Australian media are giving a rough welcome to Stephanie Banister, a novice politician who is running for a legislative seat in a suburban district under the ticket of One Nation, a controversial far-right nationalist party. Banister’s platform is pretty straightforward, and not well-received outside her party: She doesn’t like Islam or its adherents, who make up 1.9 percent of Australia’s population.

Banister had won the attention of One Nation as an anti-Islam activist; she faces court charges for plastering halal grocery products with a sticker reading “Beware! Halal food funds terrorism.”

Banister is reaching new heights of national and international notoriety after an interview with a Brisbane-based TV station, which was clearly looking to debunk her (transcript here). There are many facepalm moments in the clip, in which both Banister and the news anchor make some basic mistakes about Islam and, at one point, Judaism.

• Banister refers to Islam as “a country.”

• She says several times that Muslims follow “haram.” In fact, haram means “sinful” or “forbidden.” She probably meant to refer to sharia, Islam’s religious law. The interviewer seems to believe she was referring to the Koran.

• She insists that halal food be banned but says kosher food is okay because “Jews aren’t under haram; they have their own religion which follows Jesus Christ.” Where to begin! Most kosher food is actually halal; the two words have similar roots, literal meanings and requirements. Judaism, of course, does not follow Jesus Christ. And if Banister’s metric for a religion’s merit is how it treats Jesus, then she should actually prefer Islam, which praises Jesus as a prophet.

• The interviewer rebuts Banister by saying that “Judaism rejects Jesus Christ,” though this might be a bit strong. Maybe better to say that Judaism rejects Jesus as the messiah.

• My favorite moment is when Banister says, “Less than 2 percent of Australians follow haram.” Assuming she meant to say “sharia,” her statistic is actually sort of correct — 1.9 percent of Australians are Muslim, according to a 2010 Pew report — but not all Muslims follow sharia, and none of them follow haram because that’s not a thing.

Banister and her (probably destined to be short-lived) media fame are obviously not in themselves a very big story, but they are of a piece with Australia’s growing anti-immigration sentiment. Many of Australia’s Muslims are from Southeast Asia, a source of considerable immigration to Australia. The country has ramped up efforts to expel or refuse migrants who arrive illegally, shifting many of them to nearby island nations where they live in vast refugee camp-style facilities.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_1SFf8t-ko

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/08/09/meet-the-worlds-least-effective-anti-islam-political-candidate/

this one pass ignorance

DEmocracy in action. Even morons have a voice.

i love the begining part 'banister is a migrant and an alleged criminal'

not surprised, they take their info from media and google. even the reporter was a disappointed,no basic info about what you hate.

very good!!! she is brilliant.may Allah (swt) add more of her kind among the enemies of Islam and Muslims.

LagosShia: very good!!! she is brilliant.may Allah (swt) add more of her kind among the enemies of Islam and Muslims.

Subhanallah... There are alot of people like her on earth that lives on lies, fallacies....


Let pray for her instead that she should be shown the light by the creator.

She has been misinformed....

Rosullah was rejected at to'if cos the people there then did not know his worth but he still pray for them despite the rejection.

She is not alone or rare. There are far too many of her kind on Nairaland and they believe in their hearts of hearts that they are knowledgeable about Islam too... #Pathetic

maclatunji: She is not alone or rare. There are far too many of her kind on Nairaland and they believe in their hearts of hearts that they are knowledgeable about Islam too... #Pathetic

It is only Allah thats leads man aright. They are misinformed, and they're almost everywhere(even among family and friends). All we need do is pray for ourselves and our loved ones from deviations. Idina siratal musteqin....

deols: DEmocracy in action. Even morons have a voice.

And how is that a bad thing? Would you rather prefer that they be suppressed?

maclatunji: She is not alone or rare. There are far too many of her kind on Nairaland and they believe in their hearts of hearts that they are knowledgeable about Islam too... #Pathetic

I believe in the idea of Islam, what it represents, but I don't believe in the people that are misrepresenting it, by giving it bad reputations and such.

Most Non-Muslims hatred of anything Islamic didn't sprung from nowhere, you know? The animosity wasn't always there, judging by the rate Black Africans accepted Islam during the 19th and 20th century.

Then came the advent of extremist that changed the whole complexion of how an average person might perceive Islam. The aggression and the constant bombing of innocent civilians by factions associate with the denomination, went a long way in sowing the seeds of Islamophobia into the hearts of the non-Muslims.

The never-ending strife in the predominant Muslim populated middle east didn't help some people's misconception either, as it further proves(in their minds) that Islam represents violence(which is wrong, btw).

Most Islam hating Nairalanders can therefore be forgiven for their misconceptions, cuz like the saying goes "the eyes sees what the eyes sees", they are only voicing out what they believe in, and it's left to you and other Muslims to educate them and guide their minds away from such, instead of antagonizing them, and thus replenishing their armory and giving them further reasons to come at you.

Personally I know the truth, I don't need convincing. I believe in equality of religion and I believe that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, but do they??

@Frostyzone, i like your way of thinking.

FrostyZonn:

I believe in the idea of Islam, what it represents, but I don't believe in the people that are misrepresenting it, by giving it bad reputations and such.

Most Non-Muslims hatred of anything Islamic didn't sprung from nowhere, you know? The animosity wasn't always there, judging by the rate Black Africans accepted Islam during the 19th and 20th century.

Then came the advent of extremist that changed the whole complexion of how an average person might perceive Islam. The aggression and the constant bombing of innocent civilians by factions associate with the denomination, went a long way in sowing the seeds of Islamophobia into the hearts of the non-Muslims.

The never-ending strife in the predominant Muslim populated middle east didn't help some people's misconception either, as it further proves(in their minds) that Islam represents violence(which is wrong, btw).

Most Islam hating Nairalanders can therefore be forgiven for their misconceptions, cuz like the saying goes "the eyes sees what the eyes sees", they are only voicing out what they believe in, and it's left to you and other Muslims to educate them and guide their minds away from such, instead of antagonizing them, and thus replenishing their armory and giving them further reasons to come at you.

Personally I know the truth, I don't need convincing. I believe in equality of religion and I believe that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, but do they??

You make a lot of sense with your post.

I remember, i got a mail from one of my friends saying something about Islam, i was upset and i spoke to an arabic friend from Oman. He told me: Do you blame them?..

I thought about this and i understood why.

Another sent me a mail asking why?, because his relation was murdered. He wanted to understand how this links to Islam. Is this what you teach? This is one of my closest friends from high school.

It is easy to see why a non muslim can hate these muslims, even though i think it is unfair given the fact that muslims themselves are victims of this.I understand.

The question to ask is what has changed.

The last couple of centuries have been really tough on muslim lands, colonisation, the loss of palestine, continous invasion of muslim lands and drone strikes have created anger amongst muslims and has fed the growth of militancy to restore the 'glory days'.

The problem with this approach is that it is based on emotions and not on knowledge of Islam or its tenets.

Many non muslims dismiss the narrative as insignificant and would rather blame Islam. A drone that drops in a village in yemen would create more recruits for militants than an angry sermon by a militant, that is the simple truth.

FrostyZonn:

And how is that a bad thing? Would you rather prefer that they be suppressed?

Did I call it a bad thing?

deols:

Did I call it a bad thing?

Whether its called a bad thing or not, it has deficiencies and that's one of it.

I bother less bout happening these days cos it has been written long time ago.... Allah's message to us is so clear...

“At a later time muslims ll change but islam ll not“

Muslims have change and people put the blame on islam but that's not the reality.

Our society is flooded wit muslim schools and islamic schools are scarce...

Muslims schools where kids are taught music(the haram version)....

Parents now have reservations on islamic laws and prefer to a moderate muslims(don't wanna be seen as a fanatic)

It begins wit you and i.

Lets correct the idea of blaming the tree for a rotten fruit gotten from it.

I agree with your post @tbaba1234, it all boils down to misinformation(on non-Muslims front) and misrepresentation(on Muslims front).