Sharia law has no place in democratic societies. Its principles are anathema to freedom, the rule of law, and genuine pluralism. Yet plenty of folks are seeking to bring sharia law into the West. Thankfully there are those who are aware of the dangers of creeping sharia and stealth jihad, and they are fighting back.
This past week we have had five courageous women speaking out against Islam. Let me examine each one. A week ago on the ever-leftist Q&A, Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie tangled with sharia apologist Yassmin Abdel-Magied. It was a feisty encounter, and you can see a short clip of it here: https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2017/feb/14/jacqui-lambie-and-yassmin-abdel-magied-clash-over-sharia-law-and-islam-on-qa-video
Lambie was quite right to say those who want to see sharia law established here should be deported. For that sensible comment all hell broke out, and that debate is still being discussed. Three female commentators have leapt to the defence of Lambie, and taken on the Muslim activist Abdel-Magied.
Of course others have challenged the Muslim apologist, but these three women deserve some credit, so I will focus on them. The first champion worth mentioning is Jennifer Oriel. She begins her important piece this way:
Australia does not welcome sharia law. It violates the Australian Constitution. It would send Western civilisation back to the Dark Ages. It chains freethinking women to a set of absurd laws derived from the misogynistic prophet, Mohammed.
It denies the right to criticise Mohammed’s half-witted notions because freedom of speech is only permitted in accordance with Islamic law. Islamism is a woman-hating, freedom-negating ideology whose most barbaric principles are codified in sharia law.
She continues:
Australians do not need to understand sharia. We are a secular liberal democracy with a 61 per cent Christian population. In the 2011 census, 22 per cent of Australians selected “no religion”. Muslims constitute 2 per cent of the population. If you want to understand Australian law, read the Constitution. If you want to understand Australian values, read the founding fathers. If you want to understand Australian faith, read the Christian Bible, Enlightenment thought, or both.
Abdel-Magied also claimed that Islam is the world’s “most feminist religion”. Feminists need Islam like the Enlightenment needs the Dark Ages. Witness Mohammed on women: “I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you.” What evidence did Mohammed provide to support his belief that women are stupid? They might be ungrateful to their husbands or curse at them. Many Koranic verses celebrate hatred of women: “Men have authority over women because God has made one superior to the other … Good women are obedient … as for those from whom you fear disobedience … beat them.” Islamic State celebrates its preferred Koranic verses, including that wellspring of feminism: “Marry … any slave girls you may own.”
Ah, yes, female sexual slavery — just smell the freedom, women….
Australians are tired of being called racist for defending our most essential values while the government throws public money at an activist media that undermines them. We are forced to pay for the ABC to ridicule patriots, smear conservatives and spin secure border policy as xenophobic. How much anti-Australian propaganda will we be forced to endure during SBS’s #FU2Racism programming next week?
A second champion is Rita Panahi. She began her piece as follows:
Last week I had the surreal experience of being scolded by an ABC host for not being sufficiently supportive of an Islamic activist advocating for sharia law. ABC radio drive host Rafael Epstein had the gall to admonish me, a migrant who escaped a country under Islamic law, for not supporting an advocate of Islamic law. It’s akin to a freed slave being criticised for a fear of slavery and reluctance to support slavery advocates.
Can you imagine the indignation from feminists if a privileged, white, private school-educated, heterosexual, conservative male was castigating an immigrant woman of colour about how their experience and opinions “distort the debate”?
She concludes:
The evils perpetrated against women, children, homosexuals, nonbelievers and many other minorities in the name of sharia are not limited to the backward savagery of IS. There are 10 countries, some of them sitting on the United Nations Human Rights Commission, where homosexuality can be punishable by death. These aren’t terrorists throwing allegedly gay men off buildings; they are governments of Islamic nations such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan and Yemen.
Some have penal codes that stipulate prison or flogging for “immoral” acts such as homosexuality, sorcery or sex outside of marriage but under sharia law practised in some regions, those found guilty can be sentenced to death. It is under sharia law that women are stoned to death for adultery and apostates are killed. Even in its softest forms, sharia or Islamic law is anti-women as we’ve seen in the UK’s sharia councils.
It’s with good reasons that the European Court of Human Rights has twice ruled sharia “incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy”, finding it “difficult to declare one’s respect for democracy and human rights while at the same time supporting a regime based on sharia”. That’s because under sharia law, men and women are not treated equally, nor are Muslims and non-Muslims. Any belief system that defines apostasy as a crime is not fit for consideration in a civilised nation and taxpayer dollars should never again be wasted on its advocates.
My third heroine deals with this taxpayer-funding of sharia apologists. Miranda Devine said this:
When quizzed in the Senate by One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts last week, Senator George Brandis didn’t even have the grace to be embarrassed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s funding of such questionable “public diplomacy” excursions.
“I can advise you that Yassmin Abdel Magied visited a number of countries in the Middle East to promote Australia as an open, tolerant and multicultural society… [Her trip] was funded from the public diplomacy budgets of middle east posts and cost an estimated $11,485 comprising travel allowance and flights… There was no personal fee or profit element to her.”
Why on earth would we want to present an alluring image of Australia to repressive Islamic regimes, where little girls are circumcised, women are stoned for adultery, gay people are executed, and where our idea of “an open tolerant” society is decried as Western decadence?
She finishes her piece this way:
Being a tolerant society does not mean we have to defend intolerant attitudes of sharia, particularly the inequality of women, which is evident in promotional posters for an Islamic conference in Melbourne in which the faces of male speakers were shown but the faces of female speakers were blacked out. Or the Victoria Police recruitment poster promising gender segregated information seminars.
Lambie’s style might be abrasive but it’s not Islamophobic to insist that everyone in this country should abide by Australian law. Nor is it Islamophobic to question why someone who misrepresents the true nature of Sharia would end up at the tender age of 25 being the beneficiary of not one but two taxpayer funded junkets, the first being a trip to the ASEAN “emerging leaders” program in Malaysia in 2012.
A lot of Muslims in Australia have escaped from repressive cruel Islamist regimes. It’s not in their interests for Sharia apologists to be promoted by the government and the taxpayer funded ABC as the face of moderate Islam.
Our last heroine is Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the heroic Somalia-born freedom fighter who dares to take on sharia law and political Islam. She will be speaking in Australia in April, yet the leftist Age over the weekend had the nerve to ask this question: “Her views are just as controversial as her Dutch political colleague Geert Wilders, so why is no one protesting about Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s coming visit to Australia?”
Mindboggling. Protest someone who has given all to help keep the West free of sharia law and its horrific treatment of women, including honour killings and female genital mutilation? Leave it to the Fairfax press to come up with this sort of nonsense.
Sorry, but I will take these five female freedom fighters any day over the dhimmi dunces who inhabit so much of our media, academia and politics.
So Australia has a few really good women. I read them all with joy and thanksgiving but don’t bother to watch Wassisname on Q&A the ABC truth subversion – so 1984.
Thanks guys. You can read more about the sharia apologist here:
It is great to read the responses of these women who are speaking out against sharia law! There are many more women like myself, who have no public voice, that applaud them for speaking up!
Dear Bill,
Thank you so much for this article. I was hoping you would post one about this ‘exchange’ between Jacqie Lambie and Yassmin Abdel-Magied. I have already written to the ABC complaining about employing this silly woman and giving her her own show as she obviously does not know what she is talking about in relation to sharia law. I have also written to Jacquie Lambie for courageously ‘trying’ to stand up to her in Q and A. I say ‘trying’ because even she, as feisty as she is, could do little in the face of such hysteria. She was hardly allowed to get a word in because Tony Jones’s performance as moderator was pathetic to say the least. There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that women suffer more than men under sharia law. Therefore you would think that left wing radical feminists such as Julie Gillard who is a lawyer and who helped draft Victoria’s infamous abortion laws would speak up against it? As a former PM her opinion would carry some clout. Or on the so called opposite side of politics why doesn’t her ladyship Julie Bishop say something?
Dear Readers,
Great Article, Bill.
I strongly suggest we all sign the ALT Right Group CHANGE.ORG Petition to sack Ms Yassmin Abdel-Magied.
This outspoken activist Abdel-Magied is either:
(1) Badly mis-informed (which I doubt) or
(2) Simply lying about what the Koran states and what the Islamic ideology is all about. Islam is not the “most feminist religion.” It is a bare faced lie. Such a comment is historically false and currently false.
Child Marriages, Genital Mutilation, Pack rape of women and murder of children (ISIS in action over the last 2 years) and honour killing are all part and parcel of this sad and horrific religion.
This likely LIE by Yassmin Abdel-Magied of course should be no surprise to most readers of the Koran given the Koran – Surah 66 v2 states the following:
“Allah has already ordained for you [Muslims] the dissolution of your oaths. And Allah is your protector, and He is the Knowing, the Wise.”
So their most “Holy?” book states irrevocably that lying is an acceptable practice for muslims. Lying under Christian belief is a sin.
In terms of women Islam does come anywhere near how the Bible and what Jesus Christ states about the value of women in society. Christ actually spoke to women that were shunned by society. A woman’s salvation and place in God’s Kingdom under Christian theology is equal to a man’s and there most probably will be many women given higher places authority than men in Heaven due to their service to Christ on earth .
Given many of us work 50 hours a week and pay high taxes in this country I think we are all increasingly appalled by the FAKE NEWS / FAKE INFORMATION that is displayed and fed to us by the National Broadcaster ABC and being marketed as informative and accurate. It is not. We are not receiving value for our taxes.
I had some hope that the new Managing Director, Michelle Guthrie would actually pull Q and A into line. Alas, there has been no change.
The balderdash and the lies are continuing.
In light of the fact that you (and others) subject yourself to this cesspool of hate from time to time, isn’t it time to rethink that policy? I well realise that in so doing you are sincerely and well motivated, but I doubt that appearances on such an iniquitous forum achieve anything. After all, look what happened to Jacqui Lambie last week, and what happens regularly to anyone the slightest bit conservative on that repulsive programme!
Our Lord tells us not to cast our pearls before swine, or to give what is holy to dogs (Matt 7:6), or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. That is precisely what happens when a Christian goes on that programme. They are not permitted to get their message across; the leftist mob’s objective is, as Andrew puts it, “to make an example of the conservatives, (and) to unite the collectivists and warn any from straying.” They are merely a wolf pack, out to destroy. In saying “no” to any overture from the ABC, and saying why, it would send a message that they can wallow in their own little leftist cesspit if they like, but I will not be part of your programme to denigrate righteous living people. Even cite Matt 7:6!
Starve the Beast!
Thanks Murray. Of course you have raised this criticism before, and I have answered it before. So there is no need to keep belabouring all this. The short answer remains the same: We will do it if God calls us to do it.
Of course the leftist media is a cesspit. Of course they want to use and abuse us on these shows. And in terms of just a secular strategy, conservatives can certainly discuss whether they should boycott them altogether. As to Jacqui Lambie, I would say her appearance has done a tremendous amount of good. It is another case of ABC bias being exposed to the whole world. Indeed, within just a few days some 30,000 petition signatures have been garnered about all this. A grassroots revolt is taking place, so I would say this has achieved plenty already. I give folks like her credit for having the guts to speak up in these lion’s dens. I will side with her over her critics on this any day.
But I am not just a secular conservative – I am also a Christian. And here is the simple truth: if God leads me or others to go on such programs, then we do it in obedience to the King of Kings, and ignore the armchair critics. If God is guiding us to do these shows, then we had better do them. And if God is in it, then of course it is never a waste of time. Sharing truth in the public arena in that case is not unproductive. God is able to use the seeds planted there for good.
While I of course understand where Bolt is coming from, let me – hopefully for the last time – answer his query, “I again wonder why conservatives go on Q&A to be sneered at by the host”. Christians conservatives at least do so if and when they are led by God to go. And because getting truth in the public arena is so vitally important, that is also a good reason to go and endure all the hate and abuse.
And of course if you had read my many other writings on this topic, you would have seen that I quoted the same verses you do, and I said we must always be prayerful, careful and discerning as to which public debates we enter into, and which we decide to wisely forego. That I seek to do as I get these sorts of requests. After prayer and thought, I make a choice: some I go on, and some I knock back.
But why does the following story keep coming to mind in the light of such criticisms?
A woman once approached the great evangelist D. L. Moody to air a grievance. The woman said to him, “Mr. Moody, I don’t like the way you do evangelism!” “Well, ma’am, let me ask you, how do you do it?” Moody asked. She replied, “I don’t!” Moody responded, “Well, I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it!”
Game, Set & Match, Bill – Love it!
Congratulations Keysar Trad,
The president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils has said recently that the Koran says a man can beat his wife as ‘a last resort.’
He has spoken the truth about the Koran so why is he backing down. It’s about time the Australian public actually assessed Islam for what it is .
“Men are in charge of women by [right of] what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend [for maintenance] from their wealth. So righteous women are devoutly obedient, guarding in [the husband’s] absence what Allah would have them guard. But those [wives] from whom you fear arrogance – [first] advise them; [then if they persist], forsake them in bed; and [finally], strike them. But if they obey you [once more], seek no means against them. Indeed, Allah is ever Exalted and Grand.”
regards and thanks to Keysar for being honest about this “holy” ???? book.
Australian Heroes.
Re-posted to Speak Freely.
This blog may be of interest: http://parzivalshorse.blogspot.com.au/2017/02/islam-and-feminism.html
Many thanks Bill.
There is a petition you can sign on this: “ABC to publicly condemn and fire Yassmin Abdel-Magied over Pro Sharia Law comments.”
https://www.change.org/p/abc-to-publicly-condemn-and-fire-yassmin-abdul-magied-over-pro-sharia-law-comments-abc-to-publicly-condemn-and-fire-yassmin-abdel-magied-over-pro-sharia-propaganda
So Australia has a few really good women. I read them all with joy and thanksgiving but don’t bother to watch Wassisname on Q&A the ABC truth subversion – so 1984.
Thanks guys. You can read more about the sharia apologist here:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/q-and-a-guest-asked-radical-islamic-group-for-help/news-story/977b43e8e8bd96746e253ffed7804e5e?utm_content=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=EditorialSF&utm_source=HaraldSun&utm_medium=Facebook&nk=9117ccf1cf104e4bad22fb151358715f-1487564686
That petition is getting a lot of attention. The other brave woman is journalist Alison Bevege who took on Hizb ut-Tahrir After being directed to sit behind men at a Hizb ut-Tahrir lecture, Alison Bevege filed a sex discrimination complaint which was upheld by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.. Read this http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/rendezview/i-took-on-hizb-uttahrir-and-i-won/news-story/27b60e0ee608579ecb08a66c1561b9e6 and http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/no-ifs-no-hizbuts-this-drinks-on-me/news-story/5c480256119fca0678a480ee6c8f0e6c and http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/alison-bevege-v-hizb-uttahrir-victory-for-women-and-reason/news-story/24ed990a587c7e55daec1c9cc08e49aa
Thanks Jo.
It is great to read the responses of these women who are speaking out against sharia law! There are many more women like myself, who have no public voice, that applaud them for speaking up!
Dear Bill,
Thank you so much for this article. I was hoping you would post one about this ‘exchange’ between Jacqie Lambie and Yassmin Abdel-Magied. I have already written to the ABC complaining about employing this silly woman and giving her her own show as she obviously does not know what she is talking about in relation to sharia law. I have also written to Jacquie Lambie for courageously ‘trying’ to stand up to her in Q and A. I say ‘trying’ because even she, as feisty as she is, could do little in the face of such hysteria. She was hardly allowed to get a word in because Tony Jones’s performance as moderator was pathetic to say the least. There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that women suffer more than men under sharia law. Therefore you would think that left wing radical feminists such as Julie Gillard who is a lawyer and who helped draft Victoria’s infamous abortion laws would speak up against it? As a former PM her opinion would carry some clout. Or on the so called opposite side of politics why doesn’t her ladyship Julie Bishop say something?
Dear Readers,
Great Article, Bill.
I strongly suggest we all sign the ALT Right Group CHANGE.ORG Petition to sack Ms Yassmin Abdel-Magied.
This outspoken activist Abdel-Magied is either:
(1) Badly mis-informed (which I doubt) or
(2) Simply lying about what the Koran states and what the Islamic ideology is all about. Islam is not the “most feminist religion.” It is a bare faced lie. Such a comment is historically false and currently false.
Child Marriages, Genital Mutilation, Pack rape of women and murder of children (ISIS in action over the last 2 years) and honour killing are all part and parcel of this sad and horrific religion.
This likely LIE by Yassmin Abdel-Magied of course should be no surprise to most readers of the Koran given the Koran – Surah 66 v2 states the following:
“Allah has already ordained for you [Muslims] the dissolution of your oaths. And Allah is your protector, and He is the Knowing, the Wise.”
So their most “Holy?” book states irrevocably that lying is an acceptable practice for muslims. Lying under Christian belief is a sin.
In terms of women Islam does come anywhere near how the Bible and what Jesus Christ states about the value of women in society. Christ actually spoke to women that were shunned by society. A woman’s salvation and place in God’s Kingdom under Christian theology is equal to a man’s and there most probably will be many women given higher places authority than men in Heaven due to their service to Christ on earth .
Given many of us work 50 hours a week and pay high taxes in this country I think we are all increasingly appalled by the FAKE NEWS / FAKE INFORMATION that is displayed and fed to us by the National Broadcaster ABC and being marketed as informative and accurate. It is not. We are not receiving value for our taxes.
I had some hope that the new Managing Director, Michelle Guthrie would actually pull Q and A into line. Alas, there has been no change.
The balderdash and the lies are continuing.
Totally unimpressed with the Rubbish ABC.
Phil Browne
Slightly off topic, but your post here raises the issue of Q&A and any part that conservatives might have in it. I would draw your attention to one of Andrew Bolt’s latest posts:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/why-do-conservatives-go-before-qas-feral-left/news-story/48fa257c48bb63a7f96690c54d931584
In light of the fact that you (and others) subject yourself to this cesspool of hate from time to time, isn’t it time to rethink that policy? I well realise that in so doing you are sincerely and well motivated, but I doubt that appearances on such an iniquitous forum achieve anything. After all, look what happened to Jacqui Lambie last week, and what happens regularly to anyone the slightest bit conservative on that repulsive programme!
Our Lord tells us not to cast our pearls before swine, or to give what is holy to dogs (Matt 7:6), or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. That is precisely what happens when a Christian goes on that programme. They are not permitted to get their message across; the leftist mob’s objective is, as Andrew puts it, “to make an example of the conservatives, (and) to unite the collectivists and warn any from straying.” They are merely a wolf pack, out to destroy. In saying “no” to any overture from the ABC, and saying why, it would send a message that they can wallow in their own little leftist cesspit if they like, but I will not be part of your programme to denigrate righteous living people. Even cite Matt 7:6!
Starve the Beast!
Thanks Murray. Of course you have raised this criticism before, and I have answered it before. So there is no need to keep belabouring all this. The short answer remains the same: We will do it if God calls us to do it.
Of course the leftist media is a cesspit. Of course they want to use and abuse us on these shows. And in terms of just a secular strategy, conservatives can certainly discuss whether they should boycott them altogether. As to Jacqui Lambie, I would say her appearance has done a tremendous amount of good. It is another case of ABC bias being exposed to the whole world. Indeed, within just a few days some 30,000 petition signatures have been garnered about all this. A grassroots revolt is taking place, so I would say this has achieved plenty already. I give folks like her credit for having the guts to speak up in these lion’s dens. I will side with her over her critics on this any day.
But I am not just a secular conservative – I am also a Christian. And here is the simple truth: if God leads me or others to go on such programs, then we do it in obedience to the King of Kings, and ignore the armchair critics. If God is guiding us to do these shows, then we had better do them. And if God is in it, then of course it is never a waste of time. Sharing truth in the public arena in that case is not unproductive. God is able to use the seeds planted there for good.
While I of course understand where Bolt is coming from, let me – hopefully for the last time – answer his query, “I again wonder why conservatives go on Q&A to be sneered at by the host”. Christians conservatives at least do so if and when they are led by God to go. And because getting truth in the public arena is so vitally important, that is also a good reason to go and endure all the hate and abuse.
And of course if you had read my many other writings on this topic, you would have seen that I quoted the same verses you do, and I said we must always be prayerful, careful and discerning as to which public debates we enter into, and which we decide to wisely forego. That I seek to do as I get these sorts of requests. After prayer and thought, I make a choice: some I go on, and some I knock back.
But why does the following story keep coming to mind in the light of such criticisms?
A woman once approached the great evangelist D. L. Moody to air a grievance. The woman said to him, “Mr. Moody, I don’t like the way you do evangelism!” “Well, ma’am, let me ask you, how do you do it?” Moody asked. She replied, “I don’t!” Moody responded, “Well, I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it!”
Game, Set & Match, Bill – Love it!
Congratulations Keysar Trad,
The president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils has said recently that the Koran says a man can beat his wife as ‘a last resort.’
He has spoken the truth about the Koran so why is he backing down. It’s about time the Australian public actually assessed Islam for what it is .
“Men are in charge of women by [right of] what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend [for maintenance] from their wealth. So righteous women are devoutly obedient, guarding in [the husband’s] absence what Allah would have them guard. But those [wives] from whom you fear arrogance – [first] advise them; [then if they persist], forsake them in bed; and [finally], strike them. But if they obey you [once more], seek no means against them. Indeed, Allah is ever Exalted and Grand.”
regards and thanks to Keysar for being honest about this “holy” ???? book.
Phil