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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @09:38PM
So, if the different species and subspecies of gorillas or chimps or orangutans can interbreed within their group (different gorilla species/subspecies with other gorillas for instance) and produce fertile offspring and so can humans then why are they classified as different species/subspecies and not humans? Even though they sure look very similar to each other than different human races do and appearance and producing fertile offspring doesn't matter. Then what does matter enough for them to be different species/subspecies?