‘Reclaim Australia’ is the name given to a series of public rallies planned for Saturday, April 4 — three weeks before the multi-million dollar ANZAC Day celebrations.
Untangling the threads of the big ball of resentment that is Reclaim Australia is a depressing game. In addition to expressing otherwise mundane white colonial anxieties, it appears to be animated chiefly by herp derp Islamophobia. It may thus be understood as a rough equivalent to the PEGIDA movement in Germany and a rallying point for the lost legions of the Australian Defence League (ADL) and Patriots Defence League Australia (PDLA). Indeed, the removal of several popular ADL pages on Facebook has meant that the thousands of xenophobes who previously expressed support for right-wing loons like Ralph Cerminara (who reportedly remains in jail) have a new home at Reclaim Australia. Reclaim Australia has also attracted the support of The Usual Suspects on the far right, from neo-Nazis to the semi-pro Islamophobes of Restore Australia (Mike Holt has accepted an invitation to speak at the rally planned for Sydney) and everything in-between.
The most prominent advocate of the rallies is Shermon Burgess, aka ‘The Great Aussie Patriot’. A member of the ADL, Burgess is also the bRanes behind ‘Eureka Brigade’, a God-awful studio project that briefly came to media attention via the songs ‘Border Patrol’ (supporting naval operations against asylum seekers) and ‘ADL Killing Machine’ (see : Far right targets Muslims with hate campaign, Greg Ansley, The New Zealand Herald, April 26, 2014) and his vocal support for killing asylum seekers aka ‘Muslim rapists and terrorists’ (see : Who Are The Australian Defence League?, New Matilda, January 29, 2014).
When he’s not wishing death on asylum seekers, Burgess can also be found expressing fear and hatred of Indigenous peoples — the one group which might be thought to have some grounds for ‘reclaiming Australia’ from its current rulers — describing them as mostly comprised of resentful, drug-addicted “dickheads”:
Burgess is also a fan of neo-Nazi music. In general then, his views express a basic commitment to fascism and White supremacy draped in the Australian flag. Ian Adams:
The common elements of fascism — extreme nationalism, social Darwinism, the leadership principle, elitism, anti-liberalism, anti-egalitarianism, anti-democracy, intolerance, glorification of war, the supremacy of the state and anti-intellectualism — together form a rather loose doctrine. Fascism emphasises action rather than theory, and fascist theoretical writings are always weak …
It’s therefore appropriate, given also his support for neo-Nazi groupuscule ‘Squadron 88’, that Burgess should be the face of and have assumed chief responsibility for promoting ‘Reclaim Australia’.
Haven’t seen Shermy anywhere.. however the movement will far surpass any wingnut bogan who might be attaching himself to it. The tone of the posters and banners is nothing like you have described.. but then I’ve always believed you live in some booze soaked parallel universe.. I guess it’s getting to you Andy.
Just a bit more Andy… you poor bugger… you simply cannot, due to incapacity of brain function, due in turn to a lack of oxytocin and vasopressin (a typical neurological condition of the Left). But the most glaring of your deficiencies is your baseless assumption that opposition to Islam is by default “Islamo-Phobia”. Using such terminology immediately labels you as of very borderline education, and limited ability to appreciate fundamental issues of faith. In your mental gyrations to understand the Reclaim movement in terms you can digest, you raise up a straw man of past comments and even a video.. woooo.. now that’s impressive.
Nope… Reclaim is in tact not tatters, and Islam will be dealt a decisive polemical blow from which it will not recover. FYI, I dare venture to suggest that you have not the slightest understanding of what Islam is… on what it is based, how it came into being, and why the likes of ISIS exist and more important…. why they act as they do… oh… on that last one you probably have a view… like the clearly retarded US state dept spokes chick Maree Halfwit (Harf) who seems to think the solution to ISIS is… “we have to give them jobs”…
I’m not going to bother to persuade you of the dire consequences of allowing Islam to grow unchallenged in Australia, I’ll leave you to become fresh jihadi meat for sport like happened to the Left in Iran after their revolution that the Left thought would bring ‘them’ to power… I won’t even try to explain what it is about Islam that you (if you were a rational thinker) should be gravely worried about… you are simply not worth it.
A bit personal, however, reasonably well put jdrmot. Andy, I’ve not read you before, your effort above is less than impressive. Hardly a balanced article and certainly not informative or well informed. Either your knowledge about Islam or capacity to write is very limited. Do yourself and your public image a favor, read the Koran, the Sunna and the Hadith, think about it for yourself, then comment on matters of Islam and the West. Look forward to your reply.
Cheers, Rob
jdrmot:
1) Your slurs are tedious. Otherwise: Burgess is everywhere promoting the Reclaim Australia rallies. This is not a secret: he is their chief propagandist. That’s why I focus upon his propaganda and attempt to locate his rants and raves within a recent history of similar rants and raves about immigrants, Indigenous peoples, leftists, environmentalists et al, in his capacity both as a member of the Australian Defence League and as an ordinary, run-of-the-mill bigot. The video above is one of many which Burgess has deleted. I believe this to be because they reveal him as both a racist and as someone armed with a determinedly right-wing agenda. Beyond this, he has celebrated the deaths of asylum seekers, encouraged an Australian sailor to murder asylum seekers, and promoted such fun-filled activities as burning down mosques and assaulting Muslims.
This, apparently, is ‘patriotism’: any and all crimes may be justified by wrapping them in a national flag.
2) My characterisation of the Reclaim Australia rallies as ‘Islamophobic’ means that I believe they’re an expression of a deeply-held conviction that Muslims in Australia — regardless of their actual behaviour or opinions — are a dangerous population which must be repressed and, if possible, removed completely.
3) Islam will continue to be practiced after the Reclaim Australia rallies.
4) ISIS/Islamic State/Daesh etc is a product of war and conflict. I think Chomsky hits the nail on the head with regards its origins and development:
@Rob:
If there’s some factual inaccuracies in the above, you’ve failed to identify them.
I’m stunned the reclaim movement has a follower who can string a sentence together. The fact that shermon has a third of the likes his old page had before deletion, and the fact that the same twenty odd people seem to be active in all the pages, is a good indication of how many people intend to march against the Constitution and traditional Australian values.
You leftist do-gooder politically correct apologists for the primitive bloodthirsty islamofascist savages who are terrorising the Middle East and threaten ordinary Australian and other western citizens more and more you never mention their despicable disgusting hate rants against Jews and homosexuals their hatred of women, minorities and all western values this country is based upon. Women covered from head to toe like slaves, underage marriages, genital mutilations and honor killings which characterize this so called religion don’t matter to you. You keep on raving and ranting about Australian values and Islamophobia accusing ordinary people for being right wing bigots but the real anti-Semitic anti-democratic bigots are yourselves and your supporters: the red leftist fascists which you represent.
see daniel, what you just “wrote” sounds like the brain vomit of a person suffering from anxious ruminations, you really should seek help for that.
haha daniel, muslims are terrorising the middle east? muslims are fighting terrorism in the middle east. you want to know who the terrorists are? The israelis are the terrorists, the american soldiers are the terrorists, the american government and their saudi puppets are the terrorists. go to the middle east and see whos fighting ISIS, because its not your american boyfriends. its muslims and christians.
I don’t proclaim to be intellectual, but what is it you leftists don’t understand about Muslims openly telling us that their agenda is to take over the world & whoever doesn’t convert must be killed. Read the Koran guys it tells you everything it’s as simple as that, then you’ll see what you are really supporting. Sitting around getting into a slinging match with your fellow countrymen using all that fine english & letter writing skills isn’t going to make your balls bigger. What are you going to do when they hold a knife at your throat and ask you allah or die … piss your pants probably.
Fuck you liberal regards [retards?] you’ll be the first to go should islamisation grip hold and rightly so. The most intolerant ideology spawned is Islam. Intolerance of Christians, Jews, gays, atheists, Hindus, apostates, women, etc. Purveyors of barbaric animal slaughter practice. Serial whingers and state spongers. They will murder you in your beds given the chance.
@daniel4Jesus1, given that Allah is the same deity as worshipped by Christians – a member of which group your very name proclaims you – I thought you might have given Him the courtesy of a capital letter for His name, rather than commit blasphemy according to your own religious beliefs. But I digress.
I would be most interested in which verses of the Koran state that there is a Muslim agenda to take over the world, could you please list them. And, for the edification of those of us less perceptive than yourself, explain why Islam, in the fourteen centuries since it was founded, has thus far failed to achieve this world domination. Your theory as to testicular mass being related to linguistic ability is also most intriguing, but perhaps outside the scope of this discussion.
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