Vale 'on her own' over Muslim population comments.
Last night, Danna Vale almost had me choking on my dinner when she made utterly outrageous (and, I thought, highly discriminatory) comments about Australia becoming a "Muslim nation" if we continued with abortion (citing an abortion rate of 100,000 fetuses per year - I'm curious as to whether she means abortion as in induced or natural, though, seeing as miscarriages and natural terminations of pregnancy are counted as "abortion") and allowed the use of RU486.
So I'm glad that other politicians are distancing themselves from this absolute bosh. Particularly with Amanda Vanstone speaking out about it.
I wonder, whether there was a "threat" of Australia becoming a "Christian" nation whether there would be people getting their knickers in a knot about it? Or a Buddhist nation? Or Hindu? Or is it just that the Muslim religion is one that's "acceptable" to pick on at the moment, possibly made that way by our Western reaction to terrorism, the "Other" and so on?
Muslim/Islam is a religious choice, just like any other religions (although some places allow more choice than others). In a free and supposedly tolerant society like Australia, people should be allowed to choose their religions and not have to worry about others harassing them because of it. Being Muslim isn't confined to being of Middle Eastern origin - Indonesia has a huge Muslim population, for example.
Going back in history in Australia, we have always had a fear that the "Others," "outsiders," "people who are different" would "out-breed" us and take over. It was once anyone from Asia when we had the gold rushes. It used to be the Greeks and Italians. Then the Vietnamese. It's all ridiculous, racist, xenophobic, discriminatory and annoying. Most of all, it's divisive - just more reasons for people to fear and hate and distrust.
The most worrying thing? At the moment, 32% of people think Danna Vale has a point, according to a SMH reader poll (at 11.59am).
Tolerant nation my foot.
We may become a Muslim nation: Vale (the Age's take on it).
Abortion will lead to Muslim nation: MP (SMH's take on it).
2 comments:
this was precisely one of the things they talked about during the breakfast thing I attended last year!
you can imagine how much it scared and appalled me!
Yeah, it is scary :-/
You sort of wonder just how much people use religion to discriminate, and it's freaky to realise that the way discrimination is happening is so much more insidious.
Even if we don't agree with the religious beliefs of others, we should still be defending their right to a belief system. I think there's some quote from a guy who said something about, "First they came for the ...., and I did nothing. Then they came for ...., and I did nothing. Then they came for me, and there was no-one to do anything."
Can't remember it properly, but it's something like that. If we see injustices, prejudice, discrimination, we should be pointing it out, not letting it slide because it's not against us.
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