Is there an appetite for sober facts?

From 911 to 711 to rapes, riots, bombings, protests against wars, cartoons and now films. The Muslim community braces itself for an unknown rock bottom, as relations plummet to a shattering new low. The PR graph continues on a perpetual downward trajectory with the camera lenses focused, writers prepared and anchors on call for the next Muslim exhibit of barbarism, whether done in the name of Islam or by those with an incidentally Muslim name. What remains constant in this continuing decline are the familiar questions posed time and time again Does Islam preach violence?, Is Islam compatible with free speech, is it compatible with the West?, Is Islam a religion of peace, if so then why are all terrorists Muslims?" War of the Worlds Whether these are asked through rhetorical intentions or by those who intend a resolution we either seem no closer to a conclusion or have a conclusion that we cant seem to share. So here we are again with another episode with the same questions. Whether this is freedom of expression, or tasteless defamation holding free expression hostage, is no longer the question. The question now is what to do about the Muslim problem. Like a line from H.G. Wells science fiction novel (War of the Worlds) a major newspaper blog reads We let them in. Now they threaten. More provocative than the headline is a picture of kneeling police officer, whose blue uniform contrasts the blood staining his forehead, a powerful combination that would strike anxiety and anger in the heart of any Australian. No doubt it was a sad day for the Muslim community at large as bottles and projectiles were thrown at police, six arrests were made on the day and shocking pictures of a child holding a place card that said Behead all those that insult the Prophet swept across newspapers. The disdain echoed through chambers of the Federal Parliament with unanimous condemnations and the reprehensible use of children to promote offensive place cards. A Senator declared in his blog It should serve as a wakeup call to the nave who are in denial that a significant problem is emerging in Australia A prominent political commentator announced If this is the fruit of our tolerance, lets try intolerance" and indeed intolerance was tried. ABC 7.30 revealed the response of right wing groups with a series of provocative electronic messages planning for violent retaliation: "Let's show these bearded goat-herders that we run this country...... Spread the word and come ready for a battle for our rights and our land. They thought Cronulla riots were bad. We grew there, they flew there! Australians unite!" Muslim community leaders deemed guilty by association fumbled between shame and fear. They scrambled for a coherent response beyond "we're really sorry, these thugs don't represent us". Any thought of freedom of speech through legitimate peaceful protests has been slammed by the threat of violence against Muslims rather than from Muslims. Backed into a corner and placed in a box the nose dive continues for the Muslim community into further depths.

Amongst the heated outrage and anger and beyond the cold contempt and shame one wonders whether there is an appetite for sober facts? Are we content with a mountain of rhetoric whilst remaining deprived of ounce of resolution? If we heed the words of the wise and reflect on Einstein's insanity check - are we doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? Is there something missing from the equation or are we too complacent to act on the answer? Spirit of Inquiry If we adopt the prevailing narrative and argue this is the failure of multiculturalism and irreconcilable clash of civilizations between Islam and the West, then lets at least do justice to the Western spirit. The spirit of inquiry, where nothing is to remain undiscussed, everybody is to speak their mind and no proposition is to be left unexamined. Is this a case of radical Islamists using a film as an opportunity to take advantage of our freedoms, testing our civility by ripping up and shredding Australian Values before our very eyes? Or Is this a case of a peacefully intended, but ill executed protest the likes of which we routinely read about but rarely remember? Calling upon sober facts we know six men were arrested on the day and police officers were injured as the crowd threw glass bottles and projectiles at law enforcement during the events in Sydney. Calling upon sober facts we know in contrasts just a few months ago (17th July) anti-Olympic Dam activists threw projectiles at Police and 13 were arrested. We know last October approximately 100 protestors were arrested at the Occupy Melbourne demonstrations which involved violent clashes between police, injuring officers, damaging property including eight police vehicles. Its actually difficult to identify a year that did not have demonstrations involving some kind of violence and injury to Police with consequent arrests. Do we remember the 2010 Sydney Wikileaks rally (4 arrests), or the 2009 eastern Victorian power plant protest (22 arrests), or the 2008 Sydney Tibetan protests (3 arrests) or perhaps 2007 the APEC protests (17 arrests) all involving some kind of assault on Police. The 2006 G20 demonstration in Melbourne were peculiar in the sense that protesters violently clashed with Police throwing glass bottles, and using metal barricades to ram police lines, injuring several officers, yet no arrests were made. The 2005 Cronulla riots were perhaps the quintessential example of peacefully intended protests that went horribly wrong with non-trivial economic and people impact. Small business reported a 10% drop, tourism needed a $250,000 campaign,16 arrests were made, 26 injuries sustained and 42 offenses involving: malicious damage, assaulting a police officer, offensive conduct, and resisting arrest. If we rewind yet further to the 1999 Nato bombings of Yugoslavia, we'll remember Sydney and Melbourne experienced violent demonstrations, the windows of the US Consulate were smashed and chunks of concrete thrown at police and news in Melbourne of hurling of a petrol bomb. Violent protests in Australia are absolutely unacceptable but are they unprecedented? It is easy to understand why bad apples are undesirable but are we shocked to realize that they

are inevitable? Why are we then so shocked about six arrests on the day? Why then are some prominent journalists asking for intolerance? Why does this call for a rethought of multiculturalism? Why is a specific demographic being targeted?

Why because there is more to it than the six arrests and the three more that followed in the proceeding days. There is also something fundamental about the type of society we want and that right of each child to experience free thought and be initiated as productive member. So when we see images of a toddler holding up a beheading signs whilst his mum takes happy snaps it sends a chill down our spine, the prospect of terror nurseries in our own back yard naturally makes us justifiably furious. The use of children as 'pedestals of hate' as described by one newspaper is infuriating and Parliament appropriately deemed it reprehensible. A Member of Parliament suggested that the small child who held up the sign should be put in care of better people. However beyond the chills and fury, in the spirit of free enquiry is there an appetite for sober facts? Should this child be snatched from his mother? Calling upon sober facts we find out that the mum turned herself in to authorities soon after noticing pictures of her son on every paper. After interviewing the lady it was concluded "She didn't know what behead meant... She recognized the word Prophet and assumed it was something in support of him" a senior police source said. The 28yr old has been in Australia for two years and had picked up the sign from Hyde Park and waved it around herself for a while before handing it to her son unaware of the contents. The police assessed the home (presumably for threats of radicalisation) and deemed it safe. In the wake of the picture going viral and inciting deep fears and disgust it seems this case of using 'children as pedestals of hate' is another case of 'children overboard' generating the same amount of sensationalism, lacking the same substance yet making for a superb story. There were however highly offensive signs held by irresponsible adults on the day who did understand the content, I'm sure they will make it to cracked.com's 25 most nonsensical protest signs which include "Behead those who say behead those who oppose Islam", "Destroy the computer... it's a homo devil machine" and "All protestors should be beaten, strangled and skinned alive..." are but some of the entries. What you won't find on cracked.com's list are images of kids in their early teens with an Australian map drawn on their bodies with the text "F.... off we are full" courtesy of Cronulla - there are other websites for that. Sensationalism, why? So beyond the distressed voices of news anchors reporting from the scenes, Parliamentary officials alerting of a 'wake up call', and prominent writers insisting scraping multiculturalism, shutting our doors and proposing simply pack up your scimitars, wrap up all your womenfolk in their favorite freedom sacks and get the hell of out Australia" as put by another prominent journalist, is there an appetite for sober facts? If sober facts point out that protester clashes with police are not too dissimilar from what we have seen from other environmental, social and minority groups, then why the sensationalism? If the total number of protesters were 0.06% to 0.1% of the total Australian Muslim population (i.e. 300 to 500 out of 467,000) and the remaining 99.9% unequivocally condemning the violent events then why the sensationalism? If the notorious 100 of Hyde park were divided with protesters actually helping police, putting their own bodies on the line

despite being showered by capsicum spray, and speakers pleading to stop the violence in the name of Islam as footage shows - then why the sensationalism? If despite an unusually heavy police presence and the use of attack dogs ripping at the groins and legs of protesters as footage shows with only 6 arrests on the day, then why the sensationalism? If we are coming to realize that the 'children as pedestals of hate' story is turning out to look more and more like the 'children over-board story' then why the sensationalism? Why? Because contrary to the Western spirit of free enquiry and thought, the appetite for rhetoric is ever increasing whilst the appetite for facts is ever diminishing. Passions and prejudices of the masses fueled by demagogues is what destroyed the first democracy (Athenian) - is this something to reflect upon? A 2011 survey suggested NSW anti Muslim attitudes are at 54.4 %, I would be surprised if this is isn't at 90% given the recent sensationalism, courtesy of those prominent position holders angry at the angry protesters, asking for more anger from Australians. Julie Bishop questioned the allowing of preachers of hate into our country, who incidentally have no following. Who is questioning the most followed preachers of hate already in our country, who is saying multiculturalism is not working and why- is this something to reflect upon? Multiculturalism Observers of history realize that the creative synthesis of diverse ideas makes civilizations great. One of Western societies parent civilizations (The Romans) understood this and ensured their culture would continue to evolve by adopting the best from other cultures. Their emperors were Roman, Spanish and surprisingly Syrian (Phillip the Arab 204-249). Despite the modern baggage history stands witness to ancient Islamic civilization's fusing together the collective knowledge of the Greeks, Persians, and Indians and building upon this by inviting contributions of scholars from a plethora of religious and ethnic backgrounds, producing unparalleled discoveries in mathematics, medicine and science. Whatever our modern perceptions may be historians at large acknowledge that the European renaissance owes much to these discoveries. We can see historical snippets of this by the depiction of Averroes in Raphael's masterpiece 'The School of Athens' housed in the Vatican's apostolic palace and contemporary snippets such the North Wall Frieze in the US Supreme Court honoring a handful of historical figure to describe the function of the building, with one of greatest names standing there holding the Quran. Dr Michio Kaku one of the most esteemed theoretical physicist of our era noted "America has a secret weapon its called the H-1B, without the H-1B the scientific community of this country would collapse, forget about Google, forget about Silicone Valley, there would be no Silicone Valley without the H-1B!!... and do you know what the H-1B is? Its the genius visa... when a US congressmen wanted to ban the H-1B because it takes jobs away from the American people, the Wall street journal responded there ARE no Americans that can take these jobs! they don't take jobs away from Americans they create entire industries! " According to Jachimowicz and Myers (2002), the top 10 countries of the origin of the H1B visa included: India, China, Philippines, Taiwan, Pakistan and Japan - is this something to reflect upon?

Preachers of Hate The case for multiculturalism does need to be made, history is the case. The lacking case is the case for bigotry, eugenics and pursuit of a master race as disproven by the evils and

failure of the "democratically" elected Nazi Government. Joseph Goebbels Nazi Minister for Public Enlightenment is well known for his quote "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it people will eventually believe it" and so absurd were his lies about the Jewish people, in his 1941 essay he wrote: "the Jews are after all human beings too. We never denied that, just as we never denied the humanity of murders, child rapists, thieves and pimps... The Jews are a parasitic race that feeds like a foul fungus on the cultures of healthy but ignorant peoples. We think everyone else as is good natured as we are... Our national virtue is our national weakness..." This appalling episode in history is something of deep regret for the human race. We wish this nightmare to never be repeated and we honour the memory of those who perished by swearing that no human being should be subjugated to such vilification ever again. What's evermore haunting about this nightmare is that over half a century later an Australian commentator possessed by Goebbels's spirit of hate used the same tactics to malign another people: "Lebanese males in their vast numbers not only hate our country and our heritage They have no connection to us. They simply rape, pillage and plunder a nation thats taken them in What did we do as a nation to have this vermin infest our shores?" A leading commentator noted "Racists have said for years if you don't like the way we do things in this country then go back to where you came from", concluding the "net result of the protests was that much of the country now feels the same way". The fact is these preachers of hate for many years have been manufacturing reasons to say 'go back where you came from' and now they have manufactured another in their sensationalism labs with the intent to infect the Australian people. Perhaps our democracy and way of life is under threat, but by who - is this something to reflect about? Keep it out of our country "Keep their hate out of our country" blazed the headlines of a widely read Melbourne paper. I couldn't help but agree with the title, but the argument was lost on me by the time I got to the third sentence. Yes hate needs to be kept out of our country. Its sad to reflect on the hate crimes which happened in Australia following the tragic events in the U.S. The morbid reality is overseas events increase the tendency of hate crimes back at home, minority communities are all too familiar with this. So lets keep their hate out of our country, there is no excuse for this kind of behavior in Australia no matter who you are. We remember the collective pain experienced after 911 and we felt the need to get out on the streets to morn and protest. In Iran people came out in huge spontaneous candlelight vigil's weeping in the streets, Iran's Ayatollah Imami Kashani denounced the catastrophic act of terrorism, which could only be condemned by all Muslims. Tehran's main football stadium observed an unprecedented minute's silence in sympathy with the victims. The head of al-Azhar in Cairo, one of Sunni Islam's highest religious authority, said attacking innocent people was not courageous, but stupid and would be punished on Judgement Day. In Lebanon the spiritual leader of the Shia guerrilla group, Hezbollah, called the attacks "barbaric acts". Hundreds of Palestinians also rallied in the West Bank city of Ramallah to show support for Americans killed in the attacks. The fact is that we live in global community and tragedies that happen to other humans do impact us. So yes all those who say the protesters had the invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, US drone attacks in Pakistan, Kashmir, Guantanamo Bay, Chechnya, and Palestinian on their minds are correct. So why should it be that these

tragedies don't occupy our minds? Is it because this is a clash of civilizations and Muslims are on the other side? Or is there something about how the story is told and who tells it? Do we have an appetite for sober facts? An organization of former soldiers came together in 2004 and has compiled over 850 testimonies from former and current military officers about abuses they committed or witnessed on Palestinian children. Testimonies include shootings, throwing a stun grenade at a 7 year old, beating up boys "to a pulp" and throwing grenades into Mosques to start up riots. A similar organization exists for the Iraq War (Winter Soldiers) veterans going public with stories of random civilian killings and beating. One of the most highly respected medical journals The Lancet (UK based) estimated the excess death count as a result of the US led invasion of Iraq between 2003-2006 was around 655,000 (greater than the combined populations of Mackay, Geelong Luanceston, Carins and Darwin). So why should it be that these stories only concern the protesters and not us? Perhaps because they don't make the front page? Perhaps our eyes are focused on messages such as the ones in New York subways that say In a war between the civilised man and the savage support the civilised man... defeat Jihad and billboards that say 19,250 deadly Islamic attacks since 9/11/2001 its not Islamophobia or Islamorealism many numbers substantiated this as Freedom of Speech. Or is it that our eyes are still zoomed into the mindless behead signs held by a regrettable negligible few, or is this rather the complex reality surrounding us? This indeed is a cause of reflection for many Muslims, however it is no justification for violence, especially from a religious perspective. The Islamic view is that history is in good hands, because its in God's hands. Events seem problematic because of our lack of wisdom and inability to deal with them in a constructive manner. Trails and tribulations call for rational reflection rather than roaring rage. Islam is often translated as "The peace achieved by submitting to God" precisely for this reason.. So If Islam is a religion of peace then why are all terrorist Muslims? Do we have an appetite for sober facts? Not all Muslims are terrorist but all terrorist are Muslims If we look at the FBI database for terrorist attacks committed on US soil from 1980 to 2005 the facts are sobering. A total of just 6% of all terrorist attacks on American soil have been committed by Islamic extremists. The remaining 94% include: 7% Jewish Extremists, 24% Left Wing extremists, 42% Latinos 5% Communists and 16% from other groups. So what's the story in Europe? Europol released figures for Terrorist attacks on European soil from 2006 to 2010. The facts show that Muslims were responsible for less than 1% of these and over 99% were carried out by other groups. Why does that seem so suprising? Well probably because we don't collectively remember Wade Michael Page, the former US army officer who recently carried out a mass shooting at the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin USA (August 2012). Or because we probably don't remember James Eagan Holmes who carried out of a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado the month before (July 2012). Or perhaps its because we don't remember Anders Breivik who just last year bombed government buildings killing 8 and injuring many in Oslo and then opened fire at unarmed Labour Party youth in Utoya killing 69. Breivik confessed the motive of the attack was to prevent Europe from a Muslim takeover and the Labour party had a "price to pay" for this. Do we remember this or do we just remember that there were Muslim protesters with alleged Al-Qaeda sympathies frightening Sydney city bystanders? This obnoxious behaviour is deeply unnerving and perhaps should be even more unnerving for Muslims as Al-Qaeda

actually kills eight times more Muslims than non Muslims as pointed out by a study published by Speigal International. Freedom of Speech Despite these facts the prevailing narrative "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims" remains unchanged. Goebbels was right "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it people will eventually believe it". Though Goebbels didn't have to kill with his hands his hate speech beneath the mask of free speech, was responsible for the murder of millions. The recent war using weapons of mass deception (the real WMDs), deceived 7 in 10 American in believing Iraq had links to 911, consequently an entire nation was attacked and torn apart, perhaps for generations. To use free speech as defense for Goebbels or for manufacturing a war is a preposterous play of words. Aristotle said 'virtue lies between two extremes', that is the golden mean. Courage lies between cowardice and recklessness therefore courage in extreme is reckless and closer to stupidity than its original essence. So when does free speech lose its soul and become an abomination that brutalizes others? Holocaust denial is a crime in 17 European countries because it genuinely brutalizes the sensitivities of the Jewish people in a way that we can never fully understand. Is there room to debate the infringement of other sensitivities that we don't fully understand - is that something to reflect about? Einstein's insanity check Back to Einstein's insanity check, are we doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? Though we might be expecting a different result and hope it will all just go away, these NeoGoebbels preachers of hate are getting exactly the result they want. The tragedy is that this is far more important than short term election promises and the careers of opportunistic writers and cracked commentators who will say whatever sells and more often than not will scare you into buying what shouldn't be for sale (fear and hate). This is about the future economic outlook and social stability of Australia, this is about us and our children in a global community, this is about Australia being able to compete and lead in a rapidly changing world and the Goebbels cant lead us through this, just as they failed to lead their people over half century ago. Are they preparing us for a conflict by pumping us with sense of self righteousness, whilst stabbing us with fear? Is a small minority leading us to a conflict when the glaring reality is that a conflict is not good for the majority? Are we doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? If we are genuinely concerned about radicalisation within our borders then lets extend the debate from the $10 Garage Mosques to the multi million dollar sensationalism and yellow journalism industry. Let us not only talk about the affect overseas preachers of hate have on the Muslim youth, but also the local preachers that publicly ask for hate against the Muslim youth. Lets not only fear the preaching impact that Garage Mosque have on radicalizing the Muslim youth but let us also be aware of the impact sensationalism and yellow journalism has on radicalising the Australian public. Anti Islamic views are at 54.4 % and are still rising, this is a nontrivial number. Perhaps if we include this into the equation we might get a different result, perhaps this will lead us to a step closer to a resolution rather than just more rhetoric. The conclusion that the actions of handful of protesters don't represent the Muslim community is true, but does the sensationalism, yellow journalism and hate surrounding Islam reflect the appetite of Australia?

Given the sober facts is that something to reflect upon? Junaid Cheema