We cannot be complacent

TERROR ATTACKS

LONDON rocks again with terror. More dead and wounded in vicious knife attacks. Nobody was to suspect that this would happen, but it did. We cannot afford to be complacent. It could happen anywhere even here in Australia.

Condolences and sympathy soon came in from around the world. American President Donald Trump sent warm condolences to Prime Minister Theresa May and the British people and promised solidarity with the UK. We should be very vigilant and careful with whom we are letting into Australia. Immigration should be stringent, especially with people from terrorist countries like Iraq, Syria, Yemen or Afghanistan etc. These people should be screened and sent back if necessary. We must be vigilant and maintain the highest level of security and safety for Australians.

Peace

THE world is in urgent need of a more radical Islam, as it is also in need of an extreme Christianity, as lived by people like St Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Terrorists who massacred and maimed innocent people in Manchester and London are in no way, shape or form manifesting a revolutionary form of Islam.

On the contrary, they are simply murderers and thugs whose sole ambition is to disrupt, terrorise and coerce society into their warped, twisted and distorted interpretation of a religion whose founder would be horrified to be associated with.

Genuine Islam, like authentic Christianity, is bedrocked on justice and peace which arises out of genuine and loving relationships with people. Sir Muhammad Iqbal, the renowned poet, philosopher, academic and politician who inspired the Pakistan Movement, notes that being a Muslim means more than seeking or worshipping God when he declares that “there are many who love God and wander in the wilderness; I will follow the one who loves the persons made by God.”

Mowing people down in vehicles, letting off bombs and attacking innocents with knives is not the work of someone who strives to be a faithful Muslim.

Religious conviction

I COMMEND your cartoonist’s view of the terrorist tragedy on London Bridge ( Mercury, June 5). I have just returned from a 12-day visit to London after an absence of 47 years. What I saw was a people changed from predominantly white, Anglo-Saxon, English-speaking people to people of many nations, languages, and faiths. Wherever I went, whoever I spoke to, I found unfailing politeness, friendliness, helpfulness and tolerance. In the suburb where I was staying with my London family, I met lovely, smiling, cheerful mums, dads and children going with my family’s children to the local primary school. At this school, the majority were from Muslim and Hindu faiths. So we must remember that terrorism comes from the few radicalised and deranged people with various religious, and often non-religious, convictions.

Those of us from a Christian background would be wise not to target other religions as the cause of violence in our society, given Christianity’s history of violent extremism, and more recently child A new way to have your say themercury.com.au readers have a new way to have their say. It’s free to use, just register and have your say. For more details and to register, visit the website. abuse. As Jesus said to accusers when confronted by a woman taken in adultery: “He who is without sin, cast the first stone.” So none of Jesus’s listeners did.

Finally, we must remember as Greg Barns pointed out in the same June 5 issue, that as some of our politicians rail against radical Islam that has produced some of these terrorists, many of them have learnt their radical views from the Saudi Wahhabism, an extreme version of Sunni Islam. Saudi Arabia has exported this form of Islam to many previously tolerant Muslim countries, including Indonesia, since the 1970s. Political leaders who rage the most against radical Islam could be considered guilty of spreading it by proxy through our armament and oil trade with Saudi Arabia.

Mental health issue

WHILE we mourn the loss of more innocent lives through terrorist atrocities, we should not forget that, almost by definition, to kill innocents the perpetrators have mental health issues. At a time when our society is grappling with the consequences of the acts of lunatics, we have in Tasmania a mental health system that is collapsing. Increasing aggression, pressure on hospital beds, higher levels of acuity in community settings and people killing themselves after being turned away when seeking help. Minister Ferguson and Premier Hodgman will be to blame if further harm comes to individuals, families and the community if the mental health system in Tasmania is not given a dramatic funding increase.

Promises, promises

Whether you love or disapprove of US President Trump, one thing he must be congratulated for is fulfilling his electoral promises. Something we never see from our fraudulently elected political parties, from either side of the political spectrum.

One more round

THE CIA fuss about Australian politicians accepting donations from foreigners makes no mention of the donations Australian politicians make to multinationals by way of royalty payments as little as 5c in the dollar for the nation’s resources. Most resource-exporting nations receive as much as 85c in the dollar and as a result do not have shortfalls in health education and defence budgets. They treat us like mushrooms and lay on the beer and circus.

Give and you will receive

ISN’T it strange that parties can agree that foreign donations are made in the expectation of gaining influence and that something must be done about it, but not immediately. There also seems to be a contradiction that although foreigners give for influence, the generous businessmen of Australia give without any such expectation.

Try something else

WE know now that insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly, expecting a different result, so why do we bomb Muslim countries expecting terrorism not to increase and diversify? Try something else, it can’t get worse, can it!