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posted by martyb on Saturday February 16 2019, @08:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the Better-than-a-rat-race dept.

Is a religious group a 'race' or isn't it? Is someone 'racist' if they publicly state their dislike of a religious group? An Australian tribunal has answered this question by ruling that Muslim is not a race, and as such, a person who vilifies them in public, an act which is currently illegal in Australia, would not have broken the law.

In 2016 Sonia Kruger 'called for an end to migration from Islamic countries' saying that she wanted people to feel safe when going out to celebrate Australia day. Sam Ekermawi, a Muslim, filed a complaint to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal claiming the comments were racial vilification.

The tribunal was unable to conclude Muslims living in Australia "are a 'race' by reason of a common ethnic or ethno-religious origin" and dismissed the application. This is an important milestone in the legal and cultural development of the ocean-bound nation which is still attempting to balance the melting pot of cultures and people who have migrated to the country from all over the world. This ruling may be a key threshold for defining what the word 'race' actually means in the legal and social and cultural context and how laws will be interpreted in the future.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @10:39PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @10:39PM (#802213)

    Since humans wiped out or outcompeted other hominids like the neanderthal, denisovan etc. its really lonely with just one human species. It'd be cooler to just think there are a bunch of different human species alive today that can all interbreed with each other. It would make the world more interesting.
    It would Be better if we bred dwarfs, elves, giants, etc. ☺ would probably take a while though or genetic engineering.