Piers Akerman: ‘Truth is the first casualty as fools push own agendas’
Predictably, the Christchurch massacre has been used by disparate political bodies to push their agendas even as the funerals continue, Piers Akerman writes.
Opinion
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Predictably, the Christchurch massacre has been used by disparate political bodies to push their agendas even as the funerals continue.
The young and passionate New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has attracted international support for her zeal in moving to ban the sale of the military-style weaponry used by deluded Australian terrorist Brenton Tarrant.
She has been favourably compared to Australian Prime Minister John Howard — but Mr Howard took action (with the support of then National Party leader John Anderson) in the face of great opposition 23 years ago, bringing eight state and territory leaders with him.
New Zealand has had four National Party-led governments since then and two Labour, including Ms Ardern’s, but it took the mosque murders for any government to put forward any really meaningful legislation, getting a unicameral parliament to agree isn’t in the same league.
Meanwhile, some Muslims in Australia have again tried to shut down discussion on immigration.
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When not taking critics of Islamist terror to court, they have attempted to widen the censorial powers of section 18c of the Australian Constitution to include religion.
Given that Muslims must accept that the sometimes contradictory verses of the Koran cannot be revised and the explicit exhortations to convert nonbelievers even at the point of a sword and the repeated calls to arms frequently referenced by Islamists as justification for their terrorist attacks, there must be open discussion in any free society about this source of hatred.
To his credit, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison highlighted the disgraceful drive to conflate the shootings with widespread Islamophobia in Australia by sections of the Islamic community and the politically-correct media’s go-to-commentator Waleed Aly.
In an editorial on Ten’s The Project last week, Aly cited a 2011 report from The Sydney Morning Herald which falsely claimed Mr Morrison had urged colleagues in shadow cabinet to capitalise on growing community concerns about “Muslim immigration”.
Aly, who claims it is offensive to be labelled a “moderate” Muslim, has a dishonourable history of downplaying the threat of Islamist terrorism, notoriously declaring after the 2013 Boston marathon bombing the need for “pragmatic recognition that terrorism is a perpetual irritant” and that terrorists “kill relatively few people”.
That would be little comfort to the families of the 50 killed nine days ago in Christchurch.
Mr Morrison accused the Gold Logie winner of trying to dismiss the threat posed by nearly 60 individuals identified as having “serious character concerns” — including accused murderers and rapists — now eligible to be transferred to Australia from offshore facilities under the Labor-backed medevac laws put forward by the lightweight independent Kerryn Phelps, who won Wentworth with the support of GetUp.
Aly belongs in the same camp as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan when it comes to exploitation of tragedy for personal aggrandisement.
Like Ms Ardern, Aly is looking for an audience, Mr Erdogan is looking to next weekend’s local government elections and to further his ambition to be the international leader of the world’s approximately two billion Muslims.
Unlike Aly, who cannot acknowledge his flawed claims, Mr Erdogan (after Mr Morrison had some strong words with the Turkish ambassador) has gone some way to backtrack on his declaration that Anzac troops fighting at Gallipoli were anti-Muslim.
“Your grandparents came here … and they returned in caskets,” Mr Erdogan told an election rally.
“Have no doubt we will send you back like your grandfathers.”
Subsequently claiming to be quoted out of context, the Turkish leader has withdrawn threats of hostility toward Australians and New Zealanders who will visit his country and contribute to the economy during next month’s Anzac Day ceremonies.
His office now says that he was referring to Tarrant’s anti-Muslim rants and his claim to be a crusader.
Unfortunately, Mr Erdogan’s past statements about the West, Germany in particular, rather undermine his belated claims of contrition.
The primary lesson, which should not need repeating, is that terror in all its forms is abhorrent to Western civilisation. This lesson needs to be reinforced among certain idiotic academics at Sydney University who believe that teaching Western civilisation leads to white supremacist terror.
The second lesson is that pretending that acts of terror can be wished away if they aren’t fully reported or, worse, cannot be driven by a perverted sense of religion (in the case of Islamists) or anti-Islamic delusion (in the case of Tarrant) is not a policy. It’s an excuse for inaction and censorship.
Is there hate speech in Australia?
Certainly, but unfortunately it is too often found in the mosques where believers still claim theirs is a religion of peace.
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