Preachers of racist bigotry

RAM ­ Residents Action Movement
Media release on Voices of Peace
15 July 2007

Right-wing Aussie preachers
'stir up racist bigotry' in NZ

Voices of Peace meetings in Auckland on 27-28 July, to be addressed by left-wing British MP George Galloway, will counter the sudden rise of organised Islamophobia in New Zealand. The meetings are being organised by RAM, the Residents Action Movement. (Meeting details below.)

"A prime catalyst for the Voices of Peace meetings is the Mosques & Miracles tour being organised in New Zealand around the same time to spread the message of Islamophobia," said RAM organiser Grant Morgan. "The Mosques & Miracles tour has been inspired by the 400-page book of the same name written by Australian right-wing Baptist pastor Stuart Robinson."

"Mr Robinson's 'Mosques & Miracles' book calls for the 'mother of all 'spiritual wars' to be fought against 'evil' Islam, which represents the 'anti-Christ' and is 'on the march' to destroy our liberties and freedoms by waging war on all non-Muslims until they 'submit' or are enslaved or killed," said Grant Morgan. "Mr Robinson will also be one of the keynote speakers at the Mosques & Miracles conferences. He will be joined by a group of other extreme right evangelical Christian preachers from Australia."

"By shaping their New Zealand conferences around Mr Robinson's Islamophobic book, the Mosques & Miracles ideologues from Australia will be stirring up racist bigotry against other human beings simply because they follow a different faith and often originate from a different part of the planet."

"RAM asks: Why are the Mosques & Miralces meetings closed to the public, except for one short session? If their message was wholesome, why would they try to hide it from scrutiny by the public and the media? Are they attempting to secretly recruit an Islamophobic cadre here in New Zealand as a necessary first step to building a political movement against Muslim immigrants?"

"The vast majority of New Zealanders reject their sectarian message of division and hate between communities in this country. That is why RAM is organising the positive alternative of Voices of Peace. We are aiming for broad unity around the values of social inclusion and equal rights for every religious believer and non-believer," said Grant Morgan.

"Our call will be amplified by having George Galloway on our Voices of Peace platform. Mr Galloway, a British MP who is world famous as an advocate of social justice and world peace, will be showing how the roots of Islamophobia are to be found in the US war in Iraq."


THE QUOTES BELOW from Stuart Robinson's "Mosques & Miracles" book give you a flavour of its feverish anti-Muslim message:

• "[We face] the threat of having all nations becoming Islamic states and governed by Islamic law (shariah)... The Islamic challenge to the church if not Western society... is in all of our cities and neighbourhoods ­ now! Islam and Christianity are on a pathway of confrontation."
  

• "A firm foundation has been laid to achieve the ultimate goal of the Islamisation of the United States... Islam is much more than just another ethnic lobby group. As its influence grows it is bound to have repercussions on the whole American way of life... Such concepts as 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'... are almost unimaginable within pure Islam... The clash that is likely to occur as Islam increasingly impacts within America is potentially of cataclysmic proportions. In an article entitled 'The New Ideological Enemy', a think tank of the Pentagon considered that a confrontation with Islam was inevitable... The threat to the American way of life does not come from some militarily inferior cluster of far off powers. It comes from within... If the present trend continues it could well be that one day the stars and stripes may be replaced by the crescent moon."
  

• "Until the entire earth and all of its inhabitants are both returned to the rulership of Allah and acknowledged as such by all, then war must be pursued against those who have yet to submit. Peace is impossible... Islam's expansion by means of military conquest is not an occasional event but a... religious obligation."
  

• "No non-Muslim is considered equal to any Muslim."
  

• "On July 9 1935 Winston Churchill warned his countrymen, 'There lies before us a period of strain and peril which I do not think has been equalled ­ no, not even in the Great War [World War I]'... But in England people and their leaders wanted to believe that there would be only peace and prosperity ahead... No less a call should be sounded in our time as Islam organises, finances, equips and implements its strategies around the world. The question is, 'Will we be like the leaders of Europe in the lead up to what became the Holocaust of World War II or will we respond more appropriately while there is yet time?'... We at least [must] acknowledge we are facing an unprecedented challenge of immense proportions."
  

• "What Islam historically and consistently exhibits is certainly not the pattern of the Biblical Kingdom of God on earth. Its origins therefore, are elsewhere... The Quran... makes no categorical condemnation of occult practices... What sort of belief system despises the cross and so vigorously denies the death of Christ?... [Ex-Muslim Christian evangelist] Reza Safa concludes that such could only originate from the anti-Christ..."
  

• "For many years to come, oil from the Middle East will remain an economic jugular for the Western world. If it is closed there would be massive disruption to Western economies... [Extreme right-wing ideologue] Samuel Huntington believes that 'The actions of the oil-rich Muslim states... amount to nothing less than a bold attempt to lay the Christian West under tribute to the Middle East'."
  

• "Islam is on the march and it has reached well within the borders of all Western nations... The spiritual battle has already been joined... Each [person] needs to... reaffirm that we are involved in spiritual warfare and be prepared to enter into it... A spiritual war is being waged... It is the war between good and evil, darkness and light, God and his adversaries. This is the mother of all wars. War is not being fought over one country or one issue but for the hopes and fears of all humanity."
  

More quotes from Stuart Robinson's book, and/or a colour scan of its front cover, are available from RAM organiser Grant Morgan. Email grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz or ring 021 2544 515.

VOICES OF PEACE
UCKLAND MEETINGS

GEORGE GALLOWAY will be addressing these two meetings:

TOWN MEETING
7.30pm, Saturday 28 July.
Auckland Girls Grammar School Theatre.
16 Howe St (off Karangahape Rd).
The three other speakers are:

• JAVED KHAN, president of Federation of Islamic Associations of NZ.
• PAUL BUCHANAN, international security analyst & director of the Working Group on Alternative Security Perspectives at the University of Auckland.
• GRANT MORGAN, organiser of RAM ­ Residents Action Movement.
  

Limit of 800 seats, so those interested are being advised to get there early. NO DOOR CHARGE. Donations will be accepted.

UNIVERSITY MEETING
6pm, Friday 27 July.
University of Auckland.
Venue to be confirmed.
The three other speakers are:

• NIBRAS KARDAMAN, young Muslim woman & representative of the Working Together Group.
• STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE of the campus organising group.
• GRANT MORGAN, organiser of RAM ­ Residents Action Movement.
  

NO DOOR CHARGE. Donations will be accepted.


Both meetings OPEN TO THE MEDIA.

WORKSHOPS
There will also be Voices of Peace workshops where topics touching on Islamophobia can be discussed together by Muslims and non-Muslims. George Galloway will give the introduction.
2-5pm, Sunday 29 July.
Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings.
Limit of 250 participants, so those interested are being advised to get there early.