WE ARE led to believe that much of what is occurring in this country is a necessary response to terrorism.  To a far greater extent, it is the result of hypocritical religious bigotry and the politics of fear.

Abu Bakr, a Muslim cleric, appeared on ABC TV’s ‘7.30 Report’ last week and expressed an opinion.  That interview provoked a significant response, particularly from the senior members of the Federal Government.  Chief amongst the responses, if I may paraphrase, were the sentiments “incitement to hatred is un-Australian” and “embrace our Australian values or get out of the country”.

Let’s accept, for a moment, that the sentiments paraphrased above are reasonable:  that persons who incite others to hatred or who embrace values other than those considered ‘Australian’ should be ejected from the country.

There are many, many Australians who consider the following words to be a literal instruction from God:

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people. And Moses spake unto the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the LORD of Midian. Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war. So there were delivered out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the holy instruments, and the trumpets to blow in his hand. And they warred against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses; and they slew all the males. And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword. And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire. And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts. And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho. And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp. And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle. And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. (Numbers 31, 1-18)

The passage above describes and, in its own way,  promotes slaughter, theft, arson, slavery and the murder of women and children.  This is a text that is celebrated and worshipped by a significant percentage of Australians.  Does it represent ‘Australian values’?  When you ask yourself that question, two possibilities arise:

Yes, these are part of the value system which we hold dear.  In that case, we are no better than the extremists which we denounce.

Or,

No, these are not the kind of values to which we aspire. 

So, let’s stop being hypocritical.  If it’s good enough to call for prosecution and/or removal of citizenship for Abu Bakr then, in the interests of fairness, I call for the identical sanctions upon all those who extol and promote the kind of violence depicted in the Old Testament.  It’s about time these people recognised that Australian families will not tolerate such primitive and violent values.  They don’t deserve the honour of Australian citizenship.  Their communities have a greater role to play in ensuring their assimilation into mainstream Australian culture. 

I call upon the Prime Minister to call a summit of Christian leaders to encourage them to adopt and promote ‘Australian values’ within their communities and to abolish the expression of such extremist ideals.

Or is it OK for ‘us’ to celebrate extremism, but not ‘others’?