- 27th April 2024
- Society
Kevin Donnelly
Curtis Cheng shot dead in in Parramatta in 2015, the Khayat brothers planning to blow up an Etihad plane in 2017, Abdul Haider, 18, attacking two police officers with a knife three years earlier in the Melbourne suburb of Endeavour Hills. Now, while Lakemba imams preach death to Jews and attack thecountry that has taken them in, a 16-year-old Muslim has stabbed an Assyrian Church bishop as he said Mass,
How much more evidence is needed to conclude Islam is a deadly threat to Australia and the West? Overseas evidence includes the September 11attack on the Twin Towers, the terror and death inflicted on thousands of Christians in Iraq, Syria and Egypt, and the death, rape, torture and abduction of innocent and vulnerable Israeli citizens on October 7.
As argued by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was raised as a Muslim, Islam is not a religion and certainly not a”religion of peace”. While countless Muslims co-exist and live peacefully in Western societies, including Australia, there are those committed to imposing an Islamic caliphate where Mohammad’s words reign supreme.
Unlike Western liberal democracies, which protect inherent rights and liberties, what terrorist groups such as Hamas seek is a theocratic state where women and girls are oppressed, LGBTIQA+ people are killed or imprisoned, and religious leaders like Iran’s Ali Khamenei are dictators with the full force of the State at their disposal to enforce compliance. No matter how much governments push multiculturalism, lately re-badged as “embracing diversity and difference”, and the mistaken belief all religious and ethnic groups deserve equal respect and tolerance, the reality is not all religions and cultures are equal.
It starts, of course, with Mohamed, a military figure intent on conquering unbelievers by violence. Jesus, on the other hand, in the Sermon on the Mount preaches “blessed are the peacemakers”, “blessed are the meek” and “love your enemies”. Whereas Islam’s religious leaders control the State, Christianity renders “unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”
So long as the Anglosphere’s political and legal systems are underpinned by Christian virtues and teachings, religious leaders can never be supreme rulers. Instead, as stated by Abraham Lincoln, a democratic state is “of the people, by the people, for the people”. Unlike Saudi Arabia and Iran, sovereignty in the West lies with the citizenry, the right to govern circumscribed by national constitutions and the rule of law. In Australia, unlike Islamic states, where those guilty of apostasy face punishment up to and including death, citizens are accorded the presumption of free will.
Even as much of the political and media debate surrounds the external threats represented by China’s plans for world dominance and an axis of evil including North Korea, Russia and Iran, Australia is also threatened by enemies within. Since the rise of political correctness, rationality and reason have been replaced by mind control and emotive groupthink. Instead of acknowledging what unites citizens and is held in common, the emphasis is on victimhood, self-interest and the politics of identity. Multiculturalism, as Geoffrey Blainey warned many years ago, has led to a nation of tribes consumed by imported hatreds and prejudices. In Western Sydney imams preach Islamic fundamentalism calling for Israel’s destruction.
Instead of nation-building and teaching the unique strengths and benefits of Western civilisation and Judeo-Christianity, the school curriculum indoctrinates students with cultural relativism. As a result, all cultures are respected regardless of how unacceptable and dangerous are their customs and beliefs — except, that is, for Western culture, which is condemned and denigrated as Eurocentric, imperialist, racist, sexist and guilty of heteronormativity. Even worse, students are no longer taught how privileged and lucky they are to live in a Western, liberal democracy where, compared to China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, essential rights and freedoms are guaranteed. Rights and freedoms so many have suffered and died to defend only exist because of concepts such as the inherent dignity of the individual and the foundational concept that all are equal before the law.
Singing the National Anthem and taking the oath of allegiance have been replaced by the indigenous ‘welcome to country’ and reciting snatches from the Uluru Statement from the Heart. As a result of teaching a black armband view of the nation’s history it should not come as a surprise that so few young people feel national pride.
Nations rise and fall and there is no guarantee cultures will always prosper and grow. Australia and the West in general are facing an existential threat from enemies both without and within. What is needed, in addition to ensuring the nation can defend itself, is the willingness to acknowledge and celebrate what makes Australia unique and such a prosperous, free and open society, the current efforts by eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant to decide what Australians can see and discuss notwithstanding.
The time for national self-doubt and self-flagellation has long since passed. Now is the moment for renewal, patriotism and nation-building. If the void created by the relentless assaults on our heritage and society continues to grow, the thought of what might fill it is chilling.
Dr Kevin Donnelly is a senior fellow at the ACU’s PM Glynn Institute
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