SYDNEY: Australia’s race discrimination watchdog demanded an apology Wednesday over remarks by a hard-right lawmaker targeting Muslims.
Anti-immigration One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson said Monday that Australia should show a “tough stance” against Islam and radicalization.
“Their religion concerns me, because what it says in the Qur'an: they hate Westerners, and that’s what it’s all about,” the senator told Sky News Australia.
“You say: ‘Oh, well, there’s good Muslims out there’. Well, I’m sorry, how can you — you know — tell me there are good Muslims?“
Comments that “stigmatize and devalue” people serve to increase fear and deepen division, said Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman.
“To those who speak about the importance of social cohesion: you cannot build it by isolating, belittling, or casting suspicion on an entire group of Australians.”
Unity starts with respect, he said in a statement.
“I call on Senator Hanson to withdraw her remarks and offer an apology to Muslim Australians.”
Hanson backpedalled earlier in the day, telling public broadcaster ABC that she did not in fact believe there were no good Muslims.
She added, however, that she was sorry if she offended anyone “that doesn’t believe in sharia law, or multiple marriages, or wants to bring Daesh brides in, or people from Gaza that believe in a caliphate.”
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Tuesday that her comments were “wrong and cruel,” and unworthy of someone in public office.
Recent opinion polls show Hanson’s One Nation party eclipsing the main right-leaning opposition coalition of Liberal and National parties.
It is unclear how polling for One Nation might translate into general election success, however.
One Nation has one member in the 150-seat federal lower house of parliament and four senators in the 76-seat federal upper house.
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Australian right-wing lawmaker denounced over Muslim remarks
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Australian right-wing lawmaker denounced over Muslim remarks
- “Their religion concerns me, because what it says in the Qur'an: they hate Westerners, and that’s what it’s all about,” the senator told Sky News Australia
Banner of Donald Trump unfurled at Justice Department headquarters
WASHINGTON: A banner of US President Donald Trump has been unfurled outside the headquarters of the Justice Department in the latest effort to stamp his identity on a Washington institution.
The blue banner unfurled on Thursday between two columns in a corner of the agency’s headquarters includes the slogan: “Make America Safe Again.”
Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has moved aggressively to imprint his image and influence on federal institutions.
He has reshaped cultural and policy bodies by installing loyalists, renamed prominent institutions, and sidelined officials linked to past probes, steps critics say blur the lines between political power and traditionally independent government functions.
Banners bearing Trump’s image were affixed last year to the Department of Labor, the Department of Agriculture and the US Institute for Peace buildings.
A board of directors appointed by the president voted in December to add Trump’s name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Trump’s name was also affixed last year to the US Institute of Peace building in Washington.
The White House referred questions about the latest banner to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement cited by NBC News, a DOJ spokesperson said the department was “proud” to celebrate its “historic work to make America safe again at President Trump’s direction.”
In 2023, former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith secured indictments accusing Trump of illegally retaining classified documents following his first term in office and of plotting to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.
Trump falsely claimed that he won the 2020 election. His supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the Congress from certifying the results of that election. After taking office for a second time in January 2025, Trump pardoned the rioters.
Trump denied wrongdoing in the cases against him, calling them politically motivated. Smith dropped both cases against the Republican after Trump won the 2024 election, citing a Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Smith resigned from the Justice Department days before Trump returned to the White House early last year.
The Trump administration’s Justice Department has since targeted and fired many officials involved in probes against the Republican leader.
The blue banner unfurled on Thursday between two columns in a corner of the agency’s headquarters includes the slogan: “Make America Safe Again.”
Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has moved aggressively to imprint his image and influence on federal institutions.
He has reshaped cultural and policy bodies by installing loyalists, renamed prominent institutions, and sidelined officials linked to past probes, steps critics say blur the lines between political power and traditionally independent government functions.
Banners bearing Trump’s image were affixed last year to the Department of Labor, the Department of Agriculture and the US Institute for Peace buildings.
A board of directors appointed by the president voted in December to add Trump’s name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Trump’s name was also affixed last year to the US Institute of Peace building in Washington.
The White House referred questions about the latest banner to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement cited by NBC News, a DOJ spokesperson said the department was “proud” to celebrate its “historic work to make America safe again at President Trump’s direction.”
In 2023, former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith secured indictments accusing Trump of illegally retaining classified documents following his first term in office and of plotting to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.
Trump falsely claimed that he won the 2020 election. His supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the Congress from certifying the results of that election. After taking office for a second time in January 2025, Trump pardoned the rioters.
Trump denied wrongdoing in the cases against him, calling them politically motivated. Smith dropped both cases against the Republican after Trump won the 2024 election, citing a Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Smith resigned from the Justice Department days before Trump returned to the White House early last year.
The Trump administration’s Justice Department has since targeted and fired many officials involved in probes against the Republican leader.
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