This is the voice of white conservative Australia that resolutely rejects a multicultural Australia in the name of Australia. Christian schools are okay not Islamic ones is the message:
They look and sound like xenophobes and rednecks to me. But then the Muslim leadership in Australia strikes me as bunch of conservative men with poor English language who have little in common with the younger Australian born Muslim-Australians in a multicultural Australia.
Camden Mayor Chris Patterson rejected claims the decision was made on religious or racial grounds, saying it was based on concerns about traffic flow and the loss of agricultural land. The loss of agricultural land? That happens all the time as cities expand. Traffic flows on the suburban fringe? Presumably, judging by the comments of the locals if it was a Catholic, Anglican or Jewish school there would be no objection.
The reason? Muslims were incompatible with the local community.There speaks One Nation conservatism.
| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 8:19 PM | Permalink
Les,
I'd rather talk about the views expressed to ABC television than the level of intelligence. Those views expressed an antagonism to Muslim-Australians because they were both Islamic and Muslim.They were seen foreigners not as Australian citizens. It is One Nation conservative populism defending white Australia.
With 130 plus different racial/cultural groups in Australia I think the correct word is xenomania not xenophobia. The sad thing is that if you dressed that guy in flowing robes and put one of those funny hats on him he'd sound just like a muslim cleric; full of bile and tosh. What a failure this multiculturalism is turning out to be.
Cam,
I agree. that means we have to accept the remarks from One Nation Conseratives about what 'Australia' is ---white Anglo Saxon and British etc---and their intense opposition to Muslim Australians as an expression of their liberty.
Yes I missed the point you were trying to make in my late night attendance. But, the community mentioned has the right to protest. They have the right to try to keep their community nice as they see it. If you seek to control them don't you risk becoming what you detest?
The ABC took the side of the ones that filled the hall. The only one from the Muslim community to attend from what I read was the solicitor. The story really was only going to be depicted from one aspect wasn't it.
As I said there are dumb people everywhere. And they do tend to become concentrated in areas of cheap land so this sort of thing is standard.
watching the ABC thing I wondered whether the people there were representative of Camden people generally. They were like a lynch mob - no wonder nobody else turned up. It's possible that Camden doesn't deserve the reputation it's getting because of the handful we saw on TV.
Les argues that they have the right to keep their area nice as they see it. I'd argue that Muslim kids, like any other kids, have the right to go to school in safety. If the school were to go ahead, who could guarantee the students' safety from the lynch mob? Would students be heckled or assaulted or arrive to find pig heads in the school grounds or whatever? If the council is prepared to side with the mob, could other authorities in the area be trusted to police the area without discrimination?
The argument has been framed in terms of protecting Camden residents from Muslims, but it looks completely different if you start talking about protecting Muslim children from Camden residents.
What you have described is not "multiculturalis." What you have descrived is "liberalism." Multiculti is anathema to liberalism.
Gary
How many One Nation supporters do you know and/or have discussed politics with? I know stacks. I can assure you they most certainly do not see Australia as "Anglo-Saxon and British." In fact they are quite passionate about this. They see Australia as a land of English-speaking AUSTRALIANS. It baffles - and frustrates - me so much that even in 2008 The Luvvies are still too dumb to have worked this out yet.
"As I said there are dumb people everywhere. And they do tend to become concentrated in areas of cheap land so this sort of thing is standard."
Um this is an interesting development, "Cheap Land" = Dumb people.Maybe we should do a study on the relation of wealth and the degree of inherent racism.
Carve it up all you like, this attempt to assimilate a religion that belongs to a people, what ever their race,we are currently in conflict with, Is doomed to fail.
The rednecks of Camden are a sad reflection of the society we live in, we can't change the way they think,so for mine, the council made the right decision.
How can the liberty to express yourself culturally, ie multiculturalism, not be consistent with liberalism. As soon as there is even an iota of coercion to a single culture, whether it be national, ethnic, or whatever, it breaks the liberty to express yourself culturally and by definition has to be inconsistent with liberalism.
I can assure you they most certainly do not see Australia as "Anglo-Saxon and British." In fact they are quite passionate about this. They see Australia as a land of English-speaking AUSTRALIANS
Anglo-Saxon refers to ethnicity, British refers to cultural heritage and One nation refers to nationality.
Theirs--- I am not talking about the supporters of the old One Nation political party--- is a particular conception of Australia.
The under current of the Camden public (Howard's battlers) in this clip is white racism, which can be heard through the prism of their fears.
Of course, no one speaks the racism openly--nonwhites do not belong here because this is a white place. What we have is race is playing a role in their decisions about a school that it ought not to play.
What we would have is the response of "I'm not a racist", which is a move designed to shut down debate. The move deflects the criticism by claiming that any critical interrogation is tantamount to calling them a racist, which they most assuredly are not.
I think it is more testament to the reality that abusisng somebody with the "racist" card has stopped having any real meaning.
Over the past twenty years or so far too many have exploited - what should be a very serious accusation - the word inappropriately, more as a self-marketing excercise than as a sincere attempt to discuss an issue.
Unfair I think.
All countries have dumb people.