Let these ignorant losers expose their hatred

The so-called “nationalists” who rallied in St Kilda are the same lot who racially abused me in a pub. Let them march so their vile views are laid bare and can be challenged, writes Sam Dastyari.

I met the so-called “nationalists” who recently marched in Melbourne.

They showed up at a pub I was speaking at to provoke me just over a year ago. They came to scream at me; which they did quite well. They called me a “monkey”. Ridiculed my Islamic heritage. Laughed at the fact I was drinking chardonnay and not beer (the fact that neither of those were “halal” was completely lost on them).

I dismissed them as a bunch of ignorant racists. They started screaming at me “what race is Islam?”. That’s a classic line. Arguing they aren’t racists because Islam isn’t a race. As if semantics is the issue in that scenario.

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The response of my mate Tim Watts, the federal member for Gellibrand, was better than anything I could conjure, and went viral. “What race is dickhead?,” he asked.

It was confronting. Uncomfortable. But hardly a big deal. Or so I thought at the time. The group called themselves “Patriot Blue”. I had never heard of them.

Sam Dastyari was racially abused at a Melbourne pub by a group calling themselves Patriot Blue. Picture: Facebook

Their ringleader was a guy called Neil Erikson. He was part of a trio convicted and fined in the magistrate’s court in 2017 for inciting contempt and ridicule of Muslims by making a video in which they beheaded a dummy with a toy sword in a protest against the building of a mosque in Bendigo.

I wasn’t aware of any of this. So I just laughed it off as an odd encounter. When you are a non-practising Muslim member of parliament (as I was at the time) you get a lot of this type of unwanted attention. Considering the scandals I was tied up with, I was an easy target.

Let the ignorant losers expose their hatred so their vile views can be laid bare, says Sam Dastyari. Artwork: Terry Pontikos

By the next morning the story had exploded. “Patriot Blue” had uploaded a video of its members attacking me online. I woke up to a call from Karl Stefanovic (those were the days) checking if I was OK and then asking me to come on Today. It was running on the BBC, ABC America and throughout the county. Al Jazeera ran it as a lead story throughout the Middle East (nicely fitting into a narrative of the West being against Muslims).

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Far-right wing activist Neil Erikson (yellow shirt) was seen at the rally in St Kilda at the weekend. Picture: AAP/David Crosling

The mother of one of the boys in the video called and apologised. As I pointed out to her, I was a federal member of parliament with a profile that is the equivalent of a megaphone in public debate. I didn’t really need the sympathy. Feel sorry for the funny looking kid in the schoolyard getting picked on because they are a refugee, not the career hack. Everyone came my defence, including right wing commentators and normally ferocious political enemies.

This weekend, I saw familiar faces at the rally in Melbourne. The same people who ambushed me. This time with another Senator, Fraser Anning from Queensland. But they weren’t there to scream at him. They were there to embrace him. Give him a hug. Show him their love. For a group of people who claim they are not Nazis, they are hardly helping themselves when they show up to a rally where some people were wearing SS paraphernalia, and have a ring leader, Blair Cottrell, who wants Hitler posters in classrooms.

Members of the crowd were seen giving the Nazi salute.

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While many people are understandably full of anger and disappointment at the scenes that played out in Melbourne at the weekend. I’m not.

Many well intentioned community leaders argue it has been a terrible week for multiculturalism and modern Australian diversity. I disagree. The fact that a bunch of reactionary, ill-informed idiots have the right to march through the streets of Melbourne fills me with hope. I despise them and love our country more. Their freedom to be fools is my freedom to embrace the causes I believe in.

I was born in a small town in Northern Iran. I came to Australia before I turned five, towards the end of the Iran-Iraq war. In Iran, you don’t march in the streets unless you are prepared to risk your life. The stakes are high. The consequences can be fatal.

Independent Senator Fraser Anning attended the rally where some members of the far-right crowd were seen wearing SS paraphernalia. Picture: AAP/Kenji Wardenclyffe

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You don’t have the occasional idiot “nationalist” sloganeering. But you also don’t have women’s rights. Gays are still persecuted and religious minorities are not tolerated.

And here is the rub. It all goes together. Their right to be wrong, is our right to be free.

Let them march, I say. Let them be exposed for the ignorant losers they are. Sunlight is the best disinfectant; exposing their policy positions as nothing more than hate filled excuses for their own life failures.

And so I’m glad they are out there on the streets. Glad they are there for everyone to see. I would rather that than they just exist in the dark recesses of the internet, where their ideas are not challenged. Where their views are not exposed. Where they are able to prey on those weak or disposed enough to give them a hearing.

I want their hate exposed. Laid bare for all. Their ideas challenged. So we can keep reminding ourselves that their freedom to hate is our freedom to love, and that’s what makes Australia great.

@samdastyari