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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: 2) by urza9814 on Saturday February 16 2019, @10:57PM (3 children)

    by urza9814 (3954) on Saturday February 16 2019, @10:57PM (#802225) Journal

    So, it's no racism because a religion is not a race. Reasonable enough. Except for the bit where her comment was about NATIONALITY, not religion! Residents of "Islamic countries" is NOT the same group as "Muslims". This is like when you criticize the foreign policy decisions of Israel and immediately get accused of anti-semitism. Stop equating religion with politics!

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  • (Score: 2) by crafoo on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:23AM

    by crafoo (6639) on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:23AM (#802306)

    I don't know. I think equating the two is pretty useful, particularly for 1 or 2 popular religions.

  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday February 17 2019, @12:47PM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday February 17 2019, @12:47PM (#802480) Journal

    Ah, but nationality is not race, either.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @03:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @03:26PM (#802983)

    nationality isn't a race either