Category: Australia

Australia: Murder of Sudanese refugee not racially motivated

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There must be more (a lot more) to this story from Australia.   A judge has ruled that the murder of an 18-year-old refugee from the Sudan was not racially motivated.  And, it’s not clear to me what such a ruling in Australia would have meant anyway.

The murder of a Sudanese refugee was not racially motivated despite his killer spraying racist graffiti just hours before the bashing, a judge said.

Just hours before the attack, Clinton David Rintoull sprayed the abusive words on the wall of a house in suburban Noble Park in September 2007.

He later stood outside the house armed with a metal pole and shouted: ‘These blacks are turning the town into the Bronx. I’m going to take my own town back. I’m looking to kill blacks’.

Expressing anger and remorse that she had even brought her son to Australia, the victim’s mother had this to say.

Mr Gony’s mother Martha Ojulo Alama expressed her outrage at the decision.

‘My son was preyed on and killed like a dog on the street and today the justice didn’t give me what I was hoping to hear, what I was hoping that they deserved to get,’ she said, in Sudanese, outside court.

Ms Alama said she could not forgive herself for letting him die a violent death in Australia.

‘He could have died where there is a cause in Sudan … but here someone is killing you for nothing.’

As I said at the outset, there must be more to this story.

According to ‘Islamic News’ blog, Australian right wing party is calling for a moratorium on Muslim immigration

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This story is posted on a blog called Islamic News and there are no citations (that I could find) for this information.  Maybe one of our Australian readers could confirm this pretty forthright (if true) position of the Christian Democratic Party.  No politically correct mushiness here.

Australian right Christian Democratic Party is anti-Muslim campaign in anticipation of the federal by-elections in Sydney. Manifesto of the Party, released before the Saturday vote, calls on voters “stand up for Christian values” and requires a ten-year ban Muslim immigration to Australia.

Party nominated nine candidates to contest for a seat the electoral district Bradfield, conservative areas of Sydney, home to the most affluent city dwellers.

Party leader Fred Nile has accused certain circles of the Muslim population in the reluctance to assimilate and forming plans to establish an Islamic state in Australia . He also advocates the introduction of tighter controls over Muslims in the armed forces.

He cited the example of Britain, which Muslims call for the establishment of sharia courts. In connection with what he called a moratorium on Muslim immigration, and not to increase the share of Muslim population above the current 1,7%.

A Melbourne Muslim activist is quoted as saying this would threaten “harmony” and “multiculturalism.”  Sounds like they have the lingo down pat!  Makes you wonder if Wade Rathke has been community organizing in Australia.

Some in Australia getting worried about Muslim immigration, article tries to calm fears

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Just now I came across this story in the Australian today with a title seeking to comfort, “Fears of Eurabian Future Unfounded.”  Obviously, in the wake of the Swiss ban on minarets, debate on a topic we have discussed frequently on these pages is heating up—demographic changes, due mostly to Muslim immigration and high birth rates in Europe forewarn of a possible end to western civilization.  This article attempts, for three fourths of the article, to convince us those fears are unfounded; then near the end hits the reader with this!

A paper by the US Council on Foreign Relations reports: “Most analysts say that many of Western Europe’s Muslims are poorly integrated into society. They cite closed ethnic neighbourhoods, high crime rates in Muslim communities, calls for use of sharia law, the wearing of the veil and other examples as evidence of a conflict with European values.”

The report says Muslims are more likely to be poor and live in segregated, crime-prone neighbourhoods. Many self-segregate because of language barriers and cultural mores, such as the Muslim prohibition on drinking.

Unemployment rates are up to double those for other minorities.

Bassam Tibi, a German Muslim academic who holds a professorship at Cornell University and is director of the Centre for International Affairs at the University of Gottingen, says European societies offer limited opportunities to Muslim immigrants, even those with citizenship. “In America, if you get citizenship, you’re an American,” he says, whereas Muslims in Europe are not seen as “citizens of the heart”.  [I beg to differ with the good professor on his assertion about America. I have heard first hand that many Somali Muslims when becoming citizens refuse to take the oath of citizenship.]

He says many Muslim immigrants contribute to the problem by seeing themselves as members of a “transnational Muslim community” with no obligations to European society. “They themselves create obstacles. There is a mutual rejection of one another.”

Tibi hopes that Muslim and non-Muslim Europeans can learn to live in harmony, as they did in medieval Islamic Spain. [This supposed harmony in Spain* has been exagerated, and besides the Muslims ran the show.]  If they can’t, he warns: “It’s a recipe for civil war”.

So, that’s how an author who was working really hard to convince us and his/her fellow Australians that the fears of  a Eurabian future for Europe are unfounded ends his argument—oh well, maybe a civil war!   Are you comforted?

Next!  More from Australia, here.

* Update December 5th: Coincidentally our friend Always on Watch posted on the myth of harmony in Islamic Spain, here, yesterday.

Australia invests in program to teach refugees to respect the law

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Confirming there is a problem with some refugee youths, the government of Victoria has extended a project to teach refugees some basic information about their new society.

From the Gov Monitor:

Deputy Premier and Attorney-General Rob Hulls today announced a $1.32 million funding boost to extend a successful refugee youth project from a pilot into a three-year program.

Mr Hulls said the funding would allow the pilot project run by iEmpower Pty Ltd to expand and reach a broader audience after its initial success working with 23 disengaged young refugees aged 18 to 24 years old.

“The expansion of this project is recognition of the pilot’s success in reaching young refugees and helping them connect, or reconnect, with the community,” Mr Hulls said.

“Through a series of workshops and individual sessions over five months, participants are taught about justice, tolerance and fairness in society.

“They develop basic skills, such as critical thinking and problem solving, and learn to build confidence in themselves, greater levels of resilience and self-reliance, and respect for the community and the rule of law.

Australia: Factions riot in Christmas Island detention center

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

You can be sure these days to hear news from Australia about illegal immigrants reaching Australian shores and applying for asylum—five boats arrived this week alone!    While applications for asylum are processed, the boatmen (it is mostly men) are detained on Christmas Island. 

In one more example of how diversity is so beautiful, yesterday, Afghani and Sri Lankan detainees went at each other with whatever weapons they could find.   I found it somewhat amusing to read that pool cues served as weapons, which tells me that Australian taxpayers are providing for the men’s entertainment—pool that is, while detainees had other entertainment in mind.

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

THIRTY-SEVEN Afghan and Sri Lankans have been injured in a massed brawl on Christmas Island involving 150 detainees.

Ten of the detainees were taken to the island’s hospital and three of the more seriously hurt – one with a broken leg, one with a broken jaw and one with a broken nose – were flown to Perth for treatment yesterday.

Some guards suffered minor injuries while breaking up the fight, an Immigration Department spokesman said last night.

The spokesman said the department, Sirco – which runs the centre – and Australian Federal Police based on the island were investigating the brawl.

He said it was too soon to say what triggered the violence.

The trouble began about 6.30pm on Saturday. As the confrontation between the Afghans and more recently arrived Sri Lankans developed, those involved wielded pool cues, broom handles and branches.

Detention centre staff moved in quickly to break it up but it took them 30 minutes to get those fighting under control.

“This was a confrontation between a group of detainees, it was not aimed at staff or the centre itself,” the spokesman said.

What do you say all 150 involved in the riot ought to be immediately deported?  Heck, more are arriving weekly to take their place.

Forty-four boats carrying 2094 passengers, most of them from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Iraq, and 92 crew have arrived in Australian waters so far this year.

The latest was intercepted by the Australian Customs vessel Roebuck Bay south-west of the Ashmore Islands on Friday.

It was carrying 53 passengers and two crew, and they were taken to Christmas Island.

The boat was the fifth to arrive in Australian waters in a week.