HATEWATCH: Daily Telegraph Editor promotes conspiratorial hate-site on his blog?

Tim Blair, blogger and opinion page editor of the Sydney tabloid Daily Telegraph, has a large advertisement placed on his blog for a site calling itself “Australian Islamist Monitor”.

From its title, the site appears harmless enough. Who could object to a site seeking to expose extremist theocratic politics in Australia? Islamism is just one of numerous socially toxic trends, and Muslims make up most of its victims.

The problem is that Muslims also make up the subject of the hysterical and often racist rhetoric on the AIM site. This is not an Islamist monitor. This site is devoted to maligning mainstream Muslim institutions with little relevance or interest in politics. It also promotes some kind of grand conspiracy that ordinary Muslim citizens making up hardly 2% of the Australian community are conspiring to take over Australia.

Here’s a taste of what the AIM site has to offer …

No other totalitarian ideology mastered deception and playing the victimhood card better than Islam … It was the founder of Islam, Muhammad, who discovered that you can get away with murder as long as you insist that you acted under extreme provocation and/or in self-defense. (Roland Durendal, posted 14/02/07)

Heck, people are free to criticise Islam or any other religion. No skin off my nose. The problem is that this site doesn't limit itself to maligning a religion.

If you look at the weblinks listing alleged Islamist sites and institutions, you’ll notice even companies and institutions that have little if anything to do with religion, let alone political Islamism. Among these is Habib Finance Australia, an arm of a major Pakistani bank with branches across the world.

Also in the list are mainstream institutions such as the Auburn Gallipoli Mosque, as well as interfaith initiatives such as the Australian Intercultural Society.

The objectives of the site include:

To make the Australian public (schools, universities, government programs) aware of the true intentions of what is currently recognised as the mainstream Islam (and help them identify these hostile intentions).

… and …

All applicants from Muslim regions must be treated as a potential security risk (including Muslim refugees from Islamic countries claiming religious persecution).

… and …

In all government employment policies national security must take priority over equal opportunity principles.

This isn't just about Islamist ideology or its more extreme adherents. This is about drumming up serious hatred toward anyone among 360,000 Australians that tick the "Muslim" box on their census forms. It's about using the kind of rhetoric used to drum up hatred toward Jews some 60 years ago. Now the same type of rhetoric is promoted on the personal website of the editor of a major Sydney newspaper.

Is this the type of material which a senior editor of a major newspaper seeks to promote? Why is Tim Blair promoting such a site on his blog?

Tim Blair's buddies on the AIM site also make room to mention me in the following glowing terms ...

His [Hilaly's] recent support for Iranian Islamic theocracy, induced some severe reactions against our anti-Semitic, Islamist Mufti- not only from the MSM and politicians- but even from Islamist toadies like Irfan Yusuf, who normally would try his best to implant some deceptive spin on the issue with his usual total disregard for facts.

Sounds like the sort of nonsense certain anonymous comment-makers leave on this blog from time to time. Or the kinds of comments the Daily Telegraph allow on their blogs.

Words © 2007 Irfan Yusuf