Tuesday, April 24, 2007

CRIKEY: One law for the mufti, another for the pastor


While The Australian manages to find excuses to keep Sheik Hilaly on its pages (even if only by citing Lebanese community leaders, as if the other 59 nationalities of Aussie Muslims are irrelevant), one of the major wedges used by its conservative columnists and the politicians they serve seems to have fallen between the cracks.

What made Hilaly’s statements so outrageous were that they compromised an essential Aussie value – gender equality. They also potentially justified violence against women, something hundreds of prominent Australian men campaign to eliminate each year.

So what happens when a Christian pastor takes a soft line on domestic violence? Fairfax newspapers have reported on a debate within the Assemblies of God churches to extend the acceptable grounds of divorce ...

... to include cases of serious physical abuse.
And who is opposing it? Who thinks women who get bashed by their husbands shouldn’t be allowed a divorce blessed by the Church? According to Danny Nalliah ...

Divorce must be kept in line with scripture and remarriage should only be on the grounds of sexual infidelity, as upheld by Christian leaders for the past 20 centuries.
Will John Howard remind us all of a small minority of Pentecostal Christians needing to learn Australian values like equality for women? Will Kevin Andrews tell Mr Nalliah to consider leaving Australia? Will Kevin Rudd suggest removing Nalliah’s citizenship?

It’s OK for Danny Nalliah to behave like a Christian version of Hilaly, effectively telling women in his congregation to shut up and take it when their husbands bash them up. He’ll probably still receive a reference from Treasurer Peter Costello for his next court case. No doubt the PM will still send a special Australia Day message to Nalliah’s Catch The Fire Ministries.

So as we get ready to pay tribute to the diggers who gave their lives to defend our values, we can feel secure in the knowledge that certain clerics (and their Liberal Party supporters) can continue to preach, rally and protest against these values. Clearly what’s good for Mufti Goose isn’t good for Pastor Gander.

First published on the Crikey! daily alert on 24 April 2007.

© Irfan Yusuf 2007

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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the heads up on this one.

I wait in hope for an outraged response from the relevant hypocritical, opportunistic pollies.

I have a feeling I'll be waiting for quite some time.

Anonymous said...

With all due respect, Hilaly’s comments are considered newsworthy precisely because of his (former) position as Mufti of Australia.

This comment you draw attention to is not coming from a comparable authority within the Christian community. Not by a long shot. Catch the Fire Ministries are one right wing splinter group within one denomination within the Australian Christian movement. The article itself indicates the denomination as a whole is heading in the opposite direction. If the head of the denomination had made such comments that would be a different matter, but he did not.

There comments are equally deplorable, but they do not come from a figure of comparable authority. That's why the attention they are given is not equal.

Rest assured, the Australian community is equally ready to lampoon Christians given half a chance. I understand Muslim leaders get unfair coverage at times, but I don't think this is one of them.

Matt Stone

Anonymous said...

The Australian community? Is that a different entity to the Muslim community?

Anonymous said...

It certainly is a case of 'pot- calling-the-kettle-black' when a muslim comments on Assemblies of God and their attitude to divorce. Why aren't you examining the muslim attitude to divorce? The average reader would find your own divorce quite interesting. Your whole marriage was so laughable. How you can think you have public credibility and a rational mind when your own life is just an ongoing series of depressing dysfunctional disasters is quite an achievement of self-delusion. Stop stalking Danny and attacking him just because he found the love of Jesus and converted from vicious hateful Islam. Your ongoing attempt to find meaning to your life by attacking Christians is pathetic

Rhys said...

Interesting article, Irfan. Keep up the good work!

Anonymous said...

Danny Nalliah has the right to live in Australia and to take refuge from muslim persecution. What right do you have? Was your family fleeing Christian persecution? No. Where in the world are Christians persecuting muslims? You seem to think that you can persecute Christians in this country. Irfan Useless should leave Australia while he can still fit his fat pig body on a plane.

Hints said...

Matt

Also with respect, it should be noted that Nalliah along with being President of Catch the Fire Ministries, he heads "RISE UP AUSTRALIA, a national prayer move which is sweeping across Australia, with more than hundred churches involved and around one thousand people participating in these prayer meetings." There are branches of these sects across Australia and NZ. Nalliah stood for the Family Fist party and is a well known public figure due to the notorious vilification court case.

Thus he may provide a significant role model with his anti-woman nastiness to many more men and potential wife bashers numerically than the Mufti. And that concerns me as a woman.

And still no criticism from the pollies.

Meanwhile, Howard's office sends a letter out stating "There is a widely held view that there is a place for both scientific assessment to examine ways to relieve the impact of drought as well as the spiritual approach."

Nalliah then prances in Fitzroy Gardens.

'Yesterday's prayer meeting carried the message that it was Australia's ambiguous morality that had caused the drought, not environmental factors.

"We are a materially rich country, but we are a spiritually and morally bankrupt nation that has turned our back on Jesus," Pastor Nalliah told the gathering.

He said that because of the prayer session, the drought would break within days.'

We're waiting. Again.

Anonymous said...

"...So as we get ready to pay tribute to the diggers who gave their lives to defend our values..."

How many muslims were Anzacs? Zero
How many muslims did the Anzacs kill?
Not enough.

Our diggers gave their lives to try and stop the jihad which the muslim caliphate had declared for absolutely no reason except maniac muslim war-mongering.

You can sit on your obese arse barracking for the Pakistani cricket team as much as you want. Kindly do it in some muslim country and not here in Christian Australia. We don't need a lying Paki lawyer to tell us lies or to dishonour the ANZACS by pretending that the ANZACS died for your muslim values.

Anonymous said...

Yes, of course, Anon 301, the ANZAC's died for your dream of white supremacy. That explains why they chose an Aboriginal as their head sniper. It also explains why at least 20% of the Allied troops were Indians. As for you, anon, it's because of dole-bludging white trash like you that my taxes are so high. Do yourself a favour, grab a pistol and shoot yourself.

Anonymous said...
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