By Christina McIntosh
On 2nd August I attended a rally, ‘Faith, Flag and Family’, organised by a group called ‘Destiny Church’. The Main focus was on reclaiming/ reasserting Australia as a Christian country, but the folk organising it are philo-Judaic / pro-Israel Christians…so NOT in any way intending to exclude or be unwelcoming toward Jews.
Three quarters of the crowd – which was substantial, and mostly made up of 30-and-unders – was of ‘pasifika’ (Pacific island) ethnicities including a strong contingent of Maori who performed a haka (not a pagan haka but adapting their traditional form to raise people’s spirits).
Pastor Mark Leach of ‘Never Again is Now (Australia)’ gave a speech. His background/ pastoral training is Anglican; he is Jewish by parentage through his mother. I didn’t hear most of it I must confess, even though I had gone specifically to hear him, but I did hear his concluding remarks, and the crowd joined him in a rousing rendition of ‘Am Yisroel Chai!’ – shouted loudly three times.
I identified several youngish Jewish people with Israeli flags and went over and stood with them and chatted with them. Earlyish in the proceedings the local mob of jihad groupies went marching past along the west boundary of the park where we were – Queens Park in inner city Brisbane; they stopped for some time opposite us, screaming slogans… but the cops kept them from going anywhere near us (our lot included many young families with kiddies)..
But… what is more… there were many more of us than there were of them AND .. we had louder and better music, their shrieks were completely drowned out!! God bless the Pacific Island Christian immigrant community, most of who are strongly pro-Israel (and their tiny mostly-Christian nations of origin often vote with Israel in the UN).
We had a very nice day; not at all hot, cool enough to be pleasant in the sun rather than oppressive.
Nobody was wearing masks, unlike the hate-mob when they stamped past screeching with rage. The photos don’t show the full size of the gathering; I do think it would have been several hundred. If you look carefully at right of the first photo you will see Queen Victoria holding the Aussie flag…the park is called Queens Park because of this statue of Queen Victoria in it.
Mark Leach’s speech will probably appear on the internet at some point. It will be well worth seeking out.
