Hamas a cuddly puppy compared with
Greg Barns takes aim at the double standards when it comes to support for terrorist groups
SUPPORTING Hamas, an organisation that governs part of Palestine and which was borne out of the struggle by the Palestinian people for a homeland, is a criminal offence in Australia because it is regarded a terrorist group.
However, it is not a criminal offence for the Australian Government to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, which is the most prolific state sponsor of terrorist activity globally.
Last year,the Turnbull Government facilitated four exports of defence equipment to Saudi Arabia. Defence Minister Marise Payne, Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne and defence department officials are hiding behind commercial-inconfidence nonsense so we do not know what was sold and the value of these exports.
Implausibly, Senator Payne said the sale to Saudi Arabia took account of five criteria, including human rights implications, foreign policy and national security, according to a News.com.au report on May 29. Senator Payne should know that it would be impossible to approve a sale of military equipment to Saudi Arabia if human rights and national security were real criteria.
Saudi Arabia bankrolls terror activity and ideologies across the globe, including in Indonesia. Senator Rand Paul, a Republican opposing US President Donald Trump’s $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, wrote last week: “Saudi Arabia’s relationship with radical elements is an open secret. Zalmay Khalilzad, a former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the United Nations, wrote an article about Saudi Arabia’s admitted relationship with Islamic extremists. Regardless of its origins, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been using their ties with Islamic fundamentalists to further their influence throughout the Middle East and abroad through charities, schools, and social organizations.” And as his colleague Senator Lindsay Graham has noted, without Saudi support 9/11 would not have happened.
In Indonesia, Saudi Arabia is funding schools and mosques that preach an extreme, intolerant distorted version of Islam. An article published March 3 in The American Interest, a highbrow publication, noted “the Saudis have spread their influence in Indonesia by extensively funding schools and mosques that teach a strict, Salafist version of Islam. The Saudis see such educational efforts as benign soft power exercises, but many Indonesians believe that Riyadh is contributing to the country’s radicalization problem. Cities like Solo have become breeding grounds for Salafi radicalization, recent terrorist attacks have been inspired by Wahhabi extremists, and Indonesian alumni of Saudi institutions are increasingly gaining positions of influence in the government. For many moderate Indonesians, these troubling trends are the fruits of Saudi seeds planted long ago.”
Tom Brake, a Liberal
Democrat MP in the UK observes that in his country it “is no secret that Saudi Arabia in particular provides funding to hundreds of mosques in the UK, espousing a very hardline Wahhabist interpretation of Islam. It is often in these institutions that British extremism takes root.”
The evidence Saudi Arabia sponsors terrorism and assists the recruiting of young minds to extremist causes is overwhelming. So why is Australia flogging military gear to this loathsome regime? Why is it not an offence for ministers department officials and military gear manufacturers to fund a terror group in the same way that it is to send funds to Hamas? There is no rational answer. Cynical and hypocritical politicians and bureaucrats in Canberra refuse to ban Saudi Arabia and add them to the list of “proscribed organisations” that includes Hamas. Hamas is a cuddly kitten compared to the Saudi government.
Anti-terror laws here have been used to prosecute young, naive Australians who do nothing but mouth platitudes in support of terrorism with no intention or means of carrying out their threats, or who download a video or two. They are charged with supporting a terrorist organisation, which carries between 10 and 25 years’ jail. Those caught are subject to severe punishment by police and security agencies and cruel prison regimes before and after they are punished by courts. They are targets of ridiculously prejudiced and alarmist headlines and commentary from Right-wing nutters.
There appear to be no questions asked about the conduct of the Australian Government and its friends in the defence industries supplying, indirectly, a state that overtly fuels terrorist threats and actions.
It is hard to condemn any Australian from verbally or in writing supporting Hamas or any other “proscribed organisation” when our politicians cosy up to their vile chums in Riyadh.