Pauline Hanson and Sam Dastyari had some interesting exchanges on Q & A on Monday 18 July 2016.
Dastyari pointed out that Hanson has, in the past, expressed strident views against Aborigines, then against Asians, and more recently against Muslims. She wants to stop Muslims coming to Australia. She wanted to stop Asians coming to Australia. She could hardly have objected to Aborigines being in Australia, so she advocated instead for the abolition of special government assistance for them; the abolition of native title and the abolition of ATSIC.
One of the oddest exchanges between Hanson and Dastyari on Q & A went like this:
Dastyari: “When I look at Ms Hanson’s policy document that says we should be banning Muslims from coming to this country, I have to ask: does that mean that a five-year-old Sam Dastyari should never have been able to set foot in Australia, because somewhere in Tehran there’s a document that says beside my name the word ‘Muslim’, because of where I was born?”
Hanson: “Are you a Muslim?…Really?” … “You’re a practising Muslim? This is quite interesting,… I’m surprised. I did not know that about you.”
What is odd about this is that on 2 July, the night of the Federal election, when Hanson was being interviewed on Channel Seven, Dastyari offered to take her out for a Halal Snack Pack. That invitation, coupled with the widely known fact that Dastyari is originally from Iran, would lead any moderately intelligent person to conclude that Dastyari is Muslim. but Hanson seemed genuinely surprised on Monday night, in the exchange quoted above.
Perhaps her real point concerned whether he was a practising Muslim. But if that was her point she would have to refine her call for Muslims to be prevented from coming to Australia. But her comments on Muslims seem much broader than whether a Muslim is a practising Muslim. Here are some of her (false) claims about Muslims.
Here is the Guardian’s article about the Q & A episode: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jul/18/pauline-hanson-and-sam-dastyari-clash-over-islam-on-abcs-qa?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+AUS+v1+-+AUS+morning+mail+callout&utm_term=182252&subid=7875396&CMP=ema_632
It s hard to know what is more disturbing: the fact that someone with Hanson’s strident bigotry has a strong presence in the Senate or that someone with such luke-warm intelligence has a strong presence in the Senate.
Further to her point, she and her ilk would like to feel safe in Australia when out on the street celebrating Australia Day.
Personally I would like to feel safe on the those same streets from the clowns using our flag as a cape and shouting Oiu Oiu, while pissed out their brain, looking for someone to blame for their own short comings.
Call it for what it is, flat out ignorance.
I would love to know what is going through Malcom Turnbull’s mind on this issue right now and how he intends to deal with the Tsanami of complex anger and divisiveness aided and encouraged by the Imbecile and his cohorts over the last 18 months in the coming years.
Muslims come from many cultures besides the middle east. I have stayed in Melaka, Malaysia and witnessed the muslim lifestyle of the locals. I could hear the call to prayer only across the road from the hotel. I watched Muslims in prayer at their workplace. Some of my family members are muslim,and from China. Being middle eastern is not a dead giveaway about religion. Even though I know you stated the mention of Halal too with the person involved.
I actually started to feel sorry for Pauline Hanson on Q and A. She was so clearly out of her depth. There is no arguing against emotions such as hers. What is there to debate? It’s like trying to reason with a two-year old who’s throwing a tantrum. So a whole lot of people liked the tantrum. So what? Please let’s not take her too seriously, let’s just ignore her and get on with serious business.
I’ve lived in a lot of different countries amongst people of different cultures, languages and religions. The only solid truth I’ve learned, which should be universally acknowledged but isn’t, is that people are just people – some good, some bad, some clever and some not. Religion is our least defining characteristic.
Bravo.
Julian,
I have been pondering that exchange since the moment it was broadcast. Given that all guests of Q&A were provided with background information of their fellow panellists and given that Mr Dastyari’s profile allegedly included the statement that he was not a practising Muslim, I can only presume Ms Hanson anticipated using a 2 stage killer punch with her question. why else would she have used the term “practising”? it hardly sounds a term of art for her. Possibly, her execution of the “killer blow” was interrupted by the ever growing queue of interjectors and the discourse move on and away.
Surely she is not so stupid to be unaware that a young boy who emigrated from Iran in the 1980s was likely to be Muslim.
Having said that, it would not surprise me if she was that naive.
I think the bookmakers would be evenly split on the odds of her next question to Mr dastyari was going to be either “Did Medicare pay to have your horns removed?” or “doesn’t your bio says you’re an athiest?”