Beware the hoax "Muslims out of Australia Speech"

I have been honoured that a pom gets to be the leading authority on the web of the the Australian premiere's views on Islam!  100 hits in the past three days, 250 over the past two weeks seeking information on "kevin rudd islam speech" is good newsfor those of us who seek to get their views out via this media. But I am also troubled -- this sort of thing usually means people are searching for something that everyone has heard of but no one can find! 

As a peacemaker, seeking justice for the powerless, and working to remove the colonialist and neo-colonialist foootprints from our world, I have been impressed by Rudd's apology to the Stolen generations of Australian aborigines. I have written  Kevins Rudd's Sorry Speech  and In Australia, From Apology, a Hit Song Grows.  (Incidentally this last week has been the first year anniversary of that speech to the Australian parliament, and Rudd has promised a review of progress: Anniversary of Apology to the Stolen Generations.  Now that is accountability!) Those got me listed high on google for Kevin Rudd, and so when the current search became obvious, I wrote Why search for Kevin Rudd speech on Islam?   When they continued and grew I did some more looking into the man: Ace, Kevin! Kevin Rudd's Christian and Conciliatory politics.  Reading what I did, everything in me said that Rudd was not going to have said anything stupid on Islam.

It seems the issue is an email that has been circulating saying  that Rudd told the media that immigrants should adapt to Australian culture, language and beliefs or leave the country.

The trouble is he didn't.

This is what he has said this year:

First: Questioned on in what his office call a Doorstop Interview in Hobart  on 22^nd January 2009 he said:

JOURNALIST: Can we get your reaction please to some controversial comments by a Melbourne Islamic cleric about rape and domestic violence?

PM: I just looked at the text of these. The quotes as I see them are along the lines of how can a person rape his wife, then in relation to violence the quote is, first of all advise them that is your wives, you beat them, but this is the last resort. These are the reported remarks that come from this particular Islamic cleric. Could I say that these remarks have no place in modern Australia at all, at all. I would call upon this Islamic cleric to publicly apologise and repudiate his remarks. Under no circumstances is sexual violence permissible or acceptable in Australia. Under no circumstances. Under no circumstances are other forms of violence, physical violence towards women, acceptable in Australia. Nor are they acceptable in my view to mainstream Muslim teaching. So I say to this Islamic cleric, Australia will not tolerate these sort of remarks. They don’t belong in modern Australia. And he should stand up, repudiate them, and apologise.

Second: he made a speech at Australia-Indonesia Conference Dinner, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney  on 19^th February. In it he spoke very positively of Indonesia, its diversity and the place of Islam in it:

 There you are as an extraordinary and dynamic Muslim democracy. And there I think you have an extraordinary role to play in the wider councils of the world and we in Australia would like to be partners with you in that. …

We can discount the second, except to note that Rudd is conciliatory in his style. The first is clearly the issue. The Sydney Morning Herald has an article here Cleric's rant: Rudd demands apology , which includes a clip from Samir Abu Hamza, the Muslim cleric who gave a lecture entitled "The Keys To A Successful Marriage" where he considered whether it was possible for a man to demand sex from his wife or to beat her.

A month after the event it is hard to find the extent to which this issue was covered by the Australian community. It doesn't seem that many made a big thing of it. Wife beating is not an issue they want to go out on a limb to defend. Abu Hamza's remarks (note this is not the British based Abu Hamza, currently fighting deportation) were picked up by some Islamist websites. For example Muslim Village, a site thats eesm to emerge from Australian branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir:   Kevin Rudd lives up to Howardian standard in demonising Islam and Muslims

“It took Kevin Rudd only one day to happily partake in the demonisation of Islam and Muslims, having been given the opportunity by the mainstream media’s publicising of sound bites from a five year old lecture. In comparison a three week massacre of hundreds of civilians in Gaza was not deemed worthy of any condemnation by the Prime Minister. We can only conclude that the ‘modern Australia’ he envisions can’t tolerate Islam but can tolerate the brutal killing of innocent women and children.”

I will avoid calling Hizb ut-Tahrir  extremist. Such language doesn't help as it sterotypes them and means we do not listen to them. In a word it demonises them, just what they are accusing Rudd of.   That is not the way to solve a problem. They have something of a point, in that we do work from sound bites, yet to most of us born in the west it is hard to consider justifying such behaviour in any circumstance. The Palestininian argument to me has to be heard.

Anyway, Rudd's words have given credibility to an email supposed to report his words.  Muslims Out Of Australia is actually titled  Canada and America need a leader like this. I will not give the email credibility by repeating it here, but the link is to the Hoax-slayer.com site. It is also covered on Snopes.com here .   It is circulating on right wing sites, eg here. 

The real news is that the email was originally written reporting former Australian PM John Howards views and began circulating in 2005, with the current version dating from 2007. Referring to the Howard version, hoax-slayer says it "Contains elements of truth, but is highly misleading and inaccurate."  That can not be said of Rudd, though some echoes of some phrases are to be found in the Abu Hamza interview, enough to give it some credibility.  The Hoax-slayer article concludes that the email is:

... outdated, contains inaccurate information and may perpetrate a quite misleading understanding of Australia's policies on immigration in general and Muslims in particular. Taken out of context, and with the falsely attributed Loudermilk article thrown into the mix, this email may give the impression that Australia is intolerant of migrants, especially those of the Muslim faith. This is not the case. One of Australia's great strengths is its rich cultural diversity and it welcomes migrants from all parts of the world and with many and varied systems of belief.

Sending on factually dubious information such as this is unlikely to be helpful and may even add to the cultural divisions and misunderstandings that plague our strife-torn world.

Update:February 2009
Early in 2009 I began receiving versions of the above email that named Australia's current Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, as the person responsible for the supposed anti-Muslim stance. It seems that some rather unimaginative prankster has simply substituted "Rudd" for "Howard" in the text and replaced the photograph of John Howard with one of Kevin Rudd before sending on the message. The message is otherwise identical to the example included above. The "Rudd" version strays even further from the truth than the original. None of the comments or opinions included in the message have any connection whatsoever with Kevin Rudd or his Government.

I do not know when the Rudd version appeared. My suspicion is that it originated after Rudd's Abu Hamza remarks in mid January, or at least was given impetus by it.

I will conclude with a reference back to  Rudd's door step interview. I suggest he was wrong to deal with the serious issue of Muslim treatment of their wives in that context. It needs carefully judged statements to bring a focus to the problem and not to widen the issue. I totally oppose such remarks about women and about marriage. However I do well to take seriously those who hold them, and to engage with them in a way that honours them as individuals made in God's image.  

I hope that the slur on Rudd's reputation goes away, though I must say I am quite enjoying having so many Aussies visiting. Come back please. 

Comments

[Sam De Francesco]

Just one clarification, you mention that MuslimVillage appears to be affiliated with Hizb ut-Tahrir, this is not the case.

[ReconciliationTalk]

Sam, my apologies if MuslimVillage,com is not associated with Hizb ut-Tahrir. I have forgotten exactly what made me write that now, but i know I had found several refs - maybe commenters. As my note says I do not want to name call and rely on stereotyping where I am seeking to build bridges. I welcome your further comment.

[Andrew Reynolds]

I am an Australian that recieved the fake email. After first reading it I sat back and though "finally ...a politition with a backbone!". How great to have, at long last, a voice for our sentiments.
Then reality set back in and alarm bells started sounding which led me to a quick search and cofirmation that it was indeed fake.
Now I just feel let down, deflated and dissapointed. .. If only the email was true.

Andrew

[Barry john]

regardless of whether false or true the content of the speech is what needs saying! Let's start standing up to say it!

[Laura]

I just received today this so called hoax email, ( by the way I am a migrant, who took the Australian citizenship about 15 years ago and I am in my middle 30's) with this in mind, I was quite glad to read this email, I thought I am still following many traditions from my culture but I have also adapted to "the Australian way of life" nothing wrong with it why this is so difficult for other people, My children do speak my language and english is their mother tongue, so i wonder why this is so hard for others to do it, nobody asked anyone to come here every immigrant came by their own free will. I thought finally someone has courage to say what a great percentage of Australian citizens think, saddly this is not true but i think some politician should voiced this, and tell it like it is if they dont like it well to bad, I am sure they can go back happily to their wonderful country where they lived in peace and happy, instead of suffering and complaining so much about ours.
Maybe this is something that people how don't love this country have to think about...