“Would you accept a racist flyer from this Klan?” (Part 2)

Almost two months ago now, I posted on the subject of Australia First Party member Darrin Hodges‘ attempt to further entrench his reputation as a racist loser, describing in some small detail his campaign to distribute racist propaganda to disinterested commuters and irate public transport workers. Just recently, similar (if not identical) flyers have appeared in Port Macquarie:

‘Racism outrage: Pamphlet condemns Muslims’
Lynn Hord
Port Macquarie News
Wednesday, August 16, 2006

A LETTER drop of pamphlets denouncing Islam and multi-culturalism has left some Port Macquarie residents incensed…

The materials that have elicited such strong reaction are anti-multicultural pamphlets from the Free Australia Movement and the Australia First Party.

The former is a six-page booklet about Islam, claiming it is an ideology that if ignored, could orchestrate the end of the Australian way of life.

The latter equates multiculturalism with genocide, stating that it is “an extremist anti-Western political ideology … that wishes to snuff out the existence of all white-populated countries”.

Member of the national council of the Australia First Party Dr Jim Saleam stands behind the content of his party’s publications.

While he has no knowledge of who made the letter drop in Port Macquarie, he has no problem with Australia First material being disseminated as long as it is in an “appropriate manner” and bears the Australia First mark.

Dr Saleam said his party did not have an affiliation with Free Australia Movement…

Interestingly, similar pamphlets appear to have been distributed in March 2005 in the electorate of Prospect. According to the Federal Member, Chris Bowen, in a speech to the House (March 9):

I would like to bring the House’s attention this morning to a pamphlet which is circulating in the community, and I think may have been circulated to other honourable members, by the group called the Free Australia Movement. I read this pamphlet, which arrived in my electorate office late last year. It says: This is not a hate session against Muslims, but rather about a system and an ideology, nor is it a conspiracy theory unsupported by fact. This pamphlet then goes on to prove that those statements are incorrect; it is a conspiracy theory unsupported by fact and it is a hate session against Muslims.

My first reaction was to throw this in the garbage bin and treat it with the contempt it deserves, but then I thought that some of the statements in this pamphlet, which is being circulated in the community, should be responded to in the House and be recorded in Hansard. It is a diatribe of unsupported facts, of prejudice, of bias, of racism and of religious bigotry. It quotes selectively from the Koran and quotes out of context. It talks about all Muslims in gross generalisations, saying, Muslims, on their own admission, have world rule as their goal. It says — and this is perhaps the most offensive — It is as much a political system as was Nazism and Communism. More repressive of those who don’t accept its rule, more repressive than the Nazi regime and the Communist regimes, which have imprisoned, tortured and killed thousands of people.

Going further back, one can find mention of the text in question at the racist website (Sydney Orange Net) — which gives the FAM address as being PO Box 9091, Wyee, NSW, 2259 — while another, Queensland-based, Christian right-wing site claims to have received a copy in November / December 2004.

Next week, Australia’s leading bigots will assemble at the Sydney Forum, a conference organised by the Australia First Party. Dr. James Saleam will be one of the key speakers while the German-born neo-Nazi Welf Herfurth — a former member of One Nation, now a member of Australia First — will act as MC.

Not appearing will be His Excellency Tamman Sulaiman, Ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic, a development which has Saleam (‘radnat’ on the White supremacist site Scumfront) most upset.

Who’s next to withdraw, I wonder?