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

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 ...

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

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

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