The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), Australia’s leading organisation fighting anti-Semitism and hatred in all its forms, has registered its deep concern at the visit by Pakistani cleric Muhammad Raza Saqib Mustafai who said “It is the guarantee of world peace when the last Jew is slain” and “When the Jews are wiped out, then the world would be purified.” After news reports of his sermons surfaced, the Pakistan Association of Australia called the group organising his visit, alerting them of the contents of the sermons. The group subsequently decided to cancel his talks in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide and asked him to return home. The ADC welcomed this development.
ADC Chairman, Dr Dvir Abramovich, issued the following statement:
“Anyone preaching hate should not be welcomed here and should not be given a platform to promote their troubling and disturbing agenda. It’s alarming to think that a religious figure who uses his pulpit to spread unrestrained, textbook anti-Semitic lies and to demonise Jews, and who openly calls for the genocide of a people, is delivering his sermons in Australia. If the public truly understood the extremist and bigoted rhetoric espoused in the speeches and their potential potency, they would not want this leader speaking to impressionable young men and women and poisoning their hearts and minds. At a time of rising anti-Semitism and radicalisation, such incitement and vilification is unacceptable. We urge the government to take the lead on this issue and to seriously examine the process that enabled this visit. Australia is one of the most inclusive and multicultural countries in the world, and we all have a duty to ensure it remains this way.”
The Anti-Defamation Commission, founded in 1979, is Australia’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through educational programs that combat bigotry, prejudice and all forms of hatred.
For further information please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on (03) 9272 5677.