Death threats sees speaker pull out of Australia tour

[brockley]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...cels-australian-tour-citing-security-concerns
This is some sick joke.
I am ashamed to be Australian.
What kind of left extremist society we have become.

 

[Daemon]

Did you add 'death threats' on your own in the title? Article doesn't seem to imply there were any.

 

[watson]

.

Controversial Islam critic Hirsi Ali cancels tour and scheduled Q&A appearance

Security concerns have forced controversial author and anti-Islamic activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali to pull out of a planned speaking tour of Australia.

Hirsi Ali, who lives with round-the-clock security protection due to her criticisms of radical Islamists, was due to speak at events in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland this week........

Speaking to Fairfax Media last month,*Hirsi*Ali said she hadn't felt safe since 2002.*

"My biggest fear is coming from Islamic extremists who want to kill me," she said. "I am surrounded at all times by men carrying guns."

Controversial Islam critic Hirsi Ali cancels tour and scheduled Q&A appearance

 

[Spark]

Did you add 'death threats' on your own in the title? Article doesn't seem to imply there were any.

It says "security concerns" a part of it, but no details on what they were or indeed if they were determinative, given that the rest of the first half of the article seems to hint more at organisational incompetence more than death threats.

I'm taking this one with more than a grain of salt.

 

[Munificent_Fool]

"Feminist, muslim women".......

Ugghhh....

 

[Ausage]

Death threats would be superfluous wouldn't they? Hirsi Ali is a marked woman.

 

[watson]

It says "security concerns" a part of it, but no details on what they were or indeed if they were determinative, given that the rest of the first half of the article seems to hint more at organisational incompetence more than death threats.

I'm taking this one with more than a grain of salt.

I think that you are probably right.

I'm not sure whether this is true or not but Syed Murtaza Hussain of the 'Council for the Prevention of Islamophobia' had informed the Festival Hall in Melbourne that there would be 5000 protesters outside the venue if the engagement went ahead, as well as protests at other venues.

I can't imagine that 'Thinkinc' who arranged Hersi-Ali's visit to Australian would have thought to contact the Australian Federal Police to arrange the necessary and proper protection from such a large crowd.

For everyone's safety, especially the ticket holders going to the events, it's probably better that the tour was postponed until the authorities can get properly organised and have the proper amount of police at the venues.

 

[watson]

Incidently, if you are offended by the views of Hirsi-Ali then there is a legitimate petition against her visit to Australia at the following website.

https://www.change.org/p/ayaan-hirs...-muslim-women-unite-to-oppose-hirsi-ali-visit

Ayaan Hirsi-Ali does not speak for us; Muslim women unite to oppose Hirsi-Ali visit

We, the undersigned, would like to express our utmost disappointment that Ayaan Hirsi-Ali is being brought to Australia by Think Inc.*

This position is reflective of the huge diversity of opinion amongst Australian Muslim women. Although we are not a homogenous group, we are united in our condemnation of Hirsi-Ali's discourse which is grounded in hate-mongering and bigotry.

As grassroots community workers and advocates, we have worked tirelessly to dispel stereotypes that are the cognitive breeding ground for acts of hatred and bigotry. Hirsi-Ali stated recently, "Violence is inherent in Islam – it’s a destructive, nihilistic cult of death. It legitimates murder." This is just one example of the vitriol *frequently espoused by this individual.


Against a backdrop of increasing global Islamophobia, Hirsi-Ali's divisive rhetoric simply serves to increase hostility and hatred towards Muslims.

In addition, through positive action and collaborative and sustainable community centric leadership models, we have strived for decades to empower Muslim women both locally and abroad. Hirsi-Ali’s sheer presence in Australia undermines both intra and inter-community efforts toward social cohesion and in providing platforms for Muslim women to champion their own causes.

We condemn any representation or interpretation of Islam that condones violence against women. We utterly reject any Islamic basis for the violence that has occurred to Ayaan Hirsi-Ali in her life, and the violence perpetrated to women all over the world who have fallen victim to culturally-influenced misogynistic abuse.

We welcome and encourage vigorous discussion and debate regarding Islam and the status of women. However to conflate hate speech with free speech undermines both the intelligence of our community and the efforts we have made to maintain respect and dignity in an environment of such hostility. Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s conversation does not contribute to any insights nor further the debate in any way. This is simple sensationalism designed to fuel division and hate. Australia deserves better than this.

For media enquiries please contact Hana Assafiri: 0402 515 402

Don't really agree with the viewpoint because it's one big massive contradiction in terms.

But it's still worth showing because the specific mindset is facinating just the same.

 

[Spark]

That doesn't gel with Tony Jones saying that the planned protest of the Q&A program was already called off for a lack of interest.

 

[Daemon]

400 signatures isn't a lot is it

 

[Victor Ian]

pffft. Cynic in me says she didn't want to tour and it's a great avenue for publicity. How could you seriously fear a protest in Australia.... seriously? It would just be a protest - At worst, there would be one of those thugs-for-hire groups who turn up in their beanies to start a fight with the protesters and a bit of outside scuffle, but Ayaan would be relatively safe. An egg on her windscreen might be the worst of it.

More relevantly, how much should Australian's spend to listen to someone who is divisive, who wont debate anyone so that her drivel is found out, and most importantly has nothing to offer for the betterment of Australia? Let the police have the afternoon off.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

I thought consistently lying to immigration authorities was supposed to get you barred from countries, seems like the system is working fine to me

 

[Shri]

"Feminist, muslim women".......

Ugghhh....

Tbf, they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They do need to defend against racism by clinging on to their culture but it is also misogynistic. I think they need time to fight one issue at a time and the best thing for us to do is to stay out of it and not open a can of worms. At least until they try to impose their values on others who think differently.

 

[watson]

pffft. Cynic in me says she didn't want to tour and it's a great avenue for publicity. How could you seriously fear a protest in Australia.... seriously? It would just be a protest - At worst, there would be one of those thugs-for-hire groups who turn up in their beanies to start a fight with the protesters and a bit of outside scuffle, but Ayaan would be relatively safe. An egg on her windscreen might be the worst of it.

More relevantly, how much should Australian's spend to listen to someone who is divisive, who wont debate anyone so that her drivel is found out, and most importantly has nothing to offer for the betterment of Australia? Let the police have the afternoon off.

Lets get this straight - the only reason that words are divisive is because people choose to make them divisive. And the reason that they choose to make them divisive is because some words cause emotional pain, and people don't like feeling emotional pain. But at the end of the day emotional pain is merely some electrons buzzing around a neural network and a small release of 'fight or flight' hormones, that's it.

For example, if Hirsi Ali were to give a lecture criticising Zeus and the High Priests of Greek Mythology then no one would care one bit, other than to ask the question "why is she bothering about Zeus?". On a scale of 1 to 10 the emotional pain felt by the general public would be lucky to rise above 0.1.

For me the real question is - why do people still insist on taking their religious beliefs so seriously to the point of extreme emotional pain when there are plenty of other things in life that do cause real and legitimate pain? Like being in a car crash, a cyclone, or facing the death of a son or daughter.

 

[Spark]

"Electrons buzzing around a neural network" more commonly known as "literally anything humans do"

 

[zorax]

If emotional pain is 'fake' due to being electrons buzzing around a neural network then why is physical pain 'real' when it's literally the same thing?

 

[Burgey]

Lets get this straight - the only reason that words are divisive is because people choose to make them divisive. And the reason that they choose to make them divisive is because some words cause emotional pain, and people don't like feeling emotional pain. But at the end of the day emotional pain is merely some electrons buzzing around a neural network and a small release of 'fight or flight' hormones, that's it.

For example, if Hirsi Ali were to give a lecture criticising Zeus and the High Priests of Greek Mythology then no one would care one bit, other than to ask the question "why is she bothering about Zeus?". On a scale of 1 to 10 the emotional pain felt by the general public would be lucky to rise above 0.1.

For me the real question is - why do people still insist on taking their religious beliefs so seriously to the point of extreme emotional pain when there are plenty of other things in life that do cause real and legitimate pain? Like being in a car crash, a cyclone, or facing the death of a son or daughter.

You can say the same thing about why people follow any idiotic philosophy though, be in a religion, Communism, Nationalism or Libertarianism. They're all equally ****ed up.

 

[Nate]

Disappointing and sad that she doesn't feel safe enough to speak in our country.

 

[watson]

You can say the same thing about why people follow any idiotic philosophy though, be in a religion, Communism, Nationalism or Libertarianism. They're all equally ****ed up.

I would dispute the word 'equally'.

To my knowledge PEWs hasn't driven a truck into a crowd, threatened Danish cartoonists then rioted about them, imprisoned people in a gulag, or leaped out of a trench into a hail of gun fire.

There are such things as good ideas and bad ideas, sensible ideas and silly ideas, ideas based on reality and ideas based on pure fantasy.

 

[NZTailender]

Disappointing and sad that she doesn't feel safe enough to speak in our country.

Before this, I think 99.99% of Australians would not have even known who she is, let alone what she's about or stands for.

But now, that number would've changed...