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  thabet 4:41 am on February 25, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia, guantanamo (73), guantanamo bay (33), human rights (381), international law (143), kidnapping (9)

  An Australian kidnap victim, who was held in Guantanamo Bay, wins the right to sue his government for its involvement in his torture by the US:

  An Australian man who was held in the Guantanamo Bay US detention camp has won the right to sue his government for complicity in his alleged treatment.

  Mamdouh Habib says Australian officials were present at torture sessions he was subjected to while in detention.

  A Federal Court said he was free to sue after rejecting Canberra’s claim that an Australian judge could not rule on the actions of foreign officials.

  Mr Habib was released from Guantanamo without charge in 2005.

  He is seeking compensation from the Australian government over its alleged involvement.

   

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  fathima 5:04 am on February 10, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia, fiction (3), hijab (75), novels (3), Randa Abdel-Fattah (2), teenage girls (2)

  Has anyone else read Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah? I’ve got a review up at Goodreads. I’d give it 3.5-4 stars out of 5. It was definitely teenlit, but nuanced nonetheless.

  It’s the rare novel about young Muslim women (regardless of whether or not it’s written by Muslim women) that expressly tackles (in this case, straight) sexuality. So there’s a moment when the narrator waxes lustful over her crush’s forearms. It was cute, but perhaps not that interesting, except I can’t remember the last time a teenage girl in hijab was allowed to wax lustful about anything in a novel without it triggering an unnecessarily involved conversation about forced marriages and eternal damnation.

  Race and racism is also a recurring theme. The protagonist falls neither into “But I’m just as Australian as you why do you hate me” camp nor into “I will never belong here I am so alone woe is me” camp, but instead moves between the two anxieties in a way that felt true to me. That kind of nuance, however commonplace in the lived realities of Muslims in the west, is sorely lacking in the novels and films that get churned out about them, because they trouble the assimilated/terrorist trope we’ve all come to know and love so well.

  Given that this is about urban Australia, immigration is another theme. So we have lonely Greek neighbour, the hyperassimilated Arab uncle, the hatred of East Asians, etc. In other words, this isn’t a story about Muslims v Whites (aka East meets West), but about the much more complex (and interesting and honest) intersections of global migration in the world today.

   
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  johnpi 4:22 pm on February 9, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia, Australian keystone kops (5), Crime (54), crime and punishment (9), hate crimes (23), India (174), racist morons (14), racists (43)

  Australian politicians have been sharpening the points on top of their heads.

  Australia says attacks on Indians harm Indian ties.

  The government is committed to preventing attacks against Indian students studying in Australia, which are harming relations with India and damaging the nation’s reputation, a minister said Tuesday while conceding that some assaults appeared racially motivated.

  No kidding? Whoda thunk it…

  At least they’re finally doing something about it:

  Smith said police in four states had recently made arrests for violent crimes against Indians, including 45 arrested in Victoria.

   
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  johnpi 8:54 am on January 13, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia, Australian keystone kops (5), cricket (13), incompetence (3), India (174), racism (201), racist morons (14), racists (43), Shiv Sena (3), violence (161)

  Another Indian has been attacked by a mob in Australia, this time in Sydney.

  The latest victim is a 28-year-old man who was at Coogee beach in Sydney when he was reportedly attacked by a group of Australian-born boys and girls. Other people at the beach allegedly did not help him. The victim said he believed it was racial attack.

  He called the police, who took 40 minutes to reach him.

  In India, the Hindu extremist group Shiv Sena threatened Australia’s cricket team over the year-long surge of violence against Indians in Australia.

   
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  johnpi 1:13 pm on January 8, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia, Australian keystone kops (5), cartoons (5), incompetence (3), incompetent boobs (2), India (174), Nitin Garg (2), racism (201), racist morons (14)

  Another cartoon controversy. This time it’s the Australians who are offended at a cartoon that appeared in an Indian newspaper.

  

  Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard has reacted angrily to a cartoon published in India that depicts a police officer in a Ku Klux Klan outfit.

  The Delhi Mail Today newspaper published the cartoon in response to the murder of Indian student Nitin Garg in Melbourne last weekend.

  The head of the Victoria police association put on a conspicuous display of his investigative acumen to develop a theory for the existence of the cartoon:

  It’s based on nothing but obviously a slow news day in Delhi.

   
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  johnpi 10:15 am on January 7, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia, Australian keystone kops (5), Crime (54), hate crimes (23), incompetence (3), incompetent boobs (2), racism (201), racist morons (14)

  

  A powerful metaphor for official Australia’s response to violence against Indians.

  Last spring, the Victoria police set up a special official help line exclusively for Indians to call in the wake of a spat of violent assaults targeting them.

  Indians who have recently tried to place calls report that nobody answers the phone.

   
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  johnpi 11:34 am on January 6, 2010 | 12 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia, Crime (54), ethnic minorities (7), ethnic relations (5), ethnic violence (5), India (174), international relations (189), racism (201), racists (43)

  The partially burnt corpse of another murdered Indian national has been discovered on a rural Australian road, prompting the government of India to issue a travel advisory to its citizens about visiting Australia.

  In the advisory, India’s government said: “The ministry of external affairs cautions Indian students who are planning to study in Australia that there have been several incidents of robbery and assault on Indians in Australia, particularly in Melbourne, which has seen an increase in violence on its streets in recent years, with the offenders suspected to be mainly young people in their teens and early 20s.”

  Australia’s response: Hey, everybody’s doing it.

  Australia’s acting foreign minister, Simon Crean, said he hoped “wiser heads” would prevail, insisting Australia, and in particular Melbourne, was a safe place for foreign students as the city had one of the lowest homicide rates in the world.

  “[Melbourne] is not the only place that deaths happen,” he said. “They happen in India. They happen in Mumbai. They happen in Delhi.”

  Here’s another Youtube video of an assault in Australia, this one in September on a Sri Lankan man waiting for a train.

   
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  johnpi 11:48 pm on January 5, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia, bigotry (8), Crime (54), ethnic relations (5), ethnic strife (4), ethnic violence (5), India (174), Indian (3), international relations (189), Nitin Garg (2), racism (201), racist morons (14), racists (43)

  Relations between India and Australia have hit a new low after the murder of a young Indian man named Nitin Garg on his way to work in Melbourne last weekend. The murder caps a long series of violent attacks targeting Indians in Australia.

  Police are reluctant to draw a racial link to the murder, even though Mr Garg was not robbed and his belongings were left scattered the park where he was murdered.

  A representative of the Federation of Indian Students said there are ‘on average 5 attacks a day’ on Indians in Melbourne. The Indian Foreign Minister says it will “be forced to take action” if there are more attacks.

  Attackers have been reported as being white, Asian, South Asian, Middle Eastern, aboriginal and Pacific islander. One assault was even captured on subway video. Police have speculated that Indian students often work late at night, live in low-income areas, and are perceived to be “easy” targets of violence.

  Police have no witnesses and no suspects in the Garg murder.

  There were so many attacks on Indians in 2009 that the topic has its own Wikipedia page.

   
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  johnpi 8:06 am on December 22, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia, media (407), racism (201)

  Australian braodcaster hit with $10,000 fine for ‘racial villification of Muslims and engaging in “reckless hyperbole calculated to agitate and excite his audience .”

   
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  johnpi 12:13 am on November 13, 2009 | 3 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia

  Stupid down under: Muslim kids bully salami eaters at school during Ramadan.

  Seriously.

  A SYDNEY couple has withdrawn their two children from a public primary school, claiming their 11-year-old son was bullied by Muslim students because he ate a salami sandwich during Ramadan.

  Andrew Grigoriou said yesterday he complained to the school and to police after his son Antonios was chased and later assaulted by Muslim students after a confrontation over the contents of his lunch.

  Question: Are the Australian Muslims still fasting for Ramadan? Hello? Why is this a story in today’s newspaper? Very confusing…

   
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  johnpi 12:15 pm on November 10, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: 'ethnic enclaves', australia

  A tabloidy, somewhat sensationalized report on ‘ethnic enclaves’ out of Australia. Click on the clip titled ‘Ethnic Enclaves.’ It begins with a series of news clips from various riots…

   
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  johnpi 1:00 pm on October 29, 2009 | 10 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: assimilation (10), australia, immigration (51), integration (15), right-wing (96)

  Australian lawmaker calls for debate on Muslim immigration.

  Sydney – Member of Parliament Kevin Andrews on Thursday called for a national debate on whether Muslim immigration to Australia should be curbed. Andrews, immigration minister in the conservative government defeated two years ago, said Muslims were the first migrant group not to assimilate and to congregate in certain suburbs of big cities.

  “To have a concentration of one ethnic or one particular group that remains in an enclave for a long period of time is not good,” Andrews told local radio. “You should be able to talk about it … it’s ridiculous if you can’t talk about any subject.”

  Andrews was commenting on a column in The Australian newspaper arguing that large numbers of Muslim migrants posed a security risk because some would be drawn to terrorism.

  Andrews’ call for debate was immediately stomped on by Greens leader Bob Brown.

  “We are seeing a far-right, pretty disgusting point of view,” he said.

   
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  johnpi 8:40 pm on October 7, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: asylum seekers (3), australia, nativism (5), Sri Lanka (30)

  Australia hires actors to engage in ’street theatre’ to deter potential Sri Lankan asylum seekers.

  Actors hired by an advertising agency will roam the streets of Sri Lanka spreading rumors that travel to Australia is dangerous, that australians don’t want them, and that “efforts to escape from Sri Lanka will end in disappointment.”

  The taxpayer-funded campaign will be shown in Sri Lanka, where street theatre and local actors will help spread the message that coming to Australia illegally is dangerous, according to news.com.au.

  Civil war in northern Sri Lanka has created a massive refugee problem, with more than 250,000 displaced persons in that region alone.
  ….

  Catholic Churches are also being targeted, with literature and pamphlets being distributed around parishes warning asylum seekers they will not be welcome in Australia.

  The push has been dubbed the “Stay the Bloody Hell Away” campaign by media, in reference to Tourism Australia’s much-maligned “Where the Bloody Hell Are You” campaign.

   
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  thabet 2:41 am on September 1, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia, canada (21), china (83), energy (32), geopolitics (119), international relations (189), oil watch (33)

  The Chinese are keen on Western hydrocarbon assets. Having wrapped up a massive deal with the Australians, they’re now putting the final touches on a deal with the Canadians.

   
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  johnpi 9:50 pm on August 3, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: al Shabaab (39), al Shabab (43), australia, somalia (78), Terrorism (399)

  Driving back from a vacation day away from the computer and other things in my life and this is blasting all over the BBC:

  Australian police have arrested four people in the southern city of Melbourne after uncovering what they say was a plot to launch an attack.

  Given the ‘pride of place’ at the top of the news, you can guess these guys weren’t right-wing extremists bent on attacking Muslims, Asians, anti-racists, progressives, etc.

  The BBC radio report said (from memory) the men were Somali and Lebanese, and that somehow Al-Shabab was involved in this, with one of the men allegedly having gone to Somalia to try to get a fatwa permitting the attack.

  The BBC news reader asked his guest terrorism expert whether Somali-Australians weren’t going to wake up tomorrow feeling somewhat put-upon, and the expert responded that the Australian police go to extraordinary lengths to ensure that the whole Muslim/Somali community doesn’t feel stigmatized by this…

   
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  thabet 8:49 am on June 10, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia, communalism (14), protest (26), racism (201), violence (161)

  Hundreds of Indian students have taken part in violent protests in Sydney, after a spate of attacks on foreign students in Australia’s major cities.

   
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  thabet 6:59 am on June 3, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia, minorities (11), race (80), racism (201), violence (161)

  Pickled Politics has a post on the recent spate of attacks on Indians in Australia.

   
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  thabet 4:17 am on March 29, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia, censorship (44), freedom of speech (71), racism (201), state (101), united kingdom (732)

  Instances of ‘threats to free speech‘ pass by without much fuss.

   
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  johnpi 7:52 am on January 26, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Abu Hamza (2), australia, rape (35)

  Beleaguered Australian cleric Abu Hamza came under fire again for his radical views on rape when his website claimed that Muslim wives could laugh off unwanted sex and rape could be confused with simply having a pushy husband.

   
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  Fatemeh 6:30 pm on January 3, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia, gaza (202), iran (364), Joumana El Matrah, Kariman Hamza, libya (21), Muslim women (80), News (29), palestine (240), Reviving the Islamic Spirit Conference, Sahar Daftary

  This week on MMW, we examine whether Iranian poetry prizes are male-dominated, the media’s sexist interest in Libyan bodyguards, discuss the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference, Sahar Daftary’s death, complain about the BBC’s coverage of Kariman Hamza’s Qur’an translation, look at an interview with Joumana El Matrah about the condition of Australian Muslim women and the coverage of Palestinian women in the present Gaza crisis. And don’t forget The Links.

   
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  Fatemeh 2:55 pm on December 14, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: activism (4), advertising (6), australia, Bollywood (15), gender (16), mosque (7), Muslim women (80), News (29), sex (26)

  This week on MMW, we criticized a Muslim magazine’s use of bodies, examined the way Muslim women fare in Bollywood movies, discussed gender segregation in Australian mosques, wondered about lingerie’s connection to sexual empowerment for Muslim women, profiled Princess Hijab’s advertising activism, and linked up a storm.

   
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  thabet 12:05 am on September 4, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: afghanistan (396), australia, human rights (381), taliban (260)

  This is how We spread human rights: Taleban suspects “held in dog pen”.

   
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  thabet 6:53 am on May 27, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia

  “They’ve got terrorists amongst them, OK? We can’t say they haven’t – they have,” said one resident.

  “We’re quite happy to integrate, we happily integrate with Italians, Greeks, English, Scottish – this town has every nationality. Muslims do not fit in this town – we are Aussies, OK?”

   
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  thabet 12:30 am on April 29, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: australia

  Cruel and inhumane behaviour from the Australian government.