Australia’s Victoria State Supreme Court has sent a key religious
freedom case back to a lower court for retrial. Pastors Danny Nalliah
and Daniel Scot are hailing the decision as a victory for free speech.
Two years ago, a civilian tribunal convicted the two men of violating
section 8 of Victoria’s Racial and Religious Tolerance Act for
comments that were made during a church seminar on Islam. The Christians
were accused of vilifying Islam and were ordered to apologize. The two
Danny’s said no, they have the right to freely express their views
in Australian society. The High Court set aside that lower court order.
Following the decision, Pastor Daniel Scot said he will continue to
conduct seminars on Islam, the Koran and Hadith. “Some Muslims
have got the idea they have to hide the truth, and that's very sad,"
he said.
The truth is this case was a set up. Here is a portion of an interview
I did with Danny Nalliah in Melbourne just before he and Scot filed
their appeal:
Nalliah:
“The three complainants who came into the seminar were sent into
the seminar and the person who sent them was a lady by the name of Mae
Halu who at that point worked for the Equal Opportunity Commission which
actually was the body which had actually put forward this racial and
religious vilification law or the monitoring body of this law under
which we were taken to task.”
Lane:
“So it was a set up?”
Nalliah:
“It was definitely a set up. It was confessed in the courtroom
and the Islamic Council’s representatives cross examined on this
and in cross examination their complainants did state very clearly that
they were told by Mae Halu to go to the seminar. So, when you look at
the situation, it was not like someone came into the meeting and said,
‘I felt hurt for what you said.’ But these people came to
be vilified. So, they came with pen and paper, not one of the three
complainants stayed for the whole seminar, each came two hours apart
and covered the whole seminar and took a 52 point complaint about the
seminar. Now, the three people who came were Caucasian converts to Islam
so, when they came in no one could identify them whether they were Muslims
or not. They did not register at the door when everyone else registered;
their names are not on the registration sheet…there was no entrance
fee.”
Lane:
“So, it was open to the public?”
Nalliah:
“It was open to the public, public when I say particularly it
was only Christians who knew about it so, we expected a Christian audience
there because it was promoted in the churches which we work with.”
Lane:
“It sounds to me like they had an agenda.”
Nalliah:
“Certainly that was proven and it was also given in the judge’s
verdict. He has stated that two out of three of the complainants had
stated they suddenly decided to come to the seminar but then he goes
on to state however that he cannot put value on their statements because
he knows all three of them had basically heard about the seminar prior
to the seminar through the same source and they were sent to the seminar.”
Lane:
“How do you feel about that knowing that this was actually directed
by someone who was employed by the Equal Opportunity Commission?”
Nalliah:
“Well, this is the most shocking incident in a free democracy
where everyone should be treated equal and also where we have the freedom
to speak. We have a monitoring body of a particular law that becomes
also the instigator of people to bring complaints against this issue.
When you look at it, we have a journalist by the name of Andrew Bolt
who wrote an article in a column appearing in the Herald Sun a while
ago where he stated up to ten thousand Arab Muslims were trained by
the Equal Opportunity Commission to go looking for complaints.”
Lane:
“Do you think this is something the Equal Opportunity Commission
should be involved in?”
Nalliah:
“ Members of the Equal Opportunity Commission were interviewed
by talk back radio several times and in one of their last talk back
radio interviews they stated that Mae Halu is no longer in Australia,
she’s left Australia, she was never an Australian resident or
citizen. She was here for a period of time and employed by the Equal
Opportunity Commission so, they basically said they do not hold responsibility
for what Mae Halu has done. But the talk back radio host went on to
ask them, but it’s your responsibility –you were supposed
to be unbiased in monitoring this law, but you actually sent someone
from the Equal Opportunity Commission who worked for the Islamic Council
to get someone to come and complain against the two pastors.”
To learn more about this important religious freedom case in Australia,
click on
this link:
http://www.saltshakers.org.au/html/P/20/B/0/
