An Obadiah Slope column
The Ultimate NDA: Obadiah appreciates good irony. The Anglican Samizdat site in Canada reports on the ultimate Non-disclosure agreement. The Anglican church in Canada has held a couple of meetings to discuss banning the use of NDAs.
“That [second] meeting occurred in early December and was reported on by the Anglican Journal on December 9.
“In an ironic twist that would be difficult to invent, the article is now the victim of an NDA: it has vanished and been replaced with the following:”
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Shock! Journos can be wrong: On the normally excellent (in Obadiahs opinion) ABC Politics Now podcast for December 16 “John Howard’s warning to Anthony Albanese,” Patricia Karvelas observes, “And we should be very clear that terrorists, which is what these two men were…” and Laura Tingle speaks up, “got nothing to do with religion.”
Karvelas adds: “Absolutely, are radicalised. These were targeting Jews. It is anti-Semitic, but we are ascribing all sorts of things, right?”
Tingle: “Yeah. Their actions are not based on their religion.”
Obadiah observes that Tingle, who was in the same cadet intake as he, not that that means anything, had good motives. She was attempting to keep the public conversation as calm as possible. And she could point to the top Islamic leaders in Australia who have said ISIS is not Islamic in their view, many times.
The Condolence motion in the NSW parliament, moved by Premier Chris Minns, included that the house: “Recognise the devastating impact this attack has had on the Jewish community in our state and our country. Acknowledges the evil of antisemitism and violent Islamist extremism, and that words of hate can lead to actions of hatred with devastating consequences. Rejects antisemitism unequivocally and hatred and intolerance in all its forms, and recognises that we have no place in our modern multicultural community for this behaviour.”
It is uncomfortable to recognise any sort of link between religion and violence, especially violence in our own nation.
Is this Islamophobic to mention “violent Islamist extremism”? No more than mentioning the Wieambilla shootings, the murders of two police officers and a neighbour by Christians, members of the Train family, is Christophobic.
Are Christians rightly horrified at the twisting of Christianity by the Train family into some sort of sovereign citizen paradigm? Yes Absolutely.
And many, many local Muslims – and Obadiah believes the absolutely overwhelming majority – are horrified at the Bondi terrorists. Using the word “Islamist” acknowledges that only so few Muslims in our community support violence, in the same way that Christians might say the Train family were members of a “sect”.
Sadly, “got nothing to do with religion” is too simplistic. There is a link of sorts, sadly, which needs to be carefully thought about and carefully worded when we do.
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But here’s a couple of Bouquets to the ABC.
1) Nice Christmas present for historian John Dickson
2) Behind the scenes at Bondi: featuring Mark Layson, a member of Obadiah’s church men’s group.
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On the beach: The Jerusalem Post interviewed Arsen Ostrovsky, a Bondi survivor who recounted a politician arriving while the shooters were still active. “He spoke about ordinary Australians who ran toward danger, surfers, first responders, and bystanders who did not debate whether to help. He described the presence of a politician, Kellie Sloane, head of the New South Wales opposition, who, in his telling, showed up not as a brand but as a person.
He had never met her. She sat next to him and held his hand, and he asked, ‘Are you Kellie Sloane?’
“’I’m just Kellie. How can I help you?’ she replied.”
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Not a white Christmas: The Church of England breaks with traditional Eurocentric art.
