MEDIA: Getting cross over the cross ...

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.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf


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MEDIA: Piers Akerman declares the Pope a fearmongering disbeliever?

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

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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MEDIA: Tabloid Christmas distortions

Today’s Daily Telegraph takes its readers on an 11-paragraph journey to the Palestinian town of Beyt Lahm, the name meaning literally “house of lamb”. Entitled “Jesus’ birthplace under siege”, the editorial refers to the dwindling Palestinian population, not to mention a severe reduction in tourism.

The article speaks of

... reports of religious persecution, in the form of murders, beatings and land grabs ...

And who caused all this trouble?

The DT points the finger in one direction. Subsequent paragraphs speak of ...

... [t]he sense of a creeping Islamic fundamentalism.

This is evidenced by a ...

... mosque on one side of Manger Square … directly opposite the Greek Orthodox
and Roman Catholic churches.

And for how many centuries has this mosque been standing there?

Then there are references to shops selling Christian souvenirs having

... their shutters painted a sun-bleached green – the colour of Islam.

Try telling that to Shia Muslims in the Indian sub-Continent who regard black as the colour of their faith.

Finally, the editorial refers to

... a baubled Christmas tree in reception and a card showing the direction of Mecca in the rooms.

Hotels across the Middle East and Asia carry such cards. This is no more a sign of creeping fundamentalism than Gideons bibles in hotel rooms across the world (including nominally Muslim countries) is a sign of creeping Christian extremism. Observant Christians read the Bible. Observant Muslims pray to Mecca at various times. So what?

In the simpleton tabloid world of the Tele, can all world conflicts (including ones that don’t quite exist) only be explained as a giant crusade? And how does the Tele explain the fact that Bethlehemites (Christian and Muslim) themselves prefer to point to another entity as the cause of their suffering?

Was it Muslims who have been building a concrete wall separating Rachel’s tomb from the rest of the town, leading to the closure of 70-80 businesses?

Of course, no one can deny that a minority of crazy Muslims were burning churches in response to a recent speech by the Pope. Still, the last time Bethlehem’s mayor met with the Pope, it was to discuss the giant wall.

So who could have come up with such a distorted view of Bethlehem? The answer might be found here.

Words © 2006 Irfan Yusuf


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