Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Muslim babies behind the Vale

There’s nothing like a good dose of Anglican education to give you a healthy understanding of Christian dogma. After 10 years at St Andrews, I thought I knew all the subtle nuances of Protestant theology. Though one teaching I always struggled with was the notion of original sin.

I probably still don’t understand it properly, as the only image the original sin conjures up in my mind is otherwise innocent babies being born in the shadow of their Grandpa Adam’s sin and being sentenced to eternal hell. I’m not sure at what stage the sin is inherited – is it before or after birth?

What I do know is that the theology I was taught at home and at the various Muslim camps I attended led me to believe that babies are born sinless. And not just Muslim babies either. The word “Muslim” literally means “the one who submits to God”. New-born babies are in a completely natural state, and therefore completely surrender to he forces of nature (a pseudo-scientific word often used to describe God). By definition, this makes them “Muslim”.

When it comes to babies and toddlers, Islam knows no demarcation between the faiths. In fact, kids have limited legal responsibility under classical Islamic law until they reach the age of puberty. When it comes to sectarian conflict, Islamic theology tells all parties involved to leave the kiddies out of it.

Baby religion and the abortion pill mass debate

Yet now it seems that religious affiliation and culture are being attributed to babies and even to the unborn. And all this in the context of what is fast becoming a mass debate over the RU482 pill and whether the Health Minister or experts from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) should have the final say.

Liberal backbencher and Member for the Federal Seat of Hughes in south-western Sydney Danna Vale is part of a push by five female Coalition Members of the House of Representatives to amend the Private Members Bill on abortion drugs.

The original PMB says that the Health Minister should not have the final veto on use of abortion drugs. The amendment seeks to place one more obstacle in the way of using the drug by enabling Parliament itself to have a say. Or something like that.

I think we were almost accustomed with the PMB when the otherwise completely inoffensive Danna Vale decided to open her mouth. Following her latest forays, the debate has transformed itself from one about ovaries being strangled by rosaries to one about the need to inject pregnant Muslim women with abortion drugs. Or something like that.

Sectarianism in the mass debate

Sectarianism isn’t a stranger to this debate. Earlier, a Greens Senator was accused of stirring sectarian feeling by wearing a t-shirt requesting Health Minister Tony Abbott (and presumably all observant Catholics) to “keep your rosaries off my ovaries”.

The t-shirt, worn by the Senator, took the form of an apparently sincere request that he remove his “rosaries from our ovaries”. For obvious reasons, I’m unable to comment on how it feels to have one’s ovaries trampled on by the humble string of beads. However, according to the Prime Minister and Coalition MP’s, the feelings generated may be described as bigoted in a sectarian and blasphemous way.

That American newspaper known as The Australian also weighed in on the debate. One of its regular contributors, Adelaide Review editor Christopher Pearson, said the Senator’s wearing of the t-shirt showed that bigotry was making a comeback.

(Admittedly, it also published an article by Democrats Senator Lyn Allison that said the Health Minister’s veto should be abolished. But then, the real issues are way too boring and complicated for most punters. Getting back to the mass debate …)

It was quite amusing to watch a host of conservatives suddenly deciding that freedom of speech must apply to cartoonists but never to t-shirts. It seems the religion of Tony Abbott deserves more reverence than that of Muhammad bin Abdullah al-Hashimi (the full name of the Prophet Muhammad).

Australiastan

As if the mass debate on t-shirts wasn’t enough, Danna Vale has now decided to claim that Australia was in risk of becoming like just about every other country in our region – a Muslim-majority state!

She went one step further than the hysterical claims of Dr Janet Albrechtsen, pseudo-conservative commentator and ABC Board Member, who claimed in her February 8 column that a single piece of Victorian Legislation threatened to turn Victoria into Victoristan. According to Albrechtsen, the religious vilification laws “make the place look like an Islamic state-in-waiting”.

But for Danna, the abortion tablet is even more dangerous than legislation. She wants to make sure an amendment to the PMB goes through so that in half a century’s time we aren’t staring down the barrel of Australiastan.

The evidence

I understand that before entering Federal Parliament, Ms Vale was a Sydney solicitor. Which means she was (and perhaps still is) a colleague of mine.

Most solicitors I know are fairly fussy when it comes to evidence. They tend to insist on seeing evidence from their clients before filing proceedings in court. In fact, the Civil Liability Act requires solicitors to file a certificate together with a summons or statement of claim that seeks compensatory damages. That certificate says that the solicitor believes that the state of the evidence and the law ensure that the proceedings have merit.

Parliamentarians, however, aren’t required to file such certificates before commencing a trial-by-media. And from what I have read in the papers thus fair, the evidence produced by Ms Vale certainly makes her case lack merit.

Samantha Maiden, reporting in The Australian on Valentines Day (February 14), said that Ms Vale’s remarks on abortion were based on “economic grounds.”

And what was her economics? Was it Keynesian? Was she reading Milton Freidman? Or Galbraithe?

Nope. It seems Ms Vale relies on the expertise of the Lakembian school of economics. Here are her words …

“A certain imam from the Lakemba mosque actually says Australia is going to be a Muslim nation in 50 years time … I didn't believe him at the time. But when you look at the birth rates ... we are aborting ourselves almost out of existence by 100,000 abortions every year. You multiply that by 50 years -- that's 5million potential Australians we won't have here.”

I can see some references to theology in these words. And perhaps some elementary arithmentic. Maybe even some demography. But where on earth is the economics?

Offending the converted

Seriously, Mr Abbott’s attempts to scuttle the PMB haven’t had much success lately. It seems that apart from Mr Abbott, not a lot of people on his side of the debate are making much sense.

Jackie Kelly, the author of the most recent amendment to the PMB which Ms Vale was trying to support, was clearly not impressed. She remarked that Ms Vale “was on her own on that one”.

Her words probably resembled those of just about every columnist in The Australian newspaper’s op-ed stable. “Janet, when it comes to Victoristan and the Caliphate of Sheik Bracks, you’re on your own!”

Of course, Jackie Kelly knows that in this mass debate, her side needs all the sensible support from the community it can get. Like Danna, Jacky has a substantial Muslim community in her electorate. Most of these people are socially conservative and would probably be happy to support anything that makes it harder to have an abortion.

But instead of gathering the Muslim converted, Danna has single handedly managed to piss them all right off. At the next federal election, as she goes door knocking on the well-heeled Muslim streets of Wattle Grove and other suburbs, Ms Vale will certainly have some explaining to do.

From abortion debate to mass debate

So now we have the prospect of this very crucial debate on the availability of abortion drugs being once again hijacked by sectarian jinx and transformed into a mass debate. Although, on this occasion, I doubt the issues are as emotional as to cause any Muslims to burn our embassies overseas.

Instead, like the rest of Australia, Muslims will probably spend the night dining with their spouses and partners and enjoying the Valentines Day spirit of love and affection and … well … maybe even reproduction. Far out! Maybe Danna had a point after all!!

In that regard, I’d like to suggest my own amendment to the PMB. I suggest we make consumption of the RU482 pill compulsory for all Muslims on Valentines Day. Any takers?

POSTSCRIPT

It has now been reported that Danna Vale stood up in Parliament and apologised for her comments. All credit to her for doing so. She has certainly shown far more sensitivity and sense than her colleagues, Bronwyn Bishop and Sophie Panopoulos.

© Irfan Yusuf 2006

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Irf,

So what is your best estimate of the proportion of Muslims in Australia, and what do you base your assumptions on?

My guess is that Australia would be around 15% Muslim in 50 years time. This assumes around 15% of Australian immigrants are Muslim, that Muslims have a 2.3% fertility rate versus around 1.7 for the rest of Australia and taking into account a possible further decline in Australia's non-Muslim fertility rate. In other words Australia would have a similar proportion of Muslims, say to Singapore, but without the political limitations placed on the Muslim community.

For France, I would estimate around 29%, taking into account a higher starting base, and larger proportion of fresh Muslim immigrants and not taking into account broader European trends (see next paragraph).

For Europe as a whole, it really depends on whether Turkey joins. If Turkey joins Europe, leading to wide spread transmigration internally, then Europe would probably be 49% Muslim in 50 years. In a hundred years it would be around 65%. At any rate, in my lifetime I'm honestly expecting Europe to be majority Muslim.

That may not be a concern for you as you are already a Muslim. However, it is a concern for those who aren't, and don't appreciate the Islamic system of values.

We are entitled to have this debate, but I would urge politicians to rely on credible inputs from population experts. I'm not such an expert but I have had a go with an excel spreadsheet using reasonable base assumptions.

"New-born babies are in a completely natural state, and therefore completely surrender to he forces of nature (a pseudo-scientific word often used to describe God). By definition, this makes them “Muslim”."

AND

"Yet now it seems that religious affiliation and culture are being attributed to babies and even to the unborn."

Well you are already classifying all babies as Muslim by definition....

My view is that the majority Muslims don't get to choose their religion. Instead they are born into a Muslim family, and are ostracised should they convert to Christiantity or become overtly athiest, sometimes to the extent that they are physically endangered.

So Muslims do not have free will and do not choose their religion. That is why Muslims cry "racist" when someone criticises Muslim beliefs, as allegience to Islam is as immutable as the colour of one's skin.

Given the lack of choice for people born into Islam, the market place for ideas for individuals does not apply. That is why as a society, we need to debate what role do we want Islam to play in Australia's future. It is not enough to blinker ourselves with PC arguments and allow slow demographic trends to take their toll without considering our future.

Anonymous said...

Jack, not only are you politically incorrect. You are also statistically incorrect. The Immigration Minister disagrees with you, as do Australia's top experts in demography.

The birthrate amongst Middle Easterners (of all faiths) is a little higher than the rest of the population. But most Muslim migrants don't come from the Middle East.

Anonymous said...

There is no denying that the Koran urges Muslims to live a very seperate life from the broader population.
I have never seen any such stipulations in the Qur'an, and many Muslims who sincerely practise their faith falunt this very 'rule' every single day, working in the wider Australian society amongst other things.

Lets not confuse the immigrant cultural-protection mechanism with something that is or isn't Islamically required. They are 2 very different things.