Posted on 02/26/2006 3:39:50 AM PST by naturalman1975
Australia is not an emigrant nation. Australia is an immigrant nation. This is a defining characteristic of who we are. Outside indigenous people, we are all immigrants or descendants of immigrants.
People come to Australia and become Australian citizens because they want to embrace the things this country stands for. We should be proud that people from all over the world come here looking for Australian values - our values - and want to embrace them. Values like economic opportunity, security, democracy, personal freedom, the physical environment and strong physical and social infrastructure.
Unless we have a consensus of support about how we will form our legislatures and an agreement to abide by the laws, none of us will be able to enjoy our rights and liberties without being threatened by others.
We have a compact to live under a democratic legislature and obey the laws it makes. Those who are outside this compact threaten the rights and liberties of others. They should be refused citizenship if they apply for it. Where they have it, they should be stripped of it if they are dual citizens and have some other country that recognises them as citizens.
Terrorists and those who support them do not acknowledge the rights and liberties of others - the right to live without being maimed, the right to live without being bombed - and as such they forfeit the right to join in Australian citizenship.
The refusal to acknowledge the rule of law as laid down by democratic institutions also stabs at the heart of the Australian compact. The radical Muslim cleric Benbrika was asked last year: "But don't you think Australian Muslims - Muslims living in Australia - also have a responsibility to adhere to Australian law?"
He answered: "This is a big problem. There are two laws - there is an Australian law and there is an Islamic law."
No, this is not a big problem. There is one law we are all expected to abide by. It is the law enacted by the Parliament under the Australian constitution. If you can't accept that then you don't accept the fundamentals of what Australia is and what it stands for.
Our state is a secular state. As such it can protect the freedom of all religions for worship. Religion instructs its adherents on faith, morals and conscience. But there is not a separate stream of law derived from religious sources that competes with or supplants Australian law in governing our civil society.
A person who does not acknowledge the supremacy of civil law laid down by democratic processes cannot truthfully take the pledge of allegiance. As such they do not meet the condition for citizenship.
There are some beliefs, some values, so core to the nature of our society that those who refuse to accept them refuse to accept the nature of our society.
If someone cannot honestly make the citizenship pledge, they cannot honestly take out citizenship. If they have taken it out already they should not be able to keep it where they have citizenship in some other country.
Of course this is not possible for those who are born here and have no dual citizenship. In these cases, we have on our hands citizens who are apparently so alienated that they do not support what their own country stands for.
Such alienation could become a threat to the rights and liberties of others. And so it is important to explain our values, explain why they are important, and engage leadership they respect to assist us in this process.
It will be a problem if we have a second generation - the children of immigrants who have come to Australia - in a twilight zone where the values of their parents' old country have been lost but the values of the new country not fully embraced. To deal with this we must clearly state the values of Australia and explain how we expect them to be respected.
No one is going to respect a citizenship that is so undemanding that it asks nothing. In fact our citizenship is quite a demanding obligation. It demands loyalty, tolerance and respect for fellow citizens and support for a rare form of government - democracy.
We have a robust tolerance of difference in our society. But to maintain this tolerance we have to have an agreed framework which will protect the rights and liberties of all. And we are asking our citizens to subscribe to that framework.
I do not like putrid representations like Piss Christ. I do not think galleries should show them. But I do recognise they should be able to practise their offensive taste without fear of violence or a riot. Muslims do not like representation of the prophet. They do not think newspapers should print them. But so too they must recognise this does not justify violence against newspapers, or countries that allow newspapers to publish them.
We are asking all our citizens to subscribe to a framework that can protect the rights and liberties of all. These are Australian values. We must be very clear on this point. They are not optional. We expect all those who call themselves Australians to subscribe to them. Loyalty, democracy, tolerance, the rule of law - values worth promoting, values worth defending. The values of Australia and its citizens.
And here in America as well:
"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."
Here, here!!!!!
He answered: "This is a big problem. There are two laws - there is an Australian law and there is an Islamic law."
No, this is not a big problem. There is one law we are all expected to abide by. It is the law enacted by the Parliament under the Australian constitution. If you can't accept that then you don't accept the fundamentals of what Australia is and what it stands for.
We need to say the same...
They hate the West. Why are they here ?
WE should have a similar pledge to follow OUR laws before anyone is allowed to even SHOW UP here, let alone become a citizen.
He's half right. There is only Islamic "law" to a Muslim.
And the over one BILLION Muslims in the world won't do anything about it.
This is THE ONE big problem.
Well put!
Something to hammer into Bush and the rest of the "Guest Worker" crowd.
Words that should be taken to heart by everyone living in the West, anomalous precisely because of its freedoms, which are so rarely found in the rest of the world, and almost completely absent from the Islamic portion of it.
I wish there was a leader in this country with the same clarity of vision on this subject.
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