The Free Market Deals with Yassmin, Government Refuses
Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a public figure who, for most Australians, has emerged out of nowhere this year. This is not certainly not due to any public popularity or noble contribution to Australian society. It is of course due to the fact that for the media and the government, as is always the case with identity politics, she ticks all the diversity boxes. She is feminist Muslim woman of colour who wears the hijab.
Her first introduction to mainstream Australia was her ludicrous claim on Q&A debating Jacqui Lambie that Islam was THE most feminist religion. She followed this up with an equally hilarious video for left wing news website Junkee explaining what sharia law was really about. Most of us rightly mocked her contribution to the public debate but of course asked the question: why was she suddenly all over our screens?
But of course, she revealed on ANZAC Day a more sinister side of her advocacy with a social media post which disregarded any respect for Australia’s fallen soldiers and instead focused on the situation of people on Manus Island and Nauru and those living in Syria and Palestine. Many Australians believed that this crossed the line from someone being your average delusional leftie to promoting an anti-Australian anti-western agenda. She was rightly condemned from all sides of politics and the backlash from the public resulted in her deleting the post.
It was this event where the Australian people decided that they were sick of activists such as Yassmin being shoved down their throats to promote the diversity agenda. What horrified Australians the most was that it was they the taxpayers who were funding her media career. She was employed by the ABC as an occasional presenter on its Australia Wide program. She was also paid by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to travel to the Middle East to promote her book and as well as promoting Australia as a Muslim friendly country to some of the most repressive regimes on the planet such as Saudi Arabia.
There were multiple petitions demanding Yassmin be sacked from her role at the ABC yet they fell on deaf ears. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced that DFAT would be reviewing her role with them. But following this review Julie Bishop announced Yassmin would be staying on because her apology was good enough and she was apparently making a valuable contribution to promoting Australia. Not surprisingly once again our government refuses to listen to the Australian people. They especially don’t listen when it comes to our concerns over Islam, as Australians know that the purpose of Yassmin being put on their screens is to whitewash the problems Islam is having in this country and around the world. Even the Paul Barry from the ABC’s own Media Watch program has admitted that Yassmin was hired for being a Muslim woman.
In fact the only organisation which took action against Yassmin was a private company that still had her as an employee, Shell. She was employed by them as an engineer but took leave to be the so called social activist she is now. She was taken off their books earlier this year as her leave without pay was not extended, as a corporation that is subject to market forces Shell of course would look at this as a smart business decision. There are plenty of Australians who will now gladly fill up at Shell knowing that this is a company that will have nothing to do with Yassmin’s agenda.
Shell’s actions of course once again show the superiority of the market in reacting to consumer sentiment while governments do not. Some on the right have criticized the movement to have Yassmin sacked from her public roles because it violates our support for free speech. But nobody has advocated Yassmin be thrown in jail for airing her vile views, they just don’t believe that she of all people should be blessed with our funds to represent Australia.
It is argued that we are using the tactics of the left in this regard and means we will not be able to convince the left of the value of free speech if we go down this road. Do we really think that taking the moral high ground here will work? The left will always try to get their opponents on the right sacked, why not give them a taste of their own medicine? Sometimes it’s the only language the left understands. Waiting for the left to uphold original liberal values will ensure our defeat in the culture wars. Plus, there are those on the right who always claim that socially outcasting somebody helps filter out bad people from prominent places in society, but suddenly because this is happening to somebody on the cultural left it is somehow bad?
Yassmin Abdel-Magied is somebody who deserves to be banished from public life. It’s not because she is a Muslim woman of colour but because she continues to spread false information about Islam and her disrespect for the country that has given her so much. While the free market is able to filter out people such as Yassmin it seems our governments, always in the control of the cultural elites and special interests still will proudly promote her against the wishes of the Australian people that pay them.
