Observations from the Reclaim Australia on the Gold Coast and in Perth
A couple of friends invited me to attend the Reclaim Australia rally at Bundall on the Gold Coast on Saturday morning. I didn’t know anything about the group except what I’d pre-read on social media. They say they want to send a message about Australian values and speak out against the rise of Islamic extremism.
Now, I have to admit I don’t see any evidence of Islamic extremism on the Gold Coast, but there’s plenty of evidence of it around the world, including incidents in Sydney and Melbourne, and 100 or more Australians who’ve decided to head off to fight for Islamic extremists.
The weekend Reclaim rallies were held in 16 locations around the country with several in regional centres, and Brisbane.
The kids and missus were off to Pacific Fair for some last minute Saturday morning Easter egg hunting, and well, to be frank, shopping malls and I don’t particularly get on.
I blame it on the car parks, the acres of walking, and ‘buyers remorse’ a month later when the credit card bills hit the mail box.
What struck me when I arrived at the Bundall rally location around 10:30am were the numbers, which I estimated to be around 800 – 1,000.
I looked around for the neo-nazis, fascists and white supremacists but I was a little disappointed to see it was majority mums and dads and kids looking like they had mistakenly turned up for an Olivia Newton John concert in the park.
The kids were lining up for a go on the humungous jumping castle, while their parents were setting up their fold out chairs and rolling out picnic blankets.
I was pretty sure I must have got the location wrong. This all seemed rather normal and civilised.
Aren’t protests supposed to have screaming loonies, throwing marbles under police horses, while waving extreme placards in front of cameras?
I did note half a dozen or so bikie looking types (jeans, leather vests, tattoos, beards, shaved heads), and around 20 or 30 police, but they all seemed to get on together, chatting and walking amongst the crowd. No arrests or abuse. All good so far.
I made my way up to the front stage area, which again challenged my pre-conceived notions. The whole stage was adorned with more national flags than a United Nations convention.
The largest flag of all was the aboriginal flag, which covered at least a third of the stage. Neighbouring the stage was a yummy variety of cultural foods, from home made dims sims to German sausages.
The MC took to the stage, welcoming all comers from every race and religion, even Muslims if there were any. He explained the purpose of the rally was to embrace Australian values of fairness, tolerance, free speech and equality; that Australia was a nation of inclusiveness, not exclusiveness.
Everybody was welcome to come to Australia, but that’s a two way street. All cultures irrespective of beliefs or religion must in return embrace the values of Australia. He then introduced a beautiful young nine year old girl of aboriginal heritage who sang the Australian national anthem in her Dharawal tribal tongue. I snuck a peek around and saw more than a few moist eyes being wiped.
Golly, there just weren’t any signs of racists and bigots so far. But reading the reports the following day, there must have been, because social media activists said this was a neo nazi rally. The only violence anywhere stemmed from anti-rally protestors in Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart who seemed to be determined to turn a peaceful rally into a violent shut down of free speech.
The rally speakers were all well informed, researched and experienced. I was particularly transfixed by the three returned Australian servicemen from Iraq and Afghanistan regaling shocking stories of the treatment of women and children at the hands of strict Islamic cultures.
A young village boy in Afghanistan would receive an horrific beating if his father learned he had accepted a chocolate from a coalition soldier, or worse, shot at by a Taliban sympathiser if he or she happened to be too friendly to one of our Aussie soldiers. A young teen girl could be horribly punished if she simply waved back at friendly coalition troops guarding the village.
Other speakers included a radio broadcaster, an author, an iconic Aussie cartoonist and an ex-female police officer who served at the Lakemba police station in Sydney, which was peppered with gunshots while she was working inside.
The stories were riveting and informative. But it wasn’t all serious, there was a variety of live musical entertainment including the singer of Redgum who wowed the gathered throng with the legendary hit, “I Was Only Nineteen”.
Gold Coast Acting Inspector Scott Bolitho said only two anti-rally campaigners were moved on earlier in the day.
“The crowd has been positive, which is a compliment to the organisers,” he said.
“By and large it was a peaceful assembly.”
Well, there must have been two rallies on the Gold Coast because the family friendly event I attended exhibited all the best Australian values I’ve become accustomed to as an immigrant’s son – tolerance, inclusiveness, free speech and fairness. It wasn’t the magnet for bigots the local media would have you believe, because the police moved them both off before the event started.
Which is why the Gold Coast rally was a success, and a testament to tolerance and free speech.
And from Elijah Jacobson ?TTEONB in Perth, who identifies himself as an apostate from Islam
Through the Eyes of Non Believers
Our enemy is Islam, not the guy who thinks differently to you.
You may not like him, you may think he’s an idiot, you may hate his politics but if he is for Australia & our freedoms, Then he is your brother.
On April 4th in Perth I stood staring out at Patriots of every Race, colour & creed standing side by side against the filth that has tried to corrupt our society & you know what I saw?
I saw Hope. I saw a people united, united in the Cause.
For the first time since I came out of Islam 12yrs ago my heart smiled because I could see that we just might have a chance to win this fight.
I have been screaming for 12yrs for ordinary Australians to “WAKE UP” & as I looked out I saw 1000 people awaken & alive to the threat that is upon us.
From the shadows of small bar room meetings to a mass rally around the Nation this is only the beginning, ” THE MOVEMENT HAS BEGUN” so don’t tear down the people who are doing something, they will make mistakes,
We are only human after all.
Don’t sit at home bitching on FB because you will only miss out on being apart of history. This it what we have been waiting for, This is the time & this is the place.
Do Something, hand out pamphlets talk to people spread the truth by word of mouth.
Tell them that the majority of the Rallies were peaceful law abiding events & tell people how the media lies.
You were there you know the truth. We don’t need the media we just need to tell people the truth. April 4th was the beginning of something great in this country & it is up to every single one of us to make the next Rally even bigger & better than the first.
Don’t slag any patriot, cause he’s just doing it his way.
The left & media slag us enough, so we don’t need to slag each other.
Go in love & peace & talk each other up. Because we are indeed apart of something truly magnificent.
- Like
- Digg
- Del
- Tumblr
- VKontakte
- Buffer
- Love This
- Odnoklassniki
- Meneame
- Blogger
- Amazon
- Yahoo Mail
- Gmail
- AOL
- Newsvine
- HackerNews
- Evernote
- MySpace
- Mail.ru
- Viadeo
- Line
- Comments
- Yummly
- SMS
- Viber
- Telegram
- Subscribe
- Skype
- Facebook Messenger
- Kakao
- LiveJournal
- Yammer
- Edgar
- Fintel
- Mix
- Instapaper
- Copy Link
One Response
Yes, Australians do have something to be worried about. This is an extract from a critical review of a recent survey of Australian Muslims.
“Three quarters of Australian Muslims think counter-terrorism policing and laws unfairly target their community according to a new study funded by the Australian Research Council.
Muslims in Australia feel under siege. This has generated a community backlash.
The authors conclude the police should treat Muslims with respect, impartially, in a trustworthy manner, and give them an opportunity to have a say in counter-terrorism policing. This way Muslims are more likely to trust the police, less likely to feel under siege, and more willing to co-operate.
They ignore results of a far more worrying nature, the bigger barrier to support and co-operation for counter-terrorism laws and measures.
A substantial proportion of Australian Muslims out of ignorance of history, cultural baggage, and their religious beliefs, in their hearts or in their heads, don’t agree with them.”
See full copy with links to sources here:
http://islamsurveyed.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/shocking-survey-results-from-australia.html