Last week a lot of us were talking about the Essential poll which showed that 49% of Australians wanted a ban on Muslim immigration1http://www.essentialvision.com.au. Like many, I assumed that the reason was the association of Islam with terrorism in popular thinking, but a closer look at the...
Why Pauline Hanson is Wrong. Muslims in Australia
Pauline Hanson and One Nation are back, attracting 4.1% of Senate votes in the recent federal election. A key plank of the One Nation platform is a halt to Muslim immigration, a Royal Commission into Islam, a ban on women’s head coverings and a ban on halal product certification. So what are...
Time to Tell the Positive Stories About Muslims
I have a friend who is a pastor in one of the most fundamentally Islamic parts of Indonesia. A few years back he was in Australia for a conference when news broke of an outbreak of violence against Christians in his hometown. Churches were being burned to the ground and an angry mob was bent on...
Is Islam inherently violent?
I don’t want to live in a tolerant society
Fear of the other has always marked human society. In response to this I frequently hear calls for us to be “tolerant” of those who are different. I don’t think tolerance is capable of overcoming fear. To tolerate something suggests that it is distasteful, that I’ll keep...
Why I Support Halal Certification
For some time I have heard assertions that fees paid for halal certification on food are being used to fund terrorism. The ABC recently ran a fact check that exposed this as untrue. Muslim diets require that certain foods be prepared in certain ways. Halal certification identifies food products...
Aussie Jihadists, the KKK, and Bikie’s
“How can I know I’ll be safe when I’m walking down the street?” asked a young woman on last night’s Q and A program. She was referring to radicalised Islamic young men who had had their passports cancelled in order to prevent them going to fight with ISIS. Her...
A time to stand shoulder to shoulder with Australian Muslims
The great environmentalist David Suzuki has spoken of the shame he experienced when as a Canadian of Japanese descent, he and his family were incarcerated in their homeland during WWII. Being of Japanese heritage they were viewed with suspicion, so untrustworthy they had to be locked up. This...