Mr Crossland, 57, who is battling to replace gay rights champion and retiring Liberal MP Warren Entsch in the northern Queensland seat of Leichhardt, does not see removing discrimination against same-sex couples as a priority.
He said yesterday that he was firmly against gay marriages.
Asked whether — like Mr Entsch — he supported removing laws that discriminated against same-sex couples on issues such as superannuation, Mr Crossland said: "I think there's more money to be given to the pensioners and aged care and stuff like that, without worrying about that side of grants or whatever."
Crossland's error was to speak what many Nationals have been whispering in far north Queensland. Two senior party figures have confided to this column they didn't think voters on the Cape would take to a woman.Mark Vaile wasn't too thrilled. Mal Brough didn't seem to mind, reminding listeners on ABC radio:
She used to actually work on a prawn trawler. She'd take most blokes and sit them on their backsides. I'd be a bit wary if I was the Nationals candidate.She sounds like she could easily kick Ian Crossland's arse anyday.
A sad day, we have lost the only sensible Muslim in Australia.I guess Bill Calvin doesn't rate Mrs Ilhan all that highly. And then there is this ...
Posted by Bill Calvin on
2007 10 23 at 01:04 AM •
Don’t it figure? I guy like this buys the farm at 42, yet oxygen theives such as Keysar Trad continue to thrive. Cruel joke.Posted by Texas Bob on 2007Still, on balance, the comments on Blair's blog have been surprisingly positive.
10 23 at 04:34 AM •
... self-obsessed women ... These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them ... I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much.Coulter was also caught out using a speech to the 34th Conservative Political Action Conference to describe Democratic Party presidential candidate John Edwards as a “faggot”. Mr & Mrs Edwards soon got their revenge, raising $100,000 in “Coulter cash” for his campaign.
This month, Coulter waded into the mess first made by Republican White House hopeful John McCain, when he referred to America as a nation founded on the principles of Christianity, indicating that he would prefer to see a fellow Christian in the White House.Burston recognises the parallel existence of Coulter's anti-Semitism and Muslim-phobia ...
Barely a week after McCain's comments, Coulter told an exasperated Jewish talk-show host that in her dreams, heaven - for that matter, America - is a place where everyone is Christian.
Where would the Jews have gone? She went on to explain that that Jews needed to convert to Christians in order to be "perfected," noting that Christians have a "fast track" to God.
Until recently, I failed to take Ann Coulter seriously. I was wrong.They question whether Coulter’s support for Israel should be enough for American Jews to ignore the anti-Semitic undertones of her remarks. Others recognise that far-Right Zionists who make alliances with Muslim-phobic evangelical Christians are harming Judaism and Zionism in the long run. As Ellen Horowitz writes ...
I was wrong to write off as mere stand-up racism her advice after the September 11 attacks ["We should require passports to fly domestically. Passports can be forged, but they can also be checked with the home country in case of any suspicious-looking swarthy males."]
I was wrong to write off as scattershot shtick her comments against women's right to vote, her suggestion that John Edwards was a "faggot" who should have been assassinated by terrorists, her depiction of Islam as a religion whose whose tenets are "along the lines of 'kill everyone who doesn't smell bad and doesn't answer to the name Mohammed.'"
I was wrong to see her as some highly intelligent, well-educated, perversely gifted panderer to the lower common denominator. I was wrong to see her as some overqualified infotainment shock jock. I should have taken her seriously.
Ann Coulter is my enemy. Ann Coulter is the kind of patriotic, persuasive, powerful American who is precisely what is wrong with America.
I'll never underestimate her again. Ann Coulter has a plan for the Jews. She has one for Muslims as well. And it's her people who are exactly the kind of Americans who could find the way to try to carry it out. (emphasis mine)
Coulter has always worn her cross on her sleeve (when she wears sleeves), but Jews never seem to notice these things until the crucifix is dangling within an inch of our eyes. In response to 9/11 she wrote, "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity". But "them" wasn't us, and so we let it pass.Many US-based Jewish organisations such as the Anti-Defamation League have also condemned Coulter.
At a lecture at Northwestern University a few years back she declared: "This is a religious war, not against Islam but for Christianity, for a Christian nation ... The concept of equality, especially when it comes to gender equality, was not invented by Gloria Steinem. It was invented by Jesus Christ. As long as people look long enough, they will always come to Christianity." Good thing we weren't looking.
But Jews in the Diaspora are always shocked when they are finally reminded of who they are, and recent declarations of Christian nationalism by John McCain and Ann Coulter have stirred Lady Liberty's simmering melting pot and sensitivities. American Jews are feeling the heat.
Things are getting sticky for us Jews in Israel too. What was supposed to be a practical marriage of convenience to improve and strengthen our economic, political, and security standing in Israel, has been converted into a full blown love affair of biblical proportions. And our evangelical partners are pushing for a Judeo-Christian consummation -- a spiritual bonding -- of our relationship. Maybe we should have had a pre-nup drawn up before embarking on this precarious interfaith venture ...
Knowing what we now know about Coulter and company, do we really want to pursue theologically-based bonds with Christians who are so passionate about their beliefs? And if we do opt to continue our relationship, how far do we take it?
Should the Jewish people attempt to form a union with another faith whose members can't keep their mouths shut about what they perceive to be the sacred truth -- but which to us is utter and explosive blasphemy?
With headlines from major Christian Zionist and Jewish Messianic publications boasting that "Jews Beg Christians to Save the Temple Mount", it appears that we have been handed the short end of the grafted Judeo-Christian stick. (emphasis mine)
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un.He was just 41 years old.
(From God we come, to God we return.)
Loyalty first and foremost to Australia should also be remembered by some religious leaders, including some radical Muslim leaders in Australia, who pretend to speak for the faith, but instead promote intolerance and hatred.Words © 2007 Irfan Yusuf
My Muslim faith qualifies me to strongly denounce any racist and inflammatory comments made by any Muslim leaders because they perpetuate a stereotype that is unhelpful and dangerous ...
I love Australia for what it stands for. It embraces opportunity, inclusion and, most important of all, mateship. What Australia has taught me is that if you give something - like the hand of friendship or provide a service that fulfils a need - you will be repaid many times over. They say that America is the 'land of opportunity', but I say Australia is. I'm a good example - a working-class boy made good.
JENNY BROCKIE: … And I'm interested in how some of you are getting your information in the run-up to this election. Mitch Gray, you're 18, you're voting for the first time. Tell me how you found out about APEC?
MITCH GRAY: 'Chaser'. I subscribe to it by iTunes. I didn't know anything about it until I watched 'Chaser' and for me all you hear about it was in the news, in the papers, how they shut off the whole Sydney CBD centre and you watched 'Chaser' jump out of the cars, chuck a couple of Canadian flags in, got all the way in, thought, "Well, we can't keep going," turned around, and you think about that, security-wise, it just, it's sort of a bit disheartening.
JENNY BROCKIE: Alright, so that became a major source of information for you, a satire program.
MITCH GRAY: Yeah, you always hear them paying out Rudd, Howard, you know, channel companies, because their policies are wrong or they're bad and they test-drive and things like that. That's where I get all my political information from.
JENNY BROCKIE: Do people get their information from comedy? Yeah, how many of you? Yeah, Doug.
DOUG GAUL: Basically from the 'Chaser' as well and whatever I catch. I watch a little bit of news and, um, basically I just think that youth's exposure to politics is very minimal as you grow up. I think a lot of it has to do with the way that you grow up at home. There's not a lot at school so basically it's what you take on yourself and what your parents show you.
... the anti-Muslim rhetoric is much more complex. For example, most, if not all, current terrorist attacks are being perpetrated by Muslims in the name of Islam.
... serious commentators do not simply poke fun at Muslim dietary laws or cite verses from the Koran. Many of us have genuine concerns regarding Islamic terrorism and the level of support this generates among ordinary Muslims.
When the leader of a political party ... starts scapegoating religious minorities, the alarm bells of history should be ringing loud and clear.Presumably Abetz was referring to Adolf Hitler and Jews. Or was that Billy Hughes and Catholics? Or John Howard and Muslims? Or Kevin Andrews and Sudanese Seventh Day Adventists? Who knows.
The Brethren see John Howard basically as their hero. I mean he's, I know John Hales backed him from the 1970s when he was treasurer he was seen as the ideal candidate for prime ministership long before he was even prime minister.One can only wonder how many Bennelong Liberal Party campaigns have received funding from the Brethren Express.
The Hollow Men: A study in the politics of deceptionHelen Clark and [NZ Treasurer] Michael Cullen clearly believe there is a place for tax cuts - it's called Australia.That was June 2006. By November the National Party leader wasn’t sounding so … er … brash. The book that played a key role in his demise is the subject of this review.
You might imagine that focus groups are designed to find out what groups of people think and want … the Crosby/Textor groups had a completely different purpose and revealed a deeper level off political manipulation.Hager then goes onto show how C/T used ‘prompted concerns’ to help the Nats develop and frame policy. He continues …
… The intention is to ‘uncover’ perceptions and feelings of which the people concerned may be consciously aware – or even just potential perceptions and feelings – and find ways to use these ‘persuasive creative leads’ to influence target groups of voters.
In this way they strategise the possibility of moving voters from, for instance, thinking that tax cuts ‘miss the point’ to the ‘prompted perception’ that tax cuts are necessary in response to uncertainty about the growth of the economy. The [C/T] word for this isMuch C/T work with the Kiwi-Nats focussed on developing dog-whistle messages about immigrants and indigenous people. Simplistic messages containing thinly-veiled racism were almost enough to get Brash over the line.
leveraging … Such perceptions may have little to do with how people feel and the leveraging messages may not even be true, but they may still provide ‘strategic
opportunities’ …
Yet in the weeks and months around Partition, over 1 million people lost their lives in religious riots in northern India ’s Punjab and Bengal wings. In the cities of Lahore and Amritsar , on either side of what was then India ’s boundary with West Pakistan , it wasn’t unknown for silent trains to enter their destination, their carriages turned into communal coffins.I ask you white people this question – what’s your problem? Always complaining about others. Muslims trying to kill me. Refugees taking my job. And I love this one. Aboriginals have a drinking problem. Yeah, right. Any nation that can turn a beach barbecue into a neo-Nazi rally in a few hours has no right to complain about other people’s drinking!
... the one significant blot on [Howard’s] record
in public life … a certain lack of empathy in dealing with individuals with whom
he does not identify at a personal level: for example, Asian Australians in the
late 1980s and asylum seekers in the early 21st century.
MEDIA Watch host Monica Attard has had the tables turned on her after being exposed for initially refusing to pay a tradesperson - then hiding behind legal threats through ABC lawyers.
The "self-appointed guru of what's right and wrong" copped a serve of her own yesterday after 2GB broadcaster Ray Hadley read on air an email complaint from a listener referring to Attard as "the rudest person I think I've ever spoken to".
Some years ago, in the immediate aftermath of the first Bali bombing, a former client of mine was charged with possessing possible explosives. One journalist reported that this fellow had Arabic books in his house and had recently started attending religious classes at the local
mosque.
The police involved in the investigation had already ruled out the possibility of terrorism. Yet the journalist involved wanted to use the pages of his Sydney newspaper to spread hysteria about the
possibility of terrorism by making reference to a recent religious conversion on the road to Damascus (or in my former client’s case, Mecca).
Ironically, the journalist involved had a distinctly Arabic-sounding surname. His* own background suggested that a visit to his own home might reveal Arabic books and possible visits to the institutions of religious denominations at the heart of Middle Eastern conflict. I raised these points on an e-mail group, with a view to levelling the playing field and exposing what I felt was the journalist’s hypocrisy.
Some four months later, I received a letter from an in-house lawyer of the media organisation for which that journalist worked. That letter corrected some erroneous assumptions I had made concerning the journalist’s ethno-religious background (I got his Middle Eastern denomination wrong in my e-mail).
More importantly, the letter threatened me with defamation proceedings for daring to question the journalist’s integrity on a private subscriber-only e-mail list. Perhaps the journalist should have
realised that sometimes threatening a litigation lawyer with legal proceedings is as effective as threatening a surgeon with a penicillin injection.
To make matters worse, the journalist did not even bother to spend his own money to brief a lawyer, preferring to use the resources of the company’s legal department to fight a personal legal
battle.
(*Not the journalist's real gender.)So what's good for a tabloid scribe isn't good for an ABC journalist. Then again, this is the same newspaper that complains about a TV Soap that "leads kids astray" while showing pole dancing, yet makes hundreds of thousands of dollars advertising strippers, massage parlours, brothels and other "adult services" in its classifieds section.
... the one significant blot on his record in
public life … a certain lack of empathy in dealing with individuals with whom he
does not identify at a personal level: for example, Asian Australians in the
late 1980s and asylum seekers in the early 21st century.
EDUCATION NEEDED
DR Victor Batarseh, mayor of Bethlehem (AJN 31/8), is a typical example of what Bat Ye’or has called the “dhimmi syndrome”: non-Muslims who negate themselves in serving the cause of the Islamic Umma.
Dr Batarseh’s mimetic instinct will bring nothing but grief for Palestinian Christians. Dr Batarseh, along with many others like him, is damaging his own people’s interests. While Islamisation is overwhelming and transforming once-Christian Bethlehem, its pro-jihadist mayor goes on an overseas trip to perform to the anti-Israel lobby.
His legacy to his people will be accelerated Islamisation and dechristianisation of the birthplace of Christ.
The best antidote to such duplicity is to educate Australians in the effects of dhimmitude, so that Dr Batarseh and others like him can be clearly seen for what they are.
Reverend Dr Mark Durie
Vicar of Caulfield, Vic
PERSPECTIVE ON BETHLEHEM
HAVING personally visited Bethlehem early this year and witnessed from the Palestinian perspective how the concrete wall of the separation barrier has literally cut through private property and separated loved ones from each other, I was dismayed to read that Jewish community leaders accused the mayor of Bethlehem of politicising his trip to Australia for mentioning such basic facts (AJN 31/8).
Wherever one stands on the justification of the wall for security reasons, the harmful effects of the wall for the residents of Bethlehem cannot be denied. If we don’t, as a community, open our hearts and minds wide enough to encompass the legitimacy of claims like those of the mayor of Bethlehem – that can coexist with concerns for security – we will be forced to continually distort the truth and also look like buffoons at the same time.
Melanie Landau
Caulfield, Vic
CAUTIOUS WARNINGThis is a very disturbing development. AUJS is the peak body of Jewish tertiary students. It purports to represent the interests of all Jewish tertiary students on campuses across Australia.
I'm sure that all readers of this paper were angered by the recent race bashing on Carlisle Street. According to the victims, the thugs shouted racist slogans such as “Aussie Pride”.
For all to see on their website, the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) is advertising a rally to be held by a group called SIOOz (Stop Islamisation of Oz). The group is holding a rally on the steps of the state library to protest the apparent threat of Islam and shari’a law to all Australians. SIOOz encourages people to bring banners with slogans such as “Help Muslims escape Islam”. The advertisement goes to great lengths to point out “(SIOOz) is not against Muslims, who are also prisoners of this racist, oppressive ideology. This is a battle against an evil ideology. We [SIOOZ] are Islamophobic, not Muslimphobic.”
Last year, a number of Jewish organisations, as well as some members of AUJS, took part in the Embracing Youth Project, a valuable cross-cultural program held with Muslim and Jewish youth.
A number of friendships were forged and it was a learning experience for all. Has AUJS changed its position since last year? Is AUJS serious in thinking that advertising this clearly racist rally is acceptable?
Hopefully, the only AUJS involvement in the SIOOz rally is its foolish support rather than an active role in the organisation.
Jesse Osowicki
Elsternwick, Vic
... unlike radical Islamists, Jews have never perpetrated violence in an attempt to advance a political ideology based on their religion.I guess the Stern Gang was all a figment of our imagination. I guess the King David Hotel self-detonated, as did the village of Deir Yassin. And those nasty Sikh separatists were obviously the ones who laid siege to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
If Muslimphobia is an emerging trend, perhaps Muslims should review the behaviour of those extremists in their own communities in an attempt to define its cause.And how do you propose we do that? Do we set up our own intelligence and law enforcement network? How will we know who the extremists are? Are we all linked up to some huge international Islamic intranet moderated by Usama bin Ladin?
Yusuf undermines his argument by making an unsubstantiated statement that many prominent Jewish voices are haters of Islam.Obviously Raphael Israeli, Melanie Phillips, Daniel Pipes etc all have Brahmin Hindu heritage. But I do acknowledge that many people of different faiths (including Judaism) have been at the forefront of exposing Muslimphobes. In this regard, The Jewish News played a prominent role in exposing the hatred of Raphael Israeli.
Perhaps Yusuf should start looking to his fellow Muslims to become prominent in promoting the Australian way of life.Perhaps Goldberg should tell this to this chap. And then to him. And then to her. And let's not forget this bloke.
