The Stop Islamisation of Nations (SION) Conference has now finished in Melbourne, Australia and was a runaway success. Put on by the Q Society, it featured some of the best thinkers, writers and activists on Islam in the world. Held from March 7-10, it was the first such conference in Australia, but hopefully not the last.
SION has been set up relatively recently and has chapters in the US and various nations around the world. The Q Society was established in Australia, also somewhat recently, to stand up for freedom and to offer serious debate about the nature of Islam. In part it offers this as its rationale:
“As a nation that values freedom of expression, most of us have been brought up to respect all religions. But what if a religion considers our laws as deficient and advocates the violation of basic human rights? And what if these rights are being violated right here in Australia? Q Society provides a platform for these issues to be critically debated.”
Security was very tight indeed, and participants only found out a day or two before each event where the exact venue was. In spite of very strict security measures, at least one person who signed up must have been part of the opposition, as the first function on Friday night was attacked almost immediately.
Police and security guards removed the screaming band of gate crashers before they could cause too much disruption at a Melbourne restaurant. This vigilante attack on a group of peaceful conference attendees proved that all the concerns about disruptions and worse were quite valid.
Pamela Geller described the situation this way: “This event was neither open to the public nor publicly announced. It was a lovely affair with longtime supporters and activists greeting us, welcoming us, and taking pictures with us. We weren’t there ten minutes when suddenly a crazed mob of left-fascists attempted to storm the room, attacking and throwing their bodies against our security team while frenziedly screaming that we were the fascists — the irony was unmistakable.
“These savages were really out of control. Had they managed to break through our security cordon, it is clear that they would have brutally assaulted as many of the freedom-lovers in the room as they possibly could. It was eerily reminiscent of the Muslim riots that took place in Sydney in 2012.”
I was told by one conference delegate that she had a chance to talk to one of these loud protestors, and after a bit of a chat, opened her eyes at least somewhat as to what a misogynist, oppressive and violent political ideology Islam really is. So perhaps one of these lefties gained a bit of insight here.
The opposition plant was presumably successfully identified and removed, as the remainder of the weekend’s activities proceeded without any further disruption or attempts at violence. The Friday night informal get-together was followed by a series of workshops on Saturday afternoon, and a pleasant dinner on Saturday night.
The Q Society organisers did a terrific job in all this. For example, the Saturday afternoon segment of the conference was held at a fantastic venue and it achieved two main purposes. It was actually held on a ferry which gloriously cruised the Melbourne bay for four hours on a beautiful sunny afternoon.
This made for an utterly delightful conference experience (hearing world-class speakers while having terrific views out on the water), and of course foiled any further attempts by the opposition to invade the conference and cause more disruptions.
But the main event of the weekend was held on Sunday – on dry land. A school lecture hall provided an ideal location for over a dozen top-notch speakers to each share for twenty minutes, with Q&A time also available after each segment. Organisers had everything well under control, and the conference pretty much remained right on schedule – always a major achievement.
The speakers included Australian and overseas experts. The Sunday presenters were:
-Pamela Geller of AtlasShrugs.com, and Stop Islamization of America (SIOA).
-Robert Spencer, the US-based director of Jihad Watch and author of over a dozen books on Islam, including several New York Times bestsellers.
-Dr Mordechai Kedar, Israeli scholar of Arabic and Islam, lecturer, and the director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam at Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
-Dr Ashraf Ramelah, founder and president of Voice of the Copts, a human rights nonprofit organisation with offices in Italy and the United States.
-Noni Darwish who was born in Cairo, Egypt, but emigrated to the United States in 1978. After arriving in the U.S., she became a Christian. About a year after the September 11 attacks, Darwish began writing columns critical of Islamic extremism and the silence of moderate Muslims.
-Gavin Boby, UK planning attorney and director of The British Law and Freedom Centre, an organisation assisting community groups (pro bono) faced with inappropriate planning applications for mosques in their neighbourhood.
-Dr John Perkins, an economist and a member of various Australian free-thought groups.
-Bernard Gaynor, Australian blogger and social commentator.
-Michael Burd, a vocal member of Melbourne’s Jewish community.
-Kirralie Smith, founder and director of HalalChoices based in New South Wales.
-Babette Francis, head of Endeavour Forum, Australia’s leading pro-life, pro-family lobby organisation.
-Debbie Robinson, President of Q Society of Australia Inc and an active lobbyist for liberty and Australian values.
-Bill Muehlenberg of CultureWatch.
All the presenters were of great value, and it is almost amiss of me to try to highlight just some of them. Of course the dynamic threesome from the US, Geller, Spencer and Darwish are always exceptional and are always well worth hearing. Bernard Gaynor’s account of the Islamification of the Australian Defence Forces was especially concerning, and very warmly received by everyone there.
Kirralie Smith would have informed – and likely shocked – many with her detailed description of the halal certification process in Australia and just how wide-spread and worrying it all is. And Gavin Boby of the UK thrilled us with his description of his incredible work in slowing down, and even reversing, the proliferation of mosques in the UK. He mentioned how in 19 cases of doing this, 17 of them have been successful so far.
The conference wrapped up with a briefer Monday morning breakfast meeting in which the weekend was assessed and discussed, and attendees were informed of future activities and other like-minded events. It was a good de-briefing session which left everyone further prepared to keep standing strong for the values we all cherish and enjoy.
Everyone in attendance over the weekend learned so much, were encouraged and inspired, and came away with a deeper commitment to stand up for liberty in Australia, and work against creeping sharia and stealth jihad in this nation.
The event organisers deserve a great round of praise for their excellent efforts, and a thoroughly professional conference. There were no hitches at all (except for the attack of the ferals) and everyone would agree what a terrific, challenging and informative weekend this was. It was a real game-changer and life-changer.
There is a very clear difference between the free and democratic West and a political ideology that not only seeks global hegemony, but seeks to clamp down on the very freedoms and values we all take for granted. Indeed, as I quipped elsewhere, you can tell you are being a regular on the freedom circuit when you renew old acquaintances – not just with the other speakers worried about creeping sharia, but with their bodyguards as well!
The very fact that many of these speakers need to always travel with bodyguards is concrete proof about the need for conferences such as this. When one cannot even travel freely in the West without fear of attack and perhaps even losing one’s life, that is a very telling indictment indeed on the nefarious nature of Islam.
Thus the vital need for a conference such as this. The entire Q Society team and all their volunteer help were champions and deserve a hearty congratulations, along with special mention of their hard-working and indefatigable President, Debbie Robinson. Well done team, and I am already looking forward to the Second International Symposium on Liberty and Islam.
http://pamelageller.com/2014/03/fascists-crash-australian-freedom-fest.html/
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