Threats to Muslim MP: ‘I would love to kill you and poison your family’

AFTER speaking against comments from Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, Labor’s Muslim MP Anne Aly has received death threats online.

Labor MP Anne Aly reacts to an answer by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton during Question Time on Monday. Picture: AAP /Mick Tsikas

COUNTER-terror expert and Labor MP Anne Aly has received threatening emails and messages in the wake of Immigration Minister Peter Dutton’s comments about Lebanese Muslim immigration.

Egyptian-born Dr Aly, who is the first Muslim woman to be elected to federal parliament, said she received a series of “nasty emails”, including one with the subject line “Leb thugs” which read: “Peter Dutton was right. Pack your bags and piss off back to where you came from and take all of your terrorist faith with you”.

One user wrote on Dr Aly’s Facebook page: “I would love to kill you and poison your family”.

Another post read: “Your [sic] a worthless cancer on this country you and your Koran [sic] can f**k off the sooner your [sic] dead the better this place will be. ALL MUSLIMS WILL DIE.”

The comment was reported to the Australian Federal Police’s Protection Liaison Unit, according to BuzzFeed.

Another post read: “What do you expect from a Lebanese Muslim? 66 per cent of them are proven terrorists”.

Vile comments posted to MP Anne Aly’s Facebook page. Picture: Facebook

MP Anne Aly has been inundated with comments like these. Picture: Facebook

Dr Aly said the threats came following Mr Dutton’s comments linking immigration and terrorism in parliament on Monday.

Mr Dutton told parliament 22 of the past 33 people charged with terrorism-related offences in Australia were from second- and third-generation Lebanese Muslim backgrounds.

Dr Aly, who describes herself as a “secular Muslim”, said Mr Dutton’s comments had stoked fear and division and jarred with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s assertion that an inclusive nation was the best weapon against terrorism.

“If Malcolm Turnbull believes that, if he really believes that, he would have come out and slapped down Peter Dutton’s disgraceful comments against migrant Australians who have helped to build this nation,” she told reporters in Canberra.

Mr Dutton has been criticised for blaming the Fraser government immigration policies for problems such as radicalisation and gang violence 30 years on.

Mr Dutton’s comments sparked a debate in the Coalition party room on Tuesday, with one Liberal MP saying the government needed to be much more careful with the tone of remarks about immigration.

The MP said it was important to maintain the goodwill of ethnic communities. However, other MPs threw their support behind Mr Dutton.

Labor MP Anne Aly reacts to an answer by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton during Question Time on Monday. Picture: AAP/Mick Tsikas

The prime minister told reporters in Canberra Mr Dutton was entitled to reflect on past policies.

“If you talk to people ... of very long experience in this area, you’ll understand that the move to a more skills-based migration program was based on the conclusion that previous policies had not been as effective as they could be,” Mr Turnbull said.

He described Mr Dutton as a “thoughtful, committed and compassionate immigration minister”.

Labor leader Bill Shorten was critical of Mr Dutton in a caucus meeting. “In the Labor Party, we don’t call people second- and third-generation migrants. We call them Australians,” he said.

Mr Shorten later in question time challenged Mr Turnbull to directly back his minister’s comments about terrorism, but the prime minister countered with criticism of past Labor governments.

“The greatest mistake in immigration ... was by those opposite,” Mr Turnbull said, citing 50,000 unauthorised arrivals and 1200 deaths at sea.

Turnbull will say and do anything to stay PM, including playing the race card #qt #auspol

— Wayne Swan (@SwannyQLD) November 22, 2016

Former treasurer Wayne Swan wrote on Twitter: “Turnbull will say and do anything to stay PM, including playing the race card.” Nationals MP George Christensen wrote on his Facebook page a review of the Lebanese intake had found “concerns about health and character requirements, personal qualities and the migrants’ ability to integrate”.

He noted the families moved to “the same southwest Sydney enclave”.

“The dysfunction that Fraser’s open slather immigration policy caused is still being felt today. Many of the second and third generation of these migrants have been locked in a monocultural enclave that breeds extremism,” Mr Christensen wrote.

Liberal MP Michael Sukkar, who comes from a Lebanese Christian background, is understood to have backed the minister in the party room.

Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen, whose western Sydney seat has a large migrant population, said the minister’s comments had brought the debate to a new low.

“I’ve had many people contact me to say ‘Well, I don’t think my parents or grandparents coming here was a mistake because I’ve gone on and contributed to this country. I’ve worked hard, I’ve started a small business, my children are at university, my children are doctors’,” he told ABC radio.

NSW Labor MP Jihad Dib, who represents the multicultual Lakemba seat in southwest Sydney and migranted to Australia in the 1970s, called for Mr Dutton to be sacked.

Minister, there were many like me who were 1970s migrants. Don't play cheap and divisive politics. It's time to #SackDutton pic.twitter.com/KXmMTmQaOO

— Jihad Dib MP (@jihaddibmp) November 22, 2016

— With AAP

Originally published as Threats to Muslim MP: ‘I would love to kill you and poison your family’