While Muslims are busy submitting to the will of Allah, Anthony Albanese is busy submitting to the will of Islam. When Orthodox Bishop Mari Mari Emanuel, a devout man of faith and outspoken critic of Islam, but the last thing any expected was that he would be the victim of an attempted sacrifice at the altar in the name of Islam . Emanuel fortunately survived the terrorist attack at Wakeley church service on the 15th April, 2024. His perpetrator was heard shouting “Allahu Akbar.” After being apprehended by members of the congregation, the assailant was heard saying in Arabic, “If you did not insult my prophet, I wouldn’t be here.” While the stabbing sent shockwaves around Australia, rather than telling the truth about Islamic terrorism, in a pathetically crass act of supplication to Islam, Anthony Albanese has sought to censor the video of the attack on Elon Musk’s X in a sheepish attempt to dissuade any discussion about Islam. Albo wants to avoid causing “further division” by ushering in an Islamic flavoured Orwellian-like censorship.
Speaking to the media on the 23rd April in Mackay, Albo told journalists, “I found it extraordinary; X found not to comply. We know Australians want misinformation and disinformation to stop, this isn’t about freedom of expression, this is about the dangerous implications that can occur when things that are simply not true, that everyone knows are not true, are replicated and weaponized in order to cause division, and in this case to promote negative statements and to potentially just inflame a very difficult situation.”
No, Albo, Australians want the truth.
The solution is not censorship for censorship’s sake, in some kind of Machiavellian play, it’s censorship for Islam’s sake. Albo is fearful of any backlash or discontent about Islam and its problem with terrorism. While Albo claims such a conversation would be ‘disinformation and misinformation’, the assailant himself admitted, the terrorist attack on the Bishop was revenge for speaking ill of the prophet Mohammed.
Presuming that Australians agreed with this censorship, Albo went on a self righteous tirade. Of Elon Musk, he said, “This is an egotist. He is someone who’s totally out of touch with the values that Australian families have, and this is causing great distress.”
“They’re backing the eSafety Commissioner because she’s acting in the interests of common sense and in the interest of common decency.”
“e-safety will continue to use its suite of powers under the Online Safety Act to protect Australians from serious online harms, including extreme violent content.”
Winning a temporary two-day court-ordered injunction, Albanese E Safety Commissioner Imnman won the injunction, which forced Musk’s X to ‘geo block’ the video worldwide until Wednesday.
In order to remedy the collateral damage caused by the video’s circulation on X, Albo doesn’t want to upset an increasingly growing Muslim population in Australia.
It seems magnanimous, but it’s cowardly.
Be what it may, the consequences of free speech in the aftermath of the video should never be outweighed by the fear of what that speech may cause. Bishop Mari Emanuel had stated that Mohammed wasn’t the ‘true prophet’ and that Islam was a religion of the sword. He isn’t the first to say that, and he won’t be the last. But those who would dare to speak the name of Islam in vain by merely criticising it will be silenced in the future as long as Alanese and his unelected e-safety commissioner hold grip on power.
It didn’t take long for the official Islamic representative bodies to form an unholy alliance with Albo. As more than six arrests were made in Sydney this week on suspicion of terror related activities, Muslim groups have feasted on Albo’s pro-Islamic Orwellian censorship agenda by denying any association between ‘religious motivations’ and terrorism. In typical 1984 fashion, Muslim spokespeople committed the sin of “doublethink”—holding contradictory beliefs at the same time. When addressing the Wakely attack in front of the media, speaking on behalf of the Australian national Imams Council, the alliance of Australian Muslims, and the Australian Muslim advocacy network, Sultan fronted the media to insist, “the presumption that terrorism is inherently tied to religion is not only inaccurate but harmful.” She also went on to say, “This misconception persists despite extensive scholarly work demonstrating that terrorism is driven by political and ideological motives, not religious faith.”
And yet, double think thrives when, in the face of evidence to the contrary, Abodo insists there was no religious motivation behind the attack. The assailant himself conceded the attack was religiously motivated, referring to the Hadith derived edict that blasphemy against the prophet Mohammed is punishable by death, Mohammed himself stated in the Quran, “Whoever changes his religion, kill him.” Even more, in Muslim countries like Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and the Maldives, apostasy is punishable by death in accordance with Islamic law. And yet, Abodo can front the media and insist to the Australian public that there is no correlation between acts of terrorism and Islamic principles.
Albo’s crusade of censorship to protect Islam has also potentially damaged his relationship with ASIO. In January of this year, ASIO chief, Mike Burgess stated, “ “Sunni violent extremism poses the greatest religiously motivated violent extremist threat in Australia”. Even the assailant himself conceded that the attack on Bishop Mari was about perceived slights against the prophet Mohammed. But despite all the evidence that Islam has a terror problem, and despite the assessment of our own national intelligence agency, ASIO, that hasn’t stopped Muslim groups from denying there is an elephant in the room: Islam has a problem with terrorism, and part of this problem does have a religiously motivated basis.
I hope Albo knows what he’s doing by banning the video. He has silenced Australians’ right to express their opinion while bolstering the Muslim community’s rabid denial and double-think when it comes to terrorism.
Truth must prevail in a democracy. That Australians have access to the stabbing attack on the Bishop is important to witnessing the naked reality of acts of terror in Australia.
While Albo’s baseless sentiments offered very little in the way of constructive solutions, he remarked, “We’re a peace-loving nation. This is a time to unite, not divide, as a community and as a country”.Albo is right about one thing here, we are a peace loving nation, but before we unite as a community and as a country, we ought to tell the truth about the Islamic flavour of Orwellian censorship. Banning the video is tantamount to stopping free speech around Islam. I am reminded of the words of the late great Christopher Hitchens: “Freedom of expression must include license to offend”
