The Base and Hezbollah to be designated as terror organisations in Australia

Australia intends to add far-right extremist group The Base and the entirety of the Lebanese group Hezbollah to its list of outlawed terrorist organisations. Hezbollah’s External Security Organisation has been listed since 2003, but including all Hezbollah entities as terrorist organisations would make being a member of, or supporting, those entities a criminal offense. “The […]

Britain’s youngest terrorist can be freed from jail, says Parole Board

Britain’s youngest terrorist – who plotted to murder police officers in Australia on Anzac Day – can be freed from jail, the Parole Board has ruled. The 20-year-old, from Blackburn, Lancashire, who can only be identified as RXG, sent encrypted messages instructing an Australian jihadist to launch attacks during a 2015 parade. He was jailed […]

Australia: Politicians condemn call for ‘final solution’ to Muslim immigration

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and all major political parties on Wednesday condemned a speech by a minor senator who used the term “final solution” in calling for a revival of a “White Australia” restrictive immigration policy. In one of the most divisive speeches seen in parliament since 1996 when far-right politician Pauline Hanson declared […]

Australia: Archbishop begins home detention over sex abuse cover-up

A former Australian archbishop, the most senior Catholic cleric in the world convicted of concealing child sex abuse, was spared jail on Tuesday when he was ordered to serve his one-year sentence at home. Newcastle Court Magistrate Robert Stone allowed Philip Wilson, 67, to serve his detention at home after an assessment by prison authorities […]

Australia unveils “how-to” guide to fight militant propaganda

Australia on Tuesday released what the government says is the world’s first ever how-to-guide for combating radical Islamist propaganda in Southeast Asia, which it hopes will help disrupt local recruitment efforts by groups such as Islamic State. Australia, a staunch U.S. ally, has been on heightened alert for attacks by home-grown Islamist radicals since 2014 […]

Are sales of the burqa and niqab on the rise?

A Daily Express article which suggested that burqa sales are on the rise in Blackburn contains some basic errors. The headline “Burka sales BOOM” can serve to reinforce the imagery of religiosity and violence. Imagery that has featured in counter-jihad circles since 2006. The Other Islamic Bomb => pic.twitter.com/RlcqQwal2i — Scott M (@EVdeals1) April 27, 2013 Describing a ‘sales boom’ is a journalistic cliche and not instrincially offensive. In this context, however, it lacks sensitivity. The central claim of the article weakens under scrutiny. Paul Baldwin, the Express journalist, only interviewed a single store owner. And Baldwin acknowledges that ‘exact figures are hard to establish because many burkas are sold door-to-door’. Nadeem Siddiqui has seen a rise in sales. His Hijab Centre in Blackburn went from selling ‘one or two burkas a month’ to ‘one or two in a week’. It’s a rise but it hardly meets the inflated claims of the headline. The Express also carried out a ‘snap survey’ in the town and ‘found around 30 per cent of muslim women completely covered their faces’. That figure sounds daunting when the journalist had just informed readers that Muslims make up 11 per cent of the local population. It [...]

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