Turnbull blames Muslims for the 38 per cent No vote
Image: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on ABC's 7.30. Photo: ABC
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has attempted to blame Muslim Australians for voting against marriage equality in the postal survey.
He said the migrant population in western Sydney was a reason for the No vote of 38 per cent, Pink News has reported.
“The numbers speak for themselves, and you can see the biggest No votes were in electorates with a large migrant population, and in particular with a large Muslim population, like several of the seats in western Sydney and in Melbourne,” said Turnbull in a radio interview.
“In some of those seats you’ve got a very big Muslim community who are very conservative on issues like this and very little support for same-sex marriage.”
Just 17 federal electorates out of 150 returned a majority No vote in the survey, most in western Sydney, along with three Queensland and two Victorian seats.
The most vocal opponents of marriage equality during the campaign period were not Muslims, who make up just 2.6 per cent of Australians, but the Australian Christian Lobby and the affiliated Coalition for Marriage.
During the survey, Muslims for Marriage Equality brought together a diverse group of Muslims supporting LGBTI rights and marriage equality.
Founder Fahad Ali said Turnbull is wrong to blame Muslims for the No vote.
“The Yes campaign, they didn’t really go into western Sydney,” said Ali.
“It didn’t really build in diverse communities out west and the consequence of that is that they voted No.”
Professor of Sociology Andrew Jakubowicz at the University of Technology Sydney agreed that lack of outreach was a problem.
“The opposition to same-sex marriage was particularly resonant in communities where people have fairly poor educational backgrounds, somewhat limited English language skills and their information is mediated primarily through religious institutions,” he said.
Professor Jakubowicz noted that Muslims were not the only religious group who returned a No vote.
“In localities where there are strong communities built around Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam, Eastern Catholicism, African Christianities, Asian Christianities (ranging from Catholic to Evangelical), and even in other areas with pockets of Orthodox Judaism, there were singular funnels of information presented in cultural and moral terms,” he said.
Just imagine if the survey had been done, say 10 years later, with an even greater percentage of non-Anglo immigrants. Hopefully, this might cause some to reconsider their hypocrisy in supporting an open door immigration policy.
So a Professor of some kind says these people of Western Sydney are some what poorly educated & lacking in English language skills. But you have to remember these people were allow into this country because we could not grow as a country without their wonderful skills. Thank you Mr Hooker!
Too much PC. He stated simple facts. No need to get too sensitive and make a big drama over everything.
The people who use Religion/ideology to mask their hatred itself seems to be the problem. Islam, Anglican, catholic, Greek Orthodox, etc.
And groups like the ACL who have the ear of the coalition backbench politicians who are screaming about ‘religious freedom’ being eroded. That is- to use their religion as a mask for their hatred to continue to discriminate. Why should churches for example be granted to the right to refuse to perform a same sex marriage any more than a civil celebrant who hates us?
AS such, there must be NO MORE RELIGIOUS CONCESSIONS OR ‘PROTECTIONS’ TO THEIR ‘FREEDOM’ TO DISCRIMINATE!
Voting wasnt compulsory so quite obviously far more motivation for “change” or yes voters to vote
What percentage didnt vote for a change or vote at all ??
Turdball is a gutless turd. What is this? Is this his sincerely sorry-arsed attempt to appease the truly sh*t-for-brains right-wing-nut-jobs he so desperately needs to NOT get bounced out of office?
LNP = D Trump, 100%. ALL about themselves, 24/7 & THE biggest LIARS on this planet! Their only goal is to divide & crawl of carcasses they leave behind. Hey Turdy, take that yapping Corgi with you when you go!!!
Yet another example of the gay press ignoring the elephant in the room (or trying to dissuade others from looking at it).
Islam is profoundly hostile to LGBT people and this is reflected in many demonstrable facts:
Fact: all of the countries that have the death penalty for homosexuality are Muslim nations or Muslim- dominated nations.
Fact: surveys have found that a majority of Muslims in the UK believe that homosexuality is ‘morally unacceptable’.
Fact: the most terrifying rollbacks of the human rights of LGBT people in the world today are occurring in Muslim or Muslim-dominated countries. Chechnya (where our brothers and sisters are being tortured and murdered) and Indonesia (where cruel and barbaric punishments are being used in some parts of the country such as Aceh) are just two examples of this aggressive trend.
In parts of Europe, gay hate attacks are on the rise- though, as usual, most media reports fail to mention the Islamic connection.
It’s true enough that there are honorable exceptions to this rule. There are genuine modernisers in the Islamic world who have sought to liberalise their faith and open up pathways for a more progressive interpretation.
But for the most part, medieval attitudes remain.
I know nobody wants to stigmatise all Muslims or subject them to hatred. But surely LGBT people at least deserve to know the truth about who is most hostile to them and their interests.
How can Turnbull be blaming anyone for anything when he is the homophobe who caused the whole mess. HE is the one who doesn’t support same sex marriage. HE is the one who refused to do anything about it in parliament where people do speak English and could have had a fair debate. HE is the one who told Australians to debate it out amongst themselves knowing postal forms will not get to Aboriginal communities and knowing which areas were high in migrant numbers and would need support to manage the process. He sabotaged the whole thing and wants to blame the very people who may not be able to defend themselves against his lies. Pathetic ! He is trying to blame anyone he can in an attempt to hide his actions and try to save his reputation. Pathetic, spineless wimp.
Muslims make up 2.2% of the population .. even if there was 100% adherence to a NO vote that still leaves the rest of the 36% coming from else where. Yes a concentration of a particular group in a particular electorate might mean the No vote in that particular electorate is high but BIG DEAL!
61.6% is a awesome result. As a community we need to respect that people have differing opinions and if experience overseas is repeated we will in time win many of those NO voters over .. if people aren’t bad winners and do stupid provocative things just because they can
Maybe if the YEs campaign had pinched the No Campaign’s slogan “It’s OK to say NO” and added…. BUT…,it’s better to say YES” or something like “BUT more Loving to say YES” those voters in Western Sydney might have changed their minds – at least amongst the younger ones.
I think, given the success Malcolm got he should maybe not say anything.
Remember if any group of people – despite their claims that they Love All men, All Women, All Children, are Generous and Compassionate, are anti-Muslim it is those self-styled Christians beating their drums of Hatred, Suspicion and Distrust. Religious hatred has existed for millennia and Christians, until very recently, were brought up to Hate/ Loathe and Despise Muslims and Jews. The hatred for Jews has died down but it still is very much alive within a large section of the Christian Community – the m ore they claim to be “Good Christians” the greater their hatred of Muslims and, of course our GLTBIQ Community with us being the most loathed of all.
I live in Barton electorate (only 44% yes vote) and I found in my mailbox a phamphlet authorised by L Shelton. It was in English on one side and Greek on the other side, the latter being my families first language. I never found anything supporting the yes campaign in my mailbox.
I would blame my own church too – Greek Orthodox religion, who even comissioned their own protest website (http://marriage.greekorthodox.org.au/) in response to the SSM vote.
To blame only one religious group is just headline grabbing games…..
Holy crap (if you’ll pardon the pun) that’s a terrifying website. But it’s so political it’s arguably jeapordising the Greek Orthodox Church’s tax exemptions.
I’ll have a crack at referring it to the ATO. Watch the government cover that shit up in a blinding flash.
Of course he is right! The figures speak for themselves.
There’s lies, damned lies and statistics Ruxxy! The muslim population gets up to 30% in some of the western Sydney electorates which voted No, and not all of them will have been enrolled to vote. So there must be a lot more No voters than there are Muslims to explain the numbers in those seats.
I suspect the issue was a general misunderstanding of the concept of civil versus religious marriage in immigrant communities.
I’m concerned that the ABS did a crap job of explaining the survey to non-English-speaking communities as a whole. This was previously reported to be an issue with some Aboriginal communities, so I can’t imagine they did a better job in western Sydney.
That’s some racist BS right there Ruxxy. Did you read the article? Muslims make up less than 3% of Australia’s population, what do those figures say when the no vote was 38%?
Yep correct – its not the “muslim lebanese” that are defacing the sydney murals they see as mocking christians – its a group called ” Christian lives matter”. I think a muslim would not be part of that group. As always its easy for everyone to blame the muslims… good old aussie racism at its best. But to say that people who come to australia retain the morals that they left their country with, at the time they left, may explain the massive no turnout in the west of Sydney – and in certain parts of Melbourne. After all – even the most redneck parts of Australia like the electorate of Grey in SA (where in 1994 a survey found that 60% of males surveyed through it was OK to force a woman to have sex with them) managed to get a 53% yes vote.
Sendai, Islam is a belief system, not a race. Muslims were less likely—by their own admission—to vote in favour of SSM than Christians. Christians were on the whole more in favour than opposed.
These are facts.
Islam needs to be called out. They’re not oppressed. They’re not marginalised or disenfranchised. Scarily, as migrants, they’re also not assimilating. They don’t get a free pass just because their spaghetti monster is less well known than the Christian one.
And I repeat: they aren’t a bloody race!
Well Ruxxy the Muslim population in my suburb is about 25%, and yet my electorate returned a 70% yes vote. Some of those 25% won’t be eligible to vote because they’re children or not citizens… so I don’t see how I can get 30% no from the Muslim population here for my entire electorate.
I put the blame solely on the ACL, Sydney Anglican Church, Catholic Church and Greek Orthodox Church – all allegedly Christian, all allegedly loving others as Jesus loved.