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“….We empower the ignorant, amp­lify the superficial and elevate the attention-seekers. Sanctimony is applauded, Western culture derided and the lessons of history forgotten in less time than it takes to tap out 140 characters. And we wonder why we are losing our way.
 
It has been a depressing week. Yet again innocent bodies were torn to pieces in a murder-suicide terror attack; the victims included an eight-year-old girl and mothers waiting lovingly for their children. In Britain — and here — the sanctimonious lecture us not to get angry; not to overstate the threat of the horror. It is nauseating.
 
They urge us to tweet hashtags of solidarity, light up our buildings with Union Jacks and mutter platitudes — we might as well click our heels together three times and say there’s no place like home. And they blame us; they blame victims. The West is responsible, apparently, for atrocities directed at its citizens. These useful idiots — parading themselves as morally sup­erior beings rising above cultural imperialism — effectively invite death-worshipping fanatics to murder innocents.
 
They point to the military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Sudan or even East Timor that the extremists cite. They invoke social dislocation, immigration debates or their invented term of Islamophobia as the root causes of this nihilist cult.
 
They mistake terrorism propaganda for motives. Unconscious of paradox, they portray Western countries as hostile and Islamophobic while cheering millions of Muslims crossing seas and borders to seek a better life in those same countries. You will not hear these arguments around the barbecues of mainstream Australia but they are ventilated daily by the public broadcasters, universities, politicians, so-called progressive media and on Twitter…..”
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“…..We empower the ignorant, amp­lify the superficial and elevate the attention-seekers. Sanctimony is applauded, Western culture derided and the lessons of history forgotten in less time than it takes to tap out 140 characters. And we wonder why we are losing our way.
 
It has been a depressing week. Yet again innocent bodies were torn to pieces in a murder-suicide terror attack; the victims included an eight-year-old girl and mothers waiting lovingly for their children. In Britain — and here — the sanctimonious lecture us not to get angry; not to overstate the threat of the horror. It is nauseating.
 
They urge us to tweet hashtags of solidarity, light up our buildings with Union Jacks and mutter platitudes — we might as well click our heels together three times and say there’s no place like home. And they blame us; they blame victims. The West is responsible, apparently, for atrocities directed at its citizens. These useful idiots — parading themselves as morally sup­erior beings rising above cultural imperialism — effectively invite death-worshipping fanatics to murder innocents.
 
They point to the military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Sudan or even East Timor that the extremists cite. They invoke social dislocation, immigration debates or their invented term of Islamophobia as the root causes of this nihilist cult.
 
They mistake terrorism propaganda for motives. Unconscious of paradox, they portray Western countries as hostile and Islamophobic while cheering millions of Muslims crossing seas and borders to seek a better life in those same countries. You will not hear these arguments around the barbecues of mainstream Australia but they are ventilated daily by the public broadcasters, universities, politicians, so-called progressive media and on Twitter…..”
 
If we respond with anger, so their warning goes, more Muslims will be alienated and driven towards terrorism. They claim also that extremism will be inflamed by harsher security measures, more military interventions, robust public debate, banning extremist groups or restricting immigration.
 
So the answer, apparently, is to accept it. Play down the risk of atrocities, keep calm and leave the marshalling of the political debate, shaping of demographics and spreading of violence to the extremists. Taken to its logical extension this pathetic argument would have us accede to every demand from Islamists.
 
We would do nothing to save the Kurds, Yazidis, Christians or Shi’ites of Syria and Iraq from the onslaught of Islamic State. We would have left al-Qa’ida untouched in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein launching Scud missiles from Iraq, and would have allowed Iran to pursue nuclear weapons unimpeded. We would allow uncontrolled people-smuggling into our country and accept sharia practices such as female genital mutilation, child marriages and whipping of gays in our suburbs. We would duck the issues and hope for the best.
 
We allow organisations that openly support these aims to operate in our communities and when they hold conferences before audiences segregated by gender we are accused of Islamophobia if we object. Less than two months ago in Sydney, Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman Uthman Badar endorsed putting to death those who leave the Islamic faith.
 
“The ruling for apostates as such in Islam is clear, that apostates attract capital punishment and we don’t shy away from that,” Badar said.
 
Such pronouncements go unremarked upon by the left and the ABC. Yet Shia cleric Mohammad Tawhidi, who speaks out against the rising tide of extremism, has attracted condemnation from the public broadcaster. Perhaps for the first time the ABC unambiguously criticised a Muslim leader and it was not for preaching extremism but for bravely standing up against it. We have lost our way.
 
While forensic experts were still picking their way through the carnage in Manchester, Brits were told by London Lord Mayor Sadiq Khan: “The best thing we can do is show that it is business as usual.” Love would triumph over hate.
 
There was a different response at the Manchester mosque where the suicide bomber is known to have prayed. Mosque trustee Fawzi Haffar urged Muslims to be on the lookout for what he claimed were “terrible anti-Muslim acts ranging from verbal abuse to acts of criminal damage to mosques”. He urged these “incidents to be reported as hate crimes” as he assumed victim status for his community. The real victims were yet to be buried.
 
We have somehow arrived at a point where citizens are appalled by Islamist extremism but politicians are too timid to confront it. Indonesia is moving to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir (it is outlawed by most Arab nations), we turn a blind eye.
 
When conservative senator Cory Bernardi rails against the burka, a form of dress recognised as the sign of creeping fundamentalism in moderate Muslim countries, he is criticised for being divisive. Instead of declaring women should not be hidden away, feminists defend the burka.
 
On Q&A this week senior ABC presenter Tony Jones sneered that black Americans were likelier to be killed by police than terrorists. One of his guests suggested falling fridges were a bigger threat than suicide bombers. ASIO director Duncan Lewis this week denied any link between our refugee program and terrorism, yet our three fatal terrorist incidents of the past three years were perpetrated by refugees or their children. We need to face unpalatable facts.
 
The ex-wife of former terrorist associate and Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks was awarded a PhD for a thesis suggesting that because there is no war on bees, the war on terrorism must be all about politics. Those who campaign against sexism in the Catholic Church ignore Muslim dogma on homosexuality, women’s rights or child brides.
 
All of this is far removed from the practical common sense of the mainstream. Yet it is the environment that shapes our political debate, spawns our political players and lures outcomes further away from the day-to-day concerns of the populace. Politicians are corralled by publicly funded institutions from the universities to government departments, think tanks to public broadcasters and social media to so-called progressive media. They can please this fashion-driven, virtue-signalling and values-free cohort or they can fight it on behalf of their constituents. It is a difficult choice. Many surrender or fall through the cracks.
 
We end up with a Senate where every measure has to find its way through a sieve of special interests and independent voices, each elected by growing numbers of people who feel their voices are not heard.
 
Fewer people receive their news through sensibly curated mainstream media aimed at presenting information of broad interest and importance. We have a Balkanised media where ideas don’t shift from their silos, biases are reinforced and presumptions are constantly made about what others may think.
 
The ABC is the most pernicious influence, steadfastly refusing to be objective or pluralistic and constantly reflecting only the rarefied views of the media/political class.
 
Climate alarmism, cultural relativism, indigenous grievance, environmental activism, union advocacy, anti-Americanism, government intervention, open borders, multilateralism and gesture politics are its driving forces.
 
It is a pity for the mainstream who have faith in our institutions, value strong borders, abhor Islamist extremism, admire thrift and aspiration, and prefer governments to stick to their knitting.
 
The open question is whether either of the major parties can reclaim the mainstream and marshal the country forward as did Bob Hawke and John Howard. Perhaps our fragmented, postmodern and post-history society has rendered those days gone…” Now Is Not The Time To Blame The Victims