Hoax designed to cause fear

Chris Northover PHOTO/FILE

There is an email doing the rounds guaranteed to upset us. It is a story about how the council of a small town in North Queensland had banned Christmas lights because they offended the local Muslim population. The email read: "Christmas Lights in Cardwell, North Queensland have been banned by the local council after a complaint from the new Al Shalala Mosque built in the town just weeks ago. Imam Adnan Janutab said that the town's 100 Muslim residents found the lights to be an offensive celebration of Christmas, and urged Christians to practice their beliefs privately within their homes, and not in public. The council said in a statement that the request was approved because the needs of the religious minority needed to be respected".

Naturally most people are offended as the author of the email had intended that we would be. It was so alarming that before I allowed myself to get worked up about it I did a little bit of research. I shouldn't have been surprised to find that there was no such ban and in fact the town was too small to have a mosque or an Imam. The whole thing was a hoax with no foundation in truth - a "try-on" calculated to engender hatred against Muslims. A lie intended to evoke disquiet or even a reaction.

I suspect that this hoax and others like it are the result of fear in the community - people worried about Islamic violence overseas and concerned that it doesn't find its way here. They point out that while not all Muslims are terrorists, nearly all terrorists are Muslim. They are concerned that the Muslims in our community may one day turn against us - which would make such hoax emails a particularly stupid idea.

However, the news on Thursday (genuinely) showed a Mosque in Sydney which was calling for violence against the people of Australia in order to bring about an Australian Islamic caliphate. Young children were seen calling for an end to the Australian way of life - with a 6-year-old promising to die fighting for an end to democracy in Australia.

Local Muslims tell us: "These people [the terrorists] are not real Muslims". And certainly we have many fine residents in this area who are Muslims - people in business and the professions, particularly medicine - who can be admired and respected as honest, intelligent, hard-working people with integrity. They are in this country to enjoy the same things we enjoy - peacefully.

Muslims believe The Quran is the word of the Prophet Mohammad written over time about 1400 years ago as instructed by Allah. The Quran lays out the Islamic religion, including Sharia law - we should understand that Islam is as much a political system as it is a religion - and the world will know "true peace" only when it is subject to Sharia law. The earlier sections of The Quran appear to be far less "warlike" than the later parts.

Perhaps "moderate" Muslims the world over are more likely to rely on the earlier parts of the Quran and thus hold more moderate views? For instance, Mohammad's call for "jihad" or "holy war" can be seen by moderates as a call to win the hearts and minds of people peacefully. On the other hand, groups such as Isis or Al Qaeda believe it is their duty to wage jihad against the infidel - non-Muslims - until the whole world is subject to Islam. Tough one, eh?

Chris Northover is a Wanganui-based former corporate lawyer who has worked in the fields of aviation, tourism, health and the environment.