by Anne Miller
Congratulations bigots. You have won. Your Islamaphobia has triumphed over common sense, decency and the truth in the recent online poll conducted by the South Burnett Regional Council.
Are you so afraid that Australian values and lifestyle are so weak, so paper-thin, that bringing in a couple of families who are “different” could possibly affect the way you live, eat or dress?
Could they be such a threat to your job? Could they lead to a ban on bacon or beheadings in Booie?
There are many good people in the South Burnett who work hard at fund-raising for numerous charities – cancer research, the rescue helicopters, drought relief etc.
And, I suspect, the percentage of Christian church-goers here is far higher than in many city areas (after all, the rest of Australia labels Kingaroy as the heart of Queensland’s Bible Belt).
But where were these values on display in the Council’s poll?
It seems only 30 per cent of the people who bothered to vote would extend a welcoming hand to a family who has fled war-torn Syria.
That just doesn’t sound like the South Burnett we know.
So let’s drill down a bit further …
I am not being paranoid when I say there are organised groups with an anti-Muslim agenda hard at work in Australia.
Some of these are obvious – the White Supremacist lunatic fringe – while some are less so, eg. an active pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian lobby.
The Far Right anti-immigration Golden Dawn party, from Greece, has ardent followers in Australia who reportedly turned out at recent “Reclaim Australia” and anti-Bendigo mosque rallies in Victoria.
And the British National Party are particularly active in creating social media memes which seem to pop up frequently in some South Burnett residents’ Facebook posts.
How much of an influence do these people have in the South Burnett?
How hard would it be for people with an agenda to warp an online poll? After all, the South Burnett contains about 32,000 people, but only 600 voted …
I believe at least some of the people who were commenting on social media when Council announced its poll were not real.
I could not confirm some of the names through other checks. And some of the Facebook profiles appeared fake (ie. no friends, and the only posts being political).
I also turned up a few who were from overseas.
I really do hope that these people did skew the Council’s poll and, perhaps, voted multiple times (yes, it can be done).
If so, their manipulation has made the South Burnett look like a bunch of racist fools.
But if this isn’t the case, and the votes were real … then we have some genuine problems.
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