So yesterday, Tony Abbott – in no uncertain terms, mind – called for Muslims to reform the religion of Islam, launching his rhetoric on Sky News before writing an op-ed for the Daily Telegraph.
“Cultures are not all equal,” he wrote, in some kind of bid to wrangle the xenophobic vote away from Pauline Hanson should he ever decide to run again. “We should be ready to proclaim the clear superiority of our culture to one that justifies killing people in the name of God.”
But for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, and to atone for this fallacy Tony Abbott is now getting dragged by both the Prime Minister and the country of Indonesia.
“I’m not about to run a commentary on Mr Abbott,” PM Malcolm Turnbull told ABC Radio, before doing exactly that.
“I’d simply make the observation again that the one thing we need to be careful not to do – and I’m sure Tony agrees with this by the way – is to play into the hands of our enemies and seek to tag all Muslims with the crimes of a few.”
IDK, Malcolm, does Tony really agree? See:
Adding to the pile-on is Indonesia’s ambassador Nadjib Riphat Kesoema, who’s effectively spokesman for a country home to 205 million Muslims.
“A rhetoric boasting of cultural and religious superiority over other cultures and religions is unhelpful to the cause and divisive,” he said, calling for all nations to unite to defeat “the scourge of terrorism”.
“It is important for us including the multicultural societies of Australia and Indonesia to keep our focus on efforts to creating a long-term solution to the common challenges of violent extremism that we face.
“Violent extremism is the common challenges of all religions: Buddha Christianity, Hindu, Islam and all faiths.”
BONUS READING: Kristina Keneally‘s piece in The Guardian yesterday, ‘Tony Abbott, you do know you belong to a church that has not reformed, don’t you?‘
Image: Getty / Stefan Postles.
Source: Fairfax / ABC.
