TigerHawk

TigerHawk (ti*ger*hawk): n. 1. The title of this blog and the nom de plume of its founding blogger; 2. A deep bow to the Princeton Tigers and the Iowa Hawkeyes; 3. The nickname for Iowa's Hawkeye logo. Posts include thoughts of the day on international affairs, politics, things that strike us as hilarious and personal observations. The opinions we express are our own, and not those of each other, our employers, our relatives, our dead ancestors, or unrelated people of similar ethnicity.

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Dhimmis Down Under

By TigerHawk at 1/01/2006 08:46:00 PM

A local government in Australia has ordered the removal of the Australian national flag from the pavillion at Bondi Beach, afraid that it will provoke more outrage from Muslims. The false moral equivalence offered by the council was breathtaking in its stupidity:

But an unapologetic Mr Copeland said the council remained concerned about a repeat of the Cronulla racial violence.

"The Australian flag was used by both sides as a symbol around which to perpetrate racial violence," Mr Copeland said.

"The people from Lakemba burnt the flag and the Cronulla people swathed themselves in it while pounding people. We didn't want to wave a red rag in front of either side on New Year's Eve."

Even if the flag-burning was a response to the flag-wrapping, it is mushy to compare one with the other and absurd to decide that the answer is to ban the flag from a public building. So absurd, in fact, that even Muslim organizations have the saavy to spot a losing political position:

Muslim leaders yesterday described the council's stance as misguided and presumptuous.

Islamic Friendship Association of Australia founder Keysar Trad said decisions made on behalf of Muslims with no consultation only caused further division.

"To suggest that Muslims would be offended at the sight of the Australian flag is naive. A great deal of Muslims call Australia home and they are just as happy to see the flag flying high," he said.

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4 Comments:

By TigerHawk, at Sun Jan 01, 10:40:00 PM:

On that last point I most emphatically disagree.

By Anonymous, at Mon Jan 02, 05:56:00 AM:

You must remember that a lot of these council members probably do not like the Australian flag.

I cannot think of a better way of stirring up interest in the flag. All those stickers on cars, flags flying from car radio arials, flag tee shirts.

By Cassandra, at Mon Jan 02, 09:23:00 AM:

There can be only one

Hah!

By Anonymous, at Wed Jan 04, 02:26:00 AM:

Hey TigerHawk,

Glad to see you blogging on some Aussie issues! Bloody ridiculous I say....hope you had a nice xmas and New Year