The people of Camden, a small town on the outskirts of south western Sydney, have every right to debate the merits or otherwise of any major development in their town. No doubt many will be concerned about a new McDonalds restaurant as much as they would be worried about a 1,200-pupil school.
Sadly, the legitimate concerns of Camden folk are being hijacked by wacky far-Right types. The Winds of Jihad blog of Muslim-hater Sheik Yer'mami includes a number of posts from Darrin Hodges of the self-styled Anglo-Australian National Community Council. Hodges has been distributing hate material in the Camden local area. His blog includes links to far-Right racist groups including MEMRI and anti-Semitic American commentator Ann Coulter. One post on his blog claims that Islam is in the process of invading Camden.
When outsiders try to infiltrate local debates with a view of spreading sectarian hatred, the results can be a divisiveness that can be difficult to control and that diverts attention away from the real merits of the debate.
Already, issues of race and religion have entered the discussion, as can be seen on the online forums here and in the Camden Advertiser's blog here.
If only this could be treated simply as an issue of local community involvement in Council planning decisions. But sadly, rednecks are busy spreading their infantile prejudices on the rest of us. Now all we need is for John Howard to see a possible wedge and parachute himself into this debate with a view to scoring some desperately-needed votes. Then again, maybe Camden voters will realise that Howard's pet prejudices are not going to help them make their mortgage repayments increased due to interest rates Howard's 2004 election promise couldn't keep down ...
16 comments:
You are not welcome here.
Get out of our country.
anon @ 601, are you Aboriginal or Torres Strait islander? or are you just a white-trash descendant of convict white-trash?
woops, i meant anon@10:21. i must be taking the same druges as anon @10:21 takes and which she pays for by selling herself down william street ...
Lebanese muslims do the druges round mere matey.
anonymous, I'd much rather see you get out of "our" country. You're an absolute whacko.
Ohh yeah, I just read Darrin's blog. What can I say? Paranoid much?
are you Aboriginal or Torres Strait islander?
Dave, why is this important? do you believe that only indigenous people have the right to determine who comes into a country? If you agree that only Aborigines have a legitimate say on immigration, would you not also agree that only the indigenous people of Britain should have a say on who comes into their country? and if not, why not?
Actually Darrin, I believe you should take your pills as recommended by your doctor.
Darrin, I don't think you know the meaning of "indigenous". Like Dave said, take your pills as recommended then come back and ask some intelligent questions.
Anyone want to answer Darrins question? or are you just going to throw insults like good little red drones?
Bah! Idiots abide in all races but us poor whiteys seem to have more self hating morons than anyone else.
its our curse perhaps.
bigkid, do you think muslims are all non-white?
@ "Still Chortling said..."
What is your definition of "indigenous" ?
I asked you first, darrin.
Bigkid, it's not OK for us whitey's to throw insults? Get farked.
@ "Chortle said...", you didn't ask me a question, you made a statement. I asked you a question, what is your definition of "indigenous" ?
Sorry, Irf, MEMRI's not a far-right racist blog. It tranlsates a lot of stuff in the Middle east Media, much of which does not get coverage - sort of a Media Watch-type organisation. The stuff they translate, though, from Arab and Palestinian sources, is definitely far-right and racist, not to mention perfectly icky.
I'm sure the good folk at MEMRI would rather be doing other things with their valuable time but with Arabic anti-Semitism spiralling at record rates, someone has to keep track...
Not too keen on some of the comments (above) in this thread
either. Hardly germane to the issue presented.
Post a Comment