Peace
Basira Borg often reminds herself of one of the most important statements ever made …… “There is no argument against irrationality”.
The latest bit of irrationality comes from WA Liberal MP Luke Simpkins who recently said,
“By having Australians unwittingly eating Halal food we are all one step down the path towards the conversion, and that is a step we should only make with full knowledge and one that should not be imposed upon us without us knowing,”
see http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/12032577/halal-meat-converting-aussies-mp/
Whilst we know there will be no arguing with Luke over this ridiculous statement we can nonetheless poke absolute fun at it for its sheer stupidity and his misunderstanding of what becoming a Muslim actually entails.
Last time I looked becoming a Muslim actually involved stating the Shahada and not eating a kebab.
I wonder if Simkins ate some Kosher food would he instantaneously become a Jew …… or perhaps a Buddhist if he ate vegetarian. What if someone ate Vegemite do they instantly become Australian?
This is just plain silly and you would normally ignore such antics, however, we must remind ourselves that Simkins is a member of the Australian Federal Parliament!
When old Basira started work all those years ago one of her work mates noted Bas was eating some Baklava at lunch one day. I was soon told by this person, “Why are you eating Wog food?” “ You will become a Wog if you eat that stuff!”
Whilst this sort of statement might be excused from an ignorant workshop apprentice 35 years ago it is not the stuff that should be mentioned in the Parliament of Australia. But there we have exactly the same sort of ignorance that underpins modern Islamophobia being presented to the Parliament by Simkins as if it were some form of fact.
Simkins also tabled a petition in parliament from the Barnabas Fund during his speech. A look at their UK web site finds the following statement;
In the time of Nehemiah the people of God were in disgrace, their walls broken down, and facing an uncertain future. Like the Church in the UK today, they lived in dark times. But under Nehemiah’s leadership they took action, rising up like a mighty army to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And for us, now is the time to act – the time to rebuild the Christian foundations of our country.
See http://barnabasfund.org/AU/Act/Campaign/Operation-Nehemiah/What-is-Operation-Nehemiah/
This is the same sort of mad rhetoric that is espoused by Australian groups such as the Q Society, the Christian Democratic Party and Australian Christian Nation Association ie that people’s choice of religion cannot and should not change from Christianity to anything else.
We must always remember that speaking about fact is no replacement for the sensationalist rhetoric that comes from any of these groups in maintaining their ridiculously slanted world views. The simple reality is that the UK did not have a Christian foundation as its history predates Christianity by several thousands of years. This is a fact from the known archaeological record. Likewise I don’t buy the claim Australia was a Christian Nation as the Aboriginal people didn’t practice Christianity at the time of British invasion.
Thankfully the article about Simkins’ speech also reports,
“Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said Opposition Leader Tony Abbott should pull Mr Simpkins into line.”
It will remain to be seen what, if anything, Tony Abbot does to pull Simkins into line for his statements. I can only encourage you all to make contact with Tony Abbott’s office and ask exactly what will be done about this matter. I note that a number of people I know contacting Abbott about the association between Cory Bernardi and Geert Wilders and their questions remain unanswered nearly three months later.
Don’t hold your breath!
I think if enough people can contact their local members and Abbotts office then we might be able to show them these sorts of statements made by Simkins should not be tolerated within the parliament. We really need to get a strength in numbers approach made to these leaders to tell them it’s not OK to vilify the Australian Muslim community.
Contact Tony Abbott here: Tel: (02) 6277 4022 & Tony.Abbott.MP@aph.gov.au
Likewise if you want to chat with Luke Simpkins directly why not find him on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1588540248
Peace
Basira Borg
PS – MuslimVillage.com will soon be launching a page where you can report to us any incidents of Islamophobia that you may experienced personally (at work, in public); that you hear/see in the media, or by a politician/public figure. More info soon…
