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Third party certification of food Submission 1047 Senate Standing Committees on Economics PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 July 28, 2015 Ladies and Gentlemen, This Submission in relation to Food Certification Schemes is presented by Peter Forde of OzUnited. I make this submission on behalf of the persons who subscribe to OzUnited, the organisation that I initiated a few years ago. Although our organisation is relatively small, in the matter of Islam’s relentless and, we believe, extremely dangerous encroachment into Australia – of which the rapid spread of the ‘Halal Certification’ concept is merely one small sign – our views are well aligned with those of a great majority of ‘ordinary’ Australians, who are typically described as the ‘silent majority.’ We therefore trust that you will read this submission with the sober understanding that in this document you are most definitely receiving a message that a very large majority of Australians would want to give you. Our submission specifically and only addresses the matter of Halal Food Certification within Australia, which, we who have the necessary knowledge know is the only scheme fraught with the danger of serious consequences for our nation’s well-being. To facilitate your understanding of our viewpoints, I have presented our perspectives in numbered sequence. ONE Australia’s longstanding principle of separation of church (i.e. religion) and state is highly relevant to this matter. Should the Australian government, by way of a law, endorse Halal Certification, then, by endorsing that specific religious belief, the government would be trampling on this nation’s core principle of governments not becoming involved in and certainly not being partisan about religious matters. Worse, the government would be very obviously enforcing a specific religious belief and religious practice upon all Australian citizens, of whom some 98% are not of that religious belief and, in the majority, vehemently opposed to it. Additionally, by not specifically declaring the concept of Halal Certification to be illegal because the concept of Halal (see below) contravenes Australia’s core Third party certification of food Submission 1047 principle of not enforcing a specific religious belief and practice upon all of Australia’s citizens and well as not allowing religious discrimination within Australia, the Australia government would by default be allowing the Halal Certification to continue and become ever more widely imposed on the very people – that great majority – who abhor it.. Therefore the Australian government would, by default, still be contravening the principle of a separation of church and state. Taking these facts into consideration, the only logical action for the government to take is to make illegal any form of Halal Certification and/or enforcement or coercion of companies and citizens to submit to Halal Certification requirements and payments. Such an action by the Australian federal government would be in complete accordance with the fundamental responsibility of the government to protect freedom of religious choice that is the birthright of every person born in Australia. Therefore, and conversely, should the Australian government not make Halal Certification illegal, then it will have been egregiously derelict in its sacred duty to protect the right of religious freedom of all Australians. TWO An Islamic (Sharia) rule is that Muslims are forbidden to partake of food in the name of any god but Allah, all others being deemed by Muslims to be false. Enshrining into law, or even just by default allowing the Halal concept to exist in Australia therefore is therefore enshrining or at least allowing a blatant disrespect of and discrimination against all non-Islamic religions within Australia. This would most definitely be in egregious and indeed wrongfully offensive contradiction of Australia’s core cultural values and principles. THREE Relative to Islam’s 1,400 existence, the idea of Halal Certification is something that happened “just yesterday” – i.e. approximately a mere 35 years ago. For all of the previous 1,365 years – including the time that Mohammed was alive and made the Islamic laws, there was no such thing as ‘Halal Certification.’ For 1,365 years Muslims everywhere across the world had no problem accessing food that their faith deemed fit to eat. Third party certification of food Submission 1047 Nowhere in Islamic texts or even the Koran itself is any requirement for foods to be Halal-Certified. These facts alone brings into serious question the validity of Halal Certification. We believe that they prove Halal Certification to be a massive scam being perpetrated upon Western societies with the specific purpose of, by intimidation, coercion or any other means possible, generating revenue for the determined advancement of Islam across the world. The logical question is, “why should Australia be bowing to a recently-invented and definitely not historically relevant cultural practice that self-evidences as having no genuine, longstanding claim of cultural relevance or validity?” Were the Australian government to condone and even make legal and enforce the Halal Certification principle in Australia, then it would have laid the foundations for similar demands by other racial or religious groups. Whether the demand was based on a historically-relevant cultural fact or a recently-dreamedup idea would obviously be irrelevant if those requirements were not applicable in the Halal Certification decision.. For example, if Halal Certification is condoned, how then would the government be able to justify its refusal for (by way of example only) all Aboriginal women to walk around with their breasts completely exposed, were they to assert that such was their longstanding tradition – indeed thousands of years longer-standing than the relatively recently-invented Halal Certification idea? To then refuse that Aboriginal demand – or any demands on the same grounds by any specific racial or religious group - would exhibit seriously discriminatory double-standards. When considering the fact that a great majority of Australians are vehemently opposed to paying that Halal cost, then these questions are greatly amplified. FOUR The question of what is being done with money generated by the Halal Certification has clearly not yet been acceptably answered. Additionally, there exists in the Islamic teachings the principle of ‘taqyyia’ which encourages Muslims to lie to and deceive non-Muslims if that will advance Islam’s interests. Therefore Australian authorities are faced with nearimpossible task of trying to follow the money trail. The question has to be asked. Why would the Islamic leaders in Australia be unwilling to ‘open their books’ to Australian authorities if their money-trail is legal and no wrongdoing was taking place? Third party certification of food Submission 1047 It is, however, becoming more widely realised that Islamic schools and Mosques in Australia are definitely promoting anti-Australian concepts and beliefs. That these schools – it is claimed by Muslims – are being in part funded by the proceeds of Halal Certification would suggest that revenues from Halal Certification – that is, money mostly being paid by non-Muslim Australian citizens – are being used to promote beliefs and ideas destructive to our nation’s wellness. Government approval of such a process – were it to be shown to be true – would be nothing less than suicidal treason. These unanswered questions and their associated realities very strongly point to the rational necessity for the truth to first be determinedly uncovered regarding what is being done with revenues generated by Halal Certification. We believe that the terms of reference for this enquiry restricts it from being able to uncover those truths. But for any government to approve of or condone Halal Certification without diligent investigation to uncover the genuine ‘money trail’ is irresponsibility of the worst kind. FIVE Australia has a long history of successful integration of immigrants, more specifically the Greeks, Italians, British and South Africans. A fundamental of Australia's approach has been the non-negotiable expectation that all immigrants must adapt to, accept, embrace and promote amongst themselves Australian cultural values, principles and laws. Unstated but definitely and very obviously implied is that, in the event of any clash or contradiction, they must abandon their cultural values in favour of Australian values. Never before has an Australian government even considered, let alone passed, any law that is to the specific advantage or benefit of any specific religious, cultural, ethnic or racial group. In this way, for all of its history, Australia's cultural values – most specifically, in this instance, the equal treatment of all citizens and equal respect for the rights of all citizens - were protected and preserved undiluted and certainly not degraded or destroyed by allowing contrary and completely foreign values or principles to override ours.. That has been excellent policy. The result is that we did not have suburbs becoming "Greek enclaves" or "Italian Ghettoes". Third party certification of food Submission 1047 Australia does not have whole neighbourhoods featuring a majority of shops displaying sign writing only in Greek or Italian. Indeed, apart from the trendy image uncommonly projected by some highfashion business - typically women's clothing or a restaurant - all businesses owned by Greek or Italian descendants today are totally "Australian" in every way. Such unity is critical to any nation's well-being. Diversity is division. Division is being divided. History has repeatedly proved that a nation divided is a nation that will fall. We did not have Greeks or Italians marching in the streets protesting that we need to have new laws based on the laws in Greece or Italy, or demanding that Greek or Italian become a recognised language in Australia or any expectation that Greek or Italian mores and viewpoints be imposed upon all Australians. If Australians decided that pasta, souvlaki – and more recently, sushi or sweetand-sour - was worth eating it was because they chose to, not because they were forced to. As a consequence of Australia's previous expectations of immigrants, the Greeks and the Italians have seamlessly integrated into and accepted Australia's cultural values, principles and laws. The principle that immigrants must adapt to, embrace and promote Australian values amongst themselves is a vital component of and fundamental to the very foundations of Australian cultural principles and values. As a rock-solid, never before challenged principle, it has for one hundred years or more admirably served to protect and sustain core Australian values. Allowing the Islamic concept of Halal certification to be practised here would constitute complete abandonment of this literally sacrosanct Australian principle; an abdication - possibly in treasonous contravention of the Australian Constitution - of Australia's long-standing cultural values in deference to those demanded by a totally foreign immigrant group who embrace clearly stated, often repeated and indeed seriously seditious beliefs that intend to one day overthrow Australian democracy and either kill or enslave Australians (i.e. our children and grandchildren!). (Please note: Any non-Muslim committee member who disagrees with or challenges the assertions within the previous paragraph is demonstrating – proving – that he or she does not know nearly enough about Islamic law, principles and objectives. As such, that committee member evidences that, by virtue of lack of knowledge regarding the subject, he or she is grossly unqualified to be a member Third party certification of food Submission 1047 of any committee investigation anything to do with Muslims, Islam and Islamic teachings and principles.) Once the door of Halal Certification is, by way of formal government approval, opened even just slightly, it can never be closed. Worse, a precedent would have been set that would ensure that further demands - and further degradation and destruction of Australian values - will be both inevitable and impossible to rationally refute. Therefore, this is a decision not merely about Halal certification, it is a decision as to whether we now abandon Australia's longstanding cultural values and practices and, ultimately, Australian laws in favour of cultural values, principles and practices not only foreign to but grossly inimical to our nation's cultural history. To condone or even just by default allow the subtle enforcement of any belief of immigrants - who are, to boot, a very small minority - upon a great majority of Australian citizens who strongly reject it, is to be doing something that, in Australia's long history as a free and democratic nation, has never happened before. SIX With regard to the question of the importance of food certification schemes in relation to export market access and returns to producers, we have a question that is short on words but long on principle. “What benefit for Australia to enrich itself – which has in fact now become impossible - by selling to the world, when doing that would assure Australia’s own social self-destruction? In closing, we respectfully petition the committee to consider a most important and highly relevant reality: in the past the Australian government has done many things right, made many good decisions. However, certain decisions were also made that, at the time, seemed like a ‘good idea’ but subsequently permanent and irrevocable damage was realised had been done to some or other aspect of our national well-being. For example, when the government of the day decided to allow the importation of cane toads or lantana, it did not have enough knowledge to envision and understand the enormous and ongoing consequential damage. Australia today, generally speaking and certainly our political and bureaucratic leaders, does not have enough knowledge and understanding of Islam – in no small part due to gross naivety combined with the Islamic practise of ‘taqyyia’ – to be making decisions that (a) will not be reversible and (b) judged by the experiences of many other Western nations, have the potential to inflict serious long-term damage upon our national well being. Third party certification of food Submission 1047 We believe that any decision regarding Halal Certification is highly relative to a much ‘bigger picture’ of what is unfolding in Australia vis-à-vis Islam’s progress here. It is a picture that can only be properly understood after much diligent and honest study of Islam – from independent, non-Muslin sources because one cannot know whether any Muslim presentation regarding Islam is or is not taqyyia in action. To facilitate the knowledge and understanding of Islam and Islamic goals – including within Australia – we are mailing sufficient copies of the quick-read book “The Story of Mohammed” for each committee member to be able to very quickly and effectively ‘come up to speed’ as to what exactly Mohammed commanded that, to this very day, ALL Muslims are, on pain of death, expected to unquestioningly obey. And, in the case of what are dishonestly described as ‘extremists’ or ‘terrorists’, unquestioningly DO obey to the very letter. In closing, we literally beg yourselves to exercise great caution in ensuring that you do not make the same in principle error of ignorance of consequences as was made with allowing and even facilitating the establishment of various fauna and flora that are now causing irreversible damage to our country. Respectfully, Peter Forde www.ozunited.info On behalf of at least tens of thousands – and probably millions – of a ‘silent majority’ of Australians who, supported by overwhelming evidence of the experiences of other nations, are ever-increasingly deeply concerned about Islamic encroachment within Australia.