Christchurch shooting: Indonesians likely to block ‘ignorant senator’ Anning

Indonesia has strongly condemned the remarks made by Fraser Anning in the wake of the Christchurch terror attack.

Senator Fraser Anning faces a ban from visiting Indonesia. Picture: AAP

Indonesia has strongly condemned the remarks made by ­Fraser Anning in the wake of the Christchurch terrorist attacks as having “no place in the modern world”, with the Queensland senator likely to be barred from visiting the country.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi called Australia’s ambassador, Gary Quinlan, to a meeting yesterday to convey the government’s concerns over Senator Anning’s statement that the cause of the massacre was an ­“immigration program which ­allowed Muslim fanatics to ­migrate to New Zealand”.

“Ambassador Quinlan conveyed his reassurance that the statement made by Senator ­Anning does not reflect the position and sentiments of the government and the people of Australia,’’ Ms Marsudi said.

“Indonesia and Australia agreed to strengthen co-operation on the promotion of tolerance,” she said yesterday.

Senator Anning’s statement has provoked lively discussion across media and social media platforms in Indonesia, as have the subsequent actions of the 17-year-old Victorian schoolboy who cracked an egg over the head of the senator at a political event on ­Saturday.

Indonesia periodically raises concerns about the rise of conservative anti-Asian and anti-Islam political parties in Australia.

In 2017 the Foreign Ministry expressed concerns over One ­Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s call for a halt to Muslim immigration, surveillance cameras in mosques and schools, and a royal commission into whether Islam is a policy or an ideology.

“It’s a concern for any country; for Indonesia when it happens in Indonesia and also I’m sure it’s a concern for Australia,” Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said at the time.

Yesterday Mr Nasir, who next month takes up the post as ambassador to France, said Senator Anning’s statement “is something which we condemn strongly”.

“The statement showed the senator’s ignorance towards Islam as a religion of peace. It is wrong to associate terrorism and violence with Islam, or any other religion. This view conveyed by the Australian senator has no place in a modern world, not in Australia, Indonesia or any other place in the world,” he said.

Mr Nasir said several Indonesian politicians had called for Senator Anning to be banned from entering Indonesia.

“So far the senator has no plan to come to Indonesia, but if there is (a plan), the decision to allow him in solely rests with the Indonesian government,” he said.

It is not the first time Mr Quinlan has been summoned to the Foreign Ministry since he took up one of Australia’s most important diplomatic posts last year, just as Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s suggestion that Australia could recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital sparked a diplomatic stoush between the two countries.

His latest meeting with Ms Retno comes as Foreign Minister Marise Payne is due in Indonesia tonight ahead of a high-level dialogue on Indo-Pacific co-operation. Behind-doors discussions tomorrow, to be attended by ministers and senior officials from 18 countries including China, the US, Japan, India, Vietnam, Singapore, New Zealand, Russia, The Philippines and South Korea, are ­designed to build consensus around the concept of the Indo-Pacific and the future of a region seen as critically important in coming decades.