Antisemitism Report 2009 - World Jewish Congress

4.5 Arabic-speaking and Islamic Communities
Australia's Arabic-speaking community is large and vibrant. Jews are not a major concern or
pre-occupation for this community, but when Jewish matters are discussed it can give rise to
concerns, particularly when discussion of the Middle East departs from vigorous political
debate and enters the realm of religious and racial stereotyping. The Arabic speaking
community is religiously, nationally and culturally diverse and has grown through a number
of waves of immigration. The largest group consists of Australians of Lebanese descent, and
this includes a substantial number of Christians, as do the Arabic-speakers from Egypt, Iraq
and the areas of Mandatory Palestine.
The Arabic-language media is also diverse and in the past antisemitism has appeared in a
number of publications and radio broadcasts, and in the year in review issues were identified
with the support for the fascist antisemitic group HAMAS, defence of the terrorist Hezbollah
and promotion of the Nazi-like Syrian Social Nationalist Party. For example, a radio
programme on Melbourne 3ZZZ public radio station produced by the Syria Social
Nationalist Party broadcast a series of antisemitic conspiracy theories to mark 60 years of
the SNP‘s founding, talking about ―the conspiracy‖ to allow ―Jewish . . . slaughters and
armed aggression‖ (8/7/09) and the claim ―there is no enemy that fights our religion, right,
and homeland, except for the Jews‖. (15/7/09).
There is even greater diversity amongst Australians who practise Islam. There are wide gulfs
in belief, cultures, integration and attitudes towards Anglo-Australian culture. A variety of
attitudes towards Jews is identifiable (see pp 135-144 ), with the purview of this section the
antisemitism present in this segment of the Australian population.
A paper delivered by Benjamin Kunde at the Australian Association of Jewish Studies
Conference (February 2008) claimed many ―modern Muslim Australian youth‖ held strong
antisemitic views, with the swastika seen as a reminder of ―good things‖, belief in Jewish
control of Australian government and echoing of Hezbollah anti-Jewish chants being typical.
Evidence of the dangers of antisemitic preaching came when a court in Sydney hearing a
trial of alleged terrorist Shane Kent was played a video he made which asked for ―relief
from the Jews. . .‖ (19/8/09).
The Muslim personality in Australia who has the greatest notoriety for promoting and
justifying anti-Jewish slanders is Sheikh Taj Eldinne El-Hilaly, an imam associated with the
Lebanese Muslim Association, who for more than a decade had used the title ―Mufti of
Australia‖. In 1988, in a public function at the University of Sydney, Hilaly had, in the
course of presenting Jews as the existential enemies of the rest of humanity, called Jews the
cause of all wars and accused Jews of using sex and deviancy to control the world. Even
prior to these comments, he had been criticised for insulting and derogatory comments
concerning women and Christian Lebanese. The story of his Australian residence and the
failure of otherwise responsible community figures to dissociate from him is long and
complex, and can not be properly canvassed in this report, but it was a cause of considerable
concern for a number of years.
A report in The Australian in July 2006 noted Hilaly had ―dismissed the Holocaust as a
―Zionist lie" in a series of fiery sermons‖ and that he later ―attacked the Western press for
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