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.
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
Philippine lawmakers start VP Duterte impeachment hearings
- The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds
MANILA: A Philippine congressional committee began impeachment hearings Monday that could dash Vice President Sara Duterte’s run for the country’s top job.
The daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who recently announced her candidacy for the 2028 presidential election, was impeached by the country’s House of Representatives last year only to see the Supreme Court toss the case out over procedural issues.
The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds while in office and will see the House justice committee debate three such complaints.
A fourth case was dropped by complainants who hoped to speed up the process.
Duterte also stands accused of making a death threat against her former ally and current President Ferdinand Marcos, with whom she is engaged in an explosive political feud.
Under the Philippine constitution, an impeachment triggers a Senate trial. A guilty verdict would result in Duterte being barred from politics and sidelined from the 2028 presidential race.
The latest impeachment bid faces a changed environment with the vice president ahead in recent polls, analysts told AFP.
“The political context will be very different, especially now that Sara declared her candidacy,” University of the Philippines political science professor Jean Franco said.
“It’s definitely going to weigh on the minds of the members of the House of Representatives,” Franco said, adding that a vote for impeachment would effectively see a lawmaker’s career “marked for death.”
Anthony Lawrence Borja, an associate professor of political science at De La Salle University agreed saying: “It is ultimately a question of whether the patronage of the current administration outweighs their fear of Duterte’s condemnation.”
The same committee hearing the case against Duterte last month tossed out a pair of impeachment complaints against Marcos, ruling that allegations of corruption over a scandal involving bogus flood control projects lacked substance.
Michael Wesley Poa, spokesman for Duterte’s defense team, told AFP they were closely monitoring deliberations and trusted “the same standards” used in the Marcos hearing would be applied.
