Progressives in lock-step with Hamas ideology

A mass grave in Nigeria. Picture: AFP

Last Saturday and continuing across Christmas Eve and into Christmas Day, about 160 Christians were slaughtered in central Nigeria, in a region known as Plateau State. Plateau is where Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north collides with the mainly Christian south. Twenty villages were targeted in what has been described as a well-co-ordinated attack that took place when the world, not just the Christian world, celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ.

I found out about this attack while scrolling through social media on Boxing Day night, while grovelling through a spectacular episode of festive gastro. I didn’t read about the attack in the mainstream media until a few days later and, trust me when I say this, it took some finding. In the mainstream media reportage I did find some of the detail, specifically that the victims of this slaughter were Christians, was left out. That came after a little bit more digging and a lot less throwing up.

This isn’t a conversation about Islam versus Christianity, or Judaism. Or being a Hindu versus being a Mormon. Or an atheist or wading one’s way through the valley of indecision. In fact, it’s not a conversation about faith at all. No, this to me is something deeper and significantly more problematic.

We are living in an age of ideology, not conviction. We are being governed by people who favour form, not substance.

There is an obsession with feeling over fact, perception over reality and an absolutely hysterical addiction to victimhood.

The slaughter in Israel on October 7 opened the world’s eyes to many things, two of which are relevant here. First, the venomous, inexplicable hatred that still exists towards the Jewish people that is not only excused but perpetuated by the progressive political left; and the undeniable truth that ideology rules moral clarity and at a terrible cost.

Only the ideologically obsessed would be demanding a ceasefire in Gaza without an immediate concurrent surrender by Hamas, and a release of the remaining living hostages. The fact these hostages still are being held and the international community is even talking about a ceasefire is insanity. Israel is the only nation on earth that needs to defend itself for defending itself. If that doesn’t embody the curse of rotten ideology, then nothing does.

But ideology now extends to the realm of fantasy, the kind that decides (out of desperation, I’m sure) that Jesus was a Palestinian and there were no Jews in Israel before 1948. I don’t know who is more intellectually stunted: the Free Palestine mob who dreamt up this cunning plan or the simpletons who’d buy it. I do know one thing for sure: both are drunk on ideology and someone needs to confiscate their car keys.

Closer to home, we find ourselves again in a peculiar and circular conversation about the rights of a person to freedom of speech and expression. Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja was sanctioned by cricket’s governing body after attempting to push his personal views (via writing on his kit) during this week’s Test. Many have supported him, despite the fact the terms of the code and hence his employment prohibit this behaviour. I wonder where all the free-speech zealots were when Israel Folau was cancelled for doing the same thing. Oh, but Folau was spreading hate … Not according to him. Khawaja’s behaviour is divisive and disrespectful to Jews. Not according to him.

The bizarre common thread between these two unlikely bedfellows is that ideology has driven the response to both. You can speak your truth as long as you’re not a Christian or a Jew.

Ideology, that’s what this is, clear as day: plain, simple, toxic and exposed for the cheap currency that it is. If you couldn’t defend Folau, you cannot defend Khawaja. It’s free speech for all or for none. And freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences. As an employer, I know this better than most. Every business in Australia will have a social media code of conduct of some sorts, and it’s every employee’s responsibility to understand it and not to violate it.

Don’t get me wrong here; I’m not doubting Khawaja’s intentions or that his belief is heartfelt. What I am pointing out is the ideologically driven double standard.

Since the start of the war that Hamas started and, God willing, Israel will finish, the ideologically driven mainstream media for the most part has demonstrated in dangerous clarity how ideologically driven it has become. Who can forget the bombing of Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in the Gaza Strip on October 17? Mainstream media, for the most part, breathlessly reported 500 killed and blamed the Israel Defence Forces.

We now know it to have been a tragic own goal, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket fired from within Gaza that fell short of its Israeli target. The death toll, about 100. Mainstream media took days to correct the mistake. Some never did. It’s certain that truth is a casualty of war but to an even greater degree it is one of ideology. Since October 7, the phase has been coined: no Jews, no news. Terribly, awfully true.

Only ideology could cause the Western left and its cronies to fawn over Gaza, chant Free Palestine, when Gazan society is the embodiment of everything they purport to be against. A place where being gay is a death sentence, where marital violence is condoned by law, as is intra-family sexual violence, where religious dogma rules and disagreeing with Hamas (the government) will get you a bullet in the back of the head.

This war in Gaza isn’t about land or access to anything. It’s about ideology. Specifically, one that has the elimination of the other written into its DNA. You don’t have to go looking for it, it’s there in the Hamas charter. Go read it for yourself. I dare you.

George Orwell was right when he said in a time of deceit, telling the truth becomes hate speech.

But I am one who, perhaps foolishly, lives in hope. Hope that the more this idiocy is laid bare (special thanks to the Free Palestine brigade and the brains trust at Just Stop Oil) the greater and more aggressive the pushback will be. Our future depends on it.