Get dem values inya

You really have to laugh at the most recent attempt to showcase Australia’s good Muslims. Two days ago, John Howard met with representatives of Australia's 'moderate' Muslim community in scenes reminiscent of JFK's meeting with 'moderate' Negro leaders during the heady days of the civil rights struggle.

Somewhat uncoincidentally, Treasurer Peter Costello felt compelled to outline ‘Australian Values’, viz the de facto requirements of living in Australia…

If you can't agree with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go to another country which practises it, perhaps then that's a better option.

Um, which one of these requirements, assuming we hold to them for argument’s sake, don’t Muslims accept? Remember of course, that an extremist doesn’t represent an entire community. Exactly in the same way that the drunk yobbo who took a piss outside my unit last Saturday doesn’t represent every white Australian.

Today it gets even more ridiculous, thanks to this pearl of wisdom from Federal Education Minister Brendan ‘now where did my earring go?’ Nelson…

We want [‘people who come to Australia’ aka Muslims] to understand our history and our culture, the extent to which we believe in mateship and giving another person a hand up and a fair go.

As part of this understanding, the Government says it will teach Muslim kids ‘the Anzac story of Simpson and his donkey’. Hmmm, I wonder whether they’ll also be taught about the British invasion of Turkey which allowed Simpson to drag his donkey across Gallipoli in the first place?

These comments from the Howard Government have an obvious insinuation. Muslims are a threat to Australian society because they refuse to accept fundamental elements of it. This from a Government which has routinely bemoaned ‘judicial activism’ (a euphemism for Judges thinking independently of dominant legal or social paradigms) and has promoted the least rights-based interpretations of the Australian Constitution on most issues. A Government which has consistently refused to acknowledge the crimes committed by white Australia against the Aboriginal population over the past three centuries. Not to forget the indefinite detention of asylum seekers, including new born babies, nor the forced deportation of Australian citizens who, perhaps, did not pass the ‘Australian values’ test.

Today Prime Minister John Howard is reported as saying…

Australia would have no problem with extremism if it only amounted to a few people occasionally declaring their religion was best… But when it comes to praising people who are clearly terrorists, if it comes to justifying terrorism and murder in pursuit of a political cause, [t]hat is not OK.

I doubt he realizes how ironic that statement is.

What we have here is a monumental distraction. Muslims have every right to feel under siege. For those of us who desperately seek reform within the religion, there can be no greater obstacle than a Government peddling the lowest grade of racism that a liberal democracy can provide.