Australia: Fury over radio host's racism

thecouriermail ^ | 12/17/05 | AAP

[Pikamax]

Fury over radio host's racism AAP 17dec05

A TALKBACK radio host has been forced to apologise for on-air claims that some Lebanese Australians were "inbred".

Macquarie Radio station 2GB's late-night announcer in Sydney, Brian Wilshire, told his audience that many Lebanese "have parents who are first cousins whose parents were first cousins. The result of this is inbreeding – the result of which is uneducationable (sic) people . . . and very low IQ".

Wilshire's comments were greeted by outrage in Sydney.

"It reveals an uneducated comment on his part – they are disgraceful comments," NSW Premier Morris Iemma said. Wilshire, whose 2GB colleague Alan Jones was also accused of fuelling racial tensions, yesterday apologised for his remarks.

"I understand that those comments may have caused offence to some members of the Lebanese community and I unreservedly retract those comments and I apologise for any offence that might have been caused," he said.

Wilshire, whose station biography declares him to be a fifth-generation Australian descended from the brother of Sydney's second mayor James Wilshire, has been with 2GB for 25 years.

His apology came as a number of Lebanese community leaders yesterday blamed talkback radio for stoking racial tensions.

"There's been a number of presenters from the same radio station who seem to have fuelled racism,"

"They are fuelling racial division," Lebanese spokesman Keysar Trad said.

His comments were echoed as Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders met in solidarity today outside a Sydney Uniting Church, where a hall was burned to the ground on Wednesday night About 300 people, including a large group of Muslims from the nearby Omar Mosque in Auburn, as well as representatives of the Christian and Jewish communities, were at the meeting.

Spokesman for Lebanese human rights organisation Cedarwatch, Stephen Stanton, cited 2GB when he blamed talkback radio for helping to incite the violence of the past week.

"Deep in your hearts there are two matters that are hurting you today," Mr Stanton told the crowd.

One example was 2GB.

"The airwaves are useless if they are used by people such as that," he said, to applause from the crowd.

Australian Islamic Cultural Centre president Sheikh Shafiq Khan also criticised the role of the media.

"The media are the arm of the community," Sheik Khan said.

"The government, the media, the community and police, they are working together like a car.

"If one (of these) is not good, the car cannot work."

[robowombat]

All I see are raghead names protesting the 'outrage'. Why is everyone so craven before these b-stards?

[indcons]

And the analysis by the radio host is perfectly true....in fact, the desire for muslims to marry 3-4 wives forces them to marry within the family.

[TCats]

Lost in all the shouts of "Racism" is a question - Does his statement have any factual basis or is it gratuitous?

[Restorer]

many Lebanese "have parents who are first cousins whose parents were first cousins.

I believe this to be indisputably accurate. It is very common in Arab cultures as a way of keeping the family's money "in the family."

The result of this is inbreeding – the result of which is uneducationable (sic) people . . . and very low IQ".

Debatable at best. I don't know of any study that shows such an effect in Arab cultures, or elsewhere for that matter.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

"The media are the arm of the community," Sheik Khan said. "The government, the media, the community and police, they are working together like a car."

Sheik Khan's idea of a well-working car

[msnimje]

"It reveals an uneducated comment on his part – they are disgraceful comments

Is that illegal in Australia? If so, most Democratic leaders in this country would break that law.

[Travis McGee]

a Sydney Uniting Church, where a hall was burned to the ground on Wednesday night

Nice of them to mention this. If a mosque had been burned, it would lead the world news.

[peyton randolph]

Inbreeding doesn't cause problems. Take a look at the British royal family....oh...never mind.

[Eurotwit]

There has been a few stories the last couple of months in Norwegian and British media about inbreeding in Pakistani families causing birth defects and complications...

No mention of IQ though...

[Tax-chick]

Does his statement have any factual basis or is it gratuitous?

I don't know about Lebanese in Australia, but a recent article about Pakistanis in Britain said a huge percentage (up to 75%?) were in first-cousin marriages, many having parents, grandparents, ad infinitum, who were also.

Whether this produces "ineducable" low-IQ's as a general thing, I also don't know, but the article said the Pakistanis had an absolute majority of birth defects and genetic diseases diagnosed in Britain.

[Bigg Red]

What's with this "racism" nonsense? Since when are the Lebanese members of a race that is different from that of the Aussies of European blood?

[GladesGuru]

The Aussies are going PC big time, and stepping in the nasty brown stuff at the same time.

There are published papers on the Saudi family and the larger than normal number of genetically related diseases which the investigator thought were a result of the inbreeding practiced by the Saudi's.

Sorry, Liberals - but reality simply is. One doesn't vote on science hypothesis, one verifies them. And inbreeding does shallow the gene pool.

Live with it, Liberals.

[Bigg Red]

Sheik Khan's idea of a well-working car

**
LOL

[Rusty0604]

I work with a woman whose family is from Palestine and she said that marrying first cousins is their culture, so the guy was telling the truth.

[RegulatorCountry]

"The government, the media, the community and police, they are working together like a car."

Explains the fixation on burning them, amongst Muslim yoots, then, doesn't it?

[Levante]

"Why is everyone so craven before these b-stards?"

Because the're scared sh#tless of being bombed. Or, worse, of being labeled 'racist.'

[tkathy]

There's something deeply wrong with these awful people. Perhaps inbreeding explains some of it.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

Studies by Monash University's Bob Birrell of the most revealing test of immigrant integration, the marriage rate, showed that by the end of the '90s less than 10 per cent of second-generation marriages of people of European descent were to someone from their parents' country. Much the same was true of immigrants from south and east Asia. Only 6 per cent of Indians married within their ethnic group, as did only 18 per cent of Chinese. In short, most immigrants, whatever their race, married Australians of other nationalities. However, for the Lebanese, of whom most of marriageable age were Muslims, these figures were reversed. No less than 74 per cent of Lebanese brides and 61 per cent of Lebanese grooms married within their own ethnic group. Moreover, these figures had increased since the early '90s, when they were about six percentage points lower.

[papertyger]

Why is everyone so craven before these b-stards?

You don't recognize this?

This is the fruition of the "don't let the good be enemy to the best" mentality.

The logical conclusion always winds up being the status quo is the "good," because the "best" would cause social unrest.

Remember that next time someone tries to tell you you're throwing away your "chance" by sticking to principles.