20 February 2017

Banshee scare tactics

| John Hargreaves
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banshee

Boy! Am I sick of seeing and hearing squawking banshees going on about the imminent imposition of Sharia Law into Oz. And by people who actually don’t know what it is!

You’d expect that elected representatives would know what our Constitution says about the rule of law in this country or at the very least, would have advisers who stop them from making fools of themselves.

But hey! Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story or a good media grab.

We have more to fear from the far-right cohort than ever we do from the Muslim community.

Worry about Cory Bernardi and George Christiansen who would have us dangling like puppets from the strings of the Vatican or the like. Fear the far right anti-Mosque campaigners who have their roots in the deep south of the USA. Remember that the KKK is a Christian organisation.

People like Pauline Hanson, whose own antecedents were immigrants, wants to rid the land of those accursed Muslims in much the same way as she wanted all Vietnamese refugees prevented from coming here. She says that they will introduce Sharia law by stealth. She shrieks that we should bring in harsher immigration laws for Muslims but interestingly, no same restrictions for those red headed Anglo types. And where is her proof that this is a fifth columnist invasion? None at all exist!

That outburst from the Senator from Tasmania was an appalling display of ignorance and bullying. No such considered view advanced with proof of position. Just a banshee on the wing!

My heart went out to Ms Abdel-Magied who defended her people, her religion and her right, yes, right, to practice her religion in peace. She was howled down with finger pointing and emotive rubbish! So… what does the Senator from the South say about the hate calls and death threats she has invoked and encouraged by her outburst?

This young woman, who hid her faith for so many years for fear of being targeted, who hid from being labelled as a “Muslim girl”, now has the courage to stand up to the bullies and defend herself. She shouldn’t have to do that! Where is the protection in our Constitution from the sort of veiled discrimination perpetrated on her by Lambie?

Oh yeah! While I’m having vent, what about the three clerics who have had a fatwah invoked against them. ISIS has declared that they should be killed because they are moderates, because they are on the side of the infidel. Where is the shrieking class who demanded that the Muslim leadership stand up to the threat of radicalisation? They have been doing just that and they look behind themselves for support and what do they see? The open mouths of Hanson and Lambie shouting at them.

And where is the even-handedness from the banshees? They don’t condemn the work of the Christian churches in their mission to save the souls of Aussies. Where is the condemnation of the visits by the Mormons who want to bless our houses? The purveyors of the “War Cry”, the exploitative visits by children (while their adults hide in the shrubbery) to seek to deliver godliness to our godless homes?

We are all appalled by the child sex abuse by the Catholics and other churches but where is Lambie and Hanson condemning Pell for doing nothing? The Bishops who protected their priests? The Brother Superiors who moved the praying mantis Brothers around the schools? They say that the instances of abuse are not part of the doctrine of the churches and that they are individual issues. Rot! It is systemic!

Where are they saying that the Buddhists are a peaceful people here but kill Rohingya’s in Myanmar? Where are they saying that the Hindus are peaceful here but slaughtered Tamils in Sri Lanka? Where are they saying that the Baptists are ok here but they are killing black people in the south of the US. Nowhere, that’s where! No, but it is not on for Muslims to be having issues overseas but are peaceful here!

The banshees ought to be even-handed and a bit more informed. They should be supportive of people who came here for a better life, who came to enrich our country.

But then, in line with the “State of Fear” theory, you keep the populace in a state of fear, show them that you can protect them and you have a job for life. Maybe this is what it is really about.

If not, we have more to fear! Some wise guy said “you have nothing to fear than fear itself”, but I don’t agree.

I fear Cory Bernardi, George Christiansen, Jacqui Lambie and Pauline Hanson. I fear Donald Trump and the far-right in Europe.

So come on, you lot! If you agree with me, say so. And if you don’t, then out yourselves for the rouge coloured rash around your collar!

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Testfest said :

I am genuinely puzzled why the left treats Islam as a sacred cow that must never be criticised or questioned, while simultaneously hurling endless bile at Christianity. Why is that, John?

You appear to have no understanding of Sharia law either, so I recommend you read this article from Ayaan Hirsi Ali:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-sharia/news-story/9e6efee3160373ccf9cf4dda8c6daf33

I suspect the author will not respond to your question about why the “left treats Islam as a sacred cow that must never be criticised or questioned, while simultaneously hurling endless bile at Christianity”.

The answer is obvious. It is always safer to attack those who don’t fight back.

Challenging Islam even mildly will result in being called a racist, branded a Hansonite, shunned at leftie meetings and struck off the Eid invitation list.

By failing to criticise or question Islam and its apologists, the Left exposes itself as basically a collective of cowards.

John, Yassmin Abdel-Magied asked Hizbut Tah-Rir for guidance on how to “frame her arguments in future”. That didn’t ring any alarm bells for you? Have you read Hirsan Ali on the realities of Islam for women? Do you really not take issue with Yassmin’s claim that Islam is “the most feminist of all religions”? She doesn’t simply practice her religion, she misrepresents Shariah to people who don’t know anything about it. Yassmin Abdel-Magied says in her own book (currently being promoted) that she adopted the scarf out of Islam’s “requirement for modesty”. Islam, taken literally, requires modest dress of both men AND women. Where are the modestly dressed, head-covered Muslim men? And what is a feminist doing internalising “modesty”? Sharia Law does in fact prescribe “half the inheritance” for women and many other things that are in direct opposition to feminism. What do you have to say about the Imams who are anti-gay? I notice that Yassmin Abdel-Abied has not in fact come out and advocated for gays. Then, you are comparing outliers (“Baptists killing blacks” etc) to what is entrenched in Islam. None of the three you cite are valid comparisons. Now, what do you have to say in response to Marine LePen holding the line and declining to don a head-covering when she met with an Islamic leader. Was that not advocating effectively for “liberte” for women? Rather than toe the PC line with this knee-jerk reaction, you should start with a feminist baseline, and decide from there whether Yassmin is more a self-serving self-promoter (along the lines of Jacquie Lambie) than a useful woman for the cause of gender equality.

I am genuinely puzzled why the left treats Islam as a sacred cow that must never be criticised or questioned, while simultaneously hurling endless bile at Christianity. Why is that, John?

You appear to have no understanding of Sharia law either, so I recommend you read this article from Ayaan Hirsi Ali:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-sharia/news-story/9e6efee3160373ccf9cf4dda8c6daf33

And of course there was this case in Canberra recently:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/daughter-challenges-will-that-says-she-is-worth-half-her-brothers-20120313-1uz83.html

So daughters are worth half a son. How enlightened.

justin heywood10:21 pm 21 Feb 17

Public debate in Australia is becoming surreal.

Someone on a TV panel claims that Islam is the religion of peace and women’s rights.

EVERYBODY knows that isn’t true.

But her fellow panelists remain silent; the only objection comes from a firebrand wheeled out precisely because she is an idiot, and nobody would want to be on HER side.

And then of course we have the ‘me too’ people who, apparently missing the irony, use the issue of religious intolerance to have yet another rambling rant about Christianity.

You must be a ton of laughs at the clubs you have mentioned you frequent

“”So come on, you lot! If you agree with me, say so. And if you don’t, then out yourselves for the rouge coloured rash around your collar!””

Garfield said :

While I would be happy if Bernardi, Christenson & co were no longer in the parliament, I can’t come to any conclusion other than Islamic fundamentalism poses a much bigger risk to our country today compared to Christian fundamentalism. While the majority of Muslims here are productive law abiding citizens, there appears to be a lot of work to do to successfully integrate the minority.

Agreed, although it is obvious throughout the world that that majority you refer to are rarely very motivated to stand up to the minority to prevent them from implementing sharia police and blasphemy laws.

Maybe John Hargreaves could do some research and find a country that is majority muslim as well as being in tune with our values when it comes to human rights and equality.
Such an example would prove Lambie wrong by proving that Sharia can co-exist with civilised society.
But until he finds such an example, it would seem to me he has nothing much to present in opposition to Lambie’s plainly-spoken opposition to Sharia.

“…imposition of Sharia Law into Oz. And by people who actually don’t know what it is!”
So I waded through the 16 exclamation marks to find out from John just what “Sharia Law” is. C’mon, John, lay it out for us so we can judge whether you or one of the two Q&A protagonists are right.
Or, perhaps the Riot Act can commission someone to enlighten us about sharia as I suspect all 3 might have missed the mark by a country mile. Senator Lambe seems to have it right in one respect: it’s something to be concerned about – at least until we are in a position to exercise an informed judgement. Rants like yours, John, don’t help.

wildturkeycanoe said :

Nice rant, but if you ask today’s Christian community if they accept the KKK as being a part of their faith you’d get a resounding “No”.”

Just as if you asked todays Muslim community if they accept ISIS or ISIS inspired terrorists as part of their faith you’d get a resounding “No”.

wildturkeycanoe3:57 pm 20 Feb 17

Nice rant, but if you ask today’s Christian community if they accept the KKK as being a part of their faith you’d get a resounding “No”.
As for all this defense for the Muslim faith, you already said that their own clerics in Australia are being condemned as infedels. How much less do they think of us then? A religion this willing to crucify its own members certainly doesn’t belong on our lands.

Reading this I decided to Google terrorism in Australia and do some reading. From 2014-2016 there were 4 Islamist terrorist attacks in Australia and arrests were made in response to another 11 that were planned. Looking at John’s claim that we have more to fear from Christian fundamentalists, the last Christianity inspired terrorist attack in Australia looks like it was on an abortion clinic in 2001. It looks like around 50% of Australians identify as Christian while those who identify as Muslim are about 2.5%. Just looking at the terrorist attacks this century that were not foiled by police, that puts Islamist terrorism rates at 80 times those of Christian fundamentalists.

From what I’ve read regarding the census, the proportion of people identifying as Muslim increased from 2.2% to 2.5% from 2011 to 2016, a 13% increase. At the same time the numbers identifying as Christian dropped from 61% to somewhere close to but still above 50%, a drop of say 10-15%. Given those demographics it appears likely that the number of Islamist terrorism attacks could increase in future while those of Christian Fundamentalists should decrease.

While I would be happy if Bernardi, Christenson & co were no longer in the parliament, I can’t come to any conclusion other than Islamic fundamentalism poses a much bigger risk to our country today compared to Christian fundamentalism. While the majority of Muslims here are productive law abiding citizens, there appears to be a lot of work to do to successfully integrate the minority.

Blen_Carmichael said :

First, this article titled ‘Banshee scare tactics’ has a total of 16 exclamation marks, give or take one.

Beat me to it.

Some wise guy said “Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke.”. I agree.

I read your articles, but these days I skip to the end after the first exclamation mark.
Have a look here: http://www.inc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/should-i-use-an-exclamation-mark1.jpg

Paul Costigan1:33 pm 20 Feb 17

John – totally agree with what you are saying.

But to be pedantic and showing my Irish connections – your use of the term Banshee is not quite correct.

I think that in this instance I would prefer that Lambie was not referred to as a Banshee given what a screaming Banshee represents. There must be a term out there that better describes Lambie and co’s noise and rudeness – but not sure what it is. Anyone?

FYI: http://www.yourirish.com/folklore/banshees-in-ireland

Blen_Carmichael12:53 pm 20 Feb 17

First, this article titled ‘Banshee scare tactics’ has a total of 16 exclamation marks, give or take one. Quite ironic given the title. As for the appearance in question on Qanda, I can’t say it was particularly edifying watching two grown women screech at each other. It reflected poorly on both on them. That said, I thought A-M’s statement: “Islam is the most feminist religion, right!” risible.

“So come on, you lot! If you agree with me, say so. And if you don’t, then out yourselves for the rouge coloured rash around your collar!”

Anyone who doesn’t agree entirely with you is a redneck? Seriously, is that the best you can muster?

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