CCN welcomes all the returning Hajis and Hajianis back from their pilgrimage from Mecca and Medina.

 

The CresWalk bags, given to participants this year, also appear to have survived the journey.

 

 

 

Photos from Facebook page

 

Kuraby Mosque held the first of its three Saturday afternoon Open Days yesterday (Saturday).   Visitors were taken on guided tours of the Mosque facilities and given demonstrations of Islamic practices.   Larger turnouts are expected on Saturday 18th and 25th.   BREAKING NEWS: Join 4BC as it broadcasts LIVE from the Kuraby Mosque on Monday (13 October) morning from 5.30am to 8am. They will open up the show to talkback - asking listeners to 'ring in with any questions you may have on Islam and always wanted to know the answers!' Brisbane Times will be there live blogging the program as well as the Quest newspapers.

 

Yassmin Abdel-Magied is an inspiring young woman, blogger and mechanical engineer who was named Young Queenslander of the Year in 2010 and just nominated as a finalist for Queensland Young Australian of the Year in 2015.

 

23-year-old Ms Abdel-Magied was born in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan and graduated as a valedictorian at the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (First Class Honours).

“I fell in love with cars when I was about 13, and that’s kind of how I ended up in engineering.

“I knew I wanted to make a tangible impact on the world.”

She disputed the idea that her generation were “slacktivists” and said although “liking a post on Facebook” or “retweeting something” may not necessarily change things, social media has unlocked a world of awareness.

“What social media has done, has enabled us to reach so many people, huge numbers of people and raise awareness about issues on a scale we’ve never been able to before.

When asked whether politics interested Ms Abdel-Magied, she said the younger generation’s interest in politics is waning.

“I don’t think the political space is very inspiring for young people at the moment.

“I know a lot of amazing, motivated young people and we find, by and large, the political community quite jading in a way.

“What happens around that, we will see.”

 

Listen to Yassmin on 4BC:
 

 

 

Source: Radio 4BC

Queensland Muslim groups want increased penalties for hate crimes linked to the introduction of national security legislation.

 

The Queensland Muslim community has called for a lower threshold for arrest and increased penalties for people convicted of hate crimes that can be linked to the introduction of national security legislation.


A submission to a parliamentary committee endorsed by a large number of groups and individuals underlines how the current debate has inflamed racial and religious tension, with Muslims the main target.

As Australian Muslims celebrated the festival of Eid al-Adha over the weekend, community leaders gathered widespread support for the submission, which calls for increased penalties to offset the effects of the foreign fighters bill. It was signed by more than 650 people or organisations, including the Islamic Council of Queensland and the Council of Imams of Queensland.

“The groups of people who may be specifically impacted by these counter-terrorism proposals are currently likely to be Muslims and Russians/Ukrainians given the crisis in the Middle East and Russia/Ukraine respectively,” the submission says.

“This may be a different group in future generations. It is noted that while the government has gone to some length to show that the proposed laws are not targeting the Muslim community, the Murdoch press and other Australian media outlets have focused very strongly on Muslim groups and individuals.”

The joint committee on intelligence and security (JCIS) is examining the second tranche of national security legislation, commonly known as the foreign fighters bill.

Muslim communities were heartened to hear during talks with the attorney general, George Brandis, that the public would have a chance to comment on the foreign fighters bill. But as a result of the government’s insistence on debating the bill from 20 October, there have been only six working days for the public to make submissions, which were due by Friday.

As a result, only 11 submissions have been lodged on the parliamentary website and more than half are from government agencies or departments. They include one each from the attorney general’s own department, the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (Asio), the inspector general of intelligence and security, the Australian human rights commission, the Australian crime commission and the commonwealth ombudsman.

The Queensland community submission, obtained by Guardian Australia, appears to be one of only two submission representing the Muslim and wider community. The Queensland community leaders received an extension of time to submit on Monday.

The other submission by Australian Muslim Advocates for the Rights of All Humanity (Amarah) describes “serious concerns that these laws may infringe on an individual’s human rights, civil liberties and freedom”.

“We write to you with serious concerns regarding the potential violations of human and civil rights and the ramifications that this may have on the community by way of targeted profiling,” the submission says.

“We are perplexed to understand as to why the existing legislation, which are comprehensive enough are being introduced when the various state and federal police commissioners have repeatedly stated that there is no imminent threat to Australians in Australia.”

The Queensland submission takes issue with many sections of the foreign fighters bill.

It opposes outright the offence of entering a “declared area”, which would prohibit travel to conflict zones declared by the foreign minister. It calls for reductions in the proposed powers of custom detention times and the proposed 10-year sunset provisions on laws like preventative detention.

In its recommendations to combat race hate, the submission urges amendments to relevant legislation to “lower the threshold for arrest and increase the severity of punishment for criminals convicted of hate crimes and/or racial discrimination that:

“a) is either partially or wholly targeted at groups of people who may be specifically impacted by these counterterrorism proposals; or

“b) may be reasonably considered to have been influenced either partially or wholly by the introduction of these counterterrorism proposals.”

If an area is declared the signatories call on the government to declare the groups of people who may be specifically impacted at the time, so that it may be used in any future prosecutions in racial discrimination cases.

The president of Islamic Council of Queensland, Mohammed Yusuf, said the aim behind the recommendation on tighter race hate laws was to send a clear message from government that hate crimes were unacceptable at a time when there has been an increased incidence of attacks on Muslims, particularly women.

“We would like a clear message sent out that hate crimes are not OK and we would like to see stricter enforcement of the current laws,” Yusuf said. “Labelling a declared area is likely to influence public opinion on people from that area. This request would offer a little bit of balance.”

Notwithstanding its complete opposition to declared areas, the Queensland Muslim community wants to see greater clarification around how people prove their “bona fide travel” to family members in conflict zones and also details around the definition of family members.

“The current proposal is a significant restriction on a person’s civil rights, is disproportionate given the number of people it is likely to affect and implies that all non-family members in a declared area are terrorists in some form or another,” the submission says.

“It is ironic that such categories may include victims of terrorism activities or family members of victims who require moral and physical support from both friends and family.”

Yusuf said a plausible scenario that may arise where a friend of an Australian citizen living in a declared area may have lost a family member to a terrorism related activity.

“The proposed law appears to make visiting that friend a criminal offence for the Australian citizen,” he said.

The Queensland submission raises 12 “previously submitted queries (yet to be answered)” – a reference to meetings between Brandis and the the Islamic community on 17 September.

It says consideration should be given to procedural fairness, evidentiary requirements, “the erosion of citizens rights” and freedom of expression.

The joint committee is expected to report its findings to the parliament on 17 October, before a parliamentary debate beginning 20 October.
 

Source: The Guardian

 

---

 

Over 820 Brisbane community members signed a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security for the parliamentary inquiry in relation to the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fighters) Bill 2014.   The submission was made on the 6th of October.   The submission has the largest number of signatories out of the 43 submissions received by the Committee.   The number of submissions received was limited due to the Federal Government only allowing a period of 6 working days for submissions to be made.   The signatories included the Islamic Council of Queensland, Council of Imams Queensland, Queensland Association of Independent Legal Services, and 818 individuals.   The full submission is set out here.

The Walk Together Brisbane venue has now been confirmed.

 

START: Supreme Court Plaza in George St Brisbane CBD at 1pm
 

FINISH: Kurilpa Point Park West End

The route will take in the Kurilpa Bridge (pictured below).

 

Sign up to the Brisbane event via Facebook.

Anyone wishing to assist by volunteering, or wanting to take advantage of a bargain sponsorship opportunity can email brad@welcometoaustralia.org.au or fahimkhondaker@gmail.com for more information.

Further details are available here.

AMAL Khalaf, like almost everyone else on the streets of Belmore in Sydney’s west yesterday, had one thing on her mind — tomorrow night’s NRL grand final, and sending good vibes to her beloved Canterbury Bulldogs.

And in Belmore, one of the most ethnically diverse suburbs in the nation, the long tradition of Australian sport being a community adhesive was on full show.

Ms Khalaf, whose dry-cleaning store cleans the jerseys for every Bulldogs player, says her team knows no race, religion or skin ­colour.

“We are Greeks, Lebos, anyone, we’re all the same,” said Ms Khalaf, who emigrated to Australia from Lebanon more than 20 years ago. “We’re all Bulldogs.”

Monash University academic Nasya Bahfen, who has published works examining the relationship between football and the Muslim community, notes western Sydney is both the national heartland of NRL and of Islam.
“I really hate the word ‘immigration’ but sport helps with that, sport is a solid way to find common ground,” Ms Bahfen said, speaking from Mecca where she was taking part in the annual Muslim Hajj pilgrimage.

“Involvement in a spectator sport helps people become part of us, or part of Australian society, because sport is like a religion in this country.

“A third of Muslims in Australia were born here, but for those ... who moved here, they’ll quickly discover the most important thing after settling into a city is to pick a team.

“In Melbourne they’ll be asked to pick an AFL team, in Sydney rugby league.”

Like many teams, the fan base of the Belmore-based Canterbury Bulldogs is shifting with demographic trends and its Muslim support has grown steadily.

Part of this was due to increasing population and partly because Muslims tended to have large families, Ms Bahfen said.

“As western Sydney’s population grows, including its Muslim population, the fan base tends to grow,” she said. “It’s almost a given if you’re Muslim and live in Lakemba and Punchbowl you’ll be a Bulldogs fan.”

Long-time ambassador for the NRL, league great Hazem El Masri, a Lebanese-Australian Muslim, had also had a strong positive impact on the game by ­attracting young Muslims to the sport.

El Masri, a former Bulldogs player who at the time of his 2009 retirement was the sport’s highest point scorer, has kept a relatively low profile this year, after an amicable divorce from his wife in February. He declined to be interviewed when contacted by The Weekend Australian.

Bulldogs fan Ms Khalaf told The Weekend Australian Belmore was a very friendly suburb, and the recent terror raids had done little to dent the community vibe.

Regarding this week’s debate over the wearing of the burka — a garment which covers the head and entire body — Ms Khalaf said she agreed with Tony Abbott’s negative stance. “I am so against it (the burka),” said Ms Khalaf, who wears a simple headscarf.

“In our religion we are allowed to show our face. I have the scarf but I really don’t like that anyone, any man could be walking around under (a burka).”

Also wearing the Bulldogs colours on the streets of Belmore yesterday was barrister Nick Ghabar and his son Anthony.

“Football is one thing that Christians, Muslims, everyone, can agree on,” Mr Ghabar said. “It brings everyone together.”

 

Source: The Australian

Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi hope joint prize helps Indian-Pakistani ties and that leaders will attend ceremony

 

 

The winners of the Nobel peace prize, the Pakistani teenage activist Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian children’s rights advocate, said the award represented a huge boost to the cause of children’s rights around the world.

They also made it clear that they would seek to use the award to bring their two countries closer together and said they would invite their prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan and Narendra Modi of India, to the award ceremony in Oslo in December.

The joint award was welcomed by the two leaders, but the award to 17-year-old Malala also drew some sceptical responses from Pakistani conservatives suspicious of western motives. Since escaping death when she was shot in the head two years ago by a Taliban gunman for attending school in Pakistan’s Swat valley, she has been living and studying in the UK.

Malala heard the news of her win during a chemistry lesson at school in Birmingham, while Satyarthi found out through Twitter before receiving the phone call from the Nobel committee in Oslo. The two later spoke by phone and, according to Malala, agreed to combine their campaigns for child protection and education, and to work to build stronger links between their two countries

“Today’s world is fast moving because of the globalisation of the economy and it is high time that all of us take urgent steps to protect children and move towards a globalisation of compassion,” Satyarthi, the 60-year-old son of a police constable in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, told the Guardian in an interview in his crowded south Delhi office.

The laureate’s son, Bhawan, said: “He’s a very down-to-earth man and so there were no tears or shouting or anything.

“This will be a big encouragement to the movement but the real victory will be when child trafficking is finished. This will send a strong signal to society not to employ child labourers and to the government to implement the existing laws.”

Child labour is illegal in India but laws are rarely enforced. Convictions for offences such as child trafficking are extremely rare.

Speaking to the press in Birmingham, Malala said “I believe the committee didn’t just give this award to me. It is for all the children whose voices are not being heard around the world.

“Through my story I want to tell children to speak for themselves, not to wait for someone else. I stand up with all the children and this award is especially for them. It will give them courage,” she said.

On Friday night in Mingora city in the Swat valley, Malala’s home region, people celebrated the award, distributing sweets in her honour in the central square where the Pakistani Taliban once roamed freely.

“All those who were opposed to Malala should review their opinion about her” said Neelum, a ninth-grade student and friend of Malala, who she described as one of the most talented girls she had ever met. “I imagine being her someday,” Neelum said. “ She is not just an inspiration for the women of Swat but for the world over.”

Ahmad Shah, a teacher in Swat, said Malala had “empowered the girls of Swat with her thoughts that education is important”.

“We’ve only read about Nobel laureates. Now we have one from our own village. It’s unbelievable and yet its true,” Shah added, his voice breaking with emotion. “She’s a flicker of hope in an age of darkness.”

 

The Nobel committee’s decision was deliberately aimed at striking a delicate balance at a time of tension in Indian-Pakistani relations. Malala is a young Muslim, while Satyarthi is a Hindu elder statesman of the child rights campaign. They will share the prize money of Ł690,000. But the split award also reflected the dire state of children’s rights in both countries.

Sharif was one of many politicians to offer congratulations to Malala. But there was no escaping the irony that Malala was almost killed for her work advocating education for children, and she is frequently accused by conservatives of selling out to the west.

Liaqat Baloch, a leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a rightwing religious-political party, said: “Malala is a Pakistani student and she is getting a lot of support and patronage abroad. On the surface this is not a bad thing and we welcome this, and there is no objection to the award, but the attack on Malala and then her support in the west creates a lot of suspicions.

“There are lots of girls in Pakistan who have been martyred in terrorist attacks, women who have been widowed, but no one gives them an award. So these … activities are suspicious.”

In India, Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, the revered independence leader who became a proponent of non-violent protest, said that in recent years all Nobel prizes had been in the tradition of his famous forebear.

“Malala personifies non-violent resistance admirably and both she and Kailash Satyarthi also personify the commitment and solidarity that was the legacy of the work of all the illustrious leaders of [the Indian] independence movement,” Gandhi said.

“Until yesterday no politician was bothered or was interested in what he was doing and some were even irritated by him, now they will all sing his paeans. I think my great-grandfather, with his sense of humour, would have laughed … He had long realised the hypocrisy of politicians.”

India’s home minister, Rajnath Singh, congratulated Satyarthi, tweeting: “Shri Kailash Satyarthi is a champion of child rights whose work is now recognised internationally. Congratulations to him once again.”

India’s defence and finance minister, Arun Jaitley, also used Twitter to congratulate Malala for the award “for promoting girl’s right to education in the face of the Taliban diktat”.

There was no word from either country’s leaders on whether they would accept the invitation to attend the award ceremony. Recent days have seen one of the worst outbreaks of violence on the border between India and Pakistan for a decade, with about 20 killed and tens of thousands displaced by artillery barrages. The exchanges of fire appeared to be easing on Friday night.
 

Source: The Guardian

"Regrettably we are seeing a serious testing of our social cohesion that is often driven for perceived political gain. Queensland is home to people who speak more than 220 languages, hold more than 100 religious beliefs (or none) and come from more than 220 countries or geographical locations, and we are one of the most peaceful nations on earth. We all live here, are all different in our own right, yet all share some form of commonality. Everyone has a right to feel and be included in our society within the rule of law. This dinner is about celebrating and supporting positive social cohesion and not about politics or religion."

Where: Michaels Oriental Restaurant
When: Friday 17 October 2014. 6.30pm
Cost: $35 pp or $350 table of ten includes dinner
 

Please advise of any dietary requirements
All tickets must be pre-purchased and limited to 350 guests
No free tickets

For tickets and payment options, please contact me by private Facebook message, mobile 0413 874 008, return email, or unitydinner2014@gmail.com

If you are interested in considering being one of the event sponsors, also contact me as above. This is not a fundraiser and any surplus funds will be donated to the Together For Humanity Foundation http://togetherforhumanity.org.au

Australian women are showing solidarity with Muslim women by posting hijabi selfies.

 

 

Studio 10 presenter Jessica Rowe, Labor MP Julie Owens, and comedian Meshel Laurie are among high profile woman

who have joined the Women in Solidarity with Hijabis (#WISH) campaign…
 

Source: news.com

 

 

Hollywood heavyweight Ben Affleck has launched into an angry tirade during a TV panel debate, labelling host Bill Maher (pictured below) and guests “gross, racist, disgusting” after they compared Islam to the Mafia.

The Argo and Gone Girl star appeared opposite author Sam Harris on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday, but things quickly got heated when the topic turned to Islam and its more radical fringe, which includes the ISIL terror group fighting in Iraq and Syria.

Affleck, who won an Oscar for directing Argo which is mostly set in Iran, unleashed a verbal volley at Harris when he felt the author began stereotyping Muslims.

“The crucial point of confusion is we have been sold this meme of Islamaphobia - where every criticism of the doctrine of Islam is conflated with bigotry towards Muslims as people,” Harris, who was promoting his new book Waking Up, said.

“Which is intellectually ridiculous - liberals have failed on the topic of theocracy.”

Visibly agitated, Affleck responded with “are you the person who understands the officially codified doctrine of Islam?”

Harris just added fuel to the fire, claiming he was well informed about Islam and then labelling the religion “the motherload of bad ideas”.

“We have to be able to criticize bad ideas and Islam is the motherload of bad ideas,” he said, prompting Affleck, who was promoting his newly released movie Gone Girl, to unleash.

“That's an ugly thing to say," Affleck said, at one point holding his head in his hands.

 

"How about the more than a billion people who are not fanatical, who don't punish women, who just want to go to school, have some sandwiches, pray five times a day and don't do any of the things that 'all Muslims do'? You're stereotyping. You're taking a few bad things and you're painting the whole religion with that same brush," Affleck said.

Unconvinced, host Maher responded to this by saying: “One reason they (other views) don't get exposed is because they are afraid to speak out,” he said.

“Because it's the only religion that acts like the Mafia - that will f***ing kill if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture or write the wrong book.”

Stand-up comedian and political commentator Maher is a controversial figure who describes himself as politically “practical” rather than tied to a party. The satirist is well known for taking pots shots at organised religion, which is in step with Harris’ criticism.

Harris is a proponent of scientific skepticism and the "New Atheism"

Sitting on a panel opposite that pair as well as Michael Steele, the former chair of the Republican National Committee, and journalist Nicholas Kristof, Affleck seemed determined to get his point across.

"Why are you so hostile about this concept?" Maher asked Affleck as the argument dragged on.

"Because it's gross, it's racist, it's disgusting," Affleck responded.

"That's just not true, Ben," Maher said. "You're saying that the idea that someone should be killed if they leave the Islamic religion is just a few bad apples?"

"The people who actually believe that you should murder someone if you dishonour the Islamic faith is not with the majority of Muslims at all," Affleck insisted.

In the end, Maher was forced to concede it was a topic they would be forced to agree to disagree on.

Source: 9News

 

A blonde, white Red Riding Hood lost in a forest of faceless Muslim wolves: This is how “Homeland’s” creators have chosen to represent their show as it begins its fourth season, which sees CIA officer Carrie Mathison stationed in Pakistan. It is also the perfect encapsulation of everything that’s wrong with this show.

Since its first episode, “Homeland,” which returns Sunday, has churned out Islamophobic stereotypes as if its writers were getting paid by the cliché. Yet the show, created by “24” veterans Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa and former Israeli paratrooper Gideon Raff, continues to rack up awards, critical praise and millions of viewers.

For starters, the show is riddled with basic errors about Islam and the Middle East. Laila Al Arian points out some of the more obvious ones: You don’t need to bury the Koran after someone’s dropped it on the ground; Issa, the son of terrorist leader Abu Nazir, has his name mispronounced by everyone on the show; Roya Hammad — there to remind us that even a Westernized, business-suit-wearing Arab is not to be trusted — is supposedly Palestinian but has a Persian first name.

More broadly, “Homeland” carelessly traffics in absurd and damaging stereotypes. The show hit peak idiocy, for instance, at the beginning of season two, when Beirut’s posh Hamra Street was depicted as a grubby generic videogame universe of Scary Muslims in which Mathison must disguise herself to avoid detection. The real Hamra Street is a cosmopolitan, expat-filled area near the American University, where Western chains like Starbucks and Gloria Jean’s compete for customers and no one would look twice at a blonde, blue-eyed white woman with uncovered hair. Islam itself is presented as sinister and suspicious: Brody secretly prays in his garage to foreboding music, and an imam who’s outraged that worshippers were shot during a police operation at his mosque turns out to be hiding information about Brody’s fellow POW-turned-terrorist Tom Walker.

These errors all add up to something important: The entire structure of “Homeland” is built on mashing together every manifestation of political Islam, Arabs, Muslims and the whole Middle East into a Frankenstein-monster global terrorist threat that simply doesn’t exist.
 

The arch villain of season one is Abu Nazir, a member of al-Qaeda (and obvious bin Laden stand-in) who’s plotting an attack on the United States with the possible help of Marine-turned-terrorist Nicholas Brody. At the beginning of season two, we see Abu Nazir meeting with a Hezbollah leader (who’s also a wife-beater, naturally) in Beirut. And in season three we learn that a deadly bomb attack on CIA headquarters was in fact financed by the Iranian government, and that terrorism suspect Brody is being hidden in rogue state Venezuela.

In just a few steps, the show has neatly stitched together all the current bogeymen of U.S. foreign policy. (The ISIS tie-in is presumably coming in season five.)

There’s just one small problem: Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah don’t actually like each other. Hezbollah is currently fighting the al-Nusra Front, the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. Iran and al-Qaeda were on opposite side of the sectarian war in Iraq in the mid-2000s. And at the moment, the United States is de facto cooperating with Iran to prop up the Shia central government of Iraq against the Sunni forces of ISIS.

But all of this is way too nuanced for “Homeland,” in which Muslims can play one of exactly two roles: terrorists or willing collaborators with U.S. intelligence forces. (This latter role is repeatedly filled by women on the show, who of course need the CIA’s protection from their violent Muslim husbands, epitomized by the murderous Majid Javadi in season three.) When Brody’s wife discovers he’s a Secret Muslim and waves the Koran at him, shouting, “These are the people who tortured you!” she’s not just being melodramatic. She’s expressing the show’s core philosophy. Muslims — be they Arab, Iranian or Pakistani — are brutal terrorists who can’t be trusted, and they’re all out to get us.
 

 

Washington Post

Call that a sword? This is a joke

Stephen King once wrote that horror and humour were two of the most difficult story forms to master, because funny gone wrong is almost always horrifying, while a bungled horror story runs the risk of eliciting shrieks of laughter in place of terror. It didn't take long for the narrative threads of "Death Cult in the Suburbs" to unravel and the snickering to begin. And so we find, a few weeks after September's terror raids, that the mystery sword that featured so prominently in everybody's fever dreams of jihad come to Martin Place was not in fact the mighty blade of slashening; woe be unto the infidel. It was just a plastic toy, according to its owner. A replica artefact, as common in Shiite Muslim households as sun-faded happy snaps of Pope St John Paul II in the homes of Polish Catholics.
 

Abbott admits Islamic ‘hate preacher’ claim false

TONY Abbott’s office admitted yesterday he was wrong in claiming Islamic activist group Hizb ut-Tahrir planned to import foreign “preachers of hate” to stir up antagonism against Western involvement in Syria. The admission came as the Prime Minister indicated that under new anti-terror laws he planned to crack down on the group, which is proscribed in some countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, but not in Australia and most Western countries. In Europe, Germany has outlawed it but only for its anti-Semitic stance.
 

Dozens of anti-Muslim attacks as Islamic leaders warn of community fear

There have been at least 30 attacks on Muslims – mainly against women wearing the hijab – in the three weeks since the police anti-terror raids and threats by Islamic State put relations between the Islamic community and mainstream Australia on edge. Muslim community leaders are compiling a register of religiously motivated incidents, which includes reports of physical and verbal assaults, threats of violence against senior clerics and damage to mosques.
 

Islamophobia? What Islamophobia? Nothing To See Here
A NSW Police unit set-up to monitor hate-crimes says there has been no rise in reports of hate crimes. Amy McQuire reports. Despite widespread allegations of Islamophobic incidents across the country the head of the NSW Police ‘bias motivation crimes unit’, put in place following the 2005 Cronulla riots, says he has not seen a significant rise in the number of anti-Muslim attacks reported to police. It comes as those in the Muslim community take it on themselves to offer security to women and children, citing a lack of confidence in authorities to clamp down on religiously-motivated attacks following the anti-terror raids in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

 

But Mariam Veiszadeh who is behind the Islamophobia Register Australia page on Facebook says there was a lack of confidence NSW Police would take anti-Muslim attacks seriously, in the same way they respond to alleged terror threats.
 

The Sun’s ‘Unite against Isis’ campaign is a proxy for anti-Muslim bigotry

Imagine your average British Muslim family sitting around the breakfast table with the papers this morning. On the front page of the Sun, an image of a woman in a hijab fashioned out of the Union Jack and the headline “United Against IS” hollers out at them. In the right-hand corner, a subheadline urges them to “stand up to extremists”. Yes, you there, Muslim – bleary eyed, sipping your coffee, who thought the activities of a militant group thousands of miles away had nothing to do with you – are you standing up to extremism right now? Is your Islam “British”? If not, then you are Part of the Problem.
 

Islamophobia feeds on our fear of an evil within

Although no one in Australia has yet been killed by a Muslim terrorist, we are in the midst of an intense moral panic about Islam – a moment of incandescent media coverage and hyperbolic public debate, in which we lose all sense of proportion, demonise young men with long beards (hipsters beware!), and sign away basic freedoms in the cause of counter-terrorism. In this climate of absolutism, Labor and moderate Muslim spokespeople clamour to support the government because they don't want appear as soft on the enemy.

 

Terrorists have valid grievances, say some Muslims

Government and law enforcement authorities have failed to win the "hearts and minds" of Muslim Australians with a landmark survey finding that 21 per cent think terrorists have legitimate grievances.
New counter-terrorism laws and police operations risk becoming counter-productive because they have "over-reached" and have created a "siege mentality", researchers found. The nation-wide study, a government-funded Australian Research Council Discovery project, is the first to quantify the consequences of Australia's fight against terrorism for Muslim communities. Dr Adrian Cherney, from the University of Queensland, and Associate Professor Kristina Murphy, from Griffith University, surveyed 800 Muslims between June and August and conducted 14 focus groups across Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. They will present their full report next year.

 

Ban halal certification fees

As part of the Australian governments' fight to combat terrorism, the government should pass legislation to ban all halal certification fees. These fees, paid by ordinary Australians on everyday food and grocery items directly support terrorism. Items such as Vegemite, an Australian icon for decades, now include a mark-up for halal certification - a mark-up which directly supports terrorist organisations.
 

It's not just Bill Maher: Islamophobia on cable news is out of control

At the center of this has been Bill Maher, a comedian and HBO talk show host who is well-known for his Islamophobic views. Maher said last week that "vast numbers of Muslims want humans to die for holding a different idea" and share "too much in common with ISIS." This is all part of his ongoing argument conflating the tiny number of violent extremists with the 1.6 billion worldwide Muslims who largely abhor those extremists. Over the weekend, when Maher called Islam "the only religion that acts like the mafia, that will fucking kill you if you say the wrong thing" (another guest on the panel, author Sam Harris, called Islam "the motherload of bad ideas"), it was left to guest Ben Affleck to call these opinion "gross" and "racist." There were, of course, no Muslims on the panel who might have the chance to speak up.
 

Anti-Islam leaflets distributed in Maroochydore for second time

THE distribution of anti-Islamic material has stepped up a notch with a new wave of brochures landing in Maroochydore letterboxes. A brochure entitled "In Australia" rehashed information on the Cronulla riots and made mention of Islamist militants' order for genital cutting. The six-A4 page leaflet also states that "although Islam was indeed a peaceful religion in the first decade or so, it got on to war, violence, terrorism, robbery and infiltration and (the) overthrow of non-Islamic people."
 

WA Police to push for Muslim recruits as Acting Commissioner Stephen Brown meets with seven senior Islamic leaders

WA POLICE plans to recruit more Muslim police officers as part of a push to build stronger ties with the Muslim community. Acting Commissioner Stephen Brown announced the organisation’s intention today after meeting with seven senior Islamic leaders. “I’m really keen, West Australian police are really keen, to recruit more people from the Australian Muslim community to gain better understanding of the challenges they face within the broader community,” Mr Brown said. “We are working hand in hand with them to make sure they can live out their life as Australians to the absolute fullest.”
 

The pro-white gangs spreading race hate across Australia

 

Geelong residents are outraged after anti-Islamic leaflets were dropped in their letterboxes. Emily Angwin reports. (VIdeo)

 

Fox News Host Gets Angry When Guests Won’t Condemn Islam

 

A Fox News host became visibly angry on Monday while trying to defend comedian Bill Maher’s comments about Islam. On Friday, the “Real Time” host argued that Islam “is the only religion that acts like the mafia” as he expanded on his claim that the “vast numbers of Muslims want humans to die for holding a different idea.”  In a segment about those remarks, Fox News host Bill Hemmer battled with two guests who took issue with Maher’s broad characterization. As they condemned the HBO host for painting the world’s one billion Muslims with too broad a brush, Hemmer insisted that Maher was accurate in his characterization.
“How do you define what’s bigotry and what’s just reality?” he asked, defending Maher’s position. After both guests criticized Maher’s comments, Hemmer interjected, telling them that they were “missing the point here.” “[Maher] is arguing about 2014,” he explained, implying that the religion is currently overflowing with terrorists.

 

Two men rescue Muslim women from verbal attack while driving in Newcastle

Two Muslim women have been left shaken after they were verbally attacked about their religion while driving through Newcastle.A 26-year-old woman was driving with her mother in the front passenger seat when they stopped in traffic on Smith Street about 7:00pm (AEST) on Monday. A 27-year-old man approached them on foot and started abusing and threatening them, police said. "He's made derogatory statements about their religion," Chief Inspector Dean Olsen said. "He struck the side view mirror and then continued with a verbal tirade."
 

MPs throw support behind Not in My Name campaign condemning racism and bigotry

A bipartisan group of MPs have launched an Australian version of the Not in My Name social media campaign, which encourages Muslims to condemn Islamic State extremists. The British-based campaign has been popular abroad, but relatively mute in Australia. One Muslim leader says Australians Muslims fear being targetted and attacked if they "out" themselves as Muslim, even if criticising Islamic State. Now a group of Federal MPs, all from Sydney, including Labor frontbenchers Tony Burke and Anthony Albanese and the Liberal Craig Laundy have united to kickstart a local #NotinMyName campaign, aimed at encouraging all Australians to attack racism and bigotry. It comes in the wake of the Federal Parliament's decision to require any woman wearing a burqa to sit inside a glass enclosure instead of the open public galleries, following a sustained campaign by Liberal senator Cory Bernardi and Palmer United senator Jacqui Lambie. Labor's Tony Burke says all Australians, and not just Muslims, are obliged to take a stand against prejudice and would be invited to condemn racism, hatred and bigotry. "I've seen how it wears people down, where time and again, leaders within my community have seen something horrific overseas and have then been told by the media, 'We know your leader, we know you're a good person, we know you're 100 per cent part of the community but, by the way we just need to check, are you opposed to the child holding the decapitated head?' I can see why that wears people down," he said.

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