Never Again is Now rally organiser warns of more hate crimes after alleged Sydney stabbing
The organiser of rallies against hate has warned there will be more attacks like the alleged stabbing of the bishop in Sydney unless Australians take a stand against extremism.
QLD News
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A church leader organising capital city rallies against hatred has warned there will be more attacks like the alleged stabbing of a bishop in Sydney unless Australians take a stand.
Anglican minister Reverend Mark Leach made headlines around the world when he was chased by protesters who came out in support of Palestine in front of the Sydney Opera House just after the October 7 massacre by Hamas terrorists.
Mr Leach, whose mother fled the Holocaust from Germany in 1938, said he pulled out an Israeli flag and waved it after hearing chants from some to “kill the Jews”.
After being confronted by young protesters threatening to slit his throat, Mr Leach ran down several streets and hid behind a police van, saying this week he was not “ready to be a martyr”.
But Mr Leach told a meeting of Christians, church leaders, politicians and Jewish people on the Sunshine Coast it was time Australians were prepared to stand up to hate against any group.
Mr Leach took a loan against his own home to help fund the first rally against anti-Semitism in Sydney which was attended by about 12,000, including former Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
He said the Never Again is Now had quickly grown to a movement being supported around Australia.
Mr Leach said he feared the alleged knife attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, which police labelled a religiously-motivated terrorism act after the bishop made comments about Islam, could be just the beginning of hate crimes in Australia. The attack was condemned by leaders of all faiths, including Islamic churches.
“I think the stabbing in the church, mid livestream, mid-sermon, shows us that this is not something we can just think will be someone else’s problem to solve without concerted action politically and in terms of our justice system,” he said.
He said there has been a resurgence in radical Islam which espoused that the violence of October 7 was not only acceptable but necessary if it resulted in freeing those “oppressed by white colonial superpowers”.
“The stabbing of the Assyrian Bishop showed that we are not immune from this,” he said.
“The problem of radical Islam and the radical left is here in our country.
“We need to expose, and this is the path that’s politically terribly incorrect, the destructiveness of jihadist Islam.
“Now, I feel very nervous whenever I talk about Islam … and after the stabbing in Sydney, I’m really nervous.
“I don’t hate Muslims, my brother was a Muslim.
“They are people just like you and me.
‘CRAZIEST TERRORISTS MADE IN IMAGE OF GOD’
“The craziest Hamas terrorists, the craziest suicide bomber is a person made in the image of God.
“The guys who raped the girls on October the 7th will go home and cuddle their daughters and make love to their wives.’’
But he warned, ‘They will target Christians and they will target Jews and they will target what they call infidels”.
“That’s any of us who don’t agree with their particular interpretation of Islam.
“So that’s thank goodness a tiny, tiny minority but it’s still a cause for concern that we see that violence and hatred in our country.’
He said Australia needed to clamp down on hate speech, including “from the river to the sea”, which espoused the removal of Jewish people from their homeland.
Mr Leach said tougher sedition laws were also needed to counter those calling for a sharia law replacing Australian governments.
The Sunshine Coast meeting heard shocking examples of Jewish people being physically attacked and abused in Queensland.
Libby Burke, from the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies and Queensland Holocaust Museum, said there were proud Jews who were now afraid to wear their Star of David. She told how she and her son had been described as ‘rats’ at a party.
DAUGHTER PHOTOGRAPHED, STALKED, HARASSED
Mr Leach said his own daughter Freya was being targeted for her support of Israel.
“She’s photographed, she gets stalked, she gets harassed on campus because of her views. They’re pretty vicious, the left, online and in person.’’
But he said it was important for Australians to show the Jewish people, and other minorities, they were loved.
After the Sydney rally under banners of Push Back the Hate Mate, Mr Leach said a Jewish person told him: “It’s like you stood up in front of 12,000 people, you stretched out your arms and you gave us all a hug. For the first time in months, if not years, in Sydney we felt loved.’’
“And that’s the heart of Never Again Is Now, to reach out to our Jewish brothers and sisters, and actually to say to all of Australia, you’re loved.’’
GROUP PLANNING RALLIES ACROSS AUSTRAIA
The group is now planning rallies in Melbourne on May 19, Brisbane on June 9, with other capital cities to follow. Mr Leach and his daughter have also been invited to appear at a rally in New York.
Never Again is Now is fundraising with Mr Leach saying he believes it will needed about a $1 million a year to get its message across.
Mr Leach stressed it was far bigger than just a problem for Jewish people.
He said there was an increasingly radicalised generation who were ‘polarised and ‘self-loathing’ of Australia.
‘THERE IS A GENERATION UNMOVED BY THE HOLOCAUST’
“They’re sceptical about democracy. They hate free markets. They hate freedom of speech,” he said.
“They hate Christianity, They hate Judaism. They hate the Bible. They hate any form of authority.
“Anti-Semitism, hatred of Jewish people is a symptom of a broader and deeper cultural malaise.
“There is a generation who is unmoved by the Holocaust. They can’t even spell it some of them.’’
Mr Leach said what had become unthinkable in the past was not only acceptable but promoted by political parties like the Greens, while the ALP was moving to Hamas-controlled Palestine ahead of a democracy like Israel.
He said the real challenge to Christians, Jewish and the silent majority of Australians was to capture the hearts and minds of those moving away from Australian values.
“We have to tell a better story than the story of the radical left with its nihilism and its conflict and its polarisation and self-loathing,” he said.
‘MY HUNCH IS THIS IS A 20 YEAR BATTLE’
“There is power in standing up and working together and putting our arms around each other. Jew, Gentile, Catholic, Protestant, liberal, conservative, straight, gay.
“If you love our country … then we can get out and we can show our politicians, there are lot of the silent majority of us who say never again is now, not on our watch will evil flourish.’’
He said ordinary Australians needed to join political parties, including Labor, to ensure the support of democracies like Israel and the condemnation of anti-Semitism.
“My hunch is this is going to be a 20 year battle,” he said.
He said it would take years to work for cultural renewal and much of that would need to be done through social media, by bringing churches and the Jewish communities together, while securing online platforms where people could feel safe to share common values.
“This is something precious we’ve got in Australia. It’s worth fighting for, it’s worth standing up for,” he said.
He said minds would be won not through division and hatred but by showing people a better way through Christian values of love.
Mark Furler has been a journalist based in Queensland for more than 35 years. He attends a church which hosted the Never Again is Now rally information session this week on the Sunshine Coast.
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