1) My original Facebook page was subject to mass reporting by local nazis + other radical, right-wing users + consequently Facebook has deleted it. I’ve established a second page but I’ve no idea how long it will last as there’s a campaign by the same groups + individuals to remove it, too. In any case, it can be found here.
2) Facebook is no longer allowing me to publish various materials documenting nazi shenanigans so here’s a few things I can no longer publish there.
First, a video of a brief confrontation between a local Muslim woman + the United Patriots Front (UPF) at their unsuccessful rally on May 31. The neo-Nazi acting as The Great Aussie Patriot’s bodyguard on this occasion is apparently some local fella called Glenn Anderson. Anderson was obviously an active participant in the UPF rally, joining them in Citizens Park and marching with them to Richmond Town Hall. State/corporate media accounts of the day’s events have included reference to Anderson + subsequently Shermon Burgess + the UPF have had to pretend that they didn’t spot him over the course of the 3 or 4 hours they were getting along swimmingly. (Of course, if the UPF was srs about not having neo-Nazis form a part of the grp it would have to expel Blair Cottrell + Neil Erikson — its leadership in Melbourne — as well as a number of others.)
In any case, Anderson can be seen at the Reclaim Australia rally in Melbourne along with a dozen other neo-Nazis here.
3) Finally, one of the beta + moar amusing memes to have been generated by the UPF’s fail yesterday.
The fucking state of these fascist deadshits
Wow, The State of Naziism today, is it still hides behind Jew hating Socialists, who call Israel an Apartheid State, By what I saw, Burgess didnt approve of the Nazis in their tattoos turning up, so love your misinfo on that, it makes for great Poo Lie Tics. Anarchist today are just another Statist movement, which cry ouch when their conscience has been hurt.
Dont Approve of Facism either, but if your for Equality & Diversity, there is no need to bomb a houseful of people to prove your point, as that falls into lynch mobbing & witch hunting. Still the Socialists couldnt prove What Actual Race Islam is? To make a claim that someone is racist is against a Religion, you have to then prove what Race, that Religion is? Without the evidence, its like setting ones self up to be eaten by the sharks.
Dont approve of Racism either, but things you have also failed to neglect, is that also the UPF & Reclaim Australia, also have members of other Nationalities, so when you would be also be racist against the races that have joined their movement, showing that they arent actually racist.
So what would happen if Militant Islam took a foothold in Australia. Simple, Socialist Groups or any groups that side with the idea of Homosexuality or gay marriage would be executed, as Isis has done in the middle east, we are quick to say it wont happen to us. But that is being unrealistic.
Though I do love the Muslims, Its not the people that are hated, but the doctrine their Books teach. If you dont read their materiel, you only pathe the way for ones own ignorance, along with the others who tag along & follow you. I dont expect this comment will make it onto the blog, as it will prob be altered by the slackbastard himself. Of his Racial slurs as well.
@anonymous613:
Your rant is barely entertaining. A few points:
1) There were several neo-Nazis present. One, Glenn Anderson, has received a good deal of attention on account of his t-shirt. Naturally, the UPF has subsequently attempted to distance itself from him. The problem is that he joined the rest of the fascists at the beginning of their rally and was with them the whole day. He concealed his t-shirt at the end. Further, there is footage of him abusing a local Muslim woman — an action which won him a round of applause from the other fascists present. Secondly, the leadership of the UPF in Melbourne consist of two neo-Nazis: Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson.
2) Islamophobia may be considered a form of racism as Yassir Morsi argues in his piece titled ‘Islamophobia is Racism’.
>>”So what would happen if Militant Islam took a foothold in Australia. Simple, Socialist Groups or any groups that side with the idea of Homosexuality or gay marriage would be executed, as Isis has done in the middle east, we are quick to say it wont happen to us. But that is being unrealistic.”
I don’t think that’s unrealistic at all. I think it’s quite probable that if militant Islam of the ISIS variety took a foothold in Australia, pretty much anyone who disagreed with them about anything would be under threat, including dissenting Sunni Muslims.
What I do think is unrealistic though, is the proposition that there is any particular current danger of such a ‘foothold’ being taken in Australia. Or to put it another way, there is next to no danger of such a group making political gains here by either legitimate or illegitimate means. Australia is neither Iraq nor Syria, is not a war torn and politically failed Middle Eastern state, does not have historical and contemporary sectarian divisions dominating the political and social landscape, etc. etc.
What’s also unrealistic is expecting most people to readily swallow the oxymoronic sentiment which states a love for Muslims but a hatred for Islam. These two entities are hardly mutually exclusive.
What can be mutually exclusive though, are various interpretations of Islam. And the ones which currently dominate amongst Australian Muslims, defy the conflation, stereotyping and essentialising of Reclaim/UPF.
Legally, a ‘race’ includes a group of people who are characterised by skin colour, ancestral decent, nationality *or* ethnic origin. For the question of if Muslims are a ‘race’, the focus is on what is an ethnic group.
It has been settled at common law, in Mandla v Dowell Lee [1983] 1 QB 1, that ‘ethnicity’ or an ‘ethnic origin’ goes beyond genetic, biological or geographic factors and an ethnic group is defined as “persons who identify themselves, and who are identified by others, as belonging to a distinct community by virtue of certain characteristics, the two most important being a common shared history and their own distinct cultural traditions or distinct customs”.
Although, as also highlighted in that case, religion *alone* is insufficient to meet the description of an ethnic group, cultural customs and traditions, as well as a shared history, is more than enough. It is also crucial that the group is perceived as distinct from the wider community.
I won’t go into a longer argument highlighting the cultural and traditional virtues of Muslims that can be disentangled from their religion, because the list is very long, but the more significant factors are their choice of attire, social formalities and diet, which in many cases is not extensively or specifically mentioned in the Qu’ran. These are purely traditional and cultural aspects that are separate from the religion, although they are based upon it.
Importantly, Muslims are openly recognised as distinct from the wider Australian community, especially by Reclaim Australia, who really put the nail in their own coffin on this point.
Although this remains untested in an Australian court, it is worth noting that Jews, Sikhs, Hindus and other religious groups have been long recognised as an ethnic group in Australian law. There is no obvious reason why a Supreme court would reject that Muslims are an ethnic group purely on the basis that traditions and customs are based on religion, where it is clear that it is irrelevant if tradition and custom are *based* on religious practice, all that matters is that traditions and customs have evolved beyond religious practice and have taken on a life of their own.
Sorry kids, a Supreme court would likely accept that Muslims are an ethnic group, who are protected by laws against racism, and any actions that have the purpose of impairing their equality amongst Australians is, in fact, racism.
Here is the stinger: when it comes to statutory interpretation, the goal is to extract the ‘will of the Parliament’ from the words in the statute. One of many techniques employed by the courts is to read the explanatory memorandum of a Bill. The Racial Hatred Bill 1994 (Cth) was a bill which made sweeping changes to Australian law to prohibit racial intolerance, and included changes to the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) that still stand. At page 3 it says:
“The term “race” would include ideas of ethnicity so ensuring that many people of, for example, Jewish origin would be covered. While that term connotes the idea of a common descent, it is not necessarily limited to one nationality and would therefore extend also to other groups of people such as Muslims.”
It is therefore the will of the Parliament that Muslims are protected against racism by Australian law.
Great post.
If Glenn Anderson is who I think he is, he is an example of the poor “fat kid” from school who had asthma, a high pitched voice, and zero academic or athletic skills. He certainly was not called Glenn Anderson when he was at school. The guy is now 43 (born 1972) but he grew up as “Yugo-Slav” (sic) in 1970s Anglo-centric Australia. In the ’70s and ’80s Serbs, Macedonians, Croats, and Slovenes were seen as at best exotic, and at worst as “wogs” (sic). This kid was not only bullied for being South Slavic but also for being “fat” (sic), uncoordinated, and “stupid” (sic). Bullies would mimic his high pitched voice (evident in his idiotic tirade against the Muslim woman in Richmond on May 31). This guy has a short memory as Anglo bullies would tell him to go back to where he came from. He seems to be new to fascism. Back in the ’90s this man still had black curly hair, ate lots of pizza, and was a loner with few friends, except for a handful of pimply faced gamers. He was someone to be concerned about back then, as he was never popular, socially withdrawn, always single, and economically disadvantaged. He was not a friend of mine but he was known in the northern suburbs. I don’t know how he ended up as a Nazi. Anderson has to take responsibility for his actions, and he is no longer deserving of concern, as he has become a bully who physically intimidates those he views as “inferior”. I have no doubt he is being used by the likes of Cottrell, Burgess, and Erikson, as a fascist attack dog and as a fall guy. No doubt they view him as a short obese moron. One can only hope Anderson will grow his black curly hair back to cover up his tattoos of hate, and ink out his swastika polluted arms (like others before him have done), but until then he must be opposed and run off the streets.