Senator Andrew Bartlett
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
 
Democratic terrorism
Last night I attended a Ramadan Iftar dinner, held in the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra. The dinner was hosted by the Australian Intercultural Society as part of bringing people together to mark the Islamic holy month of Ramadan via participating in a traditional "Iftar" breaking of the fast dinner. This was one of a number of similar events aimed at building understanding and links within the Australian community.

It made a sad and unfortunate contrast to wake up the next morning to newspaper coverage of ASIO's newly released annual report. Very conveniently for the government, ASIO has for the first time "publicly warned of the existence of a home-grown terror threat - Australian-born Islamic extremists." Normally when ASIO is asked for details of security matters – even by Senate Committees – they refuse to answer on security grounds. Yet here's the front page of the national Murdoch daily saying "ASIO is believed to hold genuine security concerns about an estimated 700-800 Muslims in Australia who have expressed support for politically motivated violence."

I don't dispute that this may be true. I've received emails and seen public statements over the years by extremist white supremacists, 'fathers-rights' activists, gay-haters and anti-Muslim bigots all of which could be seen as 'expressing support for politically motivated violence'.

This report confirms that the planned anti-terrorism laws are targeted fairly and squarely at Muslims, even though there has yet to be any explanation as to why the existing laws are inadequate. Inciting or planing violence is already an offence under the existing Criminal Code.

I know of some people who are currently hell bent on causing serious damage to Australia's democracy and undermining the fabric of our Constitution. Unfortunately they are very well placed to succeed, as they already have control of the Parliament. Not all attacks on democracy involve violence, but they can still cause enormous damage and can be very hard to repair. Once freedoms are taken away, they are very hard to regain.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Wednesday, November 02, 2005 Permalink
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