After having spent the last five weeks listening to Muslim representatives from across Australia, Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia, Aftab Malik, exclusively and frankly shares his initial reflections. My scope of work and first priority I assumed the role of Australia’s first-ever Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia on Monday 14 October. It emerged against the Continue reading »
Israel / Palestine
I just attended a wonderful Christmas concert at St Mary of the Angels in Wellington – the Bach Choir, the Chiesa Ensemble and excellent soloists sent a thrill through my body. The final piece, Gloria by Antonio Vivaldi, triggered these thoughts. The Gloria, of course, is a traditional element of the Catholic mass, and the Continue reading »
The below is an excerpt from my essay, “The Sin of Cosmocide,” for Renovatio, the literary magazine of Zaytuna, the Muslim liberal arts college in Berkeley, Ca. It underlines how both Jewish and Muslim spiritual teachings forbid the killing of innocents who are guilty of no crime, and equate this deed to killing all humankind — Continue reading »
For the second year in a row, the Christmas season passes while Gaza remains under genocide. While the entire world bids farewell to 2024 and celebrates the arrival of 2025, Palestinians continue to suffer under Israeli aggression, which kills, starves, and displaces civilians in Gaza with brutal cruelty. In Gaza, candles are not lit for Continue reading »
Observe the formula carefully. On the public broadcaster SBS, Jillian Segal, still fresh in her role as antisemitism envoy, made a suggestion in the wake of the December 6 attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne. Australian “cities should not be utilised” for protests held in solidarity with Palestinians affected by the ongoing Hamas-Israel Continue reading »
In the wake of the deliberately lit fire in a synagogue in Melbourne on Friday 6th of December much has happened. It’s been categorised as a terrorist act, the Commonwealth government has established an anti-Semitism task force, claims of anti-Semitism have increased and, at press conferences, senior lawmakers and enforcers have called for restraint. Those Continue reading »
For Palestinians in Gaza, there is no room for death, as there is no room for life, due to Zionist crimes and Israeli savagery, writes Refaat Ibrahim from occupied Gaza. “Many die and are turned into body parts, their limbs mixed together and lost… They transport them into Israel, subject them to examination, sometimes steal Continue reading »
Israel continues to destroy what is left of Gaza with American bombs, slaughtering 50 or more souls daily as they try to survive in flimsy tents on a starvation diet of bread and water, if they are lucky. A genocide is happening now with media silence. After invading Lebanon and killing and maiming thousands of Continue reading »
An independent expert talks about witnessing the extreme violence against Palestinians, a Texan congressman calls out Blinken for US complicity while Israel continues to bomb Syria. Greg Barns calls out Dutton as a danger to Australia. Respecting human rights while countering terrorism @UNGeneva Independent expert @profbensaul: “My job is to encourage gvts to respect human Continue reading »
If anyone still believed that political Zionism’s objective was anything less than ethnic cleansing The Fall of Israel would surely disabuse them of that delusion. The English edition of Max Ghilan’s How Israel Lost its Soul appeared in 1974, not long after Israel’s ignominious defeat by Egypt in October 1973. I didn’t know much about Continue reading »