A most interesting response to the mosque massacres in New Zealand comes from the foreign editor of The Australian, Greg Sheridan. Suddenly, uncharacteristically, this knee-jerk defender of Israeli apartheid and genocide, is all sweetness and light when it comes to Muslims:
"Today we are all Muslims... Like almost all right-wing terrorism, it was motivated by filthy racism and racial hatred... Everyone involved in politics and online activism should reflect on the dangers of exaggerated rhetoric, exaggerated grievance, exaggerated resentment... Decent social democrats, conservatives, liberals and others do not see race when they interact with other human beings... Yet throughout the West we are in the process of re-emphasising race as the central consideration in our politics." (In face of racist terror, we are all Muslims today, The Australian, 16/3/19)
But MERC has a long memory when it comes to Sheridan. Just cop a load of this Islamophobic dog-whistling:
"Uncontrolled Muslim immigration into Europe has been a public policy failure, if not an outright disaster. This is the view of most Europeans, as measured by opinion polls, and of a large number of European officials and politicians. Having just spent a month in Europe, talking to dozens of officials, politicians and immigrants, it is a view I reluctantly share. This is given sharp relief by the illegal immigration crisis Australia is experiencing to its north. The spike now in boat arrivals involves Sri Lankans, but this is primarily a route that would be used by Muslim illegal immigrants. There is nothing wrong with Muslim immigration. It goes without saying that the vast majority of Muslim immigrants are good Australians and perfectly law-abiding citizens. However, it is simply denying reality to pretend that the cultural distinctiveness and assertiveness of Islam, and of the propensity for a small but distinctively substantial minority to be attracted to extremism, does not pose problems." (Europe looks Down Under for answers on immigration, Greg Sheridan, The Australian, 24/10/09)
That's right, "today we are all Muslims," but what about yesterday? And tomorrow?
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The lack of rigorous examination into the root causes of the rise in islamophobia and nationalism, always excludes the ardent manifestation of these ideologies, Israel. The fact that Greg Sheridan - in complete denial of his own racism - and others, have not called for increased security measures around Mosques to ensure the safety of the Islamic community in Australia, highlights their complete disingenuousness.
This looks like typical Sheridan: "The spike now in boat arrivals involves Sri Lankans, but this is primarily a route that would be used by Muslim illegal immigrants."
Never let the facts get in the way of a bit of propaganda! As he says, the spike in boat arrivals did involve Sri Lankans but nudge, nudge, wink, wink, it might be - wait for it - Muslims!
There is a significant Muslim community in Sri Lanka - around 9% - but, from what I can gather quickly from the web, the asylum seekers arriving in Australia are predominantly Tamils - ones linked (at least in the Sri Lankan Government's view to the Tamil Tigers - from the north of Sri Lanka. The Tamil Tigers targeted the Muslims in the north - the Sri Lankan Moors - and drove almost all from their homes. According to Wikipedia, currently only about 2000 Muslims live in Jaffna.
In regards to Australia's policy on Sri Lankan asylum seekers, this paper needs to be read, It was prepared for the Blue Mountains Refugee Support Group in July2018.
https://www.bmrsg.org.au/compassion/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Sri-Lanka-update-July-2018-final.pdf
Its conclusion, which I quote in its entirety, is:
"International human rights bodies have criticised the Sri Lankan government for slow progress on human rights and currently reform has ground to a halt.
"In July 2018, the UN Special Rapporteur on countering terrorism reported that individuals are still held in detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act(PTA), impunity is still the rule for those responsible for the routine and systemic use of torture, and countless individuals are the victims of gross miscarriages of justice resulting from the operation of the PTA. The Tamil community remains stigmatised and disenfranchised, while the trust of other minority communities is being steadily eroded. Asylum seekers returning to Sri Lanka are subject to routine arrest and prosecution and face continuing police harassment. It would appear therefore that it is still unsafe for them to return to Sri Lanka."
Australia returns asylum seekers to Sri Lanka as a matter of course.
As to violence against Muslims, Sri Lanka too has its problems in that direction. From the same report:
"there have been ongoing incidents involving inter-communal violence, attacks and hate speech against minorities, including violence against Muslims in the Kandy district in March 2018 that led to the proclamation of a state of emergency for 12 days."
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