En Passant

Reclaim Australia supporter shouting at a woman in Richmond Photo: Penny Stephens

National Party MP George Christensen will speak at one of the Nazi infected Reclaim (White) Australia movement rallies this weekend, in his case at the Mackay rally in his electorate.

Christensen, Chair of the House of Representatives Social Policy and Legal Affairs Committee, has written that he wants to ‘support people who seek to defend our Australian way of life, our culture and our freedoms from the threat of radical Islam.’ He is part of the broad brush of Australian politicians who demonise Muslims.  He is just more open about it.

Christensen is the same parliamentarian who supported far right and racist Dutch MP Geert Wilders when he toured Australia drumming up hate against Muslims. He is part of a group of Liberal and National Party members who promote racism and xenophobia against Muslims, often using the smokescreen of terrorism to justify their actions.

For example Liberal Party Senator Cory Bernardi has set up a Senate Inquiry into Food Certification. Its target is halal certification and allows the fascists and racists and nutters to make all sorts of claims, including that Halal certification fees ‘fund terrorism’.

The inquiry extends to among other things kosher schemes.  This targeting of Jews as well has raised no concerns among mainstream conservative politicians, presumably because they think it is good cover for their real target, Muslims and everything they do, including halal certification. Yet in all the diatribes against Muslims if we substitute the word Jewish for Muslim the real racist nature of the accusations become clear.

It would be tempting to dismiss people like Christensen and those attending the rallies as nutters. However, the likes of Christensen and Bernardi are elected parliamentarians with a particular agenda – to create a fake us and them division by targeting Muslims and uniting the rest of us behind Tony Abbott’s ‘Team Australia’. They give succor to the racists and fascists.

This racism is driven by the government. Tony Abbott’s Team Australia, his anti-Muslim fear mongering couched in anti-terror rhetoric, (‘Daesh are coming for us’), his calls on Muslim leaders to proclaim Islam as a religion of peace ‘more often, and mean it’, the attempts to withdraw citizenship from those whom Reclaim and Christensen call traitors, are all part of a government agenda of racist demonisation to divert us away from the real division – the class divide and the war Abbott and his crew are waging against workers and the poor.

For this reason the appearance of Christensen at a Nazi infected rally is acceptable to Abbott. His silence is enlightening. His Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, has refused to condemn Christensen’s attendance. She has also confirmed that ‘none of the 400 extremists under government surveillance are right-wing, anti-Islam campaigners.’

It is part of the range of divisiveness from ‘respectable’ racism against refugees to the full blown Nazis. They are part of a continuum, a continuum Abbott wants to bring together for his own purposes of sowing division and fear. Hence his acceptance of Christensen attending this racist rally.

It is no accident that racist groups and their extremism are on the rise under the constant barrage of demonisation of refugees, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and Muslims, from both Labor and the Liberals.  It is also no accident too that these rallies are becoming infected with Nazis. Some racists have recognised this. There are splits in the Reclaim White Australia movement and some have withdrawn from the racist and Nazi rallies. But not Christensen.

Some are campaigning for Abbott, the man who has banned his ministers from Q&A on ABC TV, to ban Christensen from attending the Nazis’ rally. Apart from the fact this would only make a hero of Christensen in his own eyes and that of the racists, the MP would also defy Abbott.

Top down bans from the puppet masters of racist reaction like Abbott are not the answer. Protests that challenge the hate mongers are the way to defend our Muslim bothers and sisters from the attacks of the racists and Nazis are the way forward.

Just as the Reclaim White Australia racists and fascists plan to rally this Saturday and Sunday across the country, so  we are building counter-protests to welcome and defend Muslims.  I urge all anti-racists and anti-fascists to attend and spread a message of love against the purveyors of hate, and in doing that help to drive the fascists and their useful idiots back into their cesspits.

Rallies are being organized across the country for Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th of July:

Saturday:

Melbourne – 18 July 10am at Parliament House
https://www.facebook.com/events/1600263403576857

Adelaide – 18 July 10am Parliament House
https://www.facebook.com/events/809797515778164/

Sunday:

Sydney – 19 July 10am at Martin Place
https://www.facebook.com/events/346452865546642/

Canberra – 19 July 11am at King Edward Terrace
https://www.facebook.com/events/817520005010391/

Brisbane – 19 July 10am at Emma Miller Place
https://www.facebook.com/events/682532705206336/

Perth – 19 July 12pm at Solidarity Park
https://www.facebook.com/events/893952217313262/

Newcastle – 19 July 10am at Customs House
https://www.facebook.com/events/367968573406429/