National Observer Home > No. 51 - Summer 2002 >Editorial Comment

When Does Dissent Become Treachery?

 

Over two centuries the struggle to maintain Australia’s independence and sovereignty has involved much effort and many sacrifices from generation to generation. In particular, in two World Wars and in many other conflicts Australians have fought to protect their country; and economic depressions and the hardships of settling a new land have also required fortitude and courage.

Recently all these achievements have come under serious threat, both in view of inappropriate immigration policies and also in view of what may be described as “new class” attitudes that are not concerned to support Australian society as it has developed, but rather to undermine that society.

Difficulties in regard to immigration commenced with the abandonment of the White Australia Policy (as it was invariably referred to by its detractors) or the Restrictive Immigration Policy (as it was referred to by many of its supporters). In general, this policy restricted immigrants to those of European stock. In fact, restrictions of similar kinds remain common amongst many other countries. In almost all cases Asian countries exclude immigrants from other ethnic or religious groups; and this is true also of many Middle-East and African countries.

Conversely, many liberal Western democracies have opened their doors to such large numbers of non-white immigrants that whites will become a minority during this century. Significantly, this century will see the establishment of a non-white majority in the United Kingdom, and a non-white majority in the United States, through increases in numbers of Negroes and Hispanics of largely American Indian descent.

Left-liberal orthodoxies should not obscure the conclusion that this is very wrong. The cultural traditions of the Western democracies are perhaps the greatest ornaments of our civilisations. Australia, a beneficiary of Western culture, has developed into a stable and balanced society which, despite various shortcomings, is far preferable to the great majority of other countries.

In these circumstances it is a matter of concern if not dismay that dissident groups are attempting to undermine Australian stability by the introduction of disharmonious groups. The blight of “multiculturalism” (which in essence connotes a refusal to assimilate) has led to the emergence of large ethnic groupings which do not wish to integrate with or support Australian society.

The most dangerous of such groups is the significant Muslim enclave that has sprung up without most Australians being aware of what has been happening. There are now perhaps 250,000 Muslims in Australia, and this number is being increased continually by immigrants, including illegal immigrants and self-described “refugees” (who are in the majority of cases merely concerned to move to a prosperous and favourable country such as Australia rather than to avoid persecution).

The 11 September 2001 bombings in America have had one salutary effect: they have reminded the West vividly of the aggression and fanaticism that lies at the heart of Islam. There is already in Sydney the scandal of Sheik El-Hilaly and the Lakemba Mosque. The mosque hosts meetings of Muslims who support the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, and El-Hilaly produces an apparently endless supply of anti-Western propaganda. Likewise the Islamic Council of Victoria disseminates literature recalling that those who fight Allah “should be murdered, or crucified, or their hands or their feet should be cut off on opposite sides, or they should be imprisoned”. This literature adds, “Wherever you are, in whatever country you live, you must strive to change the wrong basis of government, and seize all powers to rule and make laws from those who do not fear God . . . the name of this striving is Jihad.” 1

Immigrants such as these are supported self-righteously by groups that may be conveniently referred to as the leadership of the Left — Labor Party leaders (but not the rank and file) and Democrats and Greens. What is clear is that these groups are not concerned to retain a stable society in Australia. Rather, they wish to sacrifice our stable Australian society because, in short, they have no loyalty to that society and because in many instances they wish to undermine it by reason of personal grievances of their own.

These groups showed their hand also in regard to the 2001 Tampa incident, when Mr. John Howard’s government refused to permit some hundreds of alleged “refugees” on that ship to enter Australia. The great majority of Australians were shown by opinion polls to support Mr. Howard’s firmness (and indeed this resolute action by him and his support of the United States after the 11 September terrorist attacks are correctly credited with causing him to win the 2001 election which Mr. Peter Costello would otherwise have caused him to lose).

But the Left leadership groups showed here again a lack of patriotism or concern for their country. Mr. Howard was attacked by Labor leaders and Democrats and Greens who clearly have greater loyalty to alleged “refugees” than to their own country. Never mind that almost all of the claimed “refugees” are bogus and that their personal histories often show them to be criminals or otherwise the most unacceptable of immigrants — these matters are concealed or ignored by left-of-centre groups that have evident pleasure in endangering Australian society. 2

Thus does dissent become treachery. Interests emerge whose concern is not for Australia and their fellow Australians, but rather for ideological objectives commonly based upon personal grievances and resentment against their own culture.

 

1. See Andrew Bolt, “The Real Words of Islam”, Herald Sun (Melbourne), 6 December 2001.

 

National Observer No. 51 - Summer 2002