State Licencing for Preaching?

Scott Morrison on the elephant in the room:

Life in a fallen world can get quite complicated. Zillions of laws need to be enacted in order to deal with all sorts of bad behaviours. So while the majority of folks might be more or less well-behaved in many areas, various laws need to be passed for those who are willing to cause mischief and mayhem.

Examples of this are legion. Thus we have speed limits in place, but some will still ignore and violate them, so speed bumps are installed to make sure speeding does not happen – or happens far less. So we are all penalised for the actions of a minority in this regard.

Or consider air travel and the very stringent security measures now in place. Most folks do not fly with hidden bombs and box cutters and other weapons. But some do. So especially after September 11, 2001, very harsh security measures were put in place at airports. The majority had to suffer through this, because of a reckless and dangerous minority.

Let me look at this in terms of religion and public policy. Since I mentioned Sept. 11, consider the new security measures put in place in various areas. Were they implemented because of homicidal maniac Baptist Sunday School teachers, or really ornery Buddhists? No, they came about because of ONE religion: Islam.

In the light of the recent Bondi terror attacks, various new laws have been pushed. As to be expected, the Labor government thinks new hate speech laws and more gun control laws are the answer. But of course the real answer is to identify, target and deal with the root problem – once again, Islam.

The ScoMo solution

One conservative politician has just recently come up with a more targeted solution: naming names and not skirting around the issue. Scott Morrison wrote in a recent piece in the Australian:

Extremist Islamist antisemitism is not incidental. It is doctrinal. It weaponises faith for political ends, fusing selective theology with imported conspiracy theories that portray Jews as a hidden enemy responsible for global disorder. Israel is not treated as a state to debate, but as proof of a Jewish conspiracy that must be destroyed “from the river to the sea”. This pattern is consistent across Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qa’ida and ISIS. Antisemitism is not a by-product of radicalisation, it is one of its primary engines.

And in a similarly worded speech, he spoke of mandating a ‘licence to preach’. Morrison said this in an 18-minute speech in Israel during the January 27 International Holocaust Remembrance Day. He said in part:

No freedom is absolute and with such freedom always comes with responsibility. In western liberal societies religious leaders have responsibilities not only to their congregations, but to the wider society. Religious institutions must maintain sound governance to ensure proper teaching, accountability and discipline.

 

Christian denominations in Australia learned this painfully through the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Accountability was rightly imposed and reforms followed. While strong structures exist for most Christian and Jewish denominations, the governance of Islamic institutions in Australia is inadequate and requires reform.

 

Islamic leaders have a pastoral duty to protect their communities from radicalisation. I believe most take this responsibility very seriously, however, stronger institutional frameworks would assist them and would also expose those who do not share their commitment.

 

It is time that Islamic institutions in Australia adopted nationally consistent, self-regulated standards, including a recognised accreditation framework for imams, a national register for public-facing roles, clear training and conduct requirements, and disciplinary authority for their governing councils. This requires a peak body that goes beyond representation to be given the authority and tools to enforce membership standards. This does not currently exist.

And again:

Where similar weaknesses exist in other faiths, including my own, the same reforms and requirements should apply. And where institutional safeguards are absent for any such religious organisations, favourable tax treatment and public funding should not be granted. This is not the state dictating belief, but holding religious leaders accountable for what they preach and permit in their religious community and requiring them to exercise that responsibility. It is the least they should do.

 

These reforms, led from within communities rather than imposed by government, would preserve freedom of religion, strengthen credible leadership, protect the vulnerable and rebuild trust. https://www.scottmorrison.com.au/speeches/address-the-second-international-conference-on-anti-semitism

The whole speech can be seen and heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KEHR1U9PQg

Morrison then spoke to Ben Fordham at 2GB about his plan to tackle Islamic extremism. The seven minute interview is found here: https://omny.fm/shows/ben-fordham-full-show/licence-to-preach-scomo-s-plan-to-tackle-islamic-extremism  

He reiterated his idea: Anglican and Catholic ministers, and Jewish leaders have self-accreditation. He said religions should be held accountable, but he thinks Islam is getting a free pass here. It should not be done by the government however – he twice said that Islamic self-policing is what he is mainly seeking.

But…

Even though the Morrison idea is NOT about direct State regulation and monitoring of Islamic sermons and the like, there are two big problems here. One, there have been calls for decades now for Islamic leaders and clergy to start doing some self-regulation. But that has fallen on deaf ears. They seem to be not at all interested in this.

And two – and this ties in with my opening remarks – some may indeed look for government to implement such ideas. But we know it will NOT stay focused on Islam, where the focus belongs. Labor, the left, the lamestream media and all the usual suspects will insist that ALL religions are the same, and ALL must be regulated in this way.

This is where the sins of the bad guys will impact everyone else. IF Muslim sermons and the like end up getting government oversight and licensing, then you know for certain that they will target Christian sermons, seminars, books and websites.

In other words, the ones who do NOT really need such oversight will be targeted, while the ones that really need it will likely just get kid glove treatment – as usual. So real care is needed here. Yes, the genuine hate speech of Islamic sermons is a real problem.

But how we deal with it is the tricky bit. Most major Christian denominations already have careful self-regulation and licencing regimes in place. As to Islam, it we leave it to Muslims, nothing will happen. Leave it to the State and all the wrong parties – that is, non-guilty parties – will be negatively impacted by this. Then we will see governments monitoring all we do, from sermons and worship songs to our blogsites and bookstores.

So Morrison is quite right to call out radical Islam and to actually name it. And he is right to say Islamic sermons and teachings DO need to be closely monitored. How this can best be done however is the million-dollar question. We know that Sikhs and Anglicans and Jews and so on are NOT the problem when it comes to religious violence.

But Islam DOES have a real problem here in this regard. At least Morrison was willing to call out the elephant in the room. How all this pans out in terms of solutions remains to be seen.

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