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ADC Webwatch
1 Mar 2010
Volume 3 No. 08 |
How embattled PM played jihad card
Is responding to jihad call the same as "playing jihad card?" |
KEVIN Rudd toughened his terrorism blueprint to highlight the threat from jihadist and home-grown terror despite resistance from officials within his department and the Attorney-General's Department who were concerned the language was inflammatory and counter-productive. It is understood that the Prime Minister's office hardened the language of an earlier version of the counterterrorism white paper and also insisted it should include an "announceable".
The revelation comes as Mr Rudd is under fire from terrorism experts and the Opposition for using the issue to divert attention from embattled Environment Minister Peter Garrett and the government's bungled insulation scheme. The Rudd government moved yesterday to further strengthen its national security credentials in the lead-up to this year's election with an announcement that ASIO's powers would be widened to crack people-smuggling syndicates and penalties for people smugglers would be increased. Jonathan Pearlman, The Age, 24 Feb 2010 |
Clear-eyed report spells out the risks
Cognative dissonance between media and reality |
THE government's white paper on counter-terrorism is a landmark, a watershed, a signal moment: choose your metaphor. What I mean to say is, it's a very important document, and for none of the reasons you have been hearing about in the past few days. Sometimes the press gallery and the main media commentators so spectacularly miss the point that you wonder what universe they are living in.
For example, have you heard Hezbollah terror groups are operating in Australia? It's in the white paper, but not the media. Have you heard the government has declared the level of terror threat a society faces depends on the size and composition of its Muslim minority? It's in the white paper but not the media. Greg Sheridan, The Australian, 25 Feb 2010 |
National 'vindaloo against violence' protest
Viral grassroots campaign against racist violence |
POLITICIANS, police and thousands of ordinary Australians sat down at Indian restaurants across the nation today for 'Vindaloo Against Violence.' The sit-in- was a mass dining protest against racial attacks. More than 17,000 people registered to participate in the grassroots campaign, which went viral and global from humble beginnings as a 100-person event on social networking site Facebook.
Organiser Mia Northrop, 35, said she had received event notifications from as far afield as Tajikistan, with people set to down a curry in Tokyo, Amsterdam, New York and Stockholm in solidarity with the cause. "I'm really thrilled that this got the support that it did, there's no way that I could have imagined it would end up to be this big," Northrop, a digital media designer, told AFP. "I'm really happy that it meant so much to so many people," she added, remarking that feedback had been "phenomenally positive". The Australian, 24 Feb 2010 |
Radical Islam: Israel and the West
Clash between short term perception and long term reality
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Prof. Lewis began by explaining that "this is the first time in 1,000 years that the Muslim world is in charge of their own affairs." In this post-Communist era, "the Russians can't play a role, and the Americans don't want to play a role." This change has created a painful new awareness in the Muslim world and has raised questions regarding why Muslim countries have fallen behind the West. There seems to be two very different answers to this question.
The first approach claims that Western Imperialism is to blame. The supporters of this view place the blame squarely on the United States and Israel ("the 'illegitimate offspring' of the United States"), who they see as the face of Western Imperialism today. They believe that modernization is a betrayal of their Islamic heritage and the only solution is to return to authentic Islam, no matter the sacrifice. This is what radical Islam is claiming to be doing.
The second approach claims that the Muslim world has no one to blame but themselves for their current state of affairs. In other words, the Muslim countries haven't fallen behind the West as a result of Western Imperialism but as a result of their own actions – it is a "self-inflicted condition." Supporters of this view agree that the solution lies in the modernization of Muslim countries – no finger pointing, just hard work to make it happen." Europe News, 18 Feb 2010 |
The European lobby in Israel
EU race based funding of pro-terror activism |
The EU may have realized during the second intifada that its concerns were not being listened to. Perhaps they heeded the increasingly alarmist statements of Israelis themselves, such as former Haaretz editor David Landau who in 2007 told US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice that the US needed to "rape" Israel into a settlement with the Palestinians. Regardless of the exact cause, in 2002the European Union began lavishly funding non-governmental organizations in Israel . It claimed that it was doing this because of "the vital contribution made by NGOs to the promotion and protection of the principles of liberty,democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law."
Between 2002 and 2008, a total of $14 million was granted to various Israeli NGOs through the EIDHR. My investigation of the NGOs that received funding revealed that the lion's share of the money benefited two groups: Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. $5.5 million was directed specifically to causes for Palestinians such as the Association for Civil Rightsin Israel 's project "Building a Better Future: Empowering the Palestinian Residents of East Jerusalem to access their planning and house [sic] rights" which received $135,000. A further $7m. went specifically to programs that benefit only Israeli Arabs such as the al-Awna fund's "Master Plan for the Unrecognized Beduin Villages: Securing minority rights for housing and social services" which received $263,000. Even when the EIDHR funded programs for women it did so only for programs for Beduin or Israeli Arab women, except for a token $100,000 it gave to an organization called Isha le Isha (Woman to Woman) which helps fight women trafficking.
There was not one cent directed specifically towards any of the numerous and diverse Jewish communities in Israel: Ethiopians, Russians, Yemenites, Persians or Jews from the Caucasus. The only mention of Jewish citizens as potential recipients was in a grant to the Mossawa Center, the advocacy center for Arab citizensin Israel. Seth J Frantzman, Jerusalem Post, 25 Feb 2010 |
'White Wolves' get 23 years' jail over hate-motivated killings
Underage neo-Nazis guilty of 6 murders which were videoed and posted on-line |
A Russian court has sentenced nine ultranationalists to up to 23 years in jail for a series of hate-motivated killings.
The Moscow City Court said in a statement on Thursday that 12 mostly underage neo-Nazis who called themselves White Wolves have been charged with 11 murders and one assault since April 2007. It said a jury found nine of them guilty of six murders and one assault.
The group was formed on Adolf Hitler's birthday to "exterminate" non-Russians. Its participants fatally stabbed Central Asians and other non-Slavs with dark skin or Asian features. They often videotaped the attacks and posted them online. Russia has experienced a surge of racist assaults, xenophobia and neo-Nazism in recent years. Sydney Morning Herald, 26 Feb 2010 |
Dutch parties tussle over approach to far right
Low birth rate and high immigration create culture clash |
Wilders and his Freedom Party have been a focus of debate since the Dutch cabinet collapsed on Saturday, as the election which could be held as early as May will be a key opportunity for the anti-immigration group to increase its influence after a stunning success at European elections last year. Frans Timmermans, a member of the Labour party and minister for European affairs, said on Monday that Labour would refuse to govern in coalition with Wilders' party, and he called on other parties to consider a similar approach.
"The Labour party stands for a completely different Holland than the party of Wilders, and for that reason we cannot be in a government with him," a spokeswoman for the Labour party said. "He (Timmermans) dared other parties to think the same thing. Do they want to be in a government that segregates people by race and religion?"
Wilders has described the call as an "arrogant" attempt to ringfence his Freedom Party (PVV) and said it was an insult to the democratic system, telling Dutch media "the voter will seek punishment for this". Members of other parties have also described the move as undemocratic and warned that it could push voters into the arms of Wilders, considered a maverick among the political elite. Reuters, 24 Feb 2010 |
Is it really kosher to call Asians the "new Jews"?
"Exotic aliens and permanent outsiders..." |
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Nowhere is the shared arc of the Asian and Jewish American journey so clear as in the area of education, that paramount priority of both communities. The story of parents toiling to create academic opportunity for their offspring (and using guilt, bribery and punishment to ensure that those kids take advantage of it) is the same whether its narrator is named Josh Li or Joshua Leibowitz.
It's no wonder, then, that the phrase "Asians are the new Jews" is most commonly used in an educational context -- most prominently in Dan Golden's scathing investigation into the admissions practices of elite colleges, "The Price of Admission," which dedicates an entire chapter to the challenges Asian American candidates face in getting into top schools. The chapter's name, naturally: "The New Jews."
In the book, Golden notes that Asian Americans are disproportionately harmed by current admissions standards, to the point where an effective quota system exists, capping the number of Asians admitted at a virtually fixed level Ð for private colleges, generally well south of 20 percent of the student body -- and forcing Asian applicants to compete for slots against other Asians. In short, the environment Asian American candidates face is remarkably similar to that of Jewish applicants in the Fifties and Sixties, when Ivy League colleges had a policy of preventing an "excess" of Jews in their student body. Jeff Yang, San Francisco Chronical. 25 Feb 2010 |
Most attacks on Indians not racial
Law and order problem in Australia |
One in seven assaults on Indians in Australia in the past 14 months has been racially motivated, an Indian government report claims. A list collated by the Indian high commission in Canberra and tabled in the Indian Parliament, records 152 assaults on Indians in Australia since the start of last year. Most of the victims were students and taxi drivers. And most of the attacks were classified as robberies and assaults, but 23 were deemed to have racial overtones. In those cases, the attackers had made anti-Indian remarks or insults. In some instances, attackers attempted to remove a victim's turban.
The report showed 122 of the assaults took place in Victoria - about 80 per cent of the national total. They included 49 attacks on students and 18 on taxi drivers. Victoria has the highest concentration of Indians studying in Australia. In a statement to Parliament on Thursday, India's Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said attacks on Indians had brought to the fore an ''obvious law-and-order problem'' in Australia. Matt Wade, The Age, 27 Feb 2010
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Justice, not betrayal of principles
The moral degeneration of Amnesty |
In common with all great ideas, the Amnesty concept was marvellously simple. Each local branch was asked to sponsor a minimum of three prisoners of conscience: one from a NATO country, one from a Warsaw Pact country and one from the Third -- or neutralist --World. In time, the organisation also evolved policies that opposed the use of capital punishment or torture in all cases, but the definition of prisoner of conscience remained central. It included a requirement that the prisoner in question be exactly that: a person jailed for the expression of an opinion.
Amnesty did not adopt people who used or advocated violence. This organisation is precious to me and to millions of other people, including many thousands of men and women who were and are incarcerated and maltreated because of their courage as dissidents, and who regained their liberty as a consequence of Amnesty International's unsleeping work.
So to learn of its degeneration and politicisation is to be reading about a moral crisis that has global implications.
Amnesty International has just suspended one of its senior officers, a woman named Gita Sahgal who, until recently, headed the organisation's gender unit. It's fairly easy to summarise her concern in her own words. "To be appearing on platforms with Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban, whom we treat as a human rights defender, is a gross error of judgment," she wrote. One may think that to be an uncontentious statement, but it led to her immediate suspension. Christopher Hitchens, The Australian, 17 Feb 2010 |
Gaddafi calls for jihad against Switzerland
Jihad is not terrorism, says Libyan dictator |
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has turned up the heat in his country's dispute with Switzerland, calling for jihad against it over a ban on the construction of minarets. "It is against unbelieving and apostate Switzerland that jihad (holy war) ought to be proclaimed by all means," Gaddafi said in a speech in the Mediterranean coastal city of Bengazi to mark the birthday of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed. "Jihad against Switzerland, against Zionism, against foreign aggression is not terrorism," Gaddafi said.
"Any Muslim around the world who has dealings with Switzerland is an infidel (and is) against Islam, against Mohammed, against God, against the Koran," the leader told a crowd of thousands in a speech broadcast live on television. In a November 29 referendum, Swiss voters approved by a margin of 57.5 per cent a ban on the construction in their country of minarets, the towers that are a signature part of mosques. Sydney Morning Herald, 26 Feb 2010 |
It borders on racism
Immigration, quarantine and rude officials |
IT IS perhaps our nation's most effective method of border protection. Quick and infinitely more cost effective than detaining and deporting ''unwanted'' people: just make them feel so unwanted that they deport themselves. Genius.
And I, a citizen returning from overseas, can confirm that this method works.
Recently, as I arrived in Sydney after time spent abroad, I was (un)welcomed home. There was a group of them, bristling and growling like a pack of flatulent rottweilers. ''In LINE! Ba-ack! Do you understand?'' It was like primary school all over again, except that I was struggling under the weight of bags three times my size while awaiting the final stages of the Customs check at Sydney Airport. It is the process by which all those who enter our country must pass.
But woe to those of a certain racial background. These people are treated as though they are not only harbouring nasty poultry- or bovine-derived diseases under their Hello Kitty face masks but smuggling 50 episodes of Prison Break among their packed underwear. Our reputation as a multicultural nation nestled happily in the bosom of the Asia-Pacific falls flat under the barrage of bigotry some face between aircraft and airport. Evelyn Quach, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 Feb 2010 |
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ABOUT ADC WEBWATCH
Welcome to ADC Webwatch, a weekly update on what the public is hearing about issues of race, tolerance and human rights. Skim the newsletter to stay abreast of the issues or click on the hyperlinks for more information.
ADC Webwatch is published by the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission, a community organisation dedicated to opposing antisemitism and racism and promoting respect and tolerance.
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