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.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @02:08PM
so in a sense, makes sense. but that court basically used the "No True Scotsman" line of reasoning. the intent of the law was probably meant to lump all those from 'Middle Eaatern' descent, and thus steteotypically fundamentalist Muslim faith. But only from that atereotype, what about Nigerians? Malasians or Indonesians? Coptic Christian Egyptians?
The political motivation was to do something legal about something "everybody knows to be true" and placate some feelings. If there was some intention for surviving court challenges, trying to be vague or generalized, but not too much! but also teying to not be very specific, either. Still didnt take too much nuanced thinking from a judge to get him to hit the kibosh button.