A friend reminded me recently of a great observation about the process by which our decency is degraded. Looking at what has happened in Australia, courtesy of Howard, Ruddock, Rudd, Gillard, Abbott, Morrison, Turnbull and Dutton, and what has happened recently in America because of Trump, it is sadly familiar.
Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945:
“…Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ Why not?-Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty. […]
But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked-if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in ’43 had come immediately after the ‘German Firm’ stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in ’33. But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D.
And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying ‘Jewish swine,’ collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in-your nation, your people-is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God.”
Julian, good people are being worn down and intimidated and as a result are losing their voice and unable to speak about key issues affecting them and others. The expectation that bad and wrong things will happen that we have no control over and cannot correct has become the norm regrettably. Even when you are brave, identity what is happening and speak out against it you become silenced. How can we collectively change this?
Your oft-used analogy between what happened to the Jews in Germany from 1933-1945 and “what has happened in Australia” and “recently in America” is, once again, misplaced.
A more accurate analogy would be with “what happened to the Jews in” any Muslim majority country since 622AD and what is happening to Jews in Europe in 2018 as a result of Islamic immigration.
Islamic ideology is steeped in anti-Semitism:
“Jews and Christians are the worst of creatures.”
Quran 98:6
“The Jews …and the Christians… may Allah destroy them!”
Quran 9:30
The apostle said, “Kill any Jew that falls into your power.”
Ibn Ishaq – Sirat Rasul Allah, p369
“Mohammed said: I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim.”
Sahih Muslim 4366
‘When the last moment of the life of Allah’s Apostle came and when he felt hot and short of breath Mohammed said, “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians” ‘
Sahih Bukhari 1:8:427
You are advocating that we import this ideology into Australia at up to 25,000 adherents per annum.
Recognising all of the above, decent Australians, acknowledging the dangers of importing such an ideology, reject your false analogies and your false accusations of indecency.
Harbi,
I dont think Julian is partisan in any way on this. I think we all understand Jewish history from the time of the Romans at least and there is tragedy. What Julian points to is the current treatment by supposedly civilised people on those fleeing fear and persecution. All holy books require adherents to look after the downtrodden and persecuted. As they should.
Our national loss of basic decency transcends any religious, political or ethnic divide. Our humanity is at stake.
Sebastiaan,
You spread disinformation when you falsely claim that “all holy books require adherents to look after the downtrodden and persecuted”.
Islam’s “holy book” calls on Muslims to be “merciful among themselves” and “hard (ruthless) against the disbelievers”(Quran 48:29).
You claim that “our humanity is at stake”, apparently ignorant of the fact that Islam’s “holy book” doesn’t even recognise our humanity:
“Jews and Christians are the worst of creatures.”
Quran 98:6
“Verily! The worst of (moving) living creatures with Allah are the deaf and the dumb, who understand not (i.e. the disbelievers)”
Quran 8:22
However, I agree with you that Australia should accept non-Muslim refugees “fleeing fear and persecution” by Muslims, which is the status quo in Muslim majority countries precisely because that is what their “holy book” teaches:
“strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them.”
Quran 9:73
“cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers.”
Quran 3:151
“Therefore listen not to the Unbelievers, but strive against them with the utmost strenuousness…”
Quran 25:52
“O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness.”
Quran 9:123
“As to those who reject faith, I will punish them with terrible agony in this world.”
Quran 3:56