Danny Nalliah's "Call to Action": In the Lost Baggage department?

Go here to listen to Danny Nalliah’s mish-mashed diatribe against our political and church leaders. I say “mish mash” because he mixes up a lot of different issues into one, including the Racial and Religious Tolerance laws, the threat of legalised abortion up to birth, the proposed Bill of Rights, interfaith work, bibles in hotels and hospitals, the National Council of Churches in Australia, gay marriages-—some which are reasons for concern, other things that are just scare-mongering, but all of which is dealt with emotively rather than rationally.

It is fair to call it a “diatribe”. It is a “Call to Action”, and expressly calls for a “revolution for Jesus”. Nalliah sees the future of just civil society in Australia (and in the UK and America) as tied to the identification of the nation as a mono-cultural “Christian country”.

Here he is on Steve Bracks, our erstwhile Premier:

“He basically wants to pamper and take care of all the minorities while the very majority which opens their arms to welcome the people into the country pay a huge price. I ask the question: is it because Steve Bracks is from a Lebonese background that he’s pandering so much for the minorities rights? I don’t know. Sometimes you can carry that mentality into another country. As far as I’m concerned—I’m an immigrant into this country—I’ve left my baggage back at home when I came into this country. I became an Australian and I love this country. Now we cannot be pandering to everyone’s whims and fancies and try to please everyone. The people who come into this country come in because they think that this is a better place to live. So for goodness sake, if you don’t like this country and you think where you came from is better I think its time for you to get back to where you came from, not try to change this country. Now we need to be taking note of all the politicians who are trying to take away our freedoms in order to appease all these people who are coming into the country.” (My emphasis)

I wonder how much of his “baggage” he has left home, in Sri Lanka. How much of his religious extremism is in fact influenced by his experiences outside Australia? He claims to have embraced Australia, but how many Australians would hold Danny Nalliah up as a model of our national values? Has he rather not embraced a vision of Australia which is alien to Australia? There seems to be a lot about Australia that he doesn't like and which he wants to change.

So it seems a little like the pot calling the kettle black. I could think of many others among the 25% of Australian citizens who are non-native who embody Australian values much better than Pastor Danny does. Yasser Soliman, the previous president of the Islamic Council of Victoria, for one. And yet go here to see how some in our community respond to "calls to actions" action our multi-cultural communities.

If you have the patience, listen to his video through to the end. Then tell me if he is a hero, a villain, or just rather sad.