The question of sharia is a humorous one albeit taken seriously by some Australians and even the Attorney General.
Recent calls for sharia law in Australia are unfounded and irrational.
The problem is people do not even understand what sharia is and yet they begin fearing it and condemning it without justification.
Sharia is an aspect of a Muslim’s life which binds him or her under ethical and moral values. The commonly known conception of Sharia is that of Sharia law which can only exist if there is a predominantly Muslim society and that the government is Muslim.
The misconception about sharia law stems from the out-dated information and propaganda that intimates that sharia equates to corporal punishment and such punishments like stoning and whipping. These are medieval practices which are not used today.
Sharia is practiced in Australia everyday. I go to the mosque on Fridays, this is sharia, it does not impact on others. When Muslim gets married they go through both the Islamic rituals and the legal ceremony through a marriage celebrant. It is exactly the same for Christians who get married in a church or Jews who do so in a synagogue. It is the same for divorce, one does both the legal process and the religious process. Just as Catholics will divorce through the legal system and annul the marriage through the church as well. People don’t understand that sharia is a personal aspect of one’s faith and it is not a system of law.
Muslims in Australia do not want sharia in this country, we already have sharia practiced on a personal level. This nation is a secular nation. It protects religious rights and promotes religious freedoms. It would be highly impractical to implement sharia in Australia, and no one wants to any way.
It would be nice if we could all just wake up and smell the coffee, take a breath and relax. Sharia is already here, it has been for 150 years (with the first Afghan Muslim camel drivers), so why are we worried!
Friday, May 20, 2011
Aussie soldiers who killed Afghan children must be punished
Last week we heard that the Judge Advocate Brigadier Ian Westwood had decided to withdraw the charges of manslaughter against two army reservists in the Australian Defence Forces deployed in Afghanistan in 2009.
The soldiers were a part of an operation tageting 'insurgents' in Oruzgan province. The shooting incident took place in February 2009. Six people were killed, one male adult and five children. Last year Dateline did a report on the incident and found that according to eyewitnesses those killed were inncocent civilians and were unarmed.
When Director of Military Prosecutions, Brigadier Lyn McDade, decided to bring charges of manslaughter against the men the ADF was furious as were many Australians who heard about the charges through the media. The announcement to withdraw the charges has been welcomed by the ADF and former Defence chief General Peter Cosgrove.
However, I and every Afghan has a right to know why? Why are these men being allowed to get off scott free? What about the families and parents of the victims? Don't they have a right to justice? If these men are free to walk away without even a reprimand, the ADF will be sent a message that Australian soldiers in Afghanistan are above the law and that they can get away with murder. The Australian government must hold those soldiers accountable for the deaths of six civilians in Oruzgan Province.
This decision says that Afghan blood is cheap. An Afghan child's blood is cheap. Yet, many like Cosgrove say that important decisions have to be made in the heat of battle. So we are to assume that these soldiers could not tell the difference between children and armed men? If our soldiers are not trained well enough to identify a threat then they must be pulled out of action. This raises the question of how our troops view the “enemy” and whether they think that they can get away with any future incidents involving civilian casualties. The actions of these soliers was grossly negligent and the use of force was excessive (two grenades and machine gun fire).
However, facts speak for themselves:
Six people were killed. One adult and five children.
They were all unarmed.
One of the suspected insurgents was arrested and interrogated then later released.
Eyewtinesses all say that they were not members of Taliban.
The soldiers disobeyed their commands (another soldier has already been convicted of disobeying a directive).
AND that these soldiers were attacking the village not the other way around. It was not a defensive operation.
This is another case of a so-called Western Democratic country, such as Australia, who is really unjustifiably in Afghanistan, and who purports to have high standards of conduct and procedures of accountability, protecting two Australian soldiers who have killed innocent civilians, that is five innocent children.
How could this have happened and why aren’t those responsible being held to account?
Do we just tell the families and the Afghan people sorry but so-what. Shit happens.
The Australian government must show strong leadership and give justice to the families of the victims. No-one wants to admit that our own troops could have deliberately killed children, however, through their own negligence this has happened and they must be held accountable and they should be punished and the families compensated. The Australian government must not allow these men to get away with murder.
This is also a timely reminder that we must reassess why Australian troops are in Afghanistan in the first place and withdraw our troops. We should not be in Afghanistan in any case. If Osama Bin Laden is dead, the country has its own elected government and there is relative peace in the country, then Australia must withdraw its troops. Why are we there?
These deaths are a direct result of Australia's decision to be in Afghanistan and the government is complicit in the death of every civilian at the hands of Australian troops in Afghanistan as it is for the death of every Australian digger who falls in battle. It's a shame. A crying shame.
The soldiers were a part of an operation tageting 'insurgents' in Oruzgan province. The shooting incident took place in February 2009. Six people were killed, one male adult and five children. Last year Dateline did a report on the incident and found that according to eyewitnesses those killed were inncocent civilians and were unarmed.
When Director of Military Prosecutions, Brigadier Lyn McDade, decided to bring charges of manslaughter against the men the ADF was furious as were many Australians who heard about the charges through the media. The announcement to withdraw the charges has been welcomed by the ADF and former Defence chief General Peter Cosgrove.
However, I and every Afghan has a right to know why? Why are these men being allowed to get off scott free? What about the families and parents of the victims? Don't they have a right to justice? If these men are free to walk away without even a reprimand, the ADF will be sent a message that Australian soldiers in Afghanistan are above the law and that they can get away with murder. The Australian government must hold those soldiers accountable for the deaths of six civilians in Oruzgan Province.
This decision says that Afghan blood is cheap. An Afghan child's blood is cheap. Yet, many like Cosgrove say that important decisions have to be made in the heat of battle. So we are to assume that these soldiers could not tell the difference between children and armed men? If our soldiers are not trained well enough to identify a threat then they must be pulled out of action. This raises the question of how our troops view the “enemy” and whether they think that they can get away with any future incidents involving civilian casualties. The actions of these soliers was grossly negligent and the use of force was excessive (two grenades and machine gun fire).
However, facts speak for themselves:
Six people were killed. One adult and five children.
They were all unarmed.
One of the suspected insurgents was arrested and interrogated then later released.
Eyewtinesses all say that they were not members of Taliban.
The soldiers disobeyed their commands (another soldier has already been convicted of disobeying a directive).
AND that these soldiers were attacking the village not the other way around. It was not a defensive operation.
This is another case of a so-called Western Democratic country, such as Australia, who is really unjustifiably in Afghanistan, and who purports to have high standards of conduct and procedures of accountability, protecting two Australian soldiers who have killed innocent civilians, that is five innocent children.
How could this have happened and why aren’t those responsible being held to account?
Do we just tell the families and the Afghan people sorry but so-what. Shit happens.
The Australian government must show strong leadership and give justice to the families of the victims. No-one wants to admit that our own troops could have deliberately killed children, however, through their own negligence this has happened and they must be held accountable and they should be punished and the families compensated. The Australian government must not allow these men to get away with murder.
This is also a timely reminder that we must reassess why Australian troops are in Afghanistan in the first place and withdraw our troops. We should not be in Afghanistan in any case. If Osama Bin Laden is dead, the country has its own elected government and there is relative peace in the country, then Australia must withdraw its troops. Why are we there?
These deaths are a direct result of Australia's decision to be in Afghanistan and the government is complicit in the death of every civilian at the hands of Australian troops in Afghanistan as it is for the death of every Australian digger who falls in battle. It's a shame. A crying shame.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Racist ethnic crime claims are Re-bolting
Once again Andrew Bolt is shooting his mouth off, on another one of his racist rants. Its getting a bit tiring and repetitive yet no doubt he feeds into the hunger of the small minority of bigots out there in readership land.
This time, he claims that it is only the nasty Muslims and Africans that are creating crime waves across the country especially in Melbourne, Darwin and Adelaide. Its sounds like an epidemic if you were to believe Bolt. Its easy to pick out police reports of crimes involving men of African appearance, they are freely available on the Police website.
However, we need to place all of this in context. Its not Muslims that fill our gaols. Neither is it Africans. Even looking at it proportionately the numbers are still low.
The ABS website says: As of 30 June 2010 there were 29,700 prisoners in Australian prisons. This represented a national imprisonment rate of 170 prisoners per 100,000 adult population. The median aggregate sentence length for all sentenced prisoners was 3 years. The most serious offence/charge category of acts intended to cause injury accounted for the highest proportion of all prisoners (20% or 5,805).
Of the total prisoner population, 8% (2,228) were female. The median age of all prisoners was 33.5 years.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners comprised just over a quarter (26% or 7,584) of the total prisoner population. This was 14 times higher than non-Indigenous prisoners.
Australia was recorded as the country of birth for 80% (23,863) of all prisoners. This was followed by New Zealand (3% or 842 prisoners), Vietnam (3% or 755) and the United Kingdom and Ireland (2% or 600). Prisoners born in Samoa had the highest imprisonment rate (555 prisoners per 100,000 adult population for Samoa), followed by prisoners born in Tonga (531 prisoners per 100,000 adult population for Tonga).
The national average daily Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander imprisonment rate was 2,250 per 100,000 adult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population.
As you can plainly see, no Sudanese, no Lebanese or Somali people listed amongst these statistics. If Bolt is going to create false hysteria about one ethnic group over others, then he should start with Australian-born inmates, who are mostly of Anglo-European descent. And if there was a justified article then Bolt should be writing about the Samoans and Tongans.
Sadly, this man gets paid to feed crap down our throats and most of us are gullible to believe him. It's a great tragedy of modern day journalism.
This time, he claims that it is only the nasty Muslims and Africans that are creating crime waves across the country especially in Melbourne, Darwin and Adelaide. Its sounds like an epidemic if you were to believe Bolt. Its easy to pick out police reports of crimes involving men of African appearance, they are freely available on the Police website.
However, we need to place all of this in context. Its not Muslims that fill our gaols. Neither is it Africans. Even looking at it proportionately the numbers are still low.
The ABS website says: As of 30 June 2010 there were 29,700 prisoners in Australian prisons. This represented a national imprisonment rate of 170 prisoners per 100,000 adult population. The median aggregate sentence length for all sentenced prisoners was 3 years. The most serious offence/charge category of acts intended to cause injury accounted for the highest proportion of all prisoners (20% or 5,805).
Of the total prisoner population, 8% (2,228) were female. The median age of all prisoners was 33.5 years.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners comprised just over a quarter (26% or 7,584) of the total prisoner population. This was 14 times higher than non-Indigenous prisoners.
Australia was recorded as the country of birth for 80% (23,863) of all prisoners. This was followed by New Zealand (3% or 842 prisoners), Vietnam (3% or 755) and the United Kingdom and Ireland (2% or 600). Prisoners born in Samoa had the highest imprisonment rate (555 prisoners per 100,000 adult population for Samoa), followed by prisoners born in Tonga (531 prisoners per 100,000 adult population for Tonga).
The national average daily Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander imprisonment rate was 2,250 per 100,000 adult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population.
As you can plainly see, no Sudanese, no Lebanese or Somali people listed amongst these statistics. If Bolt is going to create false hysteria about one ethnic group over others, then he should start with Australian-born inmates, who are mostly of Anglo-European descent. And if there was a justified article then Bolt should be writing about the Samoans and Tongans.
Sadly, this man gets paid to feed crap down our throats and most of us are gullible to believe him. It's a great tragedy of modern day journalism.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Obama killed Osama
People cheering, fist pumping into the air and flag waving, seems reminiscent of a home-coming or a victory parade. True, the death of Bin Laden could be viewed as a victory. However, just how relevant is his presumed demise?
For most people in the world, Bin Laden was irrelevant. More than likely he was incapacitated by illness or he could have been dead for all intents and purposes and the world had moved on. There had been almost nothing in the past five years from Bin Laden, no claims of any terrorist attacks, no recorded videos or anything of any significance. The security world and the US had by and large assumed him as MIA (Missing In Action). Until today, at about 1pm our time, when we were alerted that the mighty Barack Hussein Obama (BHO) had killed Osama Bin Laden (OBL), most people in the world had actually forgotten about him. Osama Bin Who?
Yet, jumping for joy in the streets of New York is a bit over the top. Just as those who rejoiced at the sight of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers was deplorable behaviour, it is not befitting of any society to be celebrating the death of a human being. We have evolved.
Public hangings and executions are a thing of the past, in medieval France, many were publicly tortured before they were eventually beheaded and in the wild west of America in the 1800’s it was common practice for lynch mobs to take the law into their own hands and the locals loved a public hangin’. But today, we must show restraint in our own personal jubilation at the death of a murderer. It is not befitting of a super-power state such as the USA. It only reduces us to level that we loathe in the first place.
The other factor which, unfortunately is relevant, is that such scenes of rejoicing in the States could be deemed as offensive to many Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. While OBL is no real hero to Muslims, some see him as a symbol of the struggle against US colonial interests in their countries. OBL’s death to many people in the Middle East is a symbol of the victory of the colonial powers and their commitment to continue their occupation of Muslim lands. It is crucial that the US and the West use this announcement to create impetus for re-building the relations with the Muslim world, especially amidst the so-called youth-quake in the Middle East and the political reforms that are taking place in countries like Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Yemen and Tunisia. The West has to capitalise on this phenomena that is taking place in a positive way.
But there is one more question that will never be truthfully answered, is the assasination of OBL just a coincidence or has it been perfectly timed to distract attention from the NATO debacle in Libya and for BHO and problems with the US economy? He now has the 2012 presidential campaign in the bag, the body bag so to speak.He will be knowm as the US president who killed OBL? His second term is assured. His own popularity ratings were waning. Many voters had expressed dissatisfaction with BHO after the initial euphoria as the first black American president. Well, this latest announcement has revived his popularity and given the American people something to smile about. Now, BHO has truly proven his Americanness; he has killed enemy number one. This should put a sock in Trump's mouth once and for all.
For most people in the world, Bin Laden was irrelevant. More than likely he was incapacitated by illness or he could have been dead for all intents and purposes and the world had moved on. There had been almost nothing in the past five years from Bin Laden, no claims of any terrorist attacks, no recorded videos or anything of any significance. The security world and the US had by and large assumed him as MIA (Missing In Action). Until today, at about 1pm our time, when we were alerted that the mighty Barack Hussein Obama (BHO) had killed Osama Bin Laden (OBL), most people in the world had actually forgotten about him. Osama Bin Who?
Yet, jumping for joy in the streets of New York is a bit over the top. Just as those who rejoiced at the sight of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers was deplorable behaviour, it is not befitting of any society to be celebrating the death of a human being. We have evolved.
Public hangings and executions are a thing of the past, in medieval France, many were publicly tortured before they were eventually beheaded and in the wild west of America in the 1800’s it was common practice for lynch mobs to take the law into their own hands and the locals loved a public hangin’. But today, we must show restraint in our own personal jubilation at the death of a murderer. It is not befitting of a super-power state such as the USA. It only reduces us to level that we loathe in the first place.
The other factor which, unfortunately is relevant, is that such scenes of rejoicing in the States could be deemed as offensive to many Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. While OBL is no real hero to Muslims, some see him as a symbol of the struggle against US colonial interests in their countries. OBL’s death to many people in the Middle East is a symbol of the victory of the colonial powers and their commitment to continue their occupation of Muslim lands. It is crucial that the US and the West use this announcement to create impetus for re-building the relations with the Muslim world, especially amidst the so-called youth-quake in the Middle East and the political reforms that are taking place in countries like Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Yemen and Tunisia. The West has to capitalise on this phenomena that is taking place in a positive way.
But there is one more question that will never be truthfully answered, is the assasination of OBL just a coincidence or has it been perfectly timed to distract attention from the NATO debacle in Libya and for BHO and problems with the US economy? He now has the 2012 presidential campaign in the bag, the body bag so to speak.He will be knowm as the US president who killed OBL? His second term is assured. His own popularity ratings were waning. Many voters had expressed dissatisfaction with BHO after the initial euphoria as the first black American president. Well, this latest announcement has revived his popularity and given the American people something to smile about. Now, BHO has truly proven his Americanness; he has killed enemy number one. This should put a sock in Trump's mouth once and for all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
