Akerman is scathing of Fairfax and the ABC for reporting the allegations of sexual assault by Catholic clergy.

If one was a subscriber solely to the Fairfax newspapers or watched and listened only to the ABC, one could come away with the view that every child who received a Catholic education had been subjected to abuse at the hands of the Catholic clergy ...

While some children undoubtedly suffered miserably - and horribly - it is notable that the ABC chose to prosecute the case of a man who was nearly 30 when he was attacked by a notorious priest some 26 years ago. A man, moreover, who has taken the matter through the civil processes and received court-ordered compensation.

Gee, that's a lovely thought, Piers. People who have had to fight expensive legal battles in the courts for years before receiving some compensation have no right to feel somewhat bitter. Nor should they complain when, on the same day, the Church advises them that it doesn't believe the offending clergyman had sexually abused anyone whilst admitting the opposite to another victim. These people should just snap out of their victimhood. Speaking of which ...

The importance of victimhood is as important to the taxpayer-funded broadcaster and Fairfax as maintaining the Church as the unforgiveable perpetrator ...

The campaign run by these media organisations against the Church in the lead-up to the Papal visit has been reminiscent of the virulent hate sessions organised by the former communist party in the old USSR and its satellite states.

So if you report on the experiences of sexual abuse victims, you become a communist. And victims of that abuse are just wallowing in victimhood.

In recent decades, many Australians have succumbed to the secular cult of victimhood, be they members of the so-called Stolen Generation, or those who have been panicked by fearmongers into embracing the apocalyptic visions of the Jeremiahs of global warming.

Yep, indigenous Australians stolen from their parents are just a bunch of whinging niggers pretending to be victims. And anyone who believes in global warming is just a fearmonger. I guess that includes the Pope. Go back to Rome, you nasty communist leftwing Fairfax/ABC fearmonger!

In clutching at the creed of negativity, they display their spiritual emptiness, their lack faith in anything.

So indigenous Australians stolen from the parents and people who believe in global warming (such as the Pope) are just bitter and twisted and really don't believe in anything.

They cannot be blamed for this however, as the Left-dominated state education systems have vigorously attempted to erase all aspects of spirituality from the school system.
Unfortunately, the politically active teachers’ union acolytes have no substitute to offer those seeking to fill their inner emptiness ...

Yep those nasty Catholic unionists are the cause of all this. Line 'em against the wall and shoot the b*st*rds!

Calls upon the Pope to apologise to past victims of evil clergymen are well and good, and we are assured that they will be delivered (and with promises of future transparency of process) but that surely is not the principal message that Benedict XVI has come this distance to deliver?

No we aren't Piers. The Vatican spokesman has said that there's no guarantee the Pope will apologise.

Akerman's argument seems to be that Fairfax and the ABC have gone overboard with reporting the issue. The result is sectarian prejudice. Akerman should practise what he preaches and stop demonising non-Catholic faiths. But will he follow his own advice? I doubt it. Akerman is a chronic sectarian bigot.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

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Calling a meat pie a meat pie …

2008-05-26T06:13:00.000-07:00

I bag the Daily Telegraph a fair bit. But every now and then, they do deserve credit for treating a potentially provocative story (or one they could easily turn into a provocative story) in a sensitive or at least neutral manner.

And so I must congratulate the Tele and its reporter Vicki Campion for the story on Lurnea High School canteen now offering a halal manu. Instead of turning this into a story about political correctness gone mad or a creeping sharia-fication of our education system, the Tele reported it for what it was – kids wanting to eat canteen food, including the good old Aussie meat pie.

The report wasn't given a silly headline or accompanied by a picture of a woman in a face veil. It was just about canteen-volunteers and state schools meating the needs of their more culturally-diverse student population. And no doubt cashing in on the increased tuck-shop sales. Heck, why not?

Here are some excerpts ...

EVERY kid knows how to get what they want - and in Sydney's west it was only persistent badgering that brought halal food to the school tuckshop.

The technique worked at Lurnea Public School, which has become the latest of an estimated 40 schools from kindergarten to university to bring in halal food.

Muslim students, who make up more than 30 per cent of the school's population, can now eat meat pies, lasagne and spaghetti bolognaise at the school.

"We found that we were not catering to this community and they were coming to the canteen and asking for halal food," relieving principal Sandra Forman said.

"The other students have found this food just as good." A Department of Education spokeswoman said individual school communities were responsible for the food in canteens ...

Lurnea's canteen supervisor Rebecca Donkin said the children were excited about the new menu. She said halal food was no more difficult to prepare.

CRIKEY: Greg Sheridan catches up on Hamas.

2008-03-31T00:36:00.000-07:00

What an extraordinary genius Greg Sheridan is!

On Saturday, he wrote in The Australian:

The failure to understand that Islamist terrorism is a religious, ideological movement, with a coherent if grotesque world view, is one of many failures of Western commentators. Reading the Islamists' documents would be a good place to start in remedying that so far abject failure.

He's right. But the thing is that the failure isn't of genuine commentators and scholars but of neo-Con pundits whose focus isn't on promoting an understanding of such groups but rather on generating as much hatred for them as possible.

HAMAS has been around since 1987. Even a novice like myself has known about the HAMAS Charter for over a decade, which I first read back in 1993 when its English translation was published in the Journal of Palestine Studies. The same journal in 1995 published a major study of HAMAS.

Now, in 2008, Sheridan has discovered the significance of the HAMAS charter.

He's also been chosen as one of our “best and brightest” to sit on his 2020 Summit committee to discuss "Australia's Future Security and Prosperity in a rapidly changing region and world".

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

COMMENT: Natalie O’Brien tries desperately to link Hilaly to bin-Ladin ...

2008-03-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

Heck, if it's good enough for Jesus ...

In case anyone hasn’t realised it, I’ll admit I’m not a huge fan of some of Sheik Hilaly’s public comments. He’s said things in the past which have been grossly offensive, racist and misogynist.

But I would hesitate to link him to terrorists.

Natalie O’Brien, a senior reporter for The Australian, has no such hesitation. In an article on Saturday March 22 2008, O’Brien reports that Sheik Hilaly

... has rallied his supporters against the publication of cartoons insulting to Mohammed.

O’Brien continues …

Sheik Hilali said the cartoons, published in a Danish newspaper in 2005 - and republished last month - showed the "hatred and envy" felt by the West against Islam …

"The West announces holding a competition for caricatures that insult the Messenger of God, may he be blessed," Sheik Hilali said.

"And the worst drawing, that succeeds in causing the most harm in order to provoke the Muslims and cause them hurt for their prophet, wins the competition. They are determined. They are hateful."

No indication is given as to whether Hilaly said these words in Arabic or English. Yet given that they were delivered in a Friday sermon to a largely Arabic-speaking audience, I doubt Hilaly would have spoken them in a broad “Strayn” accent.

If spoke in Arabic, we have no idea who translated them. Or has O’Brien taken a crash course in Arabic?

What makes O’Brien’s article even more problematic is that she tries to somehow link Hilaly to bin Ladin. How so? By interspersing his report on Hilaly’s pronouncements with pronouncements on the same subject by Usama bin Ladin.

Reproduced are the first seven paragraphs of O’Brien’s article …

MUSLIM cleric Taj Din al-Hilali has rallied his supporters against the publication of cartoons insulting to Mohammed.

His call comes just a day after Osama bin Laden denounced the European Union over the same issue in a new videotape.

At his sermon at Australia's biggest mosque, in the southwest Sydney suburb of Lakemba, Sheik Hilali said the cartoons, published in a Danish newspaper in 2005 - and republished last month - showed the "hatred and envy" felt by the West against Islam.

He said today's sermon at the mosque would be followed by a march to a nearby park to protest against the cartoons.

"The West announces holding a competition for caricatures that insult the Messenger of God, may he be blessed," Sheik Hilali said.

"And the worst drawing, that succeeds in causing the most harm in order to provoke the Muslims and cause them hurt for their prophet, wins the competition. They are determined. They are hateful."
In an audiotape message posted on a militant website, bin Laden warned Europe of a "reckoning" over the cartoons and claimed their publication formed part of "the framework of a new Crusade" in which the Pope "has played a large, lengthy role".

What on earth do a Sydney imam’s comments at a Friday sermon have to do with a tape-recorded message of the leader of an international terrorist network? Is O’Brien suggesting that bin-Ladin ordered Hilaly to mention the cartoons in his sermon? Is she suggesting Hilaly determines the content of his sermons by listening to bin-Ladin tapes?

Or is Natalie O’Brien engaging in the kind of journalism more befitting of the New York Post?

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

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MEDIA: The Tele does its own racial profiling ...

2008-01-16T18:25:00.000-08:00

News Limited’s Sydney tabloid Daily Telegraph today published a story about a man who appeared in court yesterday, facing “15 charges, including having a firearm in a public place”. Among the weapons found by police were a loaded pistol, a tazer, and a Russian semi-automatic. He had been sentenced once before for similar crimes and was refused bail.

I’d seen plenty such defendants during my days as a Western Sydney Local Court hack during th 1990’s. This case should have been no different. But for the Tele, this case was different.

The headline of the article was “Man named Jihad caught driving with loaded gun, tazer”. Six out of 11 paragraphs mentioned the accused’s surname Jihad.

Yet neither the police nor prosecutors nor the magistrate raised any racial or ethno-religious issue during the hearing. It seems only the Tele has racially profiled this accused. It’s a wonder their reporter didn’t quote the accused telling the Magistrate: “Derka Derja, Muhammad Jihad”.

The story comes just days after a racist diatribe from senior columnist Piers Akerman who claimed Muslims in Sydney and Melbourne were “shutting themselves in closed societies and demanding immunity from criticism”.

In Akerman’s world, Muslims are locked up, never appearing in public on Sydney Road in Brunswick or Auburn Road in Auburn. Those funny looking people with beards on their faces and/or tea towels on their heads are just top gun actors recruited by Team America.

Akerman’s 430-plus blog comments (amongst them far-Right bloggers and activists like this clown) echoed his Team America worldview, blaming all the world’s ills on Muslims.

We can laugh all we want. But the fact that this kind of racist diatribe is allowed to be published so brazenly in the most popular newspaper of our nation’s most populous city should make us very worried. Either that, or our friends at the Tele just aren’t getting any. Perhaps they need to take the example of Gary from Team America, using pages of their newspaper to remove any carpet stains.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

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CRIKEY: Tele sets up another “Muslim-bashing exercise”

2007-10-04T20:10:00.000-07:00

Well, it was another slow-news day at the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday 2 October 2007. But you can always rely on your trusted Tele reporters to manufacture news when none is available.

“Schools used for Shady purpose” was the headline of one such story. I’m not sure what kind of piersed akumen would come up with a headline poking fun at someone’s name. The photo of Sheik Shady Soliman showed him in the dangerous position of ... wait for it ... talking on a mobile phone! Perhaps Dr Haneef must have lent him a SIM card.

The reporter in question, Claire Masters, then plagiarises key material of her report from a similar story published by Richard Kerbaj in The Oz from May 9. That’s 6 months ago!

Masters writes ...

In a lecture titled Rulings on Performing Jihad Sheik Shady said while the Prophet condemned the killing of children, "if they are involved (in fighting) then you have to stop them".

Here is Kerbaj's version ...

In a lecture titled Rulings on Performing Jihad, obtained by The Australian, Sheik Shady differentiates between defensive and offensive jihad and quotes the Prophet by saying anyone
who fights to defend their land, soul, and wealth was considered a "Shahid" (martyr). "If attackers or invaders want to invade a Muslim country or attack a Muslim country then it's obligatory on every Muslim ... to fight and protect the country," he says.

Sheik Shady says while the Prophet condemned the killing of children, "if they are involved then you have to stop them".

"If you have a child carrying a knife and coming to you, or a sword and coming to kill you in the middle of the battle, they (the fighters) are going to look at him and say 'the Prophet said not to
touch him' - no, that's wrong."

Kerbaj at least provided the entire quote from Shady, from which one can gauge part of the historical and theological context. He also mentions that the lecture in question was delivered in 2002. Masters didn’t mention any of this. Funny that.

And if radical Sheiks aren’t enough to have you shaking in your thongs, Edith Bevin has a story on why Sydney icon Harry’s Cafe de Wheels refuses to use halal meat in its gorgeous meat pies.

But nowhere in the report does the owner, Michael Hannah, limit his comments to halal. Hannah in fact refers to both Islamic halal and Jewish kosher meat. In other words, Hannah has made a business decision not to use meat that satisfies the religious requirements of either faith.

Still, that doesn’t stop many Muslims (and I presume Jews also) from eating there. A few months back, I enjoyed a meat pie and hot dog at the Liverpool branch with a local mosque president.

Muslim scriptures allow Muslims to eat meat (apart from pig meat) slaughtered and prepared by “People of the Book” (ie. Jews and Christians). Many Western imams interpret this to mean that any and all meat sold at the supermarkets and butcher shops of Western countries is halal by default. In other words, specific slaughtering procedure isn’t required. Naturally, this position isn’t very popular with halal butchers and halal certification agencies.

Michael Hannah told Crikey on Wednesday that on Monday afternoon he’d received a phone call from someone at the Tele who asked him a number of questions before slipping in words to the effect of: “We were wondering whether you use halal meat”. He was surprised at the question as neither he nor any of his staff had never initiated any such discussion nor issued any press release. He specifically told the reporter that he catered for neither halal nor kosher and that he didn’t want to discriminate against anyone. He also told her that he had never received any requests for halal meat from his many Muslim customers.

Hannah told Crikey that he was disgusted to read the story in the paper the next day. He described it as a “set-up”. He told Crikey he had no intention of being part of a “Muslim-bashing exercise”.

So there you have it. When news doesn’t exist, the Tele literally makes it up. Tele reporters are quite happy to plagiarise, misquote, lie and verbal others to manufacture sectarian and racial wedges where none exist. Gutter journalism at its lowest.

My advice to Sydney readers is this: Go out and enjoy a delicious meat pie from Harry’s. And when the remnants of the pie emerge from the other end, wipe using a copy of the Tele.

This is an expanded ersion of a piece first published in the Crikey daily alert for Wednesday 3 October 2007.

© Irfan Yusuf 2007

A picture tells a thousand words ...

2007-08-07T00:49:00.000-07:00

Today I can honestly say that the News Limited media have done Muslims a huge favour. Both The Australian and Daily Telegraph have blown the cover on a rort involving the Islamic Council of NSW and its community housing program.

I guess the papers can't get it right all thee time. I found it rather disturning that the Daily Telegraph's website carried the headlines of "Muslim refugee housing scandal" and "Muslim refugee housing 'rort' probed".

The problem was that the illustration accompanying the article was the one to the left of this paragraph. I mean, what on earth does a woman wearing a face veil have to do with a housing scandal? Yes, it does involve Muslims. But how did women get involved? After all, the two people at the heart of the scandal are men, not women. Why bring the small minority of Muslim women who wear face veils into the picture? What have rthey got to do with the scandal?

I'm not sure who the online editor of the Tele is these days. The last fellow I spoke to some time ago when i did a blog for the tele was a decent sort of chap. But this kind of silly stereotyping should be left to Fleet Street.

And as usual, the comments are of the sort you'd expect at Tim Blair's blog (minus the threats of violence and swearing). Here's the first one ...

Another Left-Wing Labor failed Initiative. Why have an organization looking after Muslims only? Why not all Australians? Another racist left-wing pc effort gone wrong!

Yep, nothing like racists accusing their victims of racism! Welcome to tabloid land!!

COMMENT: Is John Howard linked to al-Qaeda?

2007-07-05T07:33:00.000-07:00

Sydney readers beware! Osama bin Ladin's minions is on the prowl, seeking recuits for his grand jihad.

The Herald-Sun reports of ...

... a weekend recruitment drive by Muslim extremists espousing the teachings of Osama bin Laden.

The Hun also provides this amazing insight into the workings of anti-terrorist agencies:

Terrorist recruitment tactics have been in the spotlight since eight young professionals were arrested over the latest wave of UK bombings.

So until that thankfully-incompetent chap was found burning and screaming "Allah" at Glasgow, no one in the intelligence community bothered about how terrorist groups and cells recruit members.I can just imagine ASIO chief Paul O'Sullivan telling his researchers and operatives: "OK, fellas. I've just read in the Hun that a bomb's gone off. Let's find out how these people recuit!".

And what sophisticated methods are used by al-Qaeda to recruit in South Western Sydney? The Hun offers this insight:

Flyers for the event, the Islam Mercy to the Worlds Conference, have been dropped in cafes and restaurants around Sydney's southwest.

Mick Keelty had better send some of his blokes down to some of these places to watch these well-trained operatives in action.

With so much exclusive information, why would the Hun need to contact the organisers?

Conference organisers did not return the Herald Sun's calls last night.

I wonder why.

So what links these loud-mouthed and irrelevant imams to al-Qaeda? The Hun says they are ...

... devoted to bin Laden's poisonous brand of Islam, Wahhabism.

Wahhabism also happens to be the official religion of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is also the sect followed and promoted by one of Mr Howard's closest friends in Aussie Muslim circles. The Hun article refers to the young Sydney graduate Kamal Taleb who

... returned to Australia after 15 years in a Saudi Arabian seminary devoted to fundamentalism.

I know Taleb personally. He studied at the Islamic University of Madina in Saudi Arabia. Mr Howard's friend facilitated Taleb's enrolment and even wrote him a reference.

I guess, using the Hun's logic, John Howard is directly linked to al-Qaeda. So am I. And because you are reading this article, so are you!

I'm no fan of Wahhabism. But seriously, to claim all Wahhabis are linked to OBL is as lame as suggesting all Irish Catholics were and are linked to Sinn Fein. Or suggesting all Tamils are linked to the LTTE.

© Irfan Yusuf 2007

CRIKEY: The Oz – Always alarmed but rarely alert?

2007-07-02T01:18:00.000-07:00

Today’s front cover of The Australian has a story splashed about a “Home-grown jihad threat”. The story is then referred to in The Oz’s editorial entitled “Vigilance alone will not win this war”.

Both the editorial and the story cite the arrest of a number of Australians by Lebanese authorities for being involved in terrorist activity. The same article and editorial then cite as an authority on radical Muslim youth a young chap who is associated with another Islamist group (known as the al-Ahbash) whose representatives have been arrested in Lebanon in relation to the assassination of Rafik Hariri.

That isn’t all. The Oz claims that Mustapha Kara-Ali ...

... was given a $200,000 grant by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship in June last year.

This is absolute nonsense, and the journalists who wrote the story know it. In fact, Mr Kara-Ali is not the recipient of a single cent of government funding.

This is amateur and sloppy journalism most unbecoming of a national broadsheet. Surely the journalist has an obligation not to just repeat what his source tells him. Surely where the information can be independently verified, the journalist can check the facts.

All Richard Kerbaj et al had to do was look up the website of DIAC and see for themselves that Kara-Ali hasn’t received any money. Further, the grant was actually awarded to al-Amanah College, an independent school run by the Lebanese al-Ahbash sect. The amount awarded was not $200,000 but rather $157,866.

Kerbaj then faithfully reports Kara-Ali’s outlandish claims about “ideological sleeper cells” representing some 3,000 Sunni Muslim youth. No indication is given of how that figure is calculated, what research methodology was used, what criteria were used to determine whether a young person has become radicalised and which ethnic groups are involved in the research.

Most tellingly, Kerbaj doesn’t bother to ascertain whether Kara-Ali is qualified to make such alarmist statements or to carry out such research.

(It’s interesting to note that Kara-Ali’s qualifications are predominantly in engineering. He has no social science, sociology, demography or anthropology qualifications whatsoever.)

Kerbaj doesn’t question Kara-Ali’s statement that

... the Muslim community in Australia is still new.

How can this be when the current Mufti appointed by the Australian National Imams’ Council has lived in Australia since the early 1950’s? And isn’t Kerbaj aware of Albanian and Bosnian (formerly Yugoslav) Muslims who have lived in Australia since the 1920’s?

All in all, it is sloppy journalism, written and presented with a view of supporting a clear editorial slant on these issues.

A version of this was first published in the Crikey daily alert for Monday July 02, 2007.

© Irfan Yusuf 2007

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COMMENT: The Daily Telegraph struggles to retaliate ...

2007-06-25T02:12:00.000-07:00

Poor Luke McIlveen from the Daily Telegraph today claims to have exposed ABCTV's Media Watch

... fighting claims of hypocrisy after its website published anti-Semitic comments mocking the Holocaust and claiming a Jewish conspiracy.

McIlveen says the offending comments were placed on the MW forums the day after the episode which castigated the Tele (and, to a lesser extent, the Sydney Morning Herald) for moderating and allowing racist and inflammatory comments on its blog.

It took McIlveen an entire 7 days to discover the comments. By that time, as McIlveen’s Opinion Editor Tim Blair notes on his personal blog, the comments have already been removed. Blair himself first published the comments on his blog on 18 June 2007.

I’m not exactly sure where the hypocrisy on MW’s part is. It’s not as if anyone at MW is suggesting that such views should be aired because they are “held by many Australians, especially in Sydney ”. Nor does anyone at MW suggest that only persons with “bourgeois sensibilities” insist the law be obeyed.

The anti-Jewish comments are appalling. But then, McIlveen quotes MW’s executive producer Tim Palmer saying “the posts remained on the website for a ‘few minutes’ before being taken down” (this is confirmed by Blair’s blog). Further, the removed comments don’t talk about turning Jews into compost or vilifying them for the colour of their skin or other physical features.
Tim Blair wasn’t a happy camper on Tuesday night, after MW was broadcast. Those commenting on his blog were complaining about their posts on MW’s forums not being published. Perhaps the reason for this is that Palmer believed (with good reason) that in fact the comments were posted by Tim’s blog fan club.

As if to underscore the amount of pain the MW expose has caused him, Blair made a highly personal attack on Tim Palmer. However, Blair’s attack on Palmer was nothing compared to his highly defamatory references to an up and coming Australian children’s author.

McIlveen goes to all this trouble to castigate the kinds of comments that his own editor would happily allow to be moderated on his blogs. Clearly, on the Tele’s past of the blogosphere, racism is only wrong when it’s against indigenous people or anyone deemed Muslim.

The Tele’s editorial asks:

Perhaps its opposed to the vilification of Arabs, but has no problem with the harassment of Jews.

The author of that editorial should read the blog of the Tele’s Opinion Editor and ask whether vice versa is true.

© Irfan Yusuf 2007

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COMMENT: Loewenstein's novel?

2007-06-09T20:20:00.000-07:00

An article on the Australian Jewish News website talks about Melbourne University Press publisher Louise Adler in rather non-complimentary terms.

Adler is one of a number of prominent Jews who has signed a petition saying she refuses to defend anything and everything the Israeli government or armed forces does. This naturally makes her unpopular in some Jewish circles.

Yet the real source of wrath toward Adler can be found here ...

Adler has been criticised in the past for publishing Antony Loewenstein’s anti-Zionist novel, My Israel Question. (emphasis mine)

COMMENT: Reporting on Malaysian Politics

2007-06-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

Last June, I found myself in Malaysia on an exchange program organised by the Australia-Malaysia Institute. Our program was managed by staff at the Australian High Commission.

Ours was one of a number of programs organised by AMI. Another program is organised specially for journalists. Someone associated with the journalists’ tour told me something very interesting about the attitudes of some Australian journalists. Here is what that officer told me, more or less …

I was with a group of other journalists to Kelantan state, which is currently ruled by the PAS Party [the Islamic Party of Malaysia]. They met with PAS officials and also with a group of non-Muslim PAS supporters called the PAS Supporters’ Club.

I was shocked by the behaviour of a number of the journos. One couldn’t believe how any non-Muslim could even consider supporting for PAS. He kept badgering a PAS supporter about the dangers of sharia law and how they could honestly accept status as second class citizens. Each time the PAS supporters explained why they supported PAS, this journalist would shake his head and say things like: “You must be brainwashed” and “How much are they paying you?”

A few weeks ago, I dined with a group of Malaysian journalists who were visiting Australia on an AMI exchange program. One was of Indian Catholic background from Kelantan. I asked him about PAS and non-Muslims. The journo told me about his father.

My dad is on the executive of our parish council. Before approaching PAS, he had been waiting for 8 years to get our church extensions approved. UMNO were in charge of planning in our state at that time. They kept making promises but my favour could never get anywhere with them.

Then PAS came into power. My father told his committee he wanted to approach the new Chief Minister. The committee told him to try but not to expect too much as this was an Islamic fundamentalist party and they would probably try and shut down the church.

My father approached the Chief Minister and told him about the problems he was having with the church extensions. The Minister listened careful, shook his head and apologised to my father.

“This is terrible. You have every right to worship, and we have no right to stop you. Let me see what I can do. We are all believers in God, and no believer in God should stop another believer from building a house for God.”

Within a week, we received confirmation of planning approval. My father was surprised. Later, he found out from Hindu friends of his that their contested temple approvals were also granted.

PAS and UMNO both compete for the Muslim vote. But UMNO shows its Islamic face by Malay chauvinism and making life difficult for non-Muslims. PAS shows their Islam by helping all religious people.

You won’t believe this, but the PAS Chief Minister comes to our special Mass services as much as he can. He also visits the opening of Hindu temples.

How can one explain this? Is PAS just making hard-headed political decisions? Are they being pragmatic? Quite possibly, yes. But this is the power of democratic government. Short of ethnic and religious cleansing, democratically elected governments have little or no choice but to ensure they seek and maintain support from as many sectors of the community as possible.

The problem with some Western journos and commentators is that they believe democracy doesn’t have enough strength to reign in religious parties. Others used their own sectarian prejudices to argue that anything even remotely resembling Islam can never sit comfortably with democracy.

Aussie journos and commentators reporting on Malaysian politics need to read more widely and think outside the square. Subscribing to news portals like Malaysiakini.com is a good start. Getting to know and understand the ethnic and religious landscape of the country is another. But whilst Aussie journos continue presuming that any group or party related to Islam is little more than an outlet of al-Qaeda or part of some international conspiracy to destroy the West, they really won’t get far.

© Irfan Yusuf 2007

COMMENT: What the halal?

2007-05-29T23:29:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in a McDonalds store in Drummoyne munching on a fillet-o-fish the other day when I decided it was time to insult my intelligence. I grabbed a copy of the Daily Telegraph and came across a report by Luke McIlveen that former Guantanamo inmate Mamdouh Habib had been apprehended by police at another McDonalds store in Bankstown .

McIlveen quoted police sources on the reasons for arrest. He also quoted a staff member at the McDonalds. McIlveen then inserted the following piece of information:

McDonald's outlets in the area are certified providers of halal food, catering for the large Muslim population.

What the ... ? What was the relevance of that to the story? Did Habib get arrested for having bacon on his otherwise halal burger? Were the police officers upset because he should have been at the mosque saying his afternoon prayers? Did the slaughtered cow from Habib's hamburger resurrect itself and complain to the police about its flesh being eaten by a former terrorism suspect?

Perhaps McDonalds stores keep the Tele to remind patrons that there is one thing in their stores containing more superfluous fat than their burgers ...

© Irfan Yusuf 2007