There are forces threatening the land down under that are far more threatening than “Psycho” the crocodile. My latest in PJ Lifestyle:
I just returned from Australia, where I was speaking at a conference sponsored by Australia’s superlative human rights group, the Q Society, along with Stop Islamisation of Nations (of which I am a board member). Also on the trip were Pamela Geller (SION’s president), Ashraf Ramelah of Voice of the Copts, Nonie Darwish of Former Muslims United, the Israeli scholar Mordechai Kedar, and numerous Australian human rights activists.
Australia is a beautiful country full of marvelously friendly people, as I saw both on this trip and on my speaking tour of six Australian cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra, and Cairns) in late 2011. If you’ve never gone, book your trip now – and watch out for a few of the things I saw there…
5. Crocodiles and kangaroo crossings
Kangaroo crossing signs are not uncommon sights in this wild land, and occasionally I saw other signs warning that crocodiles frequented the area. On a visit to a crocodile farm, our guide stopped by a fence labeled “PSYCHO” and lobbed a pebble into a still, placid pond beyond the fence. In a split-second, a huge crocodile – apparently PSYCHO himself – leaped out of the water and straight toward us, his massive jaws gaping, stopped only by the fence from enjoying us for lunch. That must be a metaphor for something….
2. The “Say No to Burqas” mural
I had the honor of meeting Sergio Redegalli, the fearless sculptor in Sydney who painted a mural proclaiming “Say No to Burqas” on the wall outside his studio. One might think that women’s rights activists in the West would love that, but as it turns out, the leftist alliance with Islamic supremacists has proved stronger than feminists’ concern for Muslim women. Leftists and Islamic supremacists deface the mural continually, but Redegalli is unbowed, and keeps repainting it, often with entertaining variations.
As Thomas More remarked centuries ago, the devil cannot endure to be mocked, and neither can the authoritarians who resort to vandalism to defend Sharia oppression of women. Sergio Redegalli is a unique and immensely important artist, who is really doing what leftist artists preen about but never actually do: shine a spotlight on injustice and call for human rights for all people.
1. Fascists
The crocodiles aren’t Australia’s only feral predators. On our first night in Australia this trip, our gracious hosts held a cocktail reception for the speakers and some friends at a local restaurant in Melbourne. The happy and low-key crowd was taken aback when a gang of screaming, chanting, frothing-at-the-mouth fascist thugs suddenly appeared at the door, trying to get into the room. They were Antifa, the leftist thugs who have frequently menaced counter-jihad events in Europe, and who ironically style themselves as “anti-fascists,” even while engaging in the basest fascist thuggery. Our security detail held them back and the fascists retreated after dropping leaflets declaring that they would be disrupting all of our events throughout the weekend. (They didn’t; Q Society outfoxed them.)
This incident vividly illustrated the nature of our struggle in the West today: it is truly, as Pamela Geller has so indelibly put it, a struggle of the civilized man vs. the savage. One side was enjoying drinks and polite conversation, having gathered together in service of the cause of freedom and human rights. The other side, while it professes to be the true guardian of those things, came to the restaurant determined to harass, assault, and maybe even kill us. They are the true children and heirs of the Nazi brownshirts who menaced and assaulted people at rallies and speeches of the Nazis’ opponents in the early 1930s.
The struggle we are in is one that will determine whether our societies will remain civil and free, or fall prey to violence, thuggery, and authoritarianism – such as we saw in Australia’s beautiful Melbourne that night.