Zaky Mallah may not have phrased it to the media's usual standards of perfection. If the baseball cap didn't give it away, Zaky's twitter tonight announced it was "time for a holy ciggi" having seen what News Corp have in store for him tomorrow. So erudition may not always be to the fore here, but he's written a reasonably spirited defense of himself HERE, and good on him for not running from an issue that's going to have him media fodder for weeks to come
But if you read it as any sane person would, saying "attitudes such as the Minister's are what is driving young muslims in Australia into the arms of ISIS" is a perfectly reasonable and easily defensible statement.
And the response (including that of Tony Jones) has been yet another textbook study in how to radicalise Muslim youth. When they tell you to your face, "the way you are carrying on is driving people to Islamic State", is this guy asking to have his citizenship cancelled or is he trying to actually contribute to MODERATING the debate??
But it's so much easier to pretend he spoke in radical partisanship because that fits a neat stereotype. And therefore we are justified in ignoring, invalidating and dismissing a contribution to the topic at hand of some insight. We would stick our heads in the sand at the very moment one of the muslim youths we are so concerned to de-radicalise offers us insight that should help our efforts.
Jump down the guy's throat, censor him, cut him off just because he used the word ISIS. We all deserve to get blown up, and no doubt some of us will if this is our approach to reaching out to radicalised muslim youth.
Just type the words "Zaky Mallah" into twitter and check out how much racist and offensive bile the citizens of our nation have stored up for him. And imagine yourself a young muslim doing the same. Look at the deliberately blasphemous pictures insulting your religion. Look at the comments that all muslims should be deported.
Now tell me that Andrew Bolt and his ilk aren't the best recruiters Islamic State has in this county.
