I doubt you ever thought you would find yourselves in a culture war that will determine the direction of our civilisation, but you are here. It is real. History has called and our political class has been found woefully lacking.
On Sunday, in the Sydney CBD, terrorist supporters paraded with Hezbollah flags and portraits of Hassan Nasrallah ‘The Butcher of Beirut’. A group of keffiyeh-wrapped thugs assaulted my friend, called him a ‘Zionist faggot’, grabbed his phone and threw it across tram tracks. He has filed a police report. He knows (and I know) nothing will ultimately happen. To understand this as the action of an individual is to take a rather dim view of recent events. It is worth restating the facts. A Jihadist terrorist sympathiser, at a public commemoration of a terrorist leader, assaulted a Jewish man in the CBD of our largest city. And nothing will happen because this is expected, permitted, and routine.
The intimidation, the genocidal chants, a pervasive level of unrest, and street violence have had a year of police protection and escort. Police have maintained a cordon of inactivity, passive sentinels, the insulation and protection of these violent protests. This inaction is the product of a craven political calculation. An equation to permit violence in one quarter in the hope to hold or gain votes in another.
Anybody who marches under terrorist banners needs to be arrested and charged for supporting a prescribed terrorist organisation. It is this simple. It is the law. There is no impediment to this process except political will. This is not a plea. It is a simple statement of fact. They must be stopped because they imperil our society. These marches are providing ample fuel for an incendiary reactionary movement. ‘Management’, ‘monitoring’, ‘releasing of steam’ as described by ASIO, is not a passive process, it leaves the Overton window wide open and the pendulum swinging towards extremism.
We can see it reflected in every recent European election and in the recent civil unrest in the UK. I know this because I feel political apathy rising in myself. I now care less about what else might be ushered in with a political movement that promises to answer the challenge of regressive, thuggish street Jihadism.
Discovering these feelings is alarming but not surprising. One too many barbaric slogans, one too many genocidal chants. ‘Khaybar, Khaybar, ya yahud! Jaish Muhammad soufa yaʿoud!’ (Khaybar, Khaybar, Oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!’) Ali Amrozi, an architect of the Bali Bombings, chanted ‘Khaybar, Khaybar’ as he met his death by firing squad. Fourteen years later, we can hear the call reverberate across our major cities. Chanting Khaybar is the celebration of the massacre of the Jews of Khaybar in the 7th Century. Muslims cherish the memory whilst declaring their intention to do it again. Its invocation gives lie to the notion that that other slogans, such as ‘from the river to the sea’, are benign.
We are here because a simulacrum of action has been proffered up in the place leadership. Platitudes from an outdated playbook abound. Familiar cries like, ‘calls for restraint’, ‘a return to normality’, ‘calls for tolerance’, are slogans masquerading as solutions. Merely invoking principles is to confuse truly defending them. These efforts will ultimately be marked as the failed and pathetic attempts of a stupefied political class to manifest more comfortable political territory. History hardly shows an example that a stated desire for harmony can be discovered through grovelling dovishness.
The attempt will fail because cowardice, like appeasement, is choosing a managed decline. Ignoring abuse invites further abuses. Without a plan to exercise deterrence and uphold the law we guarantee future sectarian unrest. Weak posturing is an inadequate answer to the evil marching through our streets. We are witnesses the loss of political legitimacy through cowardice, which ultimately weakens the foundation of our democracy.
After almost a year no political leader has found the required courage for the moment. A score of MPs are active participants. Our political class no longer deserve adjacency to power and responsibility. For the sake of country, they need to find the courage to act against thuggery. If they fail to do so they need be removed from any further claims to power and responsibility.
