Kameel Majdali's Road Ahead

Recently Australian Federal Parliamentarian Joe Hockey, 44, the former Federal Minister for Human Services and then later for Employment and Workplace Relations in John Howard’s government and currently the Shadow Treasurer in the Federal Parliament, gave a speech entitled In Defence of God . While it never occurred to me that the Creator of the Universe needed ‘defending,’ I was keen to read what Mr. Hockey had to say, especially since his family comes from Palestine, just like mine. I tried in vain to locate the complete text. But an extract of it was enough to get me blogging. According to Michelle Grattan’s article Hockey goes to the defence of religious faith http://www.theage.com.au/national/hockey-goes-to-the-defence-of-religious-faith-20091108-i3ip.html , Mr Hockey says: A number of fast-growing evangelical Christian churches in Australia take a literalist approach to the scriptures. While most leaders of the older churches … have moved away from such a position … there i...

‘Talking heads’ were spinning; fingers wagging; and Australia found itself in the centre of a furious storm. What was its transgression? A war crime? A human rights violation? A political scandal and cover-up? No, none of the above. The ‘eye of the storm’ was a skit on ‘ Hey, Hey, It’s Saturday ,’ where a group of Sydney doctors, of different races, did a take-off of the ‘Jackson Five,’ called ‘Jackson Jive.’ The doctors painted their faces ‘black.’ The man impersonating Michael Jackson was ‘white.’ One of the judges, American singer Harry Connick Junior, found himself in an awkward situation. He handed the group a big ‘0’ and said such an act would never be allowed in America; it apparently brought reminders of racist minstrel shows in the 19th century. Australian host Daryl Somers quickly apologized for the offense and so did the performers. Their contrition did nothing to slow down, let alone stop, that which followed. A chorus of condemnation blew with gale-force ferocity, mo...