A campaign by right-wing Liberals such as James Paterson and Josh Frydenberg to link Muslims with Nazis and anti-genocide demonstrations to antisemitism is on shaky ground, writes Bilal Cleland.
Linking Muslims to graffiti
The graffiti on the Sydney synagogue is an attempt to link Hitler and Islam. It reads, 'Hitler on top' and below that, 'Allah', then 'huabkar', suggesting someone unaware of the phrase.
Obsession with Hitler is not a Muslim characteristic. In the Muslim world, Hitler is regarded as just another European colonialist carrying out the usual pattern of invasion, dehumanisation, dispossession, slavery and genocide.
From Columbus in Haiti, to the slaughter of Native Americans to the killings described in 'Killing for Country' by David Marr, it has happened over and over again.
The extreme hatred of Jews which obsessed Hitler is what distinguished him from the colonial norm. His notion of Judeo-Bolshevism shaped his hatred.
European and Nazi antisemitism is based on history.
Resistance to the Roman Empire in the uprisings of 66 AD and Circa 135, then the acceptance of Pauline Christianity by the Roman Empire, blaming Jews for the crucifixion, fed the hatred.
The Emperor Heraclius intended the forcible conversion of all Jews but the rise of Islam prevented it.
Antisemitism became part of the culture of Christendom, expulsions of Jewish populations a mark of Christian society. The great expulsion from Spain in the late 1400s was one of the outstanding events. The Nazi Holocaust, perpetrated by Germans, marked its peak.
Blaming demonstrators
There has been a campaign to try and link anti-genocide demonstrations to antisemitism since the Gaza assault began.
The lie about “Gas the Jews” from the Sydney demonstration to the recent graffiti on Jewish property, plus the burning of a non-Zionist synagogue have all been linked by various spokespeople to the Palestinian cause.
Sky News has promoted Josh Frydenberg and his linking the Holocaust to the anti-genocide demonstrations. He seems to think any opposition to Israel and its extremist government is an expression of antisemitism.
That the once independent ABC provided him with a substantial section of the 7.30 Report falls in with its recent stance of promoting Opposition spokespeople.
Sarah Ferguson of the 7.30 Report allowed Frydenberg to deliver his outrageous message unchallenged, despite her knowledge of decades of Liberal Party concealment of Ustaša activities. Tony Jones, her husband, wrote a novel about them, 'The Twentieth Man.'
The Liberal Party which grew from roots in the original UAP, should be the very last political organisation to pose as defenders of the Jewish community.
Australian Tories' fascist history
The whole world knows about Bob Menzies and his admiration for the Third Reich in 1938 and his and Joe Lyons' support for Il Duce and its suppression of local Italian anti-fascist organisations.
Pre-Holocaust that might be excusable.
Yugoslav anti-fascist Marjan Jurjevic writes in his book, Ustasha under the Southern Cross:
Perhaps Menzies could be excused before the war on the grounds of ignorance, but from 1945 circumstances were different.
Since the defeat of fascism in 1945, the Australian Liberals have been prepared to not only allow the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations to freely operate here, but they have even encouraged them.
… It is so extreme that even the U.S. State Department will have no dealings with it, for it is composed of various Nazi quislings from all round Europe.
The European Director of the American Jewish Committee in June 1954 described the ABN as “a grouping of some of the worst fascist and Nazi elements of the émigré movements".
NSW Liberal Party's “anti-communist” faction
Liberal party powerbroker Lyenko Urbanchich, a prominent fascist propagandist in Slovenia during WWII, found on arrival in Australia a comfortable place in the bosom of the Liberal Party, as a “good anti-communist":
'His faction known as the Uglies, control up to 30 per cent of the Liberal Party State Council votes and are the power base of Tony Abbot, Bronwyn Bishop, Philip Ruddock, Nick Minchin, John Howard and others.'
He retired only when exposed.
The Cold War, the unusual excuse conservatives give for embracing Nazis, was well over by 2014 when Liberal Party personalities were still attending April 10 Ustasha celebrations:
Croatia has issued a strongly worded statement in response to a Federal MP's speech at a controversial Croatian community event in Sydney.
Liberal MP Craig Kelly is alleged to have conveyed Prime Minister Tony Abbott's best wishes at a gathering commemorating the establishment of a pro-Nazi Croatian government in the 1940s.
Liberal Attorney-General Greenwood was still denying Ustasha existed here in September 1972. When Whitlam took over in 1973, the Labor Attorney-General Murphy raided the ASIO headquarters and found thousands of Ustasha documents.
Free speech crusader changes his tune
IPA member Liberal Senator James Paterson, who once crusaded against 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act which makes it illegal to offend, insult or humiliate someone because of their race, now wants the writing of antisemitic graffiti made a terrorist offence.
Very quiet on the old campaign these days.
These tainted Tories are on shaky ground.
Bilal Cleland is a retired secondary teacher and was Secretary of the Islamic Council of Victoria, Chairman of the Muslim Welfare Board Victoria and Secretary of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils. You can follow Bilal on Twitter/X @BilalCleland.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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