SPORT/RELIGION: We can slap away Eddie McGuire's 'mussie' comment. The real problem is the use of 'footy'

Australian Muslims have a sense of humour and no problem being likened to insects; what gets me is calling Australian rules "footy". 

What on earth was Collingwood boss Eddie McGuire on about when he described Victorian Sports Minister John Eren as a "Mussie"? Or should that be "Mossie"? Or is this the new slang for "Muslim"?

And why should non-AFL people like myself care?

Because apparently McGuire was being racist. And racism affects us all. Apart from Muslims, of course. Muslims aren't a race but rather some invading alien species from the Planet Gsjhtr%$hj.

Personally I don't see what the big deal is. It isn't the first time I've been named an extremely annoying insect.

At my all-boys Anglican Cathedral school, there were three non-Anglicans who wore our non-believing hearts on our sleeves. Brian was Jewish, Tim was an atheist though his Catholic heritage made him a non-believer among super-low-church Anglicans. I was the Muslim.

We'd give our school chaplain hell, but we also happily threw dirt at each other using unfortunate stereotypes. When the stereotypes no longer stuck, we had to use more novel approaches.

One morning, Tim approached me all excited. "I killed one of your type in the shower yesterday. I slapped him dead just as he was about to bite me and suck my blood." I was confused. Tim clarified with a question.

Aren't you a Mossie?

Brian made sure everyone in our year knew Tim's new terminology. Soon blokes would find a mosquito buzzing around in the playground, point to it and ask my permission.

Do you mind if I flatten one of your cousins

? Another would remark:

How come you never seem to have mosquito bites? Oh yeah, I forgot. They never attack their own.

Some years later at university, I befriended an Anglo-Australian Muslim convert. Dave who had been around the mosque and religious organisation scene for more than a decade. Like many converts during the 1980s, Dave was not made to feel very welcome in a scene dominated by "ethnic" Muslims who treated converts with disdain or distrust.

Convert experiences were very similar to those of young Muslims like myself who resented religious spaces that treated Islam as cultural relics of life "back home".

I mentioned to Dave about how I was referred to as a "Mossie" at school. He had a good chuckle.

Mate, that's nothing. One of the earliest converts in Sydney was a bloke named Yusuf. He was doing a PhD and was organising activities for converts.

Yusuf understood that converts were often subject to pressure from fringe Muslim groups. He knew converts needed educational programs that reflected Australian norms so he produced a newsletter which was sent to more than 500 converts across the country. It was the 1970s and with no email or Facebook back then, it was all cut and paste and licking stamps onto handwritten envelopes. The newsletter was for Australian Muslims, for Muslims who saw Islam as something for Australia and not just a carbon copy of whatever was happening in Ankara or Lahore or Tripoli.

And the name of this publication? The Aussie Mossie.

Apparently the subheading was: "Watch out or we'll bite!"

Yes, Australian Muslims had a sense of humour, an understanding of Australian abbreviation and even an ability to rhyme. Muslims have been happily describing themselves as "Mossies" for more than four decades. So much for not integrating.

Nowadays, the biggest group of Muslims here are those born in Australia. Most of us are Aussie Mossies.

Thanks to events happening overseas, we're getting a rough ride. We're told to say our faith is one of peace like we really mean it. Our ladies are subjected to both domestic violence at home and non-domestic violence on public transport. Across the country, crowds of thugs and neo-Nazis are holding rallies to reclaim the country from us.

There are some real haters out there. But I'm not sure if Collingwood boss Eddie McGuire is one of them.

For starters, spotting the Sports Minister as a Turk isn't something that should come as a surprise to anyone who knows anything about McGuire. Seriously, McGuire grew up in Broadmeadows. He knows a Turk when he sees one.

But there is one thing I'm deeply offended about, not so much as a Muslim and as a decent human being. The story about McGuire's comments was placed on the Fairfax website headed "REAL FOOTY".

Fancy describing a game where huge men wear tiny shorts as footy, let alone real footy. I'm deeply offended and demand an apology.

And if it's true that the minister prefers to play "soccer", well I'm happy he leads by example. Because REAL footy is played throughout the world with feet, not hands.

Irfan Yusuf is a PhD candidate at Deakin University and has no interest in AFL. He is the author of Once Were Radicals: My Years as a Teenage Islamo-Fascist. This article was first published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 11 August 2015.

OPINION: Muslims shouldn't have to keep apologising for terrorist attacks

The general response in the West to the appalling January 7 Paris attacks show that the Western view of terrorism has barely changed since 9/11. The same themes persist - "they" are terrorising "us". "Their" moderates need to do more to stop "their" extremists from attacking "us". Why aren't more of "their" moderates speaking out? Why don't "they" respect "our" values? Why don't "they" take responsibility?

Surely holding all Muslims (one-quarter of the world's population) collectively responsible for the actions of fringe groups should be universally hounded as imbecilic. Instead, many of the "official" Muslim spokespeople have taken this exclusionary message to heart.

Each time there is a terrorist attack on a Western country, they all but trip over themselves and each other to condemn - at times not even waiting for anyone to confirm the actual motives of those ultimately held responsible.

The same set formula, the same mantras are reported. "We condemn. It has nothing to do with us or our faith."

One can hardly blame them for this. In the Australian imagination, terrorism and Islam are interchangeable.

Whether it be small evangelical and far-right groups complaining about halal certification of Vegemite or opponents of mosque developments, the spectre of terrorism is ever present.

Even after it was established that a fringe loner was responsible for the Martin Place attack, some commentators insisted "sheikh" Haron had a substantial following.

Those who scream the loudest about the alleged Islamic threat to Australia are often those complaining they aren't free to speak loudly about the threat because of "stifling political correctness" or Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

Yet there's a new generation of Muslims born and brought up in Australia who better understand and are less afraid to engage with media, politics and mainstream culture than their elders.

Many of them see their elders' rush to condemn terrorist acts as having the opposite effect to that intended. They see their elders' statements as reinforcing a dominant mindset on Islam and Muslims that is patronising and at times even xenophobic.

Conventional wisdom about terrorism is certainly worth questioning.

Jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State regard many, if not most, Muslims as kuffar, plural of kafir or infidel. These groups have killed a far greater number of Muslims than Jews and Christians.

In December, about 132 students and 13 staff at the Army Public School in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar were gunned down by the Pakistan Taliban. The Peshawar attacks received nowhere near as much media coverage nor pious statements from world leaders.

Nor was there much said about Boko Haram's assaults in Nigeria. In one such assault, which took place around the same time as the Paris attack, more than 1000 people were murdered. The Nigerian schoolgirls have still not been captured, though they have been immortalised in a Charlie Hebdo cartoon depicting them as pregnant welfare queens demanding no one touch their payments.

Muslims are often accused of seeing themselves as victims. But when so little emphasis is placed on a far greater number of non-Western terror deaths, young Western Muslims can be forgiven for seeing this as an indication of chronic Western victimhood.

Westerners are the only victims - or at least the only victims who matter.

No one should be murdered for drawing cartoons or for working as a policeman or for visiting a supermarket. But our knowledge and consciousness of terrorism is almost always limited to our own cultural backyard. Our sense of reality is distorted.

According to the 2013 Global Terrorism Index, 80 per cent of all terrorism-related deaths occurred in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria.

In sixth place was India, where terrorist deaths doubled. And who are the most feared group in India?

Communist terrorist groups are by far the most frequent perpetrators and the main cause of deaths in India ... Three Maoist communist groups claimed responsibility for 192 deaths in 2013, which was nearly half of all deaths from terrorism in India.

The Maoist uprising, which started in 1967, has been operating in 20 of India's 29 states.

But is the hypocrisy and victimhood that pervades much of the Australian and the broader Western debate on terrorism enough reason for community spokespersons not to speak the truth and call a spade a spade?

Haters can allow their hate to compromise their beliefs. They can point the finger at Muslims for being terrorists whilst ignoring them - and others - as victims.

Perhaps the issue is not whether to condemn terrorism but rather when, to condemn all political violence regardless of who are perpetrators and who are victims. Ultimately it doesn't matter who the victims are. Unjustly killing one is equivalent to killing all humanity. Surely that's a Biblical and Qur'anic principle we can all agree on.​

Irfan Yusuf is a lawyer and author of Once Were Radicals: My Years as a Teenage Islamofascist. This article was first published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 16 January 2015.

COMMENT: Why David Hicks matters ...

I've just started reading David Hicks' memoirs. I'm upto the part where he travels to Pakistan and spends time with the Tabligh Jamaat, an international Muslim missionary effort founded in India during the early 1940's. So many young Muslims have been with the TJ at some stage or other, myself included.

Hicks has gove to Pakistan after spending some time with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) who were fighting with the support of the United States and its NATO alies. Some fruitloops like to claim that the KLA was ome kind of al-Qaeda outfit. That's a bit like saying that the Vatican is a product of the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church.

Cynthia Banham reminds us in a column for the Sydney Morning Herald of why Hicks' memoirs are important. Here are some excerpts.

... Hicks's memoirs are an important development for our democracy.
Advertisement: Story continues below

Why? The Howard and Rudd governments failed to investigate his allegations of abuse, mistreatment and torture while in US custody. Consequently, this is likely to be our only insight into what happened to him.

I haven't yet read Leigh Sales' book about Hicks so I can't confirm or deny this. Then again, I think Sales' book was published when Hicks was still at the gulag.

As a liberal democracy, the manner in which our government treats Australian citizens, or permits them to be treated by foreign states, in a time of war or national security crisis - or any time - should concern us.

It should concern us unless we are carried away by the hysteria of those who want us to ignore legal obligations and act on our emotions.

But Hicks pleaded guilty in a court, did he not? Certainly that was John Howard's line before two shoes were thrown in his direction in an ABC studio. And what kind of court was it?

... Hicks never got a day in a court to consider his claims - a properly constituted court, which followed accepted rule-of-law procedures ... He was tried by a farcical military commission that the British refused to let its own citizens be subjected to, and that President Barack Obama has denounced as flawed.

The Skaf brothers, Ivan Milat and Martin Bryant had their days before a properly constituted court. Was Hicks ever found to have raped or murdered anyone?

Do yourself a favour and go out and read this book. It's written in such simple language that even Tim Blair might understand it.



Words © 2010 Irfan Yusuf

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CRIKEY: NSW Libs at loggerheads as intra-factional action heats up ...

The Sydney Morning Herald today reports on the latest intra-factional action in the dominant NSW Liberal Right faction under the appropriate headline “Holy warriors pitch for Liberal seats”.

And yes, this is indeed a political crusade. NSW Upper House member and Opus Dei supporter David Clarke with a small but powerful cabal of supporters are battling the “soft right” and threatening the preselections of Philip Ruddock and other allegedly moderate MP’s.

The Herald claims Clarke’s “soft right” opponents include his former staffer and Federal MP for Mitchell Alex Hawke. Yet Hawke himself appears to be playing a role in toppling another “soft righter”, former Howard enforcer Senator Bill Heffernan, whose Senate term doesn’t expire until 2011. In a scathing radio editorial on 21 July 2009, Alan Jones describes Hawke as being among ...

... the wet-behind-the-ears marshmallows … Young Liberals.

Jones asks whether Hawke really ...

... represents mainstream Liberal thinking.

Jones lavishes praise on Heffernan for his experience of ...

... life west of the Great Dividing Range.

Ah, the irony of Jones, a man apparently vilified for his sexuality, praising a Senator perhaps best known for his arguably homophobic comments concerning a former High Court Justice. Or as Melbourne writer John Heard wrote in The Australian on 24 October 2006 on the release of Chris Masters' critical biography Jonestown ...

ALAN Jones is a homosexual. Michael Kirby is a homosexual. Sadly, both men have
been targeted for vilification purely because they are attracted to their sex.
In Kirby's case, it was the Left who accused the Right of homophobia following
baseless allegations by Liberal senator Bill Heffernan in 2002. In Jones's case,
which has come to light in a new book by the ABC's Chris Masters, the Right must
accuse the Left.

Hawke’s alleged ally in the soft right, NSW Party President Nick Campbell, is a former Heffernan staffer. But as one Liberal source told me:

Campbell is one of those blokes who will tell every candidate in a party ballot that he supports them.

If Campbell believes he has a chance of taking Heffernan’s seat, he may back Hawke. If not, there could be a three-way tussle.

One interesting figure mentioned in the Herald story is Edin Dyga, staffer for ultra-conservative NSW State MP Greg Smith who supports Ruddock’s religious right opponent. In his 2007 maiden speech, Mr Smith described himself as

... unashamedly pro life and pro family ...

... though he went onto say that ...

... while I may exercise my right to a conscience vote on some issues I will
never seek to impose my religious views on others.

Smith’s staffer has expressed less conciliatory views on an e-mail group called “Ozlibs” which yours truly once moderated. In a post dated 9 May 2006 Dyga referred to ...

... the Holy Crusaders (Peace Be Upon Them) ...

... and says Muslims

... should be thankful the Holy Crusaders (Peace Be Upon Them) didn’t continue
down south and have fun with your metropolitan al wakf [religious trust],
Mecca.

Then on 12 November 2005, Dyga remarks:

The only religious system that has been in the core of Australia’s development
as a nation has been Christianity. Since settlement, Australia has become
secular — far too secular for my liking, but that’s just my opinion.

Dyga’s views may have changed since then. But if they reflect a wish by the religious right to roll back secularism, they’ll effectively make the Party unelectable. They’ll also be answering Nathan Rees’ prayers.

A version of this piece was first published in Crikey on Tuesday 28 July 2009.

POLITICS: The Dyga dialogues ...

The Sydney Morning Herald has reported on the exploits of the religious right of the NSW Liberal Party who appear to have declared an Opus Dei jihad on Phillip Ruddock and a number of other Federal MP's.

Among those named in the jihad is former Communications Director of the NSW Young Liberals and current staffer for Epping State MP Greg Smith, a certain Edwin Dyga. It's a name I'm familiar with, and I thought it might be appropriate to reproduce here some interesting observations Dyga has made over the years on a conservative e-mail list called OzLibs which I've moderated since 2001.

No doubt some will argue that I've been selective in my quotes. To them, my response is that reproduction of the full discussion only makes Mr Dyga look even more rabidly anti-secular and fanatical.

Read and enjoy.

The Crusaders were civilised compared to the more vocal members of The Religion of Peace in Sydney's suburbia circa 2006.
Monday April 17 2006

… a ghetto community's insular mentality, much like the inane "I'm an Australian too" mantra serves no purpose other than to (a) cover up that same communities stronger identification with a violent religious creed, and (b) confuse the befuddled mainstream into thinking that it's true.
Tuesday April 11 2006

… the Holy Crusaders (Peace Be Upon Them) were retaliating against your mob's raping, sacking, murdering and raping again, of Christian lands, from Spain, the French southern coast, and even Rome … You should be thankful the Holy Crusaders (Peace Be Upon Them) didn't continue down south and have fun with your metropolitan al wakf, Mecca.
Thursday 9 May 2006

John Howard, brilliant visionary. Thank God we have such a man at the helm. He will certainly go down in history as the most competent leader this country has had since Federation; he even surpasses Menzies.
21 Feb 2006

The only religious system that has been in the core of Australia's development as a nation has been Christianity. Since settlement, Australia has become secular - far too secular for my liking, but that's just my opinion.
12 Nov 2005

These are the sentiments of a senior staffer for the Shadow Attorney-General of NSW. Now doubt Greg Smith's many Muslim constituents will be impressed to learn that their local member's staffer would celebrate the destruction of their sacred sites. No doubt Smith's Jewish constituents would be impressed by the glorification of Crusaders who massacred the Jews of Jerusalem as they sought shelter in Jerusalem's synagogues. No doubt Smith's Greek Orthodox constituents would be impressed by the glorification of the Crusaders who sacked Constantineople and massacred Orthodox Christians on their way to and in Jerusalem.



I sure hope Mr Dyga has changed his views. Because if he hasn't, and if he starts saying this kind of stuff in public, Nathan Rees will feel all his prayers have been answered.

UPDATE I: Dyga's submission to the Senate Education Employment & Workplace Relations Committee Inquiry on Academic Freedom makes interesting reading.

CRIKEY: Mafia scandal should make O'Farrell and Turnbull very nervous ...

Well it’s been a bad few weeks for the Federal Parliamentary Liberal Party.

Brendan Nelson decided to POQ, his parting message to many of his more senior colleagues to join him. Julie Bishop was effectively demoted. Former leader John Hewson wrote op-eds in Fairfax papers telling Costello to also POQ. Joe Hockey reckons Costello’s refusal to POQ makes him resemble Prince Charles waiting for Queen Lizzy to kick the bucket or abdicate. Both Phillip Ruddock and Bronwyn Bishop are facing pressure from their branches to POQ. And just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, it now seems the Federal Police have been investigating links between the Liberal Party organisation and a local franchise of the Calabrian mafia.

The Party has seen better days. Who could forget that famous scene when John Howard told a packed hall of Liberal Party faithful on the eve of the 2001 federal election: "We will decide who comes into this country and the circumstances in which they come". If allegations raised in The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald today are anything to go by, it seems the Howard government had decided who (persons with links to organised crime) would entered and remained in Australia and the circumstances (political donations) in which they would come.

It shamelessly lied in accusing asylum seekers of throwing their children overboard. John Howard and Phillip Ruddock, in the name of "border protection", happily took a cue from Saddam Hussein and Donald Rumsfeld by locking up in detention centres ordinary Iraqis and Afghans (including children) fleeing persecution, all the while boasting of a "war on terror" designed to liberate Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yet the Liberal Party Division in both John Howard’s and Malcolm Turnbull’s home state was happy to accept donations from people allegedly close to the Calabrian mafia. Liberal MP’s happily lobbied to keep a man accused of having mafia links in Australia and happily received donations of up to $150,000 from his buddies.

Vanstone denies donations affected her decision to intervene, which she claimed was made on humanitarian grounds. Vanstone had evidence of the person’s links to organised crime. She overruled her Department’s recommendation and exercised her discretion to allow the individual to remain in Australia, overturning the decision of her predecessor. Fairfax also reports that the man was subsequently arrested in relation to his alleged involvement in the world’s largest importation of the illegal drug ecstasy.

This was supposed to be the government which prided itself on its national security credentials. This is the party which wants to form the next State Government in New South Wales. Barry O’Farrell should be more than a little nervous And Malcolm Turnbull must be on the verge of a cardiac arrest.

First published in Crikey on Monday 23 February 2009.

Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf


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COMMENT: Andrew Bolt accuses Jews and Vietnamese of living in ghettos ...

Herald-Sun blogger Andrew Bolt has claimed that ...

... Australia risks becoming not “home” but a host community.

Under a blog post entitled City of ghettoes, Bolt cites a report in the Sydney Morning Herald with an emphasis on three ethno-religious groupings in Sydney ...

They show that up to 40 per cent of Auburn and Lakemba identify as Muslim. There are also large Muslim populations in Greenacre (30.7 per cent), Silverwater (27 per cent), Roselands (22.1 per cent), Arncliffe and Turrella (21.7 per cent), and Bankstown (21.6 per cent). 

Ethnic and religious forces converge in Cabramatta, where more than 40 per cent of the population identify themselves as Buddhist and Vietnamese.
Sydney’s Jewish population is the most concentrated in Rose Bay, Vaucluse and Watsons Bay, where up to 30 per cent identity with the Jewish faith...

Bolt's emphasis is on what he sees as a Muslim "ghetto" in various south-west Sydney suburbs. Yet Vietnamese, Buddhist and Jewish communities aren't excluded from his slur.

Still, Bolt has done his readers a favour by showing that when it comes to discrimination, he prefers not to discriminate.

BLOG: How tendentious can you get?

The Sydney Morning Herald today ran my reflections on heavy metal music, moderating blog remarks and Soviet-style Camden folk who wish to dictate to the Anglican church to whom it can and cannot sell its property. On that note, readers are now urged to stop reading and start rocking ...



Check out this Bollywood-style mimer ...



... and here's the real thing ...



UPDATE I: Poor Tim Blair is most upset with my tribute to his blog-moderating patterns. After mentioning Daniel Pipes' futile call to for all "respectable" newspapers to cease publishing my "tendatious" writings, Blair gets to the heart of the issue, avoiding any personal and ad hominem attacks. For Blair, the real issue isn't my being allegedly "two-faced, five-chinned" or being "Mesopotamia Fats". The real issue is that I am a "very bitter person". And Blair's ultimate evidence for this is the words of a failed (and extremly bitter) Greens Local Government Candidate. Blair also complains about my light moderating workload. Funny that. For someone who has his blog hosted by a newspaper claiming to be Sydney's top-selling paper and owned by one of the world's largest media organisations, Blair only managed 9 comments as at 3:30pm. Still, at least Blair has News Limited staff to assist him.

UPDATE II: Jeremy has some fun with Bolt & Blair here. Sounds like a possible name for a movie ...

UPDATE III: As at 11:15pm, Mr Blair's blogpost has 13 comments. That's an almost 50% increase! Anyway, I'd better get back to watching that SBS documentary on the operation of Israel's rabbinical courts ...

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf


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CRIKEY: Why Rudd shouldn't introduce full-blown compulsory student unionism ...

Back in 1994, I penned an article for the Macquarie University Liberal Club’s organ Liberal University Students’ Tabloid (LUST) supporting the introduction of voluntary student unionism (VSU).

I argued that university services were like textbooks. You didn’t have to buy a brand new textbook. You could borrow someone else’s, buy a second hand copy or borrow one from the library.

Similarly, you don’t have to make use of university union services and facilities. You shouldn’t have to pay for things you don’t use, nor should you have to pay for a representative body you don’t necessarily want representing you. Union fees, whether for services or representation, should be voluntary.

VSU was a sacred cow of the Australian Liberal Students Federation (ALSF), an umbrella body of student Liberal clubs. The NSW Young Libs, then dominated by the small "L" faction known as "the Group", opposed VSU. Instead, they supported Voluntary Student Representation (VSR). This meant that you still had to pay fees for services but not for representation (which, at Macquarie, generally was spent on sending lefties off to some commune in Nicaragua, then ruled by Sandanista communists, or Cuba).

Former Howard staffer and State MP for Lane Cove Adrian Roberts was President of the UTS Union. In those days he was aligned with the Group and supported VSR while opposing VSU. Few NSW State MP’s (including conservatives) supported VSU. In Federal Parliament, VSU was supported by Howard, Abbott and Minchin while it was opposed by Brendan Nelson, Robert Hill and others regarded as small "L" libs.

When Howard became leader in 1996, the internal debate over student unionism was considered won by supporters of VSU. We regarded student unions as baby-parliaments where ALP hacks honed their skills. Liberal students rarely got anywhere unless disguised as something else or running joke tickets. For instance, current right wing Liberal Party President Nick Campbell ran in Macquarie union board elections on a green ticket.

The Howard government brought in VSU. In theory, it was a sound move. Union services are like textbooks. But as in practice, as reported in today’s Sydney Morning Herald, universities often have to make up the shortfall in student union services by spending money that would otherwise go to salaries or research. VSU has hit campuses in regional areas particularly hard, which probably explains why National Party MPs like Barnaby Joyce continue to oppose it.

If Rudd reintroduces compulsory fees for limited student services, that should be a good thing. But any move to force students to pay for student representative bodies could signal a return to the days when student money was spent sending lefties to communes while Labor students get subsidised political training.

First published in the Crikey daily alert for 21 August 2008.

UPDATE I: Here are some responses from Crikey readers in their Comments, corrections, clarifications and c*ckups section for Friday 22 August 2008 ...

Student unionism: 

Simon Wilkins writes: Re. "Why Rudd shouldn't introduce full-blown compulsory student unionism" (yesterday, item 13). I was an undergrad at the same time as Irfan Yusuf, but at a different Uni, and I have a different recollection of why Young Liberals couldn't get elected (VSU or not). Their lack of support was only bettered by their choice of candidates that seemed to lack the full complement of social, political and possibly genetic abilities. If you can't get elected without running as a joke ticket, perhaps it suggests that when voters recognise who you are, they don't want to vote for you. This fact renders Irfan's vague point about "subsidised political training" pointless. If Young Lib's could have run a decent campaign directed towards the needs of students they would have received the same "subsidy" he is so upset about. As a result of VSU, student campus life and interaction has been significantly diminished by a petty policy that forces Universities to pay for the services that they actually care about (sport) and let shrivel the intangibles like student clubs and societies (including the young liberals, who also received funding from student union fees). 

Lastly, comparing union services to textbooks is an odd analogy. Pro-VSUers always tried to convince you it would be a "user-pays" system when in fact it has resulted in complete denial of services. Also "second-hand" text books tend to be obsolete (by definition) and how you can get second hand union services is beyond me. But whether Irfan means it or not, the analogy exposes the true meaning of the pro-VSU position. Those students, and Universities, that can afford to pay from their own pocket get the new books and services and those that can't lose out. What a great system. My advice to the PM? Take the word Unionism out of any Uni fee charge and prevent a repeat of the Liberal lie. An equal levy on all students would at least allow some restoration of campus life. If that means Young Liberals have to run as the "Party Party" again, then so be it. 

Jim Hart writes: I suspect the biggest reason Irfan Yusuf and most of the Liberal Party don't like student unions is the name. The word union has a fine tradition in universities but that doesn't seem to stop the right-wingers from equating it with trade unions and from there it's a short step to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua via Moscow. So Irfan thinks student services are like textbooks -- either buy your own or use the library. But hang on, if the library had enough copies for every student who needed one those books would have to be bought by the university which gets its money from... oh dear, that means we all pay fees and taxes to provide books for students who aren't prepared to look after themselves. Sounds a bit like socialism to me Irfan. 

Sure, when you pay student union fees you don't use every service. As a student I probably subsidised evil socialists at subversive lefty conferences but I also paid for teams of reactionary sexist footballers to get drunk at interstate competitions. Last year my taxes paid for propaganda for despicable IR policies, while this year I funded a porno art magazine and some Olympic medals. And every few years I am forced to participate in an electoral process dominated by factionalised parties with candidates that never totally represent my views. Many if not all student bodies are poorly run, lop-sided, driven my minorities, and a sandpit for playing with ideals and ideologies. What else would you expect from a bunch of kids who are barely past puberty? It seems like a pretty harmless way to start training the next generation of entrepreneurs, social workers, journalists and politicians. VSU weakens not just our tertiary institutions but society in general. 

Piers Kelly writes: Irfan Yusuf wrote: "...nor should you have to pay for a representative body you don't necessarily want representing you". Isn't it a little churlish to want to abolish student representative bodies just because the people you like to vote for don't win very often? If students don't want to be represented they can vote the system out of existence. Democracy is kind of clever like that.

CRIKEY: The Australian misses new uni funding scandal

A foundation directly linked to the Chinese Ministry of Education is providing half the funding for the University of Sydney’s new Confucius Institute. The funds involved are approximately $100,000 per year for “start-up costs”. The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

China's consul-general, Shaofang Qiu, said Beijing would not take kindly to the institute hosting students or academics who were opposed to China's policies on Falun Gong or Tibet.

This isn’t the first time a foreign government has funded a foundation. The Australian ran a long series of articles and op-eds concerning a donation of $100,000 made by the Saudi embassy to the Griffith Islamic Research Unit (GIRU). You can read more about that fracas here, here and here.

The Oz brought out some expert heavyweights -- including a district court judge and three religious broadcasters -- to prove Saudi money always means only extremist Wahhabi teaching will be tolerated.

One of its reporters even claimed that GIRU’s head was a member of an allegedly secretive group (read about their secrets here) proved he was part of a giant Saudi conspiracy. The fact that the group in question has been declared heretical by Saudi religious authorities didn’t stop the hysteria.

In the case of GIRU, there was no indication from the Saudis or from Griffith University itself that there was an expectation that Saudi-style Islam would be taught or that views critical of Saudi Arabia wouldn’t be tolerated. Compare this to the situation with the Confucius Centre, where the Chinese consul-general has already declared that China wouldn’t tolerate criticism of his country’s human rights record.

Of course, it’s quite possible The Australian hasn’t picked up the story yet. By now, they must know about it. Let’s hope, for the sake of consistency, that our national broadsheet stirs up at least as big a ruckus as it did over Griffith Uni.

First published in the Crikey daily alert for 18 June 2008.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf



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UPDATE: Stuff published elsewhere ...

An alternative view of the recently deceased Padraic McGuinness can be found at the ABC Unleashed portal by clicking here. Also on ABC Unleashed is a comment on why conservatives should be the first to apologise to the Stolen Generation.

There was a piece in The Age on the so-called jihad sheilas which can be found here. A slightly shorter version was published in the Sydney Morning Herald here.

© Irfan Yusuf 2008


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COMMENT: Hate without end …

I must say that I do feel sorry for David Knoll, President of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies. In yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald, Mr Knoll argued that the words of Professor Raphael Israeli “properly understood” did not make any suggestion that all Muslim migrants are evil.

Yet now, in a letter published on the far-Right JihadWatch website, Dr Israeli goes further and attributes violence not just to Muslim migrants but to all Muslims.

… I blamed the violence of Muslims in the world (and by implication here) for the troubles they are having …

Making matters worse, Dr Israeli attributes such sentiments to all Jews, claiming that their denials are pretence to hide what they really think. In essence, he accuses Australian Jewry and their leaders of being hypocritical and two-faced, giving into “the Muslim thugs” for the sake of

... political correctness which does not allow those things to be said, though privately everyone supports what I said.

Further, Dr Israeli claims that John Howard and Peter Costello have said worse things about Australian Muslims, especially following what Dr Israeli describes as the “Muslim riots” at Cronulla.

Then, as if to rub salt into the wounds, Dr Israeli insults Australia by referring to “the provinciality of the place”.

So not only does Dr Israeli say what David Knoll claims he didn’t say. Dr Israeli is also accusing David Knoll, Colin Rubenstein, Vic Alhadeff and a host of other Jewish leaders of subscribing to the following notions:

* That Muslim migration needs to be capped;

* That Australia should abandon any form of multiculturalism.

* That Muslims are thugs.

* That the Cronulla riots were really riots by Muslims.

* That this kind of teaching of Islam needs to be spread far and wide, especially amongst “the Jewish audiences who need the education for which I was brought here”.

This sort of hatred needs to be exposed. The Jewish communities, through their newspapers and community leaders, have done well to distance themselves from such disgraceful language and sentiments. I am sure David Knoll won’t be defending the sentiments of Dr Israeli for much longer.

Now let’s see if Dr Israeli cops the sort of flack from certain columnists, shock jocks and politicians which Sydney thick-Sheiks cop. Let’s see if questions are asked about Judaism and its ability to conform to Australian values. Let’s see if Jews are held collectively responsible for the words of a man invited to Australia to educate them about another Abrahamic faith.

Let’s see if the Stones and Albrechtsens and Akermans and Bolts and Devines (father and daughter) and Sheehans and McIlveens and Blairs and Bones and Windschuttles and Donnelly’s of this world will show some consistency.

Words © 2007 Irfan Yusuf

MEDIA/COMMENT: Has Miranda Devine lost the plot?

I used to edit a conservative youth magazine called pro-Action. Despite being a small-“c” conservative, I’d still allow Big-“C” conservative views to be aired. How?

By inviting the most rabid Big-“C” conservative to write regularly. And by not editing out the idiotic bits.

Which I suspect is exactly what the Sydney Morning Herald does with Miranda Devine. I’ve written about Miranda in the past. But her latest defence of “Howard generation’s conservatives” against allegations of election rorting suggests she is really losing the plot.

Miranda claims Howard conservatives are being wrongly accused of rorting and stacking. She mentioned former Group-staffer John Hyde-Page, whom she claims has become a “media darling” for the ABC.

She conveniently ignores the array of Howard conservatives appearing on Four Corners confirming the allegations, even admitting they participated. Michael Darby, Fran Quinn, Betty Mihic, Ken Henderson and myself are hardly tree-hugging lefties.

Miranda then insults conservatives everywhere, describing offensive behaviour by (perhaps drunken) Liberal Students as merely ...

... [b]eing openly conservative and displaying … regard for Howard.

I guess I’ll be getting a “SHUT THE F*CK UP” t-shirts to wear at the Manly polling booth next election.

Miranda then tries to flex her pseudo-conservative muscles by telling us how un-Left she is. Miranda loves to show her political erectness by defining herself by what she doesn’t stand for (instead of what she does stand for). When a conservative columnist attacks something just because it is expressed in a manner or has an outcome that someone on the Left might support, you can tell they aren’t a real conservative.

Finally, Miranda finds a way to link allegations of internal Liberal rorting to a letter some bureaucrat from the NSW Education Department wrote to the Koori Mail newspaper.

Toward the end of the Four Corners episode, Michael Darby asked Janine Cohen:

What planet are you from?

Perhaps he is better off asking that question of Miranda.

POLITICS/COMMENT: Why Debnam's ethnic crime ploy makes little sense ...

On Thursday 12 January 2006, the Member for Vaucluse and NSW Opposition Leader Peter Debnam accused police of effectively behaving corruptly.

He said police had not been consistent in their patters of arrest during and following the Cronulla riots. He said they had not arrested a single person for the reprisal attacks, allegedly carried out by Middle Eastern youths from the Canterbury and Bankstown area, in the days following the Cronulla riots.

Mr Debnam suggested that various ALP MP’s, including the Premier himself, were telling police to go soft on Middle Eastern gangs. He even went so far as to state that the ALP was letting ethnic branch stacking of the late 1990’s to affect law enforcement.

Further, Mr Debnam suggested that certain ethnic communities pressured police and politicians to go soft on criminals. He said ...

The Labor Party seems to be indebted to certain ethnic groups ...

... without specifying which groups these were.

Basically, Mr Debnam was suggesting that police and politicians were allowing criminals to get away with all sorts of activities. He suggested some ethnic communities themselves were involved.

If Mr Debnam’s claims are correct, they should provide ICAC with enough work for it to take up another 5 floors of CBD office space. If Mr Debnam’s claims are untrue, he should do the decent thing and resign.

Debnam has decided to play ethno-religious wedge politics. He realises he has little chance of winning the next state election without some high-risk strategy that he hopes will yield high electoral return. Frankly, I think the whole thing will blow up in his face. For the sake of the people of NSW, I hope it does,

Before Mr Debnam starts playing the race card, he should consider having a few words with the former and current Federal Members for the Federal seat of Cook. This seat takes in Cronulla. He should take advantage of the combined wisdom of Bruce Baird and Stephen Mutch, both of whom have a string understanding of the area and are exceptionally astute in state and federal politics.

Bruce Baird’s assessment of the situation in Cronulla was one in which race was but one of a range of factors. ALP branch stacking is perhaps among the least relevant of these factors, presuming it appears at all on Mr Baird’s list.

Further, Mr Debnam’s comments show a complete ignorance of the various factions that make up the Lebanese communities. Lebanese Australians are not one monolithic community, and religion is not the only dividing line amongst this ethnic group. Further, most crime gangs include members from a range of ethnic and religious groups.

And why on earth would members of any ethnic community want thugs and gangs operating in their backyard? The prevalence of crime affects the quality of life of all people living in the Canterbury Bankstown region. The suggestion is almost as absurd as suggesting that the Vietnamese community benefits from criminal activities of criminals such as those involved in the murder of the former ALP State Member for Cabramatta.

When crime goes up in an area, property prices go down. I am no expert in real estate, but as far as I know, it’s impossible for any ethnic group to influence the property market so as to avoid such trends.

On Saturday January 14, Sydney Morning Herald columnist Paul Sheehan attempted to show links between the ALP and even terror suspects, including the very non-Lebanese Willie Brigitte.

Sheehan and Debnam are trying to paint a picture of some deep dark Lebanese and/or Middle Eastern and/or Muslim conspiracy to protect criminal gangs. In doing so, they display both ignorance and hypocrisy.

Mr Debnam is quoted as saying he visited Auburn and saw a church burnt down. Which part of Auburn is he talking about? I lived in Auburn for a number of years and having even run as an endorsed Liberal candidate for a federal seat that takes in Auburn. I am in Auburn at least twice a week visiting friends and clients. I feel qualified to comment on the area.

As far as I know (and I have had this confirmed by locals), no church in Auburn was burnt down. Rather, a hall adjacent to a local church frequented by an Islander community was torched. Whether this attack was aimed at the adjacent church or the equally adjacent Islamic independent school is hard to say.

And it’s a bit rich for Debnam to talk about ethnic and religious branch stacking. Debnam knows the long history of links between the NSW Liberals and fringe ethno-religious groups. These groups include some of the most extreme elements in the Lebanese communities, both Christian and Muslim.

During my 10 years of involvement in Liberal branches in the seats of Canterbury, Bankstown, Auburn and East Hills, I was frequently approached by power brokers in the Right Wing of the NSW Liberal Party. At the time, some of these people were on State Executive. One is now in State Parliament. All form the backbone of Mr Debnam’s support base in the NSW Parliamentary Liberal Party.

I was often encouraged to use my personal contacts to recruit local Lebanese Muslims to branches, including those known to have been recruited to ALP branches during the preselection battle between Morris Iemma and Tony Stewart. Some of these people showed me their ALP membership cards. I mentioned this to the Right Wing power brokers. They said it didn’t matter so long as the State Director or the “Group” didn’t find out.

I was even told to use the line that we conservatives hated Jews, homosexuals and others. On one occasion, a right wing power broker (now a State MP) told me to use this reason to recruit members into the Auburn branch. He gave me this instruction following a meeting he arranged between myself and Auburn branch officials following my nomination to be the Liberal Candidate in the September 2001 Auburn by-election. The meeting took place at the Mado Turkish Restaurant in Auburn.

Thankfully, anti-Semitism was not the source of membership growth in our local branches. Rather, it was our consistent array of high profile guests such as the Mayor of Sarajevo and former Pakistan test cricket captain Imran Khan which led to most new members joining.

Of course, we all know about the ethno-religious wedge politics and stacking that Mr Debnam’s supporters tried to pull off at the Croatian Club in May 2004. That meeting was designed to revive the Bankstown Young Liberals.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on May 7 2004 of substantial violence at the meeting, resulting in police being called. Around 230 people attended the meeting, which erupted into an all-out brawl in which even a pregnant woman was attacked.

Eyewitnesses reported racial and religious taunts being made at certain persons applying to join the branch. One NSW Right supporter complained to the Herald that their factional opponents ...

... brought people along who have written articles against the government, a lot of people who are Muslims.

In the aftermath of the brawl, the Party’s head office promised a full investigation. The then State Director Scott Morrison told the Herald:

Anyone found to have engaged in misbehaviour through police inquiries can expect swift and sharp action from the party.

To this day, no such swift and sharp action has been taken.

The attempted reformation of the branch was undertaken at the request of then Young Liberal President Alex Hawke. It was widely seen as an attempt by the Religious Right to undermine the pre-selection chances of moderate Liberal Upper House member John Ryan. Ironically, Mr Ryan is himself a committed Christian.

The NSW Liberals seem prepared to do anything, including play racial and religious wedge politics. In doing so, they do themselves, their supporters and the people of NSW a grave disservice.

Words © 2005 Irfan Yusuf