Monday, July 11, 2005



Stand up against hate

In the wake of Sunday's cowardly acts of vandalism against New Zealand's Muslim community, Ethnic Affairs Minister Chris Carter is asking New Zealanders to send their support to the Muslim community:

"I’m asking New Zealanders to put pen to paper, or tap out an email of support and send it on to our Muslim friends and neighbours. Foreign Minister Phil Goff and I attended a Muslim community meeting in Auckland today, and it was clear Muslim people are feeling hurt and vulnerable. It is important we let them know most people stand beside them not against them.

"Any one wanting to send messages of friendship to the Muslim community can do so by emailing those messages to chris.carter@parliament.govt.nz, or to my Ethnic Affairs private secretary, steve.badcock@parliament.govt.nz, and I will pass them on," Mr Carter said.

[Links added]

If you want to prove that we're a better country than the vandals imagine us to be, then click on one of the links and drop them a line.

People in Auckland are also intending to show their solidarity, according to Tze Ming Mok, planning

a Roskill rally in support of the Mosques, in solidarity with New Zealand's Muslim communities, and upholding the actual multicultural ethos of London which doesn't quite seem dead yet. If you'd like to help, contact RAM (Residents Action Movement) or GPJA (Global Peace and Justice Auckland) for more information.

I'll post more information on this as I hear about it.

5 comments:

Gentle people - please forgive the awful spelling in the above post...

Posted by Anonymous : 7/12/2005 04:25:00 AM

Adrienne: the simple fact is that its not happening here, and therefore doesn't tend to intrude into people's consciousness any more than the ongoing toll of poverty and starvation, or indeed torture in China or Pakistan. But that doesn't mean people approve. When people do notice - as with the recent visit by President Musharraf, or Make Poverty History's highlighting of African poverty - they tend to want to do something about it.

Secondly, I reject the thinking that says "if you speak out on one thing, you must speak out on every thing". We all choose our battles, based on what personally matters to us or outrages us on the spur of the moment. And we have to - because there is just so damn much injustice to fight. Hypocrisy lies in inconsistency of position (disapproving of torture by Saddam while excusing that by Americans, for example) - not in the necessary choice of focus.

Thirdly, if you ask most of the Muslims here carefully about the above issues (rather than mindlessly asking them "so, is the Koran wrong"?), you'll find that they disapprove just as much as you do. Zain Ali's piece in the Herald yesterday is a good example of this.

Like the neo-Nazi attacks that inspired the March for Multiculturalism last year, this is something that is happening in our community. And for once, people want to actually do something about it. And I think that is a Good Thing, not a bad one.

Posted by Idiot/Savant : 7/12/2005 09:11:00 AM

BTW, if you're unsatisfied with the amount of attention paid to your chosen issues, I suggest you work harder to sell them. You can do a lot with a bit of basic research, some lobbying, and some press releases - especially if you have the right motivating issue. If there's any state visits planned by Saudi officials, for example, it would be an excellent opportunity to highlight that country's poor human rights record and outright discrimination against non-Muslims and women, and push for the government to take a tougher line.

Posted by Idiot/Savant : 7/12/2005 09:17:00 AM

I/S, I agree with these points to a degree, but I would argue that it's a matter of perspective, too. As a Kiwi expat PhD-ing in America, I'm learning a lot watching the culture wars unfold here. However, I'd completely reject likening America's Abu-Ghrab to the sheer enormity of torture practised under Saddam - such a comparison makes a mockery of the tens of thousands (AI numbers) tortured to death by the Hussein Junta. We indeed all choose our causes, but I get depressed in the sheer selectiveness of many Western liberals' outrage. The result of relentless Israel/America/Bad West focus of people like yourself seems yet again to be the ignoring of suffering in the developing world, particularly that of women. If you write a piece about the erosion of civil liberties in London, is it not worth a look at how strong they remain compared to those of Black Africans in Sudan? You indeed may choose your targets, but such focus runs the risk of belittling the suffering of those whom you seldom or never mention. Why is Iraq worth more attention than the Sudan?

However, it's your site, and I agree with you, if not often, then certainly at times. Do keep the work up and thank you for replying.

Posted by Anonymous : 7/12/2005 11:44:00 AM

Adrienne: Again, it's a question of focus: it's easier to change ourselves than others (and in order to change others, we need to use our own governments as vehicles anyway). There's also a strong urge to resist any backsliding by western countries on fundamental issues of human rights (and no matter which way the US tries to spin it, torture is a fundamental abuse for which there is no justification, and what they are doing meets the criteria).

As for Sudan, I've posted about that, too. I guess you must have missed it, just as you missed the stuff on women's rights in Pakistan...

Posted by Idiot/Savant : 7/12/2005 04:15:00 PM