In what has been a brain-dead Australian election campaign so far, it didn't take long for someone from the Christian-right of the conservative Liberal Party to make a complete goose of him/herself and publish something idiotic (with the obligatery speling and Capitalisation mistackes) against Muslims or immigrants. This stunner of a bloke, the Liberal candidate for the electorate of Chifley, David Barker, has had this to say on his Facebook profile and in letters to target groups:"I am going to win this seat. I claim it as mine and when I get in I will give my votes all of them to God who is on the side of the Liberal Right,"
"I don't believe God would have called me to run in this seat if he didn't expect me to win."
"I vote for freedom of worship if the worship is of Jesus Christ or The Jewish God anyone else well they are worshipping a false god anyway so who cares." (note: so the Christian God and Jewish God are two different entities. OMG! ... well, depending on which one, so it seems)
"Voting should only be voluntary for Liberal and National voters the rest can not bother since with every vote they bring the nation closer to the brink of disaster and closer to the hands of a (sic)muslim country."
"Someone get me into parliament ... and watch me go. They will see my talent as the voice of ... God himself."
In a letter to Christian leaders in his electorate, Barker says there is "corruption and a lack of moral direction in some politicians", and asks for their support pointing out that Julia Gillard is an "atheist" and his opponent in Chifley, Ed Husić, is a "strong Moslem".
A lovely, devout Christian, obviously. I guess he's also a devout McDonald's and KFC consumer too, judging by his rather diabetes and heart disease candidate figure. It has been discovered that he used to be a member of the whacko extremist Christian 'Call to Australia' Party led by the anti-everything Fred Nile, famous for leading prayers for rain at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in the 1990s. This skeleton from Barker's past makes perfect sense as to his current delusions of Christian, and self, supremacy.
Campaigning in outer Sydney suburban electorates like Chifley has been notorious in the past for such anti-Muslim sentiment. The last federal election in 2007 saw the husband of the outgoing Liberal member for Lindsay, Jackie Kelly, distribute a fake pamphlet by the supposed 'Islamic Australia Federation' endorsing Labor for their support for Islamist terrorists. Kelly tried passing it off as a 'funny prank', but no-one was buying it, resulting in a resounding defeat for the Liberals.
Chifley, a very safe Labor seat, covers some of the poorest and most underprivileged suburbs of Sydney. However, the electorate also covers some areas of Sydney's growing bible-belt like Quaker's Hill, where the ever growing Hillsong church started, whose members might take a shining to someone with such religious zeal. Candidate registrations and endorsements are to be finalised this coming week, giving very little time for the Liberal Party to act. They must be fearful of a repeat of the party's bad 2007 performance after Jackie Kelly's bad stunt, or of 1996 when a little-known candidate was disendorsed from the Liberal Party due to racist comments but went on to win the safe Labor seat of Oxley - the infamous Pauline Hanson. It will be interesting to see where Chifley goes on this as this would be a gauge of general feeling among the 'battlers'.
By the way, it's only a matter of time until Barker claims that he's no racist because his wife is Filipina.
UPDATE!!!
David Barker has been unceremoniously dumped by the Liberal Party and has been replaced by Venus Priest, a small business owner who immigrated from the Phillippines in 1985.
Barker told the Australian public broadcaster ABC "I'm not anti-Muslim. I believe every one should have their own beliefs. But I don't know if we want at this stage in Australian politics a Muslim in the Parliament and an atheist running the Government."
Barker said he did not understand why he had been disendorsed as the Liberal candidate for Chifley. "I made a comment that I believe God is the only way to heaven and we shouldn't have a Muslim candidate running in that area," he said. His would-be opponent, Labor candidate Ed Husic, who is nearly certain to win the very safe Labor seat, is of Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) background. But in true Bosnian style, where fasting during Ramadan and wearing the veil is rare while alcohol and pork consumption is high, Husic is hardly a Muslim in the Western stereotype. Nevertheless, the Christian crusader Barker said about Husic's (nominal) Islam, "I don't believe that's exactly in line with what we believe as Australians."
In true 'I'm not a racist but...' style, Barker said about Muslims that "I'm not attacking them on the basis of their faith, I'm attacking them on the basis of their ideology." Based on comments like that, if he was to see past his belly, then he would realise that Husic is really the type of Muslim he would like. However, it's clear that Barker so ignorantly anti-Muslim that if someone was to suggest to him a book-burning of Muslim authors, he wouldn't see the symbolism.
No comments:
Post a Comment