Hug a Muslim today

 
If the Federal government fails to insist that Christian Syrians alone make up Australia’s commitment to take 12,000 Syrian refugees, then it has rocks in its collective head. Morally there might be no difference between a Christian and a Muslim refugee, but in every other way, there is.
 
The practicality of knowing the background of each Syrian claimant is a problem. Without trustworthy records, the only answer that an immigration official could rely on is to the question, ‘are you Christian?’ A Muslim is unlikely to commit a mortal sin of answering, ‘yes’. Future security risks are far more likely to come from among Syrian Muslims than Syrian Christians. In addition to unwelcome ex-combatants, second generation Muslim migrants seem susceptible to the call of Islam, so best to steer clear of any and all Muslims from Syria. Syrian Christians are among the most persecuted in the region. They are the most likely to integrate into Australia. They are the most likely to resist ‘Islamic theocracy’, which is an enemy to the West and, in particular, Australia. Besides, they will be a good source of intelligence about the Muslim presence in Australia.

The Lebanese refugee disaster

 
It’s not as if we haven’t made mistakes before. As a consequence of the 1975 Lebanese civil war between Muslims and Maronite Christians, the Fraser Government allowed Muslims, who were not refugees, to fill the quota. Family reunion ensured that more than 25,000 came. Their integration has been poor, their treatment of Australian women, in particular, has been appalling, and their propensity to crime has been immense. Most Muslim Lebanese migrants settled in south-western Sydney. The Shia worship at the Arncliffe mosque and the Sunnis at the Lakemba mosque. Christians will be accommodated by Christian churches in Australia, they will be integrated, they will be reminded that they live in a secular society, and that they are free to pursue their private beliefs. They will be told that their women have equal rights and that they should be educated and have the option of a life outside the home and child-bearing. They are more likely to be better citizens. This is not to argue that almost all Muslims in Australia are not or could not become model citizens, it is just that it would take a greater effort to do so, and the risks are greater. The general migration intake need not discriminate, because the best policy is, and always was, to take skilled migrants only and minimal family thereafter.
 
Post Syria attention turns to the threat within. Managing the threat from among Muslims in Australia must be led by Australian leaders of Muslim and non-Muslim faith and political leaders. Clearly, the Grand Mufti has to go. The West is not to blame for Islam being at war with itself and with modernity. Among the political leadership, the heavy work will fall to those who represent the electorates where Muslims live.
 
The largest concentration of Muslims in Melbourne is in the seat of Calwell, represented by Maria Vamvakinou (ALP) and in Wills, Kelvin Thomson (ALP), where more than 15 per cent of the population are Muslim. The ALP has long pandered to ethnic politics, but can they be relied upon to help integrate Muslims? Keen eyes will watch Thomson’s replacement at the next election. Labor Senator Mehmet Tillem, our first Turkish-born MP – and second Muslim-Australian – is a likely contender.

Would Adam Bandt keep you safe?

 
Muslims also live in and adjacent to the seat of Melbourne, Adam Bandt (Greens). Coincidentally almost 40 per cent of its residents are of ‘no religion’. Fitzroy and Carlton are Greenie central. Will Adam Bandt lead his tribes into the nearby suburbs to hug a Muslim, to convert Muslims to godlessness and Gaia? After all, they share a healthy distrust of the West and its achievements.
 
In Sydney there is a similar conundrum. Those with the greatest distrust in the West live cheek by jowl with Muslims. Canterbury, in the seat of Grayndler, Anthony Albanese (ALP), is 17 per cent Muslim, but Leichardt, Newtown and Petersham, in Grayndler, are 35 per cent ‘no religion’.
 
Tanya Plibersek (ALP) seat of Sydney is analogous. The godless and the Muslim anti-Westerners cheek by jowl.

Baldwin’s challenge

 
Her predecessor Peter Baldwin, wrote recently of the Muslim refugee influx in Europe: ‘A realistic debate needs to acknowledge that … Muslims fight to make Islam dominant over other creeds.’
 
‘Islam does not recognise separate civil and religious spheres … Anyone who asks what this would mean for Europe’s Judaeo-Christian tradition is branded a right-wing nativist, but the Enlightenment and everything the Left claims to value is on the line too.’
 
These leaders must have Muslims understand that we are not the enemy. The enemy is an Islamic theocracy that tells them they are superior and that the West is inferior. Albanese’s strong condemnation of the Mufti’s statement after Paris Friday 13th is a good start.
 
Australians do not hate Muslims, they hate the idea that they cannot speak to women who are so heavily clad and veiled as to be imprisoned. Australians suspect that they are poorly treated, but cannot approach.
 
Leaders should organise their people to go to the next suburb and shop and mingle and speak to Muslims. Hug a Muslim. This will achieve a signal that they are welcome, but that they will remain a curiosity so long as they believe that Islamic aggression is justified.