WE NOW KNOW WHERE WE STAND WITH RANDA

Randa Abdel-Fattah: "I, an Australian Muslim, refuse to condemn the violence that took place on Bourke Street." But in her Age article she does condemn "the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan", "state-sponsored terrorism", "Israel’s illegal occupation and oppression of Palestinians", our "patriarchal, racist, capitalist social order" and more.

Randa Abdel-Fattah, scholar, in The Age:

I, an Australian Muslim, refuse to condemn the violence that took place on Bourke Street...

I also refuse to comment and pontificate about the Bourke Street incident itself.

Her reason:

To ask me to condemn is to strip me of my basic humanity. It asks me to disprove an assumption that I inherently support such actions; it denies me the right to mourn the loss of life.

Really? I condemn that terrorism, yet feel my basic humanity is not stripped but affirmed. It didn't stop me from mourning the loss of life, either.

And here's the other thing. Abdel-Fattah refuses to condemn the Islamist terrorist attack in Melbourne, but in the very same article has no hesitation in condemning the objects of Islamist terrorists' hate: 

For instance, she condemns "the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan", "state-sponsored terrorism", and  our "patriarchal, racist, capitalist social order".

More condemnation of "us" rather than the terrorist "them":

After all "national security" has always been a politically expedient agenda that serves only to reinforce a patriarchal, racist, capitalist social order.

Still more condemning and pontificating against everything except the terrorist attack: 

We must condemn violence, but ignore our defence deals with Saudi Arabia and our complicity in the destruction of Yemen, our defence forces training Myanmar’s genocidal armed forces, our explicit support for Israel’s illegal occupation and oppression of Palestinians.

There's a false dichotomy there. No one says Muslims must condemn one but ignore the other - even if I disagree with how she describes Israel's relationship with Hamas and Fatah.

This is exactly the kind of piece that leads many to fear that not enough Muslims do condemn terrorism, and that many share the terrorists' loathing for us and our society, even while rejecting the terrorists' actions.

It's like we're being told we're so evil that we invited this attack even if Abdel-Fattah does not endorse it.

I assume, although Abdel-Fattah will not say it, that she opposes terrorism. But I suspect her article will feed the Islamophobia she denounces.

I'm surprised The Age thought it a good idea to publish something so inflammatory, so hate-filled  and self-defeating just one week after a man was stabbed to death in our streets.