Evolving Thoughts

Evolution, culture, philosophy and chocolate! John Wilkins' continuing struggle to come to terms with impermanence... "Humanus sum, nihil humanum a me alienum puto" - Terence

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Nelson tells "UnAustralian" Muslims to clear off

Our increasingly worrying Federal Minister for Edumification is at it again. Now he has told Muslims who fail to accept and teach Australian values to "clear off". So, what are Australian values again?

Now I may not have been paying attention much when I was growing up, but I thought they included freedom of religion, rule of law, cultural diversity, and acceptance of those who come from overseas to make a new life here.

Possibly, I was asleep during the Australian Values class, because history, the history that Nelson appeals to, includes the rejection of the Chinese during the gold rush, the forced removal of Aboriginal children for paternalistic reasons (that turned out to be false), the retention of a White Australia policy by the Right and the Left until I was into my teen years, and so forth.

These Australian values seem to be very much the sort of values that the extremist Wahabists hold. They, too, are xenophobic, anti-diversity, paternalistic (the Imam knows best, just like Brendan Nelson) and use law as a means to a prior end, not as an end in itself as the principles of Common Law do.

So is Nelson asking the moderate Muslims to leave Australia? If so, can I tag along? I'd like to live in the country where they accept all religions and none (as I believe the Q'uran says they should, but see this verse for a worrying alternate view), and where being Christian is not seen as a duty.