Showing all posts in June 2019

While the oil-for-food scandal continues to gather victims in Australia and the mainstream media challenges the Howard government, numerous questions remain. Not least is wider investigation of Western complicity in the oil-for-food scandal. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died as a direct result of UN-led sanctions. Denis Halliday, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Iraq in…

Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan, discussing the Muslim reaction to controversial cartoons: “There are three things we have to bear in mind. First, it is against Islamic principles to represent in imagery not only Mohammed, but all the prophets of Islam. This is a clear prohibition. “Second, in the Muslim world, we are not used to…

Israel is a state where all citizens are treated equally, unless, of course, you’re an Arab: “Shin Bet security services show more leniency toward Jewish terror suspects than toward Israeli Arab or Palestinian suspects, the services chief, Yuval Diskin, was taped as saying on Monday. “‘If we’re talking about discrimination, you would find out that…

The US Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton is, thankfully, being watched.

This “gem”, currently circulating around the world, can be found here. The sheer ignorance of the message needs little explanation. To many around the world, the Western legacy isn’t quite so benign, instead often filled with exploitation, invasion and colonisation. Not all Muslims are Islamists, and not all Jews are Zionists.

So much for a tolerant, harmonious Australia: “More than half of Victorian schoolchildren view Muslims as terrorists, and two out of five agree that Muslims ‘are unclean’, a survey has revealed. “Just over 50 per cent believe Muslims ‘behave strangely’, while 45 per cent say Australians do not have positive feelings about Muslims.” These results,…

The controversy surrounding the publication of cartoons that allegedly offend Muslims shows no sign of abating. While some prefer to laud the “superior” West and the British Empire, others retaliate by publishing anti-Jewish cartoons and a tiny, extremist minority believe violence is the only way to display their contempt. Calmer heads must prevail. One author,…

David Bernstein, The Age, February 6: “Now is not a good moment for Israelis to be looking too deeply into their souls.” Writing about Spielberg’s “Munich“, Bernstein believes that Israel is “under an existential threat greater than at any time since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.” His examples of the Hamas victory in the Palestinian…

The following letter appears in today’s Age newspaper: “On January 11 you published a Leunig cartoon relating to Ariel Sharon, who was at the time lying at death’s door (and probably still is). The context of the cartoon was bad enough, but publishing it at that time was disgusting. Do you now have the guts…