Australian Greens Senator, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has reacted to the Christchurch terrorist attack. Senator Faruqi is Australia’s first Muslim woman senator.
Senator Faruqi said:
“What happened in Christchurch is deeply devastating and terribly distressing.
“I am heartbroken and quite frankly scared. First and foremost we are grieving and our thoughts are with the friends and families of the victims who have been brutally killed by a white supremacist terrorist from Australia.
“As far as I am concerned, some politicians have been openly inciting hate, division and Islamophobia. Some in the media, rather than scrutinising these politicians, have been amplifying their message.
“We have been saying for years that politicians – including One Nation’s Pauline Hanson and Liberals like George Christensen and Peter Dutton – have been stoking the fires of hate and division. Other politicians have stood by and allowed this to happen, and even hoped that anti-migrant and anti-Muslim sentiment would win them votes.
“Senator Fraser Anning is a disgraceful Merchant of Hate. His statement blaming the victims for this white-supremacist terrorist attack was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen.
“Fraser Anning does not deserve to be in the Senate. The Labor and Liberal parties should have joined the Greens when we moved to censure him after his disgusting first speech where he called for a White Australia Policy and a ban on Muslim migration.
“Australian politicians need to understand that demonising Muslims and encouraging division has consequences. When they encourage hate, they are quite literally playing games with our lives.
“There are now serious questions about whether Australian Governments have focused enough on far-right extremism and taken this threat seriously. For years, I and many other Muslim Australians have been receiving threats of death and violence that haven’t been taken seriously. The Government must start listening to what we have been saying and pledge to tackle right wing extremism.”
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