The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Kanishka Raffel, recently issued a public statement in response to the comments made by Senator Pauline Hanson regarding radical Islam’s incompatibility with the Christian values of Western democracies such as Australia. Significantly, the title of the Archbishop’s statement was, “We must reject hateful words and threats of violence”.

The statement would have had more political potency—as well as moral legitimacy—if he had have also included Grace Tame’s vitriolic cry, “From Gadigal to Gaza, Globalise the Intifada!” Surely this qualifies as being an example of “hateful words and threats of violence”. But alas, no such public rebuke was issued. It seems this is a classic case of leaning to the left while punching at the right.

Note how the statement opens by declaring that Senator Hanson’s remarks were “foolish and dangerously divisive” and then immediately links it to “threats of violence against the Lakemba mosque”. What’s more, nothing in the public statement seeks to qualify the connection to Senator Hanson’s comments but instead implies that her motivation was one of hate with the subsequent incitation to violence.

In light of the recent hate speech laws passed by the federal parliament though, these are incredibly serious accusations to make against a federal Senator and her supporters. What’s more, they also demonstrate how these laws might can be weaponised to impact  freedom of speech.

Is Senator Hanson guilty of hate speech for questioning the compatibility of radical Islam with traditional democratic values? If so, then she and, indeed, anyone belonging to One Nation, could legitimately be classified as a hate group and targeted by the Australian government.

What Did Senator Hanson Actually Say?

Unfortunately, many in the media—including Archbishop Raffel—have taken Senator Hanson’s words out of context by stating that she said there were “no good Muslims”, full stop. Christian leaders in particular should seek to always speak the truth and, in this instance, accurately report what Senator Hanson actually said. Below is a transcript of the exchange:

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All of which is to say Archbishop Raffel’s  public statement would have been understandable if issued from the Council of Imams. However, by defending genuine followers of Muhummad (whom Senator Hanson provocatively identified as being ‘good Muslims’) from public criticism the senior leader of Sydney Anglicans has done the much needed, free and frank discussion of Islam in the West a grave disservice.

Read it all at Quadrant