We pride ourselves on the " freedom " we enjoy in Australia and one of those cherished freedoms is the right to say what we like. But there are limits. If we spread outright lies about anther person they can sue and claim damages for libel and slander - and that means what we say may have consequences.
In July an American white supremacist is planning to visit this country. His name is Mike Enoch and he writes a blog titled " The Right Stuff " in which he is virulently anti-Semite. This blog and podcast has a regular audience of over a hundred thousand people. He visited Australia last year and was feted on a harbour cruise by a local white supremacist outfit which goes by the title of the " Dingoes " .
The reason for the visit is to promote a white supremacist event to be known as " DingoCon " and the price of entry tickets has been set at $ 88. 88 is the code for the letters HH - which are the eighth letters of the alphabet and refer to the initials for " Heil Hitler ". It seems that DingoCon has neo-Nazi tendencies and celebrates the Holocaust !
The question that will be debated by many people here is whether Australia should grant an entry visa to a person who intends to bring together like minded people to form a hate group against anyone who has skin of a different colour. There is no doubt that the Australian media will cover DingoCon and quote its revelations and this may be deeply troubling to migrants who have escaped persecution over race in their former homelands.
In the earlier part of the twentieth century the bulk of our migrants were from Britain and Europe and consequently white. The end of the Vietnam war saw an influx of Asians and more recently the main migrant flow has been from the Middle East ad Africa. We have devolved into a multicultural nation and anything that promotes division is to be avoided.
Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned from the religious war that is raging in the Middle East - and which has brought death by terrorist acts to our shores. Recruiters for that war spread disharmony here with their messages of religious intolerance. Now it is a crime to leave Australia to fight in that foreign war - on either side - or to raise money here to aid the fighting.
There seems no doubt that Mike Enoch is a gifted speaker and no doubt his eloquence at DingoCon will attract some new supporters to his cause. We probably have a wide scattering of individuals which resent any skin colour that is not white, but allowing them to form into a cohesive group that will gain strength from sheer volume is surely not a good idea.
We certainly would not let a spokesperson for Islamic State come to this country to address a rally seeking support for a movement forcing religious conversion and enslavement on all others. Why would we allow in a speaker openly seeking the type of division that can only lead to conflict between the races ?
" Freedom " is a double edged sword !
No comments:
Post a Comment