Tempers have flared over an Australia Day advertising campaign featuring children wearing Muslim headscarves, fanning debate over the meaning of the January 26 Australian national holiday.
The image of the young girls wearing hijabs was removed from a Melbourne billboard this week after the advertising firm behind the campaign to promote the holiday, which was backed by the Victoria state government, received threats.
Far-right groups posted a picture of the poster on social media claiming it to be a misrepresentation of Australia Day and accused the government of being too politically correct.
In response, a crowdfunding campaign to raise A$20,000 (S$21,561) to have the advertisement reinstated kicked off Wednesday and by late Thursday had received more than A$140,000 in pledges.
“The people who found it offensive are the same ones that complain ‘the Muslims don’t assimilate’, and yet here we have two lovely girls celebrating Australia Day,” the campaign’s organiser, Dee Madigan, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The money raised will be used to publish the ad on billboards and in newspapers in major cities across the country from Friday, according to the campaign’s page on the Go Fund Me website.
Weighing into the debate, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told Australian radio that images representing diversity in Australian society meant showcasing people from different backgrounds.
“I think it’s great that we’ve got young girls, young boys from whatever background who are embracing Australian values, flying the Australian flag, proud to be Australian, proud to be part of our society,” he said.
Mr Dutton also took aim at the Australian Greens political party for failing to distance itself from a hard-left faction who have advocated the burning of the Australian flag, erecting protest banners and interrupting Australia Day activities.
Celebrated annually, Australia Day marks the arrival of the first English settlers more than 200 years ago, and is supposed to be a day of reflection on national achievements as new citizens are sworn in.
But for many people, particularly in the Aboriginal community, Australia’s most disadvantaged group, it is known as “Invasion Day”, when colonial forces began to take land and lives from the indigenous population.
Police have disrupted a terrorist plot to detonate improvised explosive devices at locations in central Melbourne, possibly on Christmas Day, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says.
Seven people were arrested overnight at properties in Flemington, Meadow Heights and Dallas in Melbourne over the alleged plot, which police said was inspired by the Islamic State (IS) group.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews described the plot as an “act of evil”, while Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said police had seized “the makings of an improvised explosive device”.
Speaking at a press conference today, Mr Turnbull said: “Overnight our police and security agencies have disrupted a very substantial terrorist plot.
“Overnight, the Victoria Police, working with the Australian Federal Police and ASIO, have arrested seven persons, five of whom are still in custody, searched five premises and are continuing to search them.
“What they have uncovered is a plot to explode improvised explosive devices in central Melbourne in the area of Federation Square, on or about Christmas Day.
The raids were part of a counter-terrorism operation involving Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police and ASIO.
Commissioner Ashton said it was believed a number of people were intending to carry out an attack involving explosives and other weapons.
“Over the last fortnight … we have had to conduct a criminal investigation relating to the formation of what we believe was a terrorist plot,” he said.
Police believe the locations to be targeted include Federation Square, Flinders Street Station, and St Paul’s Cathedral.
Commissioner Ashton said: “We believe [the plot] was going to involve an explosive event, the use of explosives, and we gathered evidence to support that.
“There has also been evidence that we will lead around the possibility of an intention to use other weapons. That could include knives and/or a firearm.
“Certainly these [people] are self-radicalised, we believe, but inspired by ISIS and ISIS propaganda.”
A 24-year-old man from Meadow Heights, a 26-year-old man from Dallas, a 22-year-old man from Campbellfield, a 21-year-old man from Flemington and a 21-year-old man from Gladstone Park remain in police custody.
A 20-year-old woman and a 26-year-old man, both from Meadow Heights, were released without charge.
The five people in custody were expected to face court this afternoon, charged with acts in preparation of a terrorist event, Commissioner Ashton said.
Commissioner Ashton said four of the five were Australian-born with a Lebanese background.
“The age groups range between 20 and 24 or 25. There is another suspect in this matter who will be charged that was an Egyptian-born Australian citizen. All the others were Australian-born,” he said.
Premier Daniel Andrews said there would be an increased police presence at large gatherings in Victoria over the Christmas period.
Commissioner Ashton said he spoke to Cricket Australia about providing additional security at the MCG during the Boxing Day Test, which starts on Monday.
A look at the progressive searches for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which are the most challenging and expensive undertaken in aviation history.
FIRST SEARCH: On March 8, 2014, an air and sea search begins in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea on the assumption that the plane crashed on its way from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. Malaysia reveals two weeks later that its military radar had tracked the plane flying far off course to the west.
SECOND SEARCH: Analysis of satellite signals emitted by the plane in its final hours suggests that it crashed west of Australia. A sonar search appears to detect the ‘ping’ of the jet’s black box near the end of its monthlong battery life. But after 850 square kilometers (330 square miles) of seabed is searched, authorities conclude that they must have been mistaken.
THIRD SEARCH: Further analysis of satellite data defined a more remote search zone 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) off Australia’s southwest coast in the Indian Ocean. The 60,000-square-kilometer (23,000-square-mile) search area was later doubled. In July, officials agreed the search would be suspended once crews finish scouring the area, unless new evidence emerges pinpointing a specific location of the aircraft.
POSSIBLE FOURTH SEARCH?: In December, international investigators released a report based on a fresh analysis of the data concluding that the plane is highly unlikely to be in the current search zone, and suggesting that the aircraft may instead have crashed in an area farther north. The investigators said a new search should be launched of the 25,000-square kilometer (9,700-square mile) area immediately to the north of the current search zone. But Australian officials said that was unlikely, as the report failed to identify a specific location of the plane.
CHALLENGES: The search zone is so remote that the sonar ships spend half their monthlong shifts transiting to and from their Australian port. The ocean ranges from 600 meters (2,000 feet) to 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) deep, with the average depth being 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). The seabed has jutting ridges and volcanoes and deep, sharp crevasses.
COST: Australia has agreed to pay US$60 million and China $20 million for the current search. Malaysia has paid $80 million and has agreed to pay the balance of the final search cost.
Bayangkan jika anda bangun tidur dan secara tiba-tiba anda terlupa bagaimana untuk berjalan sedangkan anda tidak mempunyai masalah kesihatan sebelum itu.
Bagi Cik Miranda Licence, itulah yang terjadi dan ia ibarat mimpi ngeri yang membingungkan.
Awal daripada itu, Cik License tidur siang untuk berehat setelah pulang dari berlari-lari anak, namun apabila bangun beliau tiba-tiba menyedari tangan dan kakinya tidak dapat dikawal dan beliau tidak dapat berjalan.
Cik License dikejarkan ke hospital dan pelbagai ujian dijalankan oleh para doktor namun tiada satu pun diagnosis perubatan yang dapat menjelaskan kelumpuhan secara tiba-tiba itu, lapor laman Daily Mail.
TIDAK BOLEH JALAN TETAPI BOLEH LARI, JALAN KE BELAKANG!
Yang semakin membingungkan Cik License adalah beliau kemudiannya mampu untuk berlari dan berjalan – tetapi ke belakang, bukan ke depan!
Beliau langsung tidak boleh berjalan ke depan.
“Saya tahu saya sepatutnya boleh berjalan kerana tiada apa di dalam otak saya yang menghalang saya, namun saya tetap tidak dapat melakukannya,” Cik License memberitahu Daily Mail Australia.
Cik License kemudian didiagnosis dengan gangguan fungsi simptom neurologi (FND), di mana pesakit mengalami masalah pada sistem saraf pusat.
Setelah menjalani rawatan fisioterapi, Cik License mula berlari dan berjalan ke belakang di sekitar kawasan hospital, namun beliau masih tidak boleh berjalan ke depan seperti biasa.
TIBA-TIBA BOLEH JALAN SEMULA
Selepas enam minggu dalam keadaan sedemikian, Cik License keluar bersama teman lelaki beliau dan pada ketika itu beliau menyedari sesuatu yang menakjubkan.
“Saya sedang berjalan bersama teman lelaki saya, Sam dan kami sedang berbual-bual apabila tiba-tiba saya menyedari saya sedang berjalan,” kata beliau.
Itulah kali pertama beliau berjalan dalam tempoh hampir dua bulan, lapor Daily Mail.
Selepas tujuh minggu, Cik License disahkan dapat berjalan seperti sedia kala seolah-olah mimpi ngeri itu tidak pernah berlaku.
Mengingati kembali insiden misteri yang membingungkan semua orang itu, Cik License berkata, beliau mempelajari nilai kesabaran di tengah-tengah ujian.
When Captain Mona Shindy climbed aboard HMAS Canberra to test missiles in the Pacific, a locker had to be converted into a sleeping quarters to accommodate her.
Never before had an active Australian warship carried women. But aged 23 and launching what would become a 26-year career with the Navy, this was just the first hurdle of a trailblazer.
Already she had a University degree in the blokey domain of engineering. Weapons engineer. And if this were not unusual enough, Captain Shindy happens to be Muslim, and for most of her career in the navy, has been a mother.
Australian Navy Captain Mona Shindy
On board HMAS Canberra Captain Shindy and her two female room-mates were like celebrities, and not all of it was positive publicity.
“We were an absolute novelty and people knew our every movement, what we got up to and where we were. Overall the experience was a positive experience but there certainly were times that were quite challenging,” Captain Shindy says.
“Most female engineers in any work environment _ you really do have to work that little bit harder initially to prove your worth, to demonstrate your competence to really be accepted fully as valued member and a real contributor to the team.”
Then came the challenge of Ramadan, and explaining as a young sublieutenant that she was fasting and would appreciate a meal being put aside for her.
The response was along the lines of: “You’ll eat with everyone else, or you just won’t.” Which left her “the middle of the ocean with a few cans of tuna”.
Once the right ranking officer was made aware of the problem, a solution was soon found.
Anger was never an option.
“My first reaction is to empathise, rather than get angry, and to try and be part of the solution and work on the education piece, through engagement and interaction and just being professional about what I do and delivering professional outcomes and results. In the end, people respect that.”
It’s an attitude that has delivered her to the pinnacle of her career, recognised this week when she was named NSW Telstra Business Woman of the Year. As Director Littoral Warfare and Maritime Support, Captain Shindy advises the Government on the best way to spend billions of dollars on replacement tankers, ships, patrol boats — almost everything except submarines.
She was previously charged with turning around the Fast Frigate System Program Office, from an inefficient organisation with adversarial stakeholder relationships, to a collaborative culture with performance-based contracts. And she shaved 30 per cent in costs from a $130 million budget.
“People were happy at the end of the tenure, ships were leaving the wharf on time with all the maintenance done, when initially they weren’t.”
Soon after her first tour of duty on HMAS Canberra, Captain Shindy married and had a daughter, now 20 and a son, 18, who finished his HSC on Wednesday. Their happy accident followed a decade later in the form of another daughter, now 11.
Captain Mona Shindy at Garden Island Navy Base in Sydney. Picture: Toby Zerna
The job has required service on ships for two-year durations, with time away ranging from two to six months.
“But six months in anyone’s language for a mother with two young children and a young family, is a very significant sacrifice.
“I’m not going to dress it up. It was tough.”
It could not have happened without an extended family backing her up. Crucial were her mother — “who in many ways acted as a pseudo mother for my children sometimes when I was away” — and husband, who has taken many career breaks.
“For me, the only thing that made it easier is knowing that those kids had just as much love and support from those that were with them than I could have given them myself.”
Her family migrated from Egypt when she was three.
“The moment my parents migrated to Australia, they were determined to feel as Australian as anyone else.” She holds the position of Chief of Navy’s Strategic Adviser on Islamic Cultural Affairs, for which she was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross in this year’s Australia Day honours for her work bridging cultural divides.
It is her aim to encourage more Muslims to join the defence force — around 100 of the 45000 defence force personnel identify as Muslim, 27 of them in the Navy.
“There’s lots of Australian Muslims who feel very hurt … by previous military campaigns that our defence forces have been on that have I guess resulted in discomfort and difficulty …. where those campaigns have occurred that have caused ramifications for a lot of innocent people.”
She says terrorist attacks which have hijacked aspects of religious teachings to justify those behaviours have created “fear and uncertainty for others who are non-Muslims”.
“For some people that gets looked at as the whole Muslim community,” Captain Shindy says. Some young Muslim see this in black and white “us and them” terms.
“They don’t have the maturity necessarily to see the greys and to understand that this is not everyone that has those views about you. That erodes confidence for those kids.”
There’s lots of Australian Muslims who feel very hurt … by previous military campaigns that our defence forces have been on
Her message to them is this: “You can be a proud Australian that loves everything about this great nation and still love your roots and love where you came from and straddle both worlds and both communities. That’s how I live my life and I like to help other people find their way in living those two things.”
And she can cite her own experience, including active service at the start of the 2003 Iraq War.
“It’s always tough, when you go anywhere, whether that’s Iraq. They were difficult times, they were interesting times I think for the whole nation.
“We are an instrument of our democratically elected government and I think that’s something that is very much accepted, understood and part of the contract that I personally have with my organisation. That’s my role, that’s what I signed up to do.”
