Anti-Muslim violence reaching into Australia
ZENIT (23.09.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (01.10.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The Islamic community called for regular police patrols of Muslim buildings and schools across Australia after a Brisbane mosque was destroyed by fire, the Age newspaper of Melbourne reported.
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie personally visited the burnt-out mosque at Kuraby, on Brisbane's southside, to call for religious tolerance.
"I went personally as a clear signal that I expect tolerance and that we will not accept acts of violence of this kind," Beattie said Saturday. "The Australian way is a fair way. This is un-Australian."
A Muslim taxi driver alerted fire officers to the suspected arson attack on the timber and iron building just after 3 a.m. local time. Authorities were investigating the blaze.
Queensland Fire and Rescue Authority area director Tim Beckett said identifying the cause was expected to take some time because of the amount of damage and the political ramifications "if they make a wrong call."
The latest incident is one of a number involving Queensland mosques and schools since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, believed to have been carried out by Muslim extremists.
Queensland's Anti-Discrimination Commission has received reports of an Islamic student bus being stoned shortly after the U.S. attacks.
A mosque in Holland Park, on Brisbane's southside, was firebombed a week ago but not seriously damaged.
Amjad Mehboob, chief executive officer of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, said security arrangements at the Holland Park mosque and another at Darra, also on the city's southside, had foiled apparent plans for more attacks there late last night.
"I'm told police have registration numbers of some cars that apparently pulled up at the mosques," he said. "When they realized there were people there, they drove away quickly."
Mehboob said the Islamic community would ask state premiers throughout Australia for regular police patrols of mosques and Islamic schools in light of the Kuraby incident.
Mehboob added he was surprised the Muslim community in Brisbane seemed to have been particularly targeted since the U.S. attacks, given it was much smaller than those in other capital cities. "It's not very prominent," he said. "It's a very harmonious community."
Mosque firebombed in Australia
CNN (14.09.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (14.09.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A mosque was firebombed in Australia overnight as race hate against Muslims simmered in the aftermath of the deadly attacks on New York and Washington, police said on Friday.
Police in the eastern state of Queensland said two Molotov cocktails were thrown at the mosque in the city of Brisbane but there were no injuries and only minor damage.
Police were looking for a male caucasian who was seen in a car outside the mosque at the time.
Australian church leaders have appealed for tolerance after suspicions hardened that Tuesday's terror attacks in the United States may have been planned by exiled Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden, currently sheltered by Afghanistan's hardline Taliban.
Local Islamic groups have reported that a bus full of Muslim schoolchildren was stoned in Melbourne, a mosque was smeared with faeces in Western Australia, Muslim women have had their veils ripped off and anti-Arab graffiti is appearing.
Australian Muslims also came under attack during the Gulf War in 1991 and in the immediate aftermath of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Chairman of the Community Relations Commission in New South Wales Stepan Kerkyasharian said the commission condemned all such acts of violence.
"The tragic and inhuman acts in the U.S. should not be used as an excuse to wrongly accuse, vilify and damage the properties of Australians on the basis of their religions," he told CNN.
He said the commission had set up a hotline for Australians to report acts of vilification following the terrorist actions which had "been running hot".
He said they had reports of people chasing Muslims in cars, abusing them and spitting on them.
Members of Australia's Sikh community -- whose males traditionally wear a turban -- had also been verbally abused, assaulted and spat upon.
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock on Friday urged Australians not to make scapegoats of the innocent.
"This is un-Australian and denies people a fair go," Ruddock said in a statement.
But the government has also joined in to some extent in the vilification, using the levelling of New York's World Trade Center after hijacked planes were ploughed into its twin towers as justification for its hardline stance against boat people.
The government has turned away four boatloads of mainly Afghan and Middle Eastern asylum seekers since the end of August, and on Thursday senior ministers, including Ruddock, warned that illegal immigration could become a "pipeline for terrorists."
Controversy in Australia
over the Racial and Religious Tolerance Bill
What does it mean for Christians?
ANS (19.04.2001) HRWF International Secretariat (20.04.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Last December the Victorian government in Australia launched a Racial and Religious Tolerance Discussion Paper and Model Bill.
This Bill, if enacted, would implement laws not only outlawing racial and religious hatred and intolerance but also make it an offence to insult or seriously offend another person. Worse still, intent is not a defense!
The church of the New Testament is founded on evangelism. This proposed Bill strikes at the very heart of that foundation.
It states that "People are entitled to have their own religious belief, or have no belief at all." This could mean that anyone who witnesses to others could be accused of being discriminatory against, or imposing on, that person's belief or non belief. To suggest that "Jesus is the only way to God" could easily insult or offend many people.
The government asked for public comment and submissions had to submitted by February 28 2001.
Our campaign was to totally oppose the total on the grounds that any curtailment of free speech in Australia was totally unwarranted. We also knew that the homosexual lobby was campaigning for such a bill to include sexuality so as to stop Christians speaking against legislation to normalize their lifestyle.
It is now evident that some submissions from Christians may have actually brought the restriction of freedom to evangelize in Australia closer than when the government introduced the paper last December.
Why? Because although many lay people have been strongly opposing the total bill, some church groups and denominational leaders have taken the "soft option" by giving a compromise response - an acceptance of the main thrust of the Paper, even though many had "serious reservations" about various parts of it - and asked for an exemption for genuine religious activity. The government and the media have seized on these responses and used them to suggest there is general support for the legislation. The Government now believes that a little "tinkering around the edges" is all that is necessary to bring this proposal into law.
To a large degree these ill-conceived responses were due to two main factors: The first was a lack of political awareness, otherwise known as political naivety. The second, and probably the main reason, was "political correctness". The desire to be seen as opposed to "vilification"* and in support of "human rights"** especially toward politically "sensitive" groups. This led them to completely overlook the fact that the Paper, even in a revised form, would be an invasion of free speech and could restrict a wide range of evangelism opportunities.
To truly understand the issues involved we need to understand what constitutes vilification.
*The true meaning of the word "vilification" today is connected very closely with "tolerance." To be "tolerant" is to see nothing as intrinsically "wrong" - to vilify is to SAY something is wrong, which is therefore intolerant and must be controlled.
The philosophy behind this type of legislation is that if we cannot control free speech with "political correctness" - which was largely working during the Hawke and Keating years but later blasted out of the water by Mr. Howard (the present Prime Minister) - we then have to resort to legal controls, backed up by criminal sanctions. Except of course for the intelligentsia, the media and the arts, who get an exemption. Human Rights
** Human Rights are similar to the above. We all have a "right" based on our own "understanding" and cannot impose our "judgment" on another's "faith perspective" or "lifestyle" - This is very humanistic and comes directly from the United Nations.
Once we understand the above we can see that what we are dealing with here are human "rights" v God's law.
The theory is that because God is not real there is no such thing as truth. Therefore our "faith perspective" or "moral" standard is just one among many - how then, can Christians say there is only one way to God or that a particular lifestyle is wrong?
The trap was set, the right language was used, and many Churches and denominational leaders walked straight into it. Some did this knowingly because they already put "human rights" before Biblical truth. Others simply acted on advice without doing any homework or background research. Where to from here? Christians must now try to retrieve the ground lost. Lay people and true evangelical Pastors must start educating those who should know better. It's time for those who put God before man, those Christians who still believe
that every word of Scripture is literally true, to challenge those of the traditional church/denominational leadership who are compromising with this truth.
It's time to take back the church from the politically correct, liberal intelligencia and be prepared, if necessary, go to jail for our faith. We in Australia need your prayers, as do many western countries where such laws are being proposed.
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