Posted on

Harris Park school targeted by anti-Christian threats

By Jade Wittmann

Parramatta Sun,

http://www.parramattasun.com.au/story/2568402/harris-park-school-targeted-by-anti-christian-threats/

 

Calm influence: Joseph Wakim outside the Maronite College of the Holy Family where a staff member was threatened. Picture: Gene Ramirez

Calm influence: Joseph Wakim outside the Maronite College of the Holy Family where a staff member was threatened. Picture: Gene Ramirez

At about 2pm on Tuesday, two men drove past the Maronite College of The Holy Family in a red hatchback with what resembled an IS flag and shouted at a nun form the school they were going to ”get you Christians” and ”slaughter your children”.

She notified the principal who contacted police.

About 1000 students from kindergarten to year 12 attend the school, on Alice Street.

College spokesman Joseph Wakim said parents had received newsletters explaining the incident and he hoped no one would ”use and abuse” social media to give an untrue version of events.

He said he was not surprised that the story had made it to London’s Daily Mail.

”One of the narratives in this post ‘war on terror’ situation is homegrown terrorism,” he said.

”We woke up this morning to the news of arrests in Brisbane and Sydney by the Federal Police of terrorist suspects.

”It’s really easy to conflate the two and think that these people are terrorists who are coming to exact harm on local Christians as they have done in Iraq [but] people are making this parallel that doesn’t actually exist.

‘‘Because we’re living in a volatile time incidents such as this — whether they happen in front of a church or a mosque or a synagogue — are going to attract a lot of attention.

‘‘Sometimes that attention can be counterproductive because people can become paranoid and defensive.

‘‘The really important message that the heads of both the church and the college are giving to people is that their faith teaches them to be people of peace, not people of anger or revenge.

‘‘I know from my close friends within the muslim community, they say exactly the same thing. ‘If you don’t understand your faith come to us, we will guide you’.

‘‘That has been the predominant message to make sure everyone feels safe and they work towards peace.’’

A school liaison officer from Rosehill Local Area Command visited the college this morning to inform and reassure students.

Mr Wakim said the officer’s brief speech was met with applause.

Police also attended mass at Our Lady of Lebanon Church, next to the college, last night as a precautionary measure.

‘‘There was no repeat incident but such verbal threats will always be taken seriously,’’ Mr Wakim said.

‘‘It gave people a great sense of comfort, peace and safety.

‘‘It’s important that whoever is behind this incident understands that they might have thrown a stone to create ripples [but] they’ve failed.

‘‘People aren’t panicking. They’re still sending their children to school, they still go to church to pray.’’

Posted on

Muslim, Christian clergy condemn terrorism

https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/24969401/muslim-christian-clergy-condemn-terrorism/

Muslim, Christian clergy condemn terrorism

Ehssan VeiszadehSeptember 11, 2014, 7:16 pm

Senior Muslim and Christian leaders have condemned the sectarian bloodshed in the Middle East and vowed to uphold Australia’s security.

Grand Mufti Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, head of the Chaldean Catholic community Archbishop Gabriel Kassab and six other religious leaders released a joint statement denouncing all forms of “violence, sectarian discrimination and terrorism, especially in Iraq and the Middle East”.

“We stand in solidarity with the displaced families in the region who have every right to live free from fear, and we pledge any support that eases their hardship,” the statement said on Thursday.

The leaders also pledged to “uphold the safety of our homeland Australia and Australian people”.

“This is an integral part of our divine teachings,” the statement said.

“We affirm our commitment to continue this solidarity and maintain open lines of communication with each other and with the Australian government.”

Joseph Wakim, of Arab Council Australia, commended the religious leaders for speaking out against violent extremism abroad.

“What they’re trying to make sure is that it doesn’t come home to Australia,” he told AAP.

Mufti-Bishop

“They’re really trying to buffer it by saying to all these angry youths who are out there trying to take the law into their own hands that they don’t have any sort of blessing (from their religious leaders).”

The statement comes amid a federal government push to tighten counter-terrorism measures.

The Abbott government says it is concerned that dozens of Australians who are fighting in Syria and Iraq might bring their extreme ideologies back home.

 

Posted on

Plenty of smoke but little fire in Tony Abbott’s concerns over Muslim radicals

http://m.theage.com.au/comment/plenty-of-smoke-but-little-fire-in-tony-abbotts-concerns-over-muslim-radicals-20140901-10ay16.html

http://bit.ly/1B8AlGQ

Published in The Age, 2 September 2014

The Islamic State is emerging as a political movement.

 

The Prime Minister should be a beacon leading us out of the terrorism smoke, not fanning the flames.

Mr Abbott’s announcement that $13.4 million will be earmarked to “support community efforts to prevent young Australians being radicalised” is fraught with contradictions.

How can one allocate money to a “community” solution before we have any evidence-based research on the cause? There is no singular definable career path or pathology for the radicalised terrorist. Some are educated professionals who are drawn to ideology of a pure Islamic caliphate. Others are disenfranchised and unemployed, angry at their lack of belonging. Whether it is the pull or push factor, the allure of power and making history is a magnet for some.

The compounding factors may be idiosyncratic to the individual, compounded by their selected peers or by their selected social media. There is no evidence that the family or the “community” sanctions or supports this pathway to violent extremism. When discovered, these individuals appear to be leading a double life.

If “community” refers to Islamic organisations and mosques, they are rarely on the radar or habitat of these recluses. When was a radicalised jihadist recognised as a regular at a youth centre? These marginalised individuals appear to shy away from these “mainstream” professional agencies that encourage education and employment. Throwing the solution at the feet of Muslim community leaders implies that they are part of the problem.

While Mr Abbott is at pains to point out that his measures “are not directed against any particular community or religion”, this is refuted by his recent round of Muslim meetings. The leaders that the Prime Minister “consulted” last week while trying to sell his anti-terror reforms are the respectable officials and unlikely to be “consulted” by the radicalised jihadists.

The Attorney-General’s Living Safe Together website affirms that “there is not just one path to violent extremism”, and that “extremists exploit social and economic conditions, and individual vulnerabilities to recruit and motivate others”. However, it also affirms that “many projects are already under way across Australia under the Building Community Resilience Grants and Youth Mentoring Grants Programs”. This begs the question: has Mr Abbott announced a continuation of an existing funding?

Mr Abbott claims that “the best defence against radicalisation is through well-informed . . . local engagement”. But his concerns about returning radicalised extremists becoming “involved in terrorist activity here” may be ill-informed. ISIS is not al-Qaeda. The Islamic State is emerging as a political movement that is founded on reclaiming and expanding its own territory, commencing with Iraq and Syria.

Their enemies are infidels in their caliphate who refuse to swear allegiance to caliph Abu-Bakr al Baghdadi. Their ethnic cleansing is driven by a sense of victimisation and vengeance. As confirmed by many “rear-view mirror” empirical studies on the radicalisation process, angry political views are the prerequisite, not religious intolerance.

Unlike al-Qaeda, which launched attacks on foreign soil, this offshoot recruits fighters for its own soil. There has been no official escalation of Australia’s “medium” risk of terrorist threat since 2003. Despite this unchanged risk assessment, Mr Abbott heightens the media hype by referring to what “we have seen on our TV screens and on the front pages of our newspapers”.

If one listens to the propaganda of the travelling circus that recruits youth into the Islamic State, they are replete with references to western racism and hypocrisy.

If Mr Abbott is serious about “activities to better understand and address radicalisation”, the onus cannot be left at the feet of the “community”. Ironically, the double speak in his announcement has already fed conspiracy theories that Muslims are being targeted, yet again. The differential treatment of Australians in the Israeli Defence Forces, which have killed over 2000 Palestinians in Gaza, remain a bone of contention for many who see all killing of civilians as immoral, regardless of uniform or citizenship. The maps of Sydney CBD seized inside a “bomb-making” house in Brisbane failed to attract the usual terrorist headlines, perhaps because the suspect was not from the Middle East.

Even “moderate” Muslims have been angered by Mr Abbott’s recent ultimatum that “you don’t migrate to this country unless you want to join our team”, especially given that near half of the Muslim population was Australian-born.

Repeated references to “Team Australia” reduce these issues to a sport where the non-players are rendered non-Australian. Mr Abbott may be wise to play down the politics of fear by stating “if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear”.

The hype around home-grown radicals planting bombs is real, and has been spurred by the free publicity given to Islamic State scaremongering. But planting the solution at the feet of the community is not realistic.

They need to be coupled with government efforts to stop the divisive language and foreign policies that cause the very radicalisation that the Prime Minister is ostensibly diffusing.

Posted on

ISIS: Lessons from the KKK

http://thehoopla.com.au/isis-lessons-kkk/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvhsiEHFctY&feature=player_embedded

ISIS: LESSONS FROM THE KKK

Published in The Hoopla, September 2, 2014

Multiple choice question: Was it ISIS, KKK or Al Qaeda that was described as a “terrorist organisation, which in its endeavours to intimidate, or even eliminate those it dislikes, using the most brutal of methods”?

This is how US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas referred to the Ku Klux Klan in 2003. It echoes why Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri disavowed all links with ISIS in February when he accused them of sedition in Syria and condemned them for the “blood that was shed.”

The American KKK and the anti-American ISIS may appear a world and a century apart, but some have already alluded that ISIS is to Muslims what KKK is to Christians.

A closer look at KKK’s pitfalls may shed light on how to defeat ISIS.

In origin, both organisations were a resistance to a local invasion. The many incarnations of ISIS were borne out of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, while KKK was borne out of the post-Civil War era in 1865 when the Republican Party passed the Reconstruction Act, granting ‘equal protection’ to former African slaves. The KKK refused to recognise the freedom of African Americans.

While ISIS initially sought to restore their version Sunni supremacy in Iraq, KKK sought to restore white supremacy in America’s South.

Both sought to reclaim a ‘pure’ homeland. In the ISIS propaganda video ‘End of Sykes-Picot’, the Prophet’s ‘successor’, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, was dubbed the ‘breaker of borders’. His ISIS troops trample over the 1916 post-Ottoman empire boundary between Syria and Iraq and declare that “the legality of all emirates, groups, states and organisations becomes null by the expansion of the caliph’s authority”.

KKK also fought for its romantic view of the ‘invisible empire of the South,’ calling its leader a Grand Imperial Wizard. Their xenophobic slogans yearned to maintain the status quo. A magnet used by both movements is trying to make the complex simple – extremely simple.

The ISIS leader was a high ranking veteran from the war against the US invasion in Iraq, while the KKK founders were high ranking veterans from the Civil War.

The name ISIS is a translation of an Arabic acronym for Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (greater Syria), ad-Dawlat al-Islamiyya fi al-Iraq wa as-Sham (DAESH). By contrast, KKK was a name based on the Greek word for circle and was concocted in humour by six veterans for their fancy-dress social club in 1866. They later learned that their white costumes with astrological symbols resembled ghosts which frightened superstitious African Americans.

While ISIS claims to have 16 wilayat (provinces) in Iraq and Syria with over 100,000 troops, KKK has 100 klaverns (chapters) and over 5000 members, mainly in South and Mid-West USA. Their peak membership in the 1920s reached 4 million.

Initially, only White Anglo Saxon Protestants could join the KKK, and Catholics were among their targets during the 1915 economic downturn alongside Jews and immigrants. The cross lighting ceremony began in the 1920’s to symbolise the cleansing fire of Christ that cleanses evil from the land and lights the way from the darkness of ignorance.

However, the modern landscape of white supremacy has forced many KKK chapters to accept non-Christians.

Similarly, ISIS regards Shiites and Alawites as infidels, not as Muslims. Despite their religious symbols, both ISIS and KKK have morphed into political movements about territory, cleansing, vengeance and power.

While Al Qaeda denounced the splinter group ISIS as overly violent, the first Grand Wizard, General Nathan Bedford Forrest tried to disband KKK for the same reasons in 1869.

Their supply chains of funding and finance are poles apart. ISIS controls over US$2 billion from oil fields seized in eastern Syria, Mosul’s central bank, donations from Gulf Arabs, business extortions, kidnapping ransoms and weapons stockpiles.

By contrast, KKK relies on their member fees and paraphernalia sales. This is one of many reasons for their repeated cycles of collapse, apart from their resurgence in the immigration boom of the 1920s and the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Since the 1970s, skin-head and neo-Nazis have proliferated in the white supremacist scene which has rendered the KKK brand name as the grandfather’s hate group. The modern groups rely on social media rather than BBQs and Klanta Klaus.

Unlike Al Qaeda, ISIS recruits Westerners through a highly coordinated social media presence including YouTube, Twitter, theme songs and their online magazine Dabiq. Their carefully executed videos attract global attention as they showcase their brute force and rapid results.

Modern racists have been put off by the lynching of innocent African Americans as they have more modern targets in mind. As the KKK membership attracts people with violent or anti-social natures, and they remain US citizens subject to criminal law, many leaders have been convicted and removed. With ISIS creating their own citizenship and jurisdictions, they appear immune from state laws.

The domestic terrorists beneath white KKK hoods have killed 3446 African Americans. The global terrorists beneath the black ISIS hoods have killed 50,000 Arabs, and counting.

While KKK was roundly denounced by churches, ISIS has also been denounced by Muslim leaders such as the Grand Mufti of Egypt who dismissed the reactionary caliphate as an ‘illusion.’

Just as KKK does not represent Christians, ISIS does not represent Muslims. Unlike the weak national leadership of KKK, the ISIS leader remains an elusive engineer of fear and media.

The KKK brand name was tarnished by its brutality and overtaken by groups with a different methodology and different targets. If the ISIS brand name becomes tarnished by its brutality against fellow Muslims and other minority groups, it may be overtaken by a splinter group that is more interested in territory than purity.

The KKK may not be able to teach us how to conquer ISIS, but it may teach us that its most powerful enemy may be within its own circles – especially former members who have become reformed and speak out. The repulsion by pure evil may trump the attraction to a pure territory.

These movements peak when fear peaks. They thrive on staged spectacles and free publicity which feeds into their power. We can only fan their flames if there is oxygen, and our media is their oxygen, inadvertently paying for their global recruitment and fear campaign.

To snuff out their flame, we need to stop retweeting their propaganda. The power of stopping supply costs nothing, but saves lives.

*Joseph Wakim OAM is the author of ‘Sorry We Have No Space’ (2013). He is an independent writer who has had over 500 opinion columns published in all major newspapers for over 20 years. He is the Founder of Australian Arabic Council and a Former Multicultural Affairs Commissioner. He blogs at www.josephwakim.com.au and is on twitter @WakimJ

Posted on

Stop oiling the supply chain to ISIS

http://bit.ly/1u6y6E3.

As long as the US protects its Saudi oil supplies, the vital supply chain to ISIS and their ilk will continue to be oiled

The Advertiser
18 July 2014

“THE tyrant has fallen and Iraq is free,” trumpeted US President George W. Bush aboard aircraft carrier USS Lincoln on 2 May 2003. “al-Qaeda is wounded, not destroyed.”

On the contrary, al-Qaeda cells in Afghanistan reproduced a new ‘‘base’’ in Iraq. Many of us warned about this before

Operation Iraqi Freedom was unleashed but we were dismissed as prophets of doom.

While meeting with prime minister John Howard on 20 December 2002, we explained the delicate demography of Iraq and cautioned against further fuelling the anger of a nation already crippled by sanctions: another injustice in Iraq will be another magnet for al-Qaeda.

Comparing the new brand of “social media’’ terrorists such as ISIS with al-Qaeda is no longer scaremongering, as this next breed of masked men make al-Qaeda look like their elderly parents. Indeed, al-Qaeda has backed al Nusra Front over the delinquent ISIS in Syria.

Those Western voices who falsely declared the democratisation of Iraq a decade ago should now be given the attention they deserve. None. Yet the US have again dispatched hundreds of ‘‘military advisers’’ to counter ISIS in Iraq but not Syria.

They are the same “Arabists’’ and “experts’’ who failed to forecast the Arab Spring and gave no warning about the recent rise of ISIS.

Those Western voices have lost credibility with their amoral “enemy of my enemy’’ compass: the Salafi jihadists attacking the Assad government are freedom fighters, our friends. But if those same mercenaries step over the border into Iraq to attack al-Malaki’s government, they are now insurgent terrorists, our enemies.

This appears to make no sense as both the Syrian and Iraqi ISIS groups ignore the border in their quest to “reclaim’’ a Salafi caliphate. The English acronym is wrongly translated as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, but the last letter actually stands for Shaam, or Levant, an axis that includes Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Palestine.

Hence, their Arabic name is pronounced D-A-E-SH. The car bombings that recently rocked Beirut, attributed to Daesh, confirm that their Shaam extends way beyond Syria into all of the Levant. Their caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi recently declared that the “Islamic State’’ is “breaking the borders’’ and is not confined to Iraq or Syria.

Why would Western voices tolerate the Syrian branch but not the Iraqi branch?

The more credible explanation has nothing to do with Iraq or Syria or justice or democracy.

It has everything to do with the two greatest allies of the US in the region: Saudi Arabia and Israel.

As for Israel, so long as the Arab tribes and sects are depleting each other, this weakens them and relieves the oldest democracy in the region from global scrutiny of Palestinian human rights.

As for Saudi Arabia and adjoining sheikdom Qatar, so long as their pipelines of oil to the US continue uninterrupted, the US will turn a blind eye to their pipelines of weapons and finances to these jihadists.

Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki openly accused Saudi Arabia of “supporting these groups financially and morally (for) … crimes that may qualify as genocide.”

Saudi Arabia and Israel, as arch allies of the US, remain untouchable while the US criticises Syria and Iraq for lack of democracy, lack of inclusion and lack of human rights.

Horrific images tweeted by the radical Islamic group ISIS.
The US foreign policy tolerates extremism, Salafism and Zionism when it suits their end game. Hence, it may be in US interests that al-Qaeda is not destroyed in order to manipulate the balance of power.

The aggressive ISIS cells thrive as they cross borders, seize weapons, steal money and cause carnage. But what happens when their use-by date expires and they approach the Israeli borders as part of their Shaam plan?

After the predictable re-election of the Syrian president, and the regaining of territory by the Syrian army, many ISIS jihadists recently crossed the border to fight a more winnable war in Iraq.

If Western voices talk about what “we’’ are going to do and who should replace al Maliki, then “we’’ have learnt nothing. If Western voices label the fighters as Islamists and blame Islam, then we have learnt nothing.

The majority of Muslim scholars preach mercy and forgiveness, not crucifixions and genocide. If the central message of Islam is reclaimed, it could be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

Iraqi refugees try to enter a temporary displacement camp but are blocked by Kurdish soldiers in Khazair, Iraq. The families fled Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul after it was overrun by ISIS militants. Picture: Getty

As long as the US protects its Saudi oil supplies, the vital supply chain to ISIS and their ilk will continue to be oiled and the depletions will continue.

Posted on

Stop oiling the supply chain to ISIS

http://bit.ly/V9GEui

Stop oiling the supply chain to Isis
ON LINE opinion

2 July 2014

“The tyrant has fallen and Iraq is free,” trumpeted US President George W Bush aboard aircraft carrier USS Lincoln on 2 May 2003. “Al Qaeda is wounded, not destroyed.”

On the contrary, Al Qaeda cells in Afghanistan reproduced a new ‘base’ in Iraq.

Many of us warned about this before Operation Iraqi Freedom was unleashed but we were dismissed as prophets of doom. While meeting with Prime Minister John Howard on 20 December 2002, we explained the delicate demography of Iraq and cautioned against further fuelling the anger of a nation already crippled by sanctions: another injustice in Iraq will be another magnet for Al Qaeda.

Those who understand what hides beneath the foliage of the ‘Arab Spring’ also warned that the uprising was hijacked by those sowing seeds for a theocracy, not a democracy. Exhibit A: al Nusra Front. Exhibit B: ISIS.

Comparing the new brand of ‘social media’ terrorists such as ISIS with al Qaeda is no longer scaremongering, as this next breed of masked men make Al Qaeda look like their elderly parents. Indeed, Al Qaeda has backed al Nusra Front over the delinquent ISIS in Syria.

Those western voices who falsely declared the democratisation of Iraq a decade ago should now be given the attention they deserve. None. Yet the US have again dispatched hundreds of ‘military advisers’, to counter ISIS in Iraq but not Syria.
They are the same ‘Arabists’ and ‘experts’ who failed to forecast the ‘Arab Spring’ and gave no warning about the recent rise of ISIS.

Those western voices have lost credibility with their amoral ‘enemy of my enemy’ compass: the Salafi jihadists attacking the Assad government are freedom fighters, our friends. But if those same mercenaries step over the border into Iraq to attack al-Malaki’s government, they are now insurgent terrorists, our enemies.

This appears to make no sense as both the Syrian and Iraqi ISIS groups ignore the border in their quest to ‘reclaim’ a Salafi caliphate. The English acronym is wrongly translated as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, but the last letter actually stands for Shaam, or Levant, an axis that includes Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Palestine. Hence, their Arabic name is pronounced D-A-E-SH. The car bombings that rocked Beirut last week, attributed to Daesh, confirm that their Shaam extends way beyond Syria into all of the Levant. This week, their self-declared caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared that the ‘Islamic State’ is ‘breaking the borders’ and will conquer the ‘world of Allah the Highest.’

Why would western voices tolerate the Syrian branch but not the Iraqi branch?

The more credible explanation has nothing to do with Iraq or Syria or justice or democracy.

It has everything to do with the two greatest allies of the US in the region: Saudi Arabia and Israel.

As for Israel, so long as the Arab tribes and sects are depleting each other, this weakens them and relieves ‘the oldest democracy in the region’ from global scrutiny of Palestinian human rights.

As for Saudi Arabia and adjoining sheikdom Qatar, so long as their pipelines of oil to the US continue uninterrupted, the US will turn a blind eye to their pipelines of weapons and finances to these jihadists.

Iraqi prime minister Maliki openly accused Saudi Arabia of “supporting these groups financially and morally [for] … crimes that may qualify as genocide.”

Saudi Arabia and Israel, as arch allies of the US, remain untouchable while the US criticises Syria and Iraq for lack of democracy, lack of inclusion and lack of human rights. The US foreign policy tolerates extremism, Salafism and Zionism when it suits their end game. Hence, it may be in US interests that Al Qaeda is not destroyed in order to manipulate the balance of power.

The aggressive ISIS cells thrive as they cross borders, seize weapons, steal money and cause carnage. But what happens when their ‘use by date’ expires and they approach the Israeli borders as part of their Shaam plan?

After the predictable re-election of the Syrian president, and the regaining of territory by the Syrian army, many ISIS jihadists recently crossed the border to fight a more winnable war in Iraq.

If western voices talk about what ‘we’ are going to do and who should ‘replace’ al Maliki, then ‘we’ have learnt nothing. If western voices label the fighters as Islamists and blame Islam, then we have learnt nothing. The majority of Muslim scholars preach mercy and forgiveness, not crucifixions and genocide. If the central message of Islam is reclaimed, it could be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

As long as the US protects its Saudi oil supplies, the vital supply chain to ISIS and their ilk will continue to be oiled and the depletions will continue.